Who is Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Arnold Schwarzenegger's biography

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Amazing Motivational Story.A short documentary on the early life and success philosophy of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Charles Darwin

Life of Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin was born in the town of Shrewsbury, England on February 12th 1809. He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin, and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father's side, and of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side. Both families were largely Unitarian, though the Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism. On November the 15th, 1809, when Charles was only nine months old, he was baptized in Saint Chad's Anglican Church, where his father was a member.

Presentation about Charles Darwin

Life of charles darwin from MarielleSalva

Barack Obama

A biography of Barack Obama - Documentary

The Real Marilyn Monroe | Biography Documentary

The Real Marilyn Monroe | Biography Documentary

Marilyn Monroe behind the glamour

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías

• Chávez was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013.
• Born into a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas 
• He became a military officer.
• he founded the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s and worked to overthrowingthe Venezuelan political system
• He was imprisoned and released from prison after two years, he founded a social democratic political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998.
• Allying himself strongly with the communist governments like:
  1. governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba.
  2. the socialist governments of Evo Morales in Bolivia.
  3. Rafael Correa in Ecuador.
  4. Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
• He supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and was instrumental in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the Bank of the South, and the regional television network TeleSur.
• However, Chavez had extensive disputes with Colombia, and supported rebels in Colombia and Ecuador. 
• Chávez was a highly controversial and divisive figure both at home and abroad, having insulted other world leaders and compared U.S. president George W. Bush to a donkey, and called him the devil
• His presidency was seen as a part of the socialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. 
• Chávez described his policies as anti-imperialist, being a prominent adversary of the United States' foreign policy as well as a vocal critic of U.S.-supported neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism 
• He was the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
• Through his socialist reforms in the country which were based on the Bolivarian Revolution, He managed to achieve many objectives:
  1. He implemented a new constitution.
  2. He also started a participatory democratic councils.
  3. He nationalized several key industries.
  4. Hugo Chávez also increased government funding of health care and education,
  5. According  to government figures, Chávez managed to reduce poverty.
• Chávez  died in Caracas on 5 March 2013 at the age of 58 due to a cancer he had suffered from.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King, Jr was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was an excellent student and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, when he was only 15 years old. He become a national icon in the history of modern American liberalism.
As a civil rights activist, he was, very much like Mahathma Ghandhi, an advocate of  nonviolent methods to fight for the advancement of civil rights in the USA.
A Baptist minister, Martin Luther King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott as direct consequent of  Rosa Parks refusal to leave her seat for a white passenger.
King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

I have a dream

Mini Biography of Rosa Parks

Video Biography of Rosa Parks

This a video biography of Rosa Parks, the emblematic figure of Civil Rights Movement in the USA

Who is Rosa Parks

Biography of Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama.  She was an African-American civil rights activist. The U.S. Congress called Rosa Parks "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement"

Act of defiance

When her parents divorced, she moved to Montgomery where she had to deal with segregation and laws she did not agree with. She married a barber, Raymond Parks and was very active in the NAACP and the Montgomery Voters League.  On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled.
This act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement.
Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store. Later, she moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she briefly found similar work. From 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American U.S. Representative. After retirement, Parks wrote her autobiography, and lived a largely private life in Detroit. In her final years, she suffered from dementia.

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART(1756 - 1791) was an Austrian prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Composer

• Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood started to learn the piano when he was 3. 
• Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. 
• At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. 
• While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. 
• During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of Mozart's death.
• He composed The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs (born February 24, 1955)

Steven (Steve) Paul Jobs is an American business magnate and inventor. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. His biological parents are Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian Muslim and Joanne Simpson woho later married and gave birt to Steve's biological sister, the novelist Mona Simpson.

Career

Steve Jobs is co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.
In the late 1970s, Jobs, with other Apple co-founders designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1984, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. Consequently Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.
Innovative productsJobs emphasized the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following. In recent years, the company has branched out, introducing and improving upon innovative digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. In 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, which also included the features of an iPod and, with its own mobile browser, revolutionized the mobile browsing scene.

Resignation

On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO for health reasons. he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that the Apple executive succession plan be followed and Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed chairman of Apple's board of directors

More on Steve Jobs on Wikipedia

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK)

DSK (25 April 1949)

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn, often referred to in the media as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, and politician, and a member of the French Socialist Party (PS). Strauss-Kahn has been married for the third time to the French journalist Anne Sinclair since 1991. He has four daughters, one of whom is by his second wife, Brigitte Guillemette, whom he married in 1984.

Career

Strauss-Kahn became the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 28 September 2007, with the backing of his country's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and served in that role until his resignation on 18 May 2011.

He is a professor of economics at the Paris Institute for Political Studies. Strauss-Kahn was Minister of Economy and Finance from 1997 to 1999 as part of Lionel Jospin's "Plural Left" government. He belongs to the right wing of the PS and sought the nomination in the primaries to the Socialist presidential candidacy for the 2007 election, but he was defeated by Ségolène Royal in November 2006.

Allegations of sexual assault

In May 2011, Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York City and charged with the sexual assault of a housekeeper who entered his Sofitel hotel suite, but all charges were later dismissed at the request of the prosecution. Strauss-Kahn entered a plea of not guilty, and denied all charges. The New York District Attorney moved to withdraw the charges on 22 August 2011, due to the unreliability of the complainant and inconclusive physical evidence, and the court agreed.

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He was born on August 24, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer to which his family was opposed. At 17, Coelho's introversion and opposition to following a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20.

Songwriter

At his parents' wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and becoming immersed in the drug culture of the 1960s. Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter which made him earn a living. In 1974, Coelho was arrested for "subversive" activities by the ruling military government, who had taken power ten years earlier and viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous.
In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage. In an interview, Coelho stated

"[In 1986], I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water – to use the metaphor in "The Alchemist", I was working, I had a person who I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer."

Succes as a writer

After making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist which has gone on to sell more than 65 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books in history, and has been translated into more than 70 languages.
After this success Paulo Coelho is a strong advocate of spreading his books through peer-to-peer file sharing networks and pirating websites. He even provides free translations of many of his books.

Mohamed Bouazizi

Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December, 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides.
He was born  on 29 March, 1984. His act of self-immolation became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution, inciting demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. The public's anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death, leading then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January, 2011, after 23 years in power.

The success of the Tunisian protests sparked protests in several other Arab countries, in adition to several non Arab countries, asking for democratic aspirations for the oppressed peoples. The protests included several men who emulated Bouazizi's act of self-immolation, in an attempt to bring an end to their own autocratic governments. Those men and Bouazizi were hailed by some Arab commentators as "heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution."

Who is Wael Ghonim?

Who is Wael Ghonim?

Wael Ghonim is an Internet activist and computer engineer. He had an important impact on the Egyptian revolution.

Egyptian revolution

Wael Ghonim had an important impact on the egyptian revolution. He inspired thousands of young Egyptians to stand up against the dictatorship of Hosni Mobarak's regime. He became an international figure in 2011. He was one of energized pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt after his emotional interview following 11 days of secret incarceration by Egyptian police. During this interview he was interrogated regarding his work as the administrator of the Facebook page, "We are all Khaled Saeed". Khaled Saeed's photos of his disfigured corpse spread throughout online communities and incited outrage over allegations that he was beaten to death by Egyptian security forces.This helped spark the revolution.The TIME magazine added Wael GHonim in its "Time 100" list of 100 most influential people of 2011.

Who is 50 cent?

50 Cent

Curtis James Jackson III  was born on July 6, 1975. He is better known by his stage name 50 Cent. He is an American rapper and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). These albums have been certified eight times and five times platinum , respectively, by the RIAA (The Recording Industry Association of America.) Get Rich or Die Tryin'  has sold over 15 million copies worldwide while The Massacre has sold 11 million copies worldwide.

Drug dealer

Born in South Jamaica, Queens, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo. Jackson has also engaged in feuds with other rappers including Ja Rule, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Cam'ron, Rick Ross, and former G-Unit members The Game and Young Buck.

Success

Jackson has pursued an acting career, appearing in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2005, the Iraq War film Home of the Brave in 2006, and Righteous Kill in 2008. 50 Cent was ranked as the sixth best artist of the 2000–2009 decade by Billboard  magazine. The magazine also ranked him as the fourth top male artist and as the third top rapper behind Eminem and Nelly.

More on 50 Cent on Wikipedia

Who is Lady Gaga?

Her early life

Lady Gaga's original name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. She was in New York City on March 28, 1986. She is the eldest child of Italian American Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia. She is left-handed[17] and began learning to play piano aged four. She wrote her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights (is a live show where audience members may perform at the microphone) by age 14. Lady Gaga was raised a Roman Catholic.

At age 17, Gaga gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics.[18][28] Gaga wrote an 80-page thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst; research that prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity.". However, she didn't finish her studies and to start her career as a singer and sonwriter.

Her career

Lady Gaga started her career by signing contract with Def Jam Recordings at the age of 19 and larter with songwriter and producer RedOne. She began experimenting with drugs soon after, while performing at neo-burlesque shows.

"Iwent to a Catholic school but it was on the New York underground that I found myself."

Her father did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months
Lady Gaga's real career started with Akon who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.

Gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album The Fame (2008), which was a commercial success and achieved international popularity with the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album reached number one on the record charts of six countries, accomplished positions within the top-ten worldwide, and topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart while simultaneously peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Achieving similar worldwide success, The Fame Monster (2009), its follow-up, produced a further two global chart-topping singles "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and allowed her to embark on a second global headlining concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just months after having finished her first, The Fame Ball Tour. Her second studio album, Born This Way, is scheduled for release on May 23, 2011 after the arrival of its eponymous lead single "Born This Way", which achieved the number-one spot in countries worldwide and was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history, selling one million copies in five days.

Influence and success

Inspired by glam rock (a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles) artists like David Bowie, Elton John and Queen, as well as pop singers such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Amy Winehouse, Gaga is well-recognized for her outré sense of style in fashion, in performance and in her music videos.

Her contributions to the music industry have garnered her numerous achievements including five Grammy Awards, among twelve nominations; two Guinness World Records; and the estimated sale of fifteen million albums and fifty-one million singles worldwide. Billboard named her both the Artist of the Year in 2010 and the top selling artist of 2010; ranking her as the 73rd Artist of the 2000s decade. Gaga has been included in Time magazine's annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world. Forbes also placed her at number seven on their annual list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Albums

• The Fame (2008)
• The Fame Monster (2009)
• Born This Way (2011)

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Who is Bin Laden?

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda. Bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets around the world. Because Bin Laden was an advocate of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family.

His Beliefs

Osama Bin Laden beliefs were extremist and were based on distorted interpretations of Islamic texts.

• Osama believed that the restoration of Sharia law - the code of conduct or religious law of Islam - will set things right in the Muslim world.
• All other ideologies such as pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy must be opposed. 
• He believed Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world. 
• Osama consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believes are injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states.
• The need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East was one of his goals. 
• He also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication (and) homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury," in an October 2002 letter.
• Probably the most infamous part of Osama's ideology was that civilians, including women and children, are legitimate targets of jihad.

These beliefs, along with violent expansive jihad, have sometimes been called Qutbism (the ideology of Sayyid Qutb)

The death of Bin Laden

Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists due to his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the U.S. War on Terror. Bin Laden and fellow al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
On May 1, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced on national television that bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by American military forces and the Central Intelligence Agency and that his body was in U.S. custody

Who is James Blunt?

His life

James Hillier Blount, famous as James Blunt, is an English singer, songwriter and musician, and former army officer. He was born on 22 February 1974 at an army hospital in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England. He spent his childhood living in England, Cyprus, and Germany, while his father, a Colonel in the British Army Air Corps, and military helicopter pilot, was posted at various times. James Blunt has two younger siblings. His father instilled in him a love of flying, and he earned his pilot's licence at age 16. The Blount family has a long history of military service, dating from the 10th century. He became an officer in the Life Guards, a Cavalry regiment of the British Army, and served under NATO in Kosovo during the conflict there in 1999. While posted to Kosovo, Blunt was introduced to the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or "Doctors Without Borders"). Since then, Blunt has supported MSF by holding meet-and-greet auctions at many of his concerts. He also fights for environmental causes.

His career

James Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam and single releases, including You're Beautiful and Goodbye My Lover, made him famous in 2005. His repertoire can be best described as a mix of acoustic-tinged pop, rock and folk. After recording on the independent American label Custard Records, Blunt won two BRIT Awards (the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards), two Ivor Novello Awards (named after the Cardiff born entertainer Ivor Novello- These are awards for songwriting and composing), and by 2006 was nominated for five Grammy Awards. The following year, he released his second album All the Lost Souls (2007). Blunt's third studio album, Some Kind of Trouble, was released in November 2010. Worldwide, Blunt has sold over 15 million albums.

Who is Dan Brown?

Dan Brown

Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction. He is best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Early life

He was born on June 22, 1964,  in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. He is the eldest of three children. His early life was influenced by his parents:

• His father, Richard G. Brown, was a teacher of mathematics, and wrote textbooks from 1968 until his retirement in 1997.
• In Addition both of his parents are also singers and musicians, having served as church choir masters.

After graduating from Phillips Exeter, Brown attended Amherst College. Brown spent the 1985 school year abroad in Seville, Spain, where he was enrolled in an art history course at the University of Seville. Brown graduated from Amherst in 1986. 1991, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as singer, songwriter and pianist. It was there that he met Blythe Newlon, a woman 12 years his senior, who later became his wife. Dan Brown Started teaching to support himself.

Secrets and Puzzles

The presenece of secrets and puzzles in Dan Brown's novels has their origine in his childhood. In fact, mathematics, music and languages were a common characteristic of his education. When he was a child, he participated in elaborate treasure hunts devised by their father on birthdays and holidays. For example on Christmas Brown and his siblings did not find gifts under the tree, but followed a treasure map with codes and clues throughout their house and even around town to find the gifts. In addition this, Brown spent a lot of time working out anagrams and crossword puzzles.

Career

After dabbling with a musical career, Dan Brown started writing. He read Sidney Sheldon's novels and was influenced by his style especially in the novel The Doomsday Conspiracy. He was inspired to become a writer of thrillers and started working on Digital Fortress, setting much of it in Seville, Spain, where he had studied in 1985. His wife, with whom he co wrote a book with his wife, 187 Men to Avoid: A Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, did much of the promotion of the novel when it was released.
Brown subsequently wrote Deception Point and Angels & Demons, the latter of which was the first to feature the lead character, Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon.
Brown's first three novels had little success. However, when he released The Da Vinci Code, it quickly became a bestseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list during its first week of release in 2003. It is now credited with being one of the most popular books of all time, with 81 million copies sold worldwide as of 2009.
Brown's next novel featuring Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol, was released on September 15, 2009.It had a huge success and according to the publisher, on its first day the book sold over one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. The story takes place in Washington D.C. over a period of 12 hours, and features the Freemasons.

Writing habits

Because Dan  Brown does a lot of research, he spends years writing his novels. He has a habit of rising at 4:00am when there are no distractions (a practice he began with Digital Fortress when he had two daytime teaching jobs) and when he feels most productive, in order to give symbolic importance to the first order of business each day. He keeps an antique hourglass on his desk in his lof where he does his writing, so that he can stop briefly every hour to do push-ups, sit-ups and stretching exercises to keep his blood flowing.
Recuring themes in his books include Chritianity, historical events, codes, puzzles, treasure hunts, secretive organizations and academic lectures on obscure topics.

Bibliography

• Digital Fortress, 1998
• Angels & Demons, 2000
• Deception Point, 2001
• The Da Vinci Code, 2003
• The Lost Symbol, 2009

Who is Katrina Kaif?

Katrina Kaif is a British Indian actress and former model. She was born in Hong Kong. Her father is Indian and her mother is British.

Early life

Her parents divorced when she was very young. She began her modeling career at the age fourteen; her first job was for a jewelry campaign. She continued modeling in London under a contract with the Models 1 Agency and did campaigns for houses such as La Senza and Arcadius, and even walked on the London Fashion Week. She moved to Mumbai after meeting London-based filmmaker Kaizad Gustad, who gave her a part in his film Boom (2003). In India, however, filmmakers were initially hesitant to sign her because she could not speak Hindi. But later she was offered a series of roles.

Movies

• Kaif saw moderate success with the 2005 film Sarkar, where she played the bit part of Abhishek Bachchan's girlfriend, and Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (2005), where she was paired opposite Salman Khan.
• In 2007, Kaif appeared in her first major hit movie, Namastey London, wherein she starred as a British Indian girl alongside Akshay Kumar for the second time after the box office letdown Humko Deewana Kar Gaye (2006). 
• Her run of hit films continued with Apne, Partner, and Welcome.
• In 2008, she played the villain role for the first time in Abbas-Mustan's hit action thriller Race. She played the role of Saif Ali Khan's secretary who is secretly in love with his hostile stepbrother (played by Akshay Khanna). Kaif's second release of the year was Anees Bazmee's production Singh Is Kinng, opposite Akshay Kumar. The film was a big success at the box office. Kaif's final release of the year, Subhash Ghai's Yuvvraaj, was a commercial failure, but its script has made its way into the Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for artistic merits, original screenplay with a substance, and the film as a whole.
• Kaif's first release for 2009, New York, with John Abraham, was a critical and commercial success. Kaif's performance was highly regarded.
  She next played a bit role as a biker chick in the multi-starrer action film Blue, popularly known as India's first underwater thriller, which performed decently at the box office. The film was not successful.
  At the year's end, she appeared in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, with Ranbir Kapoor, and De Dana Dan with Akshay Kumar. Both films were commercial successes.
• Kaif's first film of 2010 was Raajneeti, where she appeared opposite Ranbir Kapoor. The film did extremely well at the box office, receiving a blockbuster status. She is also starred in Farah Khan's Tees Maar Khan with Akshay Kumar. The film was released on 24 December 2010. Although the film was not successful, Kaif's item song Sheila Ki Jawani was a hit.
  

Success

Aside from film acting, she has a number of endorsement deals, and is one of the top paid Bollywood actresses in this respect. Katrina Kaif was also voted the sexiest Asian woman in the world by Eastern Eye in the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

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