Barbara (Yakovleva)

Varvara Alexeyevna Yakovleva (Russian: Варвара Алексеевна Яковлева; died July 18, 1918), called Nun Barbara, was a Russian Orthodox nun in the convent of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna. She was killed by the Bolsheviks along with the grand duchess and Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Igor Konstantinovich of Russia, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia, Fyodor Remez, Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, and Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley at Alapaevsk.

She was later canonized as a martyr by both the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church within Russia.

Life

Varvara Alexeyevna Yakovleva, small in stature and deeply pious, served as Grand Duchess Elizabeth's maid before taking the veil. Her nickname was Varya. On April 15, 1910, she took vows as a Russian Orthodox nun. The Grand Duchess and other women also took vows on that date. As sisters of Grand Duchess Elizabeth's convent, the women were well known throughout Moscow for performing acts of charity. They took food to the homes of the poor, set up a home for women suffering from tuberculosis, established a hospital to care for the sick, established homes for the physically disabled, pregnant women and the elderly. They also established an orphanage. Their charitable efforts later spread to other cities in Russia.

Barbara (singer)

Monique Andrée Serf (June 9, 1930 – November 24, 1997), whose stage name was Barbara, was a French singer. She took her stage name from her Russian grandmother, Varvara Brodsky. Her song "L'Aigle noir" sold twenty four thousand in twelve hours.

Childhood

Born in Paris to a Jewish family, Barbara was ten years old when she had to go into hiding during the German occupation of France in World War II. After the war ended, a neighborhood professor of music heard her sing and took an interest in helping her develop her talents. She was given vocal lessons and taught to play the piano, and eventually she enrolled at the Ecole Supérieure de Musique. Money was a problem and she gave up her musical studies to sing at "La Fontaine des Quatre Saisons," a popular cabaret in Paris.

She was deeply scarred by the war and her family's plight. The feelings of emptiness experienced during childhood showed in her songs, particularly "Mon Enfance". She said in her uncompleted autobiography, Il était un piano noir (assembled from notes found after her death), that her father sexually abused her when she was ten and she hated him for that. He later abandoned the family.

John Boy and Billy

John Isley (born August 15, 1956) and Billy James (born August 31, 1957), known as John Boy & Billy are American radio hosts based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their comedic morning program The John Boy & Billy Big Show broadcasts from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time in several Southern and Midwestern states via syndication through Premiere Networks, primarily airing on classic rock, active rock, and country stations.

The show is syndicated to both classic rock and country music radio stations. The format consists of talk segments intermixed with music, contests, and skit-based humor. Current events, politics, sports (mainly NASCAR), and male-oriented problems are common topics of talk. Broadcast states include North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The duo frequently interviews musicians, comedians, NASCAR drivers, professional wrestlers, and other public figures. Robert Earl Keen, Killer Beaz, Manny Pacquiao, Rodney Carrington, and James Gregory are occasional guests. The show also markets a line of Bar-B-Que sauces (named John Boy & Billy Grillin' Sauce).

List of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero characters (S–Z)

This is an alphabetical List of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero characters whose code names start with the letters S-Z.

Salvo

Salvo is the G.I. Joe Team's Anti-Armor Trooper. His real name is David K. Hasle, and he was born in Arlington, Virginia. Salvo was first released as an action figure in 1990, and again in 2005. Both versions have the T-shirt slogan 'The Right of Might'.

Salvo's primary military specialty is anti-armor trooper. He also specializes in repairing "TOW/Dragon" missiles. Salvo expresses a deep distrust of advanced electronic weaponry. He prefers to use mass quantities of conventional explosives to overwhelm enemy forces.

In the Marvel Comics G.I. Joe series, he first appeared in issue #114. There, he fights as part of a large scale operation against Cobra forces in the fictional country of Benzheen. Steeler, Dusty, Salvo, Rock'N'Roll and Hot Seat get into vehicular based combat against the missile expert Metal-Head He is later part of the Joe team on-site who defends G.I. Joe headquarters in Utah against a Cobra assault.

Taurus (film)

Taurus (Russian: Телец, translit. Telets) is a 2001 Russian biographical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov, portraying Vladimir Lenin. It was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast

References

External links

Taurus (constellation)

Taurus (Latin for "the Bull"; symbol: , Unicode: ♉) is one of the constellations of the zodiac, which means it is crossed by the plane of the ecliptic. Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere's winter sky. It is one of the oldest constellations, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox. Its importance to the agricultural calendar influenced various bull figures in the mythologies of Ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

There are a number of features of interest to astronomers. Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye. At first magnitude, the red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation. In the northwest part of Taurus is the supernova remnant Messier 1, more commonly known as the Crab Nebula. One of the closest regions of active star formation, the Taurus-Auriga complex, crosses into the northern part of the constellation. The variable star T Tauri is the prototype of a class of pre-main-sequence stars.