National (brand)

National (ナショナル, Nashonaru) is a defunct brand used by Panasonic Corporation (formerly Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.) to sell home appliances, personal appliances, and industrial appliances. Neither National Semiconductor nor National Car Rental are related to Panasonic or the "National" brand.

History

Before present-day Panasonic produced appliances under the name, the National brand was first used by Konosuke Matsushita's electric firm to sell his battery-powered bicycle lamps, hoping that they would be a product used by all of Japan, hence the name "National". It was arguably the first well-known brand of Japanese electronics.

National was formerly the premier brand on most Matsushita products, including audio and video and was often combined as National Panasonic after the worldwide success of the Panasonic name.

After 1980 in Europe, and 1988 in Australia and New Zealand, Matsushita ceased the usage of "National", and sold audiovisual products exclusively under the Panasonic and Technics nameplates. Perhaps due to trademark issues, Matsushita never officially used the National name in the United States, except for early imported products, but rice cookers bearing the National name, imported from Japan, could be found at many ethnic Asian markets.

Cymanfa Ganu

A Cymanfa Ganu (Welsh pronunciation: [kəˈmanva ˈɡanɨ], Singing Festival), is a Welsh festival of sacred hymns, sung with four part harmony by a congregation, usually under the direction of a choral director.

In Wales, more than a thousand Cymanfa Ganu are held each year. These take place in virtually every village and town in Wales, except for parts of Monmouthshire and south east Wales. Many villages and towns have more than one Cymanfa Ganu a year, as often many separate chapels in towns and villages hold their own. Some large annual ones occur event in some chapels and take place at festivals such as the National Eisteddfod of Wales and the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Some are occasionally held in theatres and concert halls. Cymanfa Ganus are held across the world - wherever people of Welsh heritage live, significantly in Patagonia ( Argentina) e.g. Trelew, Gaiman, where there were significant Welsh settlements from the 19th Century. In some of these areas Welsh is still spoken as a main language in daily use, usually together with Spanish. Outside Wales, in the UK there are Cymanfa Ganu in London, parts of the West Midlands and other areas where there are still chapels using the medium of Welsh .

National Government (United Kingdom)

In the United Kingdom, National Government is an abstract concept referring to a coalition of some or all major political parties. In a historical sense it usually refers primarily to the governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain which held office from 1931 until 1940.

The all-party coalitions of Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George in the First World War and of Winston Churchill in the Second World War were sometimes referred to as National Governments at the time, but are now more commonly called Coalition Governments. The term "National Government" was chosen to dissociate itself from negative connotations of the earlier Coalitions. Churchill's brief 1945 "Caretaker Government" also called itself a National Government and in terms of party composition was very similar to the 1931–1940 entity.

The crisis of 1931

The Wall Street Crash heralded the global Great Depression and Britain was hit, although not as badly as most countries. The government was trying to achieve several different, contradictory objectives: trying to maintain Britain's economic position by maintaining the pound on the gold standard, balancing the budget, and providing assistance and relief to tackle unemployment. The gold standard meant that British prices were higher than its competitors, so the all-important export industries did poorly.

Abba (disambiguation)

ABBA was a Swedish pop music group.

Abba may also refer to:

Personal names and honorifics

Places

See also

ABBA (album)

ABBA is the eponymously titled third (second internationally) studio album by the Swedish pop group of the same name. It was originally released on 21 April 1975 through Polar Music and featured the hits "Mamma Mia" and "SOS".

Overview

Following the Eurovision success of "Waterloo", ABBA saw the band gaining worldwide recognition. "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" topped the charts in Australia, as did "Mamma Mia" shortly after. "SOS" and "Mamma Mia" became hits in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and two of its most famous songs. The album saw ABBA dabble into reggae with "Tropical Loveland" and includes a grand pseudo-classical keyboard instrumental in the traditions of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman with "Intermezzo No. 1" (early working title: "Mama").

ABBA was first released on CD in Japan in 1986, with an alternative mix of "Man in the Middle" not found on any subsequent CD pressing. " ABBA was then released on CD in West Germany in 1987 (later released internationally), with five bonus tracks of songs from Waterloo and Ring Ring, which had not been released on CD at that time. ABBA was released on CD in Sweden in 1988 featuring the original 11 tracks only. The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form several times; first in 1997, then in 2001 and again in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set. In 2012 it was released as a deluxe edition CD / DVD set. On the original UK cassette release of the album "Bang a Boomerang" was split in two parts, being faded during the second verse at the end of side one and continued at the beginning of side two.