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Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Artist of the Decade Beyonce

Beyonce Knowles was born on September 4th, 1981 in Houston, Texas to Matthew and Tina Knowles as the first born of two girls. Her beautfiul voice and singing talent were evident before she reached the age of seven. At the age of seven, Beyonce began attending dancing school and had joined her church choir, in which she was a soloist.

In her teenage years, Beyonce started spending all of her free time appearing and singing at local functions with her childhood friends LaTayia Roberson, Kelly Rowland and LeToya Luckett. The girls, known at the time as "Girl's Tyme", tried their luck on the TV show Star Search but did not make the cut. At this time, Beyonce's dad quit his steady job to commit his time to managing and promoting the group. To this day Matthew Knowles manages his daughter's career.

The band went through a number of different names, ending up choosing the name Destiny's Child. The musical debut for Destiny's Child was the song "Killing Time", which appeared on the soundtrack for the movie"Men in Black" which was released in 1997. A year later, Destiny's Child had a number one single with the song, "No,No,No, Part 2." The band became slightly smaller that same year when LeToya departed to seek a singing career on her own. The group went on though to achieve greater success with 2000 seeing four Hot 100 Number One singles on the Billboard charts and two albums that each reached number one.

Destiny's Child's next album also was met with tremendous success, including singles like "Bug A Boo", "Jumpin' Jumpin', and "Say My Name". The single "Say My Name" received two Grammy awards in 2001. After that album, Destiny's Child produced another album, "Survivor", which included hits like the title track and the single "Bootylicious". The band decided to break up in the year 2005 but by then had shown themselves to be one of the top selling female groups ever.

By this time, Beyonce had proven her worth and skills as a songwriter. She won the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers' 2001Songwiter of the Year award. She was the first African-American woman to win this award. Beyonce also spent some time working on solo projects which at first were not as successful as her projects with the trio, but she was not easily discouraged.

When Beyonce released her solo debut album, "Dangerously in Love", it went straight to the top selling over 300,000 copies in just the first week and went platinum 3 weeks later, in June of 2003.. The first single from the album,"Crazy in Love" topped the charts and stayed there for over eight weeks. In the same year, her debut album and its first single reached the top of the charts at the same time, a feat placing Beyonce in the same region as artists like the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Rod Stewart. She is the only female recording artist to achieve this feat.

Beyonce received five Grammy Awards the following year for this album and its single.

In correspondence with her 25th birthday, she released a second album called "B'day," which sold more than her first solo album, with 541,000 copies sold in the first week afterrelease. The lead single from the album became a number one hit on the US R&B charts.

In late 2008, she put out her next album, unleashing her alter ego in the title of the album "I Am....Sasha Fierce".

Beyonce's amazing abilities continue to dazzle, and her admirers eagerly await what is coming next.

Monday, 24 May 2010

What Is Behind 2012 Conspiracy?

There is information and rumours about the end of humanity everywhere, though it has cropped up a lot more on the web in the last few years. The latest version that has become quite popular is that the world will end on December 21, 2012. 21 Dec 2012 is the date that the Mayan calendar ends. Nostrodamus also foretold many disasters occurring on or leading up to December 21, 2012, as well.

The end of the world has always fascinated many people who have imagined and even tried to predict what it will be like. They base this on one of Nostradamus' prophecies regarding a planet that will approach the earth and could alter the earth's gravitational pull and knock the earth off its axis. Such an event would also rip the planet's crust apart, leading to other disasters that would kill almost everyone on the planet. While billions of people would die in such a series of events, there would be a few survivos - and some believe that those who would live through it are on a list that has been determined by the government.

A controversy about this small percentage of people who will live has led to a question. And out of this have risen several other conspiracy theories. A very common conspiracy theory is that the New World Order is actively going to protect a few thousand select individuals to maintain and continue the species. According to this conspiracy theory, the list of people to be protected and kept alive includes governmental and corporate leaders, people who can breed healthy offspring, and computer scientists who will be able to maintain and grow the technology that we already rely on.
The selected few will be housed in underground bunkers, where supplies such as food and water have been stockpiled to supplythem for at least several years. The underground bunker will serve as a shelter to protect those who are living within.

The supplies stockpiled in the bunkers will include food and water for immediate consumption, as well as seeds to grow their own produce like fruits and vegetables over the months and years after. By supplying the seeds in these bunkers, new life will be sustained going forward. Many believe that it will be years or decades before the earth's aboveground soil would be able to grow and sustain plant life.

Many people have a great deal of trouble comprehending theories like these. Some ask if the government is trying to keep the masses calm while others are speculating about the catastrophes ahead. Those who beleive in these theories question who will be the chosen people on the list to be saved.

While we have no evidence of a scientific nature to demonstrate that this will happen, there are many other events that could pose a threat to us and to the planet - even before the year 2012. Events like an asteroid hitting our planet, a major flu outbreak, a nuclear or biochemical conflict all threaten our species. Nothing is predictable in life, only daily preparedness for everything.