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Monday, June 20, 2011

Roberto Luongo

Roberto Luongo (English pronunciation: /luːˈɒŋɡoʊ/; born April 4, 1979) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born in MontrealQuebec, he is of Italian and Irish ancestry. He employs the butterfly styleof goaltending and has previously played in the NHL for the New York Islanders and the Florida Panthers. Luongo has been a finalist for theVezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender (20042007 and 2011), the Lester B. Pearson Award as the top player voted by his peers (2004 and 2007) and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player (2007). He won the William M. Jennings Trophy for lowest team goals-against average for the 2010-2011 season.

Russell Peters !

Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970) is a Canadian comedian and actor. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and has been nominated for four Gemini Awards.

Russell Peters was born in BramptonOntario, Canada to Eric and Maureen Peters. His family is of Anglo-Indian ancestry and is Catholic. His father was born in Pune, India and worked as a federal meat inspector and his mother was born in Calcutta, India. He has an older brother named Clayton who was born in Calcutta.
He went to Georges Vanier Catholic Elementary School from kindergarten to grade 8, Chinguacousy Secondary School for grades 9–10, and Bramalea Secondary School for grades 11–12 in Brampton.

Career

Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989.[3] He has since also performed in the United StatesUnited KingdomAustraliamainland China,Hong KongIranDenmarkSouth Africa, the CaribbeanVietnamNew ZealandMexicoSri LankaSwedenIndiaUnited Arab Emirates,BahrainJordanNorway , LebanonLondonPakistan and Trinidad among other places.
He hosted the Canada Day Comedy Festival 2006. His comedy special Russell Peters: Outsourced, aired on Comedy Central on August 16, 2006. The DVD version features his uncensored performance. The DVD has been popular, especially in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies. Outsourced remained on the National DVD Chart over one and a half years after release.
In September 2008, it was confirmed that Peters made a deal with Fox to develop a new sitcom, based on his experience in Canada. Peters says, "It's really a snapshot of where my family maybe was ten years ago" and he ensures that the sitcom is "Something that will be funny and honest."[10][11] Peters participated in a USO tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Africa and Greenland in November 2007 with Wilmer Valderrama and Mayra Veronica.[12] Peters' latest DVD/CD combo Russell Peters: Red, White, and Brown was recorded on February 2, 2008, at The WAMU Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Peters and his brother, Clayton Peters, who is also his manager, self-produced and financed Red, White and Brown. It was released in Canada in September 2008 and in the US on January 27, 2009. Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, Monsoon House, on CBC Radio One.
Peters was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary on April 6, 2008, for which he won a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series". The 2008 awards broadcast received the second-highest ratings ever for the program. He was asked to host the Juno Awards for a second year in a row. The 2009 Juno Awards took place in Vancouver on March 29, 2009.
Between June 2008 and June 2009, Peters earned $10 million, making him one of the highest-paid comedians during that twelve-month period.
Between June 2008 and June 2010, Peters earned $15 million, continuing his run as one of the highest-paid comedians.
On October 26, 2010, Peters released his autobiography, Call me Russell, co - written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.


Popularity

Peters' popularity extends to several countries. In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre,[16] with more than 15,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. A total of over 60,000 tickets were sold across six cities. In Sydney, Peters had a record breaking audience of 13,880, making the event the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history. Peters attributes his sudden widespread popularity to a stand-up performance he did on the Canadian TV comedy series Comedy Now! that was uploaded onto YouTube and became viral. While the initial video upload featured his performance in its 45 minute entirety, subsequent videos uploaded by other YouTube users were snippets of that performance, chopped into each of the cultural groups he targeted. According to Peters, those snippets made their way to those specified cultural groups, and were well received by them.


Comedy

Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humor to poke fun at the subjects of race, class and culture, often using his own life experiences as well as impersonations of different cultural accents to illustrate his act. Russell Peters uses his minority status to allow him to poke fun at different races in his performance, but according to a interview done for The National (CBC), he does not intend to put down or offend different races and cultures, but instead tries to raise them up through humor. For example: "Somebody's gonna get hurt real bad".

[edit]Personal life

Peters proposed to girlfriend Monica Diaz García on July 10, 2010 at the Los Angeles International Airport. He announced the engagement via Twitter. The couple married on August 20, 2010 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The wedding was attended by about 20 guests, including an Elvis impersonator. Peters and Diaz had their first child, a girl, due February 23, 2011. When announcing the pregnancy, Peters told The Canadian Press, "Did I get married because she was knocked up? I would say that expedited it." His daughter was born two and a half months early,on December 14, 2010, but was healthy as Peters stated on his Twitter. She was given the name Crystianna Marie Peters.


Awards and recognition


Peters shaking hands with Bryan Adamsat the Juno Awards
He has been nominated for four Gemini Awards, the Canadian television awards. He has also been nominated for Best Male Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards. Peters has been featured at such shows as Montreal's Just for Laughs (Juste pour rire) Comedy Festival, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival.
  • 1997 – Nomination for the Gemini Award in the category "Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series". This was for Show Me The Funny, from the TV-series Comics! (1997)
  • 2004 – Nomination for a Gemini Award for his Comedy Now! special.
  • 2008 – Nomination for a Gemini Award for hosting The Junos.
  • 2008 – Winner of a Gemini Award for 'Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series'.

Summer Solstice 2011! (21st June 2011) The Longest day!

So what exactly is it?
The summer solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's and the moon's axial tilt is most inclined towards the sun, at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midsummer to refer to the day on which it occurs. Except in the polar regions (where daylight is continuous for many months), the day on which the summer solstice occurs is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight. The summer solstice occurs in June in the Northern Hemisphere north of the Tropic of Cancer (23°26'N) and in December in the Southern Hemisphere south of the Tropic of Capricorn (23°26'S. The Sun reaches its highest position in the sky on the day of the summer solstice. However, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the highest sun position does not occur at the summer solstice, since the sun reaches the zenith here and it does so at different times of the year depending on the latitude of the observer. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the summer solstice occurs some time between December 21 and December 22 each year in the Southern Hemisphere, and between June 20 and June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere.

Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied among cultures, but most have held a recognition of sign of the fertility, involving holidaysfestivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.
The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).
The following lists the dates and UTC times of the summer solstice for the early portion of the 21st century.
YearNorthern HemisphereSouthern Hemisphere
2000June 21, 01:48December 21, 13:37
2001June 21, 07:38December 21, 19:21
2002June 21, 13:24December 22, 01:14
2003June 20, 19:10December 22, 07:04
2004June 21, 00:57December 21, 12:42
2005June 21, 06:46December 21, 18:35
2006June 20, 12:26December 22, 00:22
2007June 21, 18:06December 22, 06:08
2008June 20, 23:59December 21, 12:04
2009June 21, 05:46December 21, 17:47
2010June 21, 11:28December 21, 23:38
2011June 21, 17:16December 22, 05:30
2012June 20, 23:09December 21, 11:12
2013June 21, 05:04December 21, 17:11
2014June 21, 10:51December 21, 21:23
2015June 21, 16:38December 22, 04:48
2016June 20, 22:34December 21, 10:44
2017June 21, 04:24December 21, 16:28
2018June 21, 10:07December 21, 22:23
2019June 21, 15:54December 22, 04:19
2020June 20, 21:44December 21, 10:02