The History of Urban Lighting
The phenomenon of magnetic and electric effects was studied by ancient Chinese, Greek and Roman scientists.
In 1750, Benjamin Franklin, an American writer, tried to collect electrical charges in a kite during a thunderstorm. An Italian scientist and Professor of the University of Pavia made an appreciable step forwards with the discovery of the continuous electric current in 1800 which was named after him, called the Volta Pile. The announcement amazed the scientific world and it was from this basic concept that electric light was later developed.
There were several areas of investigation into the electric light, namely, the carbon arc, the incandescent filament bulb, gaseous discharge lights and chemical light.The carbon arc light was the earliest form of electric illumination.
In 1809 the English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy demonstrated his carbon arc lamp at The Royal Institute in London. His invention known as the electric arc light was not put to widespread use until the 1850s.
The sheer brightness of the light and the need for low voltage electricity prohibited its use in confined space unless the illumination was muted by blinds. It was used for street lighting and for lighthouses, but had largely been discontinued by the First World War and replaced by other forms of electricity. However, carbon arc lighting was continued to be used in military applications like search lights on aircraft.
The Incandescent Bulb
The development of the incandescent bulb continued in parallel with that of the are light. In 1865, Hermann Sprengel invented a mercury vacuum pump which allowed a sufficiently high vacuum to be obtained in the bulb for further experiments on the filament to take place. The American, Thomas Edison (1847-1931) - who invented the telegraph — and the Englishman, Joseph Swan (1825-1914) are both credited with having discovered the incandescent filament bulb.
In 1878 Swan heated the filament while evacuating the bulb of its gases, so prolonging its life while Edison achieved 45 hours of illumination from his bulb in 1879. Refinements soon followed: Edison devised the screw-in brass cap and Swan the bayonet fitting. Both were marketing bulbs by the 1880s. A partnership was formed between Swan and Edison, creating the Edison & Swan United Company which later became Ediswan.
In 1881 The Engineer claimed that the first house to be completely illuminated by electricity was the house of Lord Kelvin, a close friend of Swan. His house in Glasgow had been illuminated by 106 gas burners which were converted to electric lights powered by a generator, driven by a gas engine.
In the same year, Sir William Armstrong, engineer and arms manufacturer, lit 45 electric lamps in his famous picturesque Cragside mansion at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which had been designed by Norman Shaw in the early 1870s. The electricity was generated by a water turbine sited 1500 yards (1.3 km) from his house.
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Sales Training - Goal Setting Explained
Did you know that ‘Goal Setting’ is the secret to fulfilling ANY dream or desire you want in life? In many sales training courses goal setting is ignored.
Did you also know that SUPER Successful sales people use ‘Goals’ to attain the knowledge and wealth and sales success they have today?
Some of you reading this right now might agree and some of you might not. That decision is yours to make.
The reason people find it too hard to achieve their goals is simple because they’ve set their Long-Term goals before setting Short-Term ones, or they just didn’t plan their goals out carefully.
Goal setting strategies are VERY important, especially for those who want to achieve Long-Term goals.
Well, your in luck because I’m going to share five ‘Goal Setting’ techniques to help you realize your TRUE goals today.
Your only requirement is to keep an open mind.
So, with that said, lets go to Technique #1.
Technique #1. Start with Short-Term goals.
Sometimes, people start with short-term goals unconsciously.
Why unconsciously?
Some of them may have considered the goals to be long-term at the time they planned them; and after achieving a goal, they realize that they are in fact, looking forward to a longer one.
Some are contented with their short-term goals, but after a while will realize that they also need to attain long-term ones.
Short-term goals seem to be our starting point for our Long Term ones.
They also motivate the person to plan for longer goals, which will usually take some time before achieving them in full.
Technique #2. Make sure you really want the goal.
By this, you have to ask yourself: “Do I really want this goal and will this goal give me a better life?”
Answering this ONE question will give you more passion and motivation to achieve your goal.
Some people often recall their past to find out Why and How they came up with such goal.
Technique #3. Speak up.
What I mean by this is you shouldn’t keep your goals to yourself only. By sharing your goals with other people it’ll help you get the support you may need in order to fulfill them.
The problem that usually occurs though is some people are just too shy to tell others about their goals for reasons like they are afraid they cannot achieve them in the end, or they lack the courage to speak their minds.
This is not a good habit to get into because when the time comes that you really need their support, you will have a difficult time getting it.
You’ll then be left to achieve your goals all by yourself.
Don’t make this mistake.
Technique #4. Write down your goals.
This strategy is critical and more advisable for those who have a long list of goals.
After writing them down in as much detail, it is advisable that you review them on a daily to weekly basis because this will encourage and motivate you to achieving them, plus, this will also keep that vision of your goal alive.
Technique #5. Stay on track and never give up.
Reviewing notes will help open your mind to see if you are on the right track. While on track, you may have to face challenges that might change your personality.
A person who is overconfident might suddenly feel depressed after finding out that he is going the wrong way in achieving his goal.
Thus this might lead to abandoning the goal. Never be discouraged. Facing obstacles is a test on how passionate one is to realizing his or her goals.
There you have it. Give those a try and keep a visual picture in your mind everyday of you fulfilling that goal you desire so much.
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Time Management and Goal Setting
Time management is an area of business management often overlooked or ignored. We all know someone in small business who races around like a madman all day, never enough hours in a day, all they do is rush and get worked up - maybe this person is you!
At the end of the day, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you review the day and wonder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would”. If this sounds familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people never seem to rush, they remain composed and unflustered. The difference between them and everybody else is they have mastered time management.
What is time management? It is simply allocating time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can really understand how to time manage our day, we must ask ourselves what are we trying to achieve today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The best way in my opinion to achieve goals is to write them down. You should review these goals from time to time to ensure that they are relevant and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t have to try hard to achieve them otherwise what is the purpose of the goals in the first place?
At the start of each working year you should sit down and think about what you want to achieve this year, it could be that you want to increase your profits by 20%, you may want to move into larger premises, you may want to reduce your debt substantially. At the start of each working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that need to be done this week, and review them each day to ensure you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of the tasks off the list.
You should keep the list on your desk or in a place where you will be constantly reminded what needs to be done this week. This list should be in order of priority so that the most important tasks at the top of the list get done first. Anything not achieved this week will be carried forward next week on a higher priority, this will ensure it gets done.
The next thing you should be doing is having a daily list of jobs to do. This will help keep you on track each day. Again, this list should be displayed where you can constantly refer to it and mark off the jobs completed. Marking off the jobs will give you a sense of achievement and let you know how you are progressing through the day. Always stick to the list where possible and keep working from high priority to low priority.
I know things can come up through the day that can throw the whole day out, but you must either deal with the crisis and return to your list or if the new task isn’t as important as some of the jobs on the list put it at the bottom of the list and continue doing what you were doing.
Every task you have to do should be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep your day organised and you achieve your daily goals.
Beware starting jobs and not finishing them. This will turn tomorrow into a mess of half finished jobs and will cause “list blowout”. You will end up with a list a mile long and you will give up in despair and revert back to old habits of being in confusion all day and achieving nothing.
Remember each day you achieve your goals and tick off everything on your list, you get a little closer to achieving your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
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Queensland - The Blessed Sunshine State
When a state is blessed with a warm, sunny climate, an abundance of beautiful scenery, and a coastline that is the envy of the world, it is hardly surprising that thousands come each year to visit. Indeed, many locals will tell you that Queensland, with its relaxed lifestyle and friendly atmosphere, is the best place in which to live, work, and retire.
This is a State full of extremes. In the far west the Simpson Desert, with its dunes and inhospitable gibber plains gives way to the Channel Country, an area laced with an intricate web of often dry streams that after heavy rain may spill to cover the land like a vast brown sea.
Eastern Queensland’s spine is the Great Dividing Range, a mighty barrier that separates the fertile coastal plain from the vast outback tracts extending to the State’s western border. Stretching from Cape York to the southern border and beyond, the Great Divide comprises a series of high mountains, tablelands, and low rolling hills. Here, rainforest gives way to eucalypt woodland, waterfalls fed by tropical rains tumble over rock faces and escarpments, and boulder-studded streams flow through deep gorges.
The coastline is another world. Washed by the brilliant blue waters of the Coral Sea, long sandy beaches fringed with tropical vegetation edge the shores, broken only by rocky headlands and mangrove forests. Lying off-shore is a multitude of islands and one of the world’s great natural wonders: the Great Barrier Reef.
The second largest State in Australia, Queensland covers an area of more than 1.7 million square kilometres in the north-east corner of the continent. The northern marine boundary, passing within a few kilometres of Papua New Guinea’s coastline, includes the 200-odd islands lying off Cape York Peninsula in the Torres Strait; to the east, it includes all the islands within the Great Barrier Reef.
Until 1859, Queensland was part of New South Wales. The first European settlement, a penal colony, was established at Moreton Bay in 1824 and soon afterwards was moved to the present site of Brisbane — the State’s capital city. By 1839 nearly all the convicts had been returned to Sydney and the district was opened to free settlers.
The Brisbane settlement grew slowly at first; when the area was proclaimed the Colony of Queensland in 1859 the population was 23,520. Today, the State has a population exceeding 4 million — of which nearly half live in the Brisbane-Ipswich urban area.
For the Aborigines — the original inhabitants of the land — many parts of Queensland are ritual grounds of sacred Dreamtime legends, and there are important traditional rock-art sites, particularly on Cape York Peninsula in the north. It was in this area that a race of hunters and gatherers came to the Australian continent some 40,000 years ago, coming in across the Torres Strait when it was dry land during the last ice age.
Just over half of the State lies between the Tropic of Capricorn and 10 degrees south of the Equator. Inland, the summers are hot, but on the coastal plain the temperatures are milder — with far higher humidity. Winters are much drier and delightfully warm, though in the far south, nights can be quite cold with frost appearing on higher ground. Snow falls occasionally in the highlands near the border around Stanthorpe and Wallangarra.
The rainy season falls between December and March-April, and it is during this time that the coast may be lashed by tropical cyclones. Rainfall varies enormously throughout the State, with the heaviest falls on the north-eastern slopes and coast-lands - Tully averages 4550 mm annually and has the reputation of being the wettest town in Australia. Whereas Birdsville in the far west only averages an annual 150 mm - and in drought it might not rain for years.
Agriculture is a major industry. Cattle and sheep graze on the grassy western plains, their drinking water supplied by a myriad bores that tap the vast store of underground water in the Great Artesian Basin. On the fertile tablelands of the Great Divide and the lush coastal plains farms grow a wide variety of produce from cotton to sugar cane, to peanuts, pineapples
and a host of other tropical fruit and vegetables. The State is also rich in mineral deposits including bauxite, coal, oil, copper, silver, and gold. Indeed, the discovery of gold in the last century and the subsequent mining in the 1870s-80s did much to establish many of the coastal and inland centres throughout Queensland.
One of Queensland’s most important growth industries is tourism. Not only have overseas visitors discovered this favourable holiday destination, but Australians from other States now come in huge numbers. In winter, thousands flock to coastal caravan parks and holiday flats to exchange chilly southern days for delectably warm, sunny weather.
Apart from the lure of a warm climate, people return many times over to Queensland because there is just so much to do and see. Self-drive holidays are probably the most popular, but for those who do not wish to drive, there is a vast number of conducted tours to choose from. Accommodation ranges from remote bush camps to five-star luxury hotels with every type imaginable in between.
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Your Attitude Determines Your Business Future
You have found a business for sale, you have bought it, so what now? With all the pieces of your new business just about in place, there is a crucial Issue to discuss, You. The most important ingredient in small business is the owner, and the most important ingredient in the owner is their attitude to both the business, and their customers.
Your attitude will to a great degree govern your success in business. Some people when they leave their jobs to start up their own business, unravel and get lazy. This is probably due to the fact they are no longer intimidated by the boss into doing the right thing. Self discipline can be a real problem with some people, they just can’t motivate themselves without some degree of external pressure. This, I believe is the biggest problem you will face.
You should watch for the warning signs, opening late, closing early, having long lunches, never getting jobs finished on time or at all, not returning calls, letting accounting paperwork lag behind, taking days off because you couldn’t be bothered working and so on. It is so easy to slip into bad habits, so be aware.
Try and remain accustomed to at least working the same hours as you were in your employed job and set yourself targets. Targets and goals will impose pressure on you to perform.
The next attitude problem comes from lack of determination.
Some small business owners fall to pieces every time there is problem or a crisis. This style of attitude will also assist you to go out of business very quickly.
You must never give up, for your own sake you must push on because you will strike plenty of problems and go through several serious crisis’s before things settle down, this is common to all new businesses.
The best thing to do is work through the problem in a calm and systematic way. Whilst you may feel at the time “this is the end” and “I’ve had enough”, this is a normal reaction that will pass. It often helps to join business groups and talk to other business owners about common problems.
You then must solve the problem and keep going. I’m sure attitude and determination has a lot to do with the 90% of businesses that fail. It’s ridiculous to think that a business goes down the drain because the owner had a poor attitude or “had a wobbly”, but it does happen. Make sure you’re not one of them.
The last issue to discuss is your attitude to customers. Keep this in mind, regardless of whether you like the particular person, all customers contribute to your profitability and success so treat them with respect and courtesy. It’s amazing how quickly customers will desert you if they feel you are rude to them. No customers - no money — no business! Always remain courteous, helpful and above all friendly, never allow personal or business problems to raise their heads in front of customers.The future of your business is in your hands.
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The City of Seoul - South Korean Capital
Over 20 million Koreans live in and around Seoul, yet it is one of few a cities that has successfully preserved its buildings from the past and integrated them into the skyline of a growing global city.
Seoul is loud and bustling, as befits one of the most densely populated metropolises on Earth. Lines of cars and throngs of people press their way through the cavernous streets. Oversized illuminated advertising marks the way, selling products in a foreign script. The subway system is Seoul’s new and perfectly organized underworld. In the midst of all this chaos, visitors may suddenly come upon an oasis of stillness in one of the country’s numerous temples, parks and pavilions.
City on the river
Seoul was founded in 1394, following the demise of the Koryo Kingdom (1392). Its progress was long associated with the rise and success of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910). After searching for a suitable location for his city, King Taejo, better known as Yi Seonggye, decided on the north bank of the Han River. A small village named Hanyang was the only settlement in the area at that time. The name of the renowned Hanyang University, one of over 300 institutions of higher learning in Seoul, recalls that small village.
A modern sports city.
Contemporary Seoul came into existence during the first half of the twentieth century, and largely through the influence of the Japanese. The old city wall gave way to modern buildings, with only the ancient city gates preserved. After the catastrophic Korean War (1950-1953), nearly all of Seoul had to be rebuilt.
From that point onward, Seoul grew at a very rapid pace. The city underwent massive changes, at times with little planning and consideration of their long-term impact. Trams ran until 1968, only to disappear almost overnight. They were quickly replaced by an underground subway system. The economic upswing of 1988 that followed in the wake of the Seoul Summer Olympic Games was a boon to the cultural, financial and sporting life of the city, and the sports world again turned its eyes to Seoul in 2002, when the FIFA World Cup football championship was held here.
Kings’ palaces with curious names.
But Seoul is much more than a showcase for sporting events. it is the cultural heart of South Korea, where universities, theatres, museums and more abound.
When Seoul was founded in 1394, the Gyeongbokgung (Palace of Shining Happiness) was the first royal residence built. Happiness did not, unfortunately, shine on the palace and its inhabitants forever.
Serfs burned the palace to the ground in 1592, and the death of Queen Min in 1895 led to the relocation of the royal family to Deoksugung (Palace of Virtuous Longevity). In 1997, the Changdeokgung (Palace of Prospering Virtue) was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
It was built as an addition to Gyeongbokgung, and was the only structure destroyed in the 1592 uprising that was immediately rebuilt. Until 1872 and again from 1907 to 1910, it served as the seat of government of the Korean kings. The Secret Garden of Biwon is also especially worth seeing. The impressive burial cairns of King Sejo and his wife Yun Chon-hi are located there, just 30 km north of the city.
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Tax Haven Strategies
The use of tax havens in day to day business life has grown to be almost mainstream these days. To the small businessman and the private investor, the use of tax havens still probably seems a little shady.
This shouldn’t be the case any more as the use of tax havens to reduce tax or just defer it for a while is now accepted practice all over the world with many of the largest Australian accounting and audit firms having departments advising major corporations how to structure their operations offshore.
Tax havens have a strong appeal for many multi-national companies established in foreign countries because of the advantages they offer for the legitimate reduction or deferment of taxation on certain profits earned offshore. Profits harboured in a tax haven enable working capital to be used in the cheapest way possible.
Traditionally, the tax haven has been used as a central point for handling paperwork and preparing and processing international trade documents. Many companies utilise tax havens for the passage of title of goods, so these transfers can proceed without the need for mountains of regulations and fees.
Tax havens are also popular as places to administer patent, trademark and royalty agreements. Because of the intangible nature of patents, trademarks and royalty agreements, they are easily moved from one jurisdiction to the other and the cost of doing this is very low in tax haven jurisdictions.
For instance, if a company with branches and subsidiaries overseas is a resident of a country with strict foreign exchange regulations, it may not want to repatriate the profits simply because if it did, it may have problems being able to transfer the funds back out if it wanted to reinvest them offshore. To solve this problem, it establishes a foreign intermediate holding company in a tax haven, not for tax reasons, but to avoid the foreign exchange control problems that its own country has imposed.
By simply interposing a tax haven company in a corporate structure does not result in the reduction of onshore taxes in most cases, but it may allow tax deferral. Eventually, the parent company will receive the income and when it does it will be taxable and possibly without the benefit of foreign tax credits that may have been available had the profits been repatriated from a tax treaty country. Most tax havens don’t have tax treaties with major countries such as Australia, which prevents the favourable use of lower withholding taxes that would have been available had the country been a signatory to a tax treaty.
Offshore Licencing and Patent Holding Companies
Royalties or licence fees can be, in certain circumstances, can be feed of tax obligations by using an offshore licensing company. For instance, the owner of a patent can incorporate an offshore licensing company and assign the rights to that offshore company. In turn the offshore company then has the right to licence the patent to a foreign subsidiary. By having the royalties paid to the licensing company in a tax haven, profits are effectively shifted from the foreign subsidiary to the offshore patent owning company, which pays little or no tax on the royalties that it receives.
Income from other intangible rights, such as trade marks, copyrights, know how and franchising rights, can be earned without incurring withholding or income tax if a tax haven company is established to sublicence other companies in various countries. Tax savings can be made also on patent royalties by combining tax havens.
Australia only deducts 10% withholding tax on Dutch companies. Therefore, if a tax haven company was established in the Netherlands Antilles with a Dutch subsidiary, and licences its Dutch patents to the Dutch company, the Dutch company, in turn, can licence to the Australian manufacturer.
The Australian company can then pay the Dutch subsidiary patent royalties incurring only 10% tax. The Dutch company can then pay the royalty to the tax haven company (which is the patent owner), thereby avoiding Dutch withholding taxes on dividends. The Dutch company is not taxed in the Netherlands, and the tax haven company avoids any further taxation. Total tax is 10%.
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Install Linux on Windows to Run Linux in Windows!
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If you already have a computer system with Windows installed, you can easily get a free Linux distribution and install Linux on Windows. This allows you to run Linux in Windows and get Linux training so you can learn how to use Linux!
To run Linux in Windows, you run the free virtual machine “player” (program) and then open a free Linux virtual machine.
A Linux virtual machine is a complete new Linux distribution, including the Linux OS (operating system) and Linux software programs, that has been compressed into a single Linux download file.
All you need to do is download and install the free Linux virtual machine player and a free Linux virtual machine, so you can run Linux in Windows, as described in the steps below.
7 Steps to Install Linux on Windows So You Can Run Linux in Windows!
1. Download the free Linux virtual machine player to your Windows desktop and a player installation icon appears on the desktop so you can install the player.
2. Double-click on the player installation icon and follow the prompts to install the Linux virtual machine player. The player program easily installs like any other Windows program and this takes just a few minutes. After the installation, a virtual machine player icon appears on the desktop. This second icon is used to run the player, as opposed to the icon that was used to install the player.
3. Download a free Linux virtual machine. This is a single large compressed (zipped) file. And this file contains several Linux virtual machine files, all of which make up the virtual machine. These files provide a “pre-installed” version of a new Linux OS, including Linux software programs. Lots of free Linux virtual machines are available for many popular Linux distributions.
Linux Tips: When you download Linux as a virtual machine, be sure to get one that includes a Linux desktop. Some virtual machines are created without Linux desktops and are used as Linux servers. As a new Linux user, you will want a Linux desktop so you can easily use the menus to run Linux software programs. The desktop also allows you to open one or more terminal emulation windows so you can go to the Linux command line and run Linux commands.
Linux Tips: Also be sure to get the password of the root user, which will be posted at the site where you download Linux. When you go to the Linux command line to run Linux commands, you need the root user password to run the Linux administration commands.
4. Create a folder on your Windows hard disk for the Linux virtual machine files. You need to create this folder before uncompressing (unzipping) the single file that contains the compressed Linux virtual machine files.
5. Uncompress (unzip) the Linux virtual machine files, from the single Linux download file, into the folder you created on your Windows hard disk.
6. Run the Linux virtual machine player. Just double-click on the virtual machine player icon that was created on the desktop. At this point, you will be prompted for the name of a virtual machine to “open”.
7. Browse to the folder you created and “open” the Linux virtual machine. This quickly and easily runs Linux in Windows!
Linux Tips: A compressed Linux virtual machine file is quite large. High-speed Internet accesses is highly recommended. If you don’t have high-speed access, look into getting a Linux live CD version. These are inexpensive to buy and have delivered to you by mail.
By installing Linux on Windows to run Linux in Windows you get practical Linux training and valuable experience at how to use Linux!
Copyright © 2007 Clyde Boom. All rights reserved. — Clyde Boom, Author and Expert Trainer with 20+ Years of Training Successes.
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Havana - Cuba’s World Heritage Capital
Sadly, Havana’s Diva-like splendour is being chipped away by the ravages of time. UNESCO has declared old Havana a world heritage site and funds begin to flow into projects all over the city, but work has only just started.
Havana is a grid-plan city, making it easy to navigate its broad avenues and side streets, originally lined with splendid churches and mansions of the city’s former aristocracy. They have suffered greatly from neglect, and many are now crumbling and decrepit.
For three hundred years, urban life in the Cuban capital took place intramuros, or “within the city walls”. Then, in the early nineteenth century, a building boom began. Havana’s city walls were pulled down to facilitate city planning and road building between the old Intramuros Plaza and the newer Extramuros Plaza.
Gateway to the New World.
The city of Havana was founded in 1515 where the Cuban capital stands today. Its naturally protected harbour began operation slightly later, in 1519. Havana’s central Caribbean location was a boon to the city’s development.
All the important trade routes to and from Mexico and Peru passed through here. Havana was named the capital of the Cuban colony in 1607 and unofficially proclaimed the gateway to the New World. Although its population would remain in check for a century or more, its progress as a commercial and political centre was continuous and uninterrupted.
Hemingway’s Cuba.
In the early twentieth century, American Prohibition brought tourism of a sort to Havana for the first time.
The Caribbean metropolis, especially the Vedado district, where the 142-metre tall memorial to national hero Jose Marti stands, became a jet set stomping ground where everyone could enjoy a bottle of rum, an aromatic cigar and a little salsa dancing.
Ernest Hemingway was drawn to Havana, and many of his novels were written here. He was locally famous for downing a glass or two and smoking a thick Havana cigar. The long Cuban party ended on New Year’s Eve in 1959, when rebels under the command of Fidel Castro marched into the city.
There are still night clubs in, modern-day Havana, once again attracting thousands of visitors. La Habana Vieja (Old Havana) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Some of its loveliest buildings were converted into museums. Visitors looking for culture will find that the city has churches, palaces, castles, monuments and markets.
Cathedral Plaza is a popular attraction and one of the most beautiful squares in the city. The steeples of the Cathedral of San Cristobal de La Habana dominate the look of the square. Not far from the square is the 1588 Real Fuerza Castle, the oldest surviving colonial fortress in the New World. The Plaza de las Armas, its streets lined with swaying royal palms, has been the Cuban centre of power and government for four hundred years. The majestic Capitanes Generales Palace, home of the National Museum, is on the west side of this plaza. It is one of the grandest buildings in Cuba.
Hand-Rolled Cigars.
Central Havana functioned as the red light district of the city prior to the Revolution; currently one might rather say it glows in pale pastels. Visitors tend to avoid this area as a rule, most preferring to stick to the comforts of the Vedado district and the famous attractions of Old Havana. There is nevertheless a great deal to see in central Havana. The district is dominated by the monumental El Capitolio Nacional, built as a more ornate twin of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. as if to mock capitalism.
Havana’s oldest cigar factory is located on the west side of the Capitolia. The approximately 400 people employed here continue to roll cigars the old-fashioned way, by hand.
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