Thought this was interesting, sorry if someone already posted it and I missed it...
 
 
London (AP) -  More than 300 of Britain's top achievers of the century - from the worlds of sport, medicine, fashion, politics and entertainment - joined Queen Elizabeth II for lunch Tuesday to mark the millennium.
    Among them was 93-year-old Abraham D. Beame, who was born in a poor East London neighborhood to Polish immigrants in 1906 and went on to become mayor of New York City from 1974-1977.
    Other guests at the lunch given by Lord Mayor of London Lord Levene at his mansion House residence included the discoverer of DNA fingerprinting, Sir Alex Jeffreys, the inventor of cash dispenser machines, John Shepherd-Barrow, and the creator of the mini skirt, 60's designer Mary Quant.   
    Actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, WWII singer Vera Lynn, "Avengers" TV star Dame Diana Rigg, playwright Harold Pinter and Beetles producer Sir George Martin were also at the lunch.  So was former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
    Four hundred guests were selected by a Lord Mayor's committee from among 1,766 people nominated by official organizations.
    Beame had already met the queen.  He was mayor during America's bicentennial independence celebrations when the queen sailed into New York harbor aboard the royal yacht Britannia.
 
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      [spectroscopic*eclipsing*visual]
                      -brandie-
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One thing I have learned in a long life:
that all of our science, measured against
 reality, is primitive and childlike, and yet
it is the most precious thing we have
-A. Einstein

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