Holiday

A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tradition of cultural or religious significance. Holidays may be designated by governments, religious institutions, or other groups or organizations. The degree to which normal activities are reduced by a holiday may depend on local laws, customs, the type of job being held or even personal choices.

The concept of holidays has most often originated in connection with religious observances. The intention of a holiday was typically to allow individuals to tend to religious duties associated with important dates on the calendar. In most modern societies, however, holidays serve as much of a recreational function as any other weekend days or activities.

In many societies there are important distinctions between holidays designated by governments and holidays designated by religious institutions. For example, in many predominantly Christian nations, government-designed holidays may center on Christian holidays, though non-Christians may instead observe religious holidays associated with their faith. In some cases, a holiday may only be nominally observed. For example, many Jews in the Americas and Europe treat the relatively minor Jewish holiday of Hanukkah as a "working holiday", changing very little of their daily routines for this day.

Holiday (America album)

Holiday is the fourth original studio album by American folk rock band America, released by Warner Bros. Records in June 1974 (see 1974 in music). The album was produced in London by noted Beatles producer George Martin.

The album was a big hit in the US, reaching number 3 on the Billboard album chart and being certified gold by the RIAA. It produced two hit singles: "Tin Man" reached number 4 on the Billboard singles chart and went to number 1 on both the adult contemporary chart as well as the Radio & Records chart; and "Lonely People" which peaked at number 5 on the Billboard singles chart and also hit number 1 on the adult contemporary chart. Several other songs received radio airplay on FM stations playing album tracks, including "Baby It's Up To You" and "Another Try".

History

Bandmember Dewey Bunnell was thrilled at the prospect of working with Martin as producer. He was quoted as saying that it "was great working with George. It was like we knew each other. We were familiar with the Beatles, of course, and we had that British sense of humor." In a separate interview, Dan Peek recalled to Circus magazine: "Gerry (Beckley) had been in England, and we'd talked about using George Martin as our producer. He's such a hot arranger, thinking about all the stuff he's done. There were several other people we wanted to use, but that idea sort of flashed and George was available."

Christmas music

Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season.

History

Early music

Music was an early feature of the Christmas season and its celebrations. The earliest examples are hymnographic works (chants and litanies) intended for liturgical use in observance of both the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany, many of which are still in use by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The 13th century saw the rise of the carol written in the vernacular, under the influence of Francis of Assisi.

In the Middle Ages, the English combined circle dances with singing and called them carols. Later, the word carol came to mean a song in which a religious topic is treated in a style that is familiar or festive. From Italy, it passed to France and Germany, and later to England. Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work of John Audelay, a Shropshire priest and poet, who lists 25 "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of wassailers, who went from house to house. Music in itself soon became one of the greatest tributes to Christmas, and Christmas music includes some of the noblest compositions of the great musicians.

Mad (village)

Mad (Hungarian: Nagymad, Hungarian pronunciation:[ˈnɒɟmɒd]) is a village and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District in the Trnava Region of south-west Slovakia.

Geography

The municipality lies at an altitude of 114 metres and covers an area of 7.714 km².

History

In the 9th century, the territory of Mad became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The village was first recorded in 1254 as Mod, in 1260 as Nagmod. Until the end of World War I, it was part of Hungary and fell within the Dunaszerdahely district of Pozsony County. After the Austro-Hungarian army disintegrated in November 1918, Czechoslovakian troops occupied the area. After the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, the village became officially part of Czechoslovakia. In November 1938, the First Vienna Award granted the area to Hungary and it was held by Hungary until 1945. After Soviet occupation in 1945, Czechoslovakian administration returned and the village became officially part of Czechoslovakia in 1947.

Demography

In 1910, the village had 438, for the most part, Hungarian inhabitants. At the 2001 Census the recorded population of the village was 469 while an end-2008 estimate by the Statistical Office had the villages's population as 509. As of 2001, 95,74 per cent of its population was Hungarian while 4,05 per cent was Slovakian. Roman Catholicism is the majority religion of the village, its adherents numbering 69.51% of the total population.

Mad (Ne-Yo song)

"Mad" is a song by American pop/R&B singer Ne-Yo. It is the third single from his album Year of the Gentleman and was produced by Stargate and himself.

Music video

The video for the song was directed by Diane Martel. It premiered on AOL on November 25, 2008. The video, shot in black and white, presents a narrative wherein Ne-Yo argues with his girlfriend (played by Faune Chambers). After leaving, in an attempt to save a child from a car accident, someone is fatally hit. At the end of the video, it is revealed that the whole time it has been the ghost of Ne-Yo's character singing, and that it was he who was killed. The video to this song is Part 2 to his song Part of the List.

The music video appears to mirror the 1999 American thriller The Sixth Sense from M. Night Shyamalan, in which Bruce Willis plays a psychologist who is shot by an estranged patient of his. Based on how the film was shot and portrayed, Bruce Willis is shown in many situations as if he is there physically, when in actuality he was murdered by his patient, just as how Ne-Yo appears with his girlfriend, seeming to be there physically and that she is ignoring him due to their earlier argument, when he is actually dead.

Mad1

Mad1 is a non-essential protein in yeast which has a function in the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC). This checkpoint monitors chromosome attachment to spindle microtubules and prevents cells from starting anaphase until the spindle is built up. The name Mad refers to the observation that mutant cells are mitotic arrest deficient (MAD) during microtubule depolymerization. Mad1 recruits the anaphase inhibitor Mad2 to unattached kinetochores and is essential for Mad2-Cdc20 complex formation in vivo but not in vitro. In vivo, Mad1 acts as a competitive inhibitor of the Mad2-Cdc20 complex. Mad1 is phosphorylated by Mps1 which then leads together with other activities to the formation of the mitotic checkpoint complex (MCC). Thereby it inhibits the activity of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C). Homolog’s of Mad1 are conserved in eukaryotes from yeast to mammals.

Introduction

In the early 90s, yeast genes were identified which mutations resulted in a defect in mitotic arrest in response to microtubule disassembly (mitotic arrest deficient genes - MAD genes). This cells showed during division no mitotic arrest in the presence of microtubule polymerization inhibitors and were therefore not able to delay cell division. The genes identified included the MAD1, MAD2 and MAD3 genes. They are conserved in all eukaryotes and are involved in a pathway that is active in prometaphase to prevent the premature separation of sister chromatids and constitute the so-called spindle assembly checkpoint(SAC). This checkpoint monitors the status of chromosome attachment to the mitotic spindle and inhibits the metaphase to anaphase transition by preventing the activation of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C), and thereby the degradation of cell cycle regulators. Mad1 is in this pathway accumulated at unattached kinetochores and acts as a sensor for unattached kinetochores in this machinery.