The Oakland Athletics referred to as the A's, are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. They compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League West division; the team plays its home games at the Oakland Coliseum. They have won nine World Series championships. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the team was founded in Philadelphia in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics, they won three World Series championships from 1910 to 1913 and back-to-back titles in 1929 and 1930. The team's owner and manager for its first 50 years was Connie Mack and Hall of Fame players included Chief Bender, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove; the team left Philadelphia for Kansas City in 1955 and became the Kansas City Athletics before moving to Oakland in 1968. They won three consecutive World Championships between 1972 and 1974, led by players including Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, ace reliever Rollie Fingers, colorful owner Charlie O. Finley.

After being sold by Finley to Walter A. Haas Jr. the team won three consecutive pennants and the 1989 World Series behind the "Bash Brothers", Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, as well as Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson and manager Tony La Russa. From 1901 to 2019, the Athletics' overall win–loss record is 9,028–9,452; the history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 and to its current home in Oakland, California, in 1968. The A's made their Bay Area debut on Wednesday, April 17, 1968, with a 4-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at the Coliseum, in front of an opening-night crowd of 50,164; the Athletics' name originated in the term "Athletic Club" for local gentlemen's clubs—dates to 1860 when an amateur team, the Athletic of Philadelphia, was formed. The team turned professional through 1875, becoming a charter member of the National League in 1876, but were expelled from the N.

L. after one season. A version of the Athletics played in the American Association from 1882 to 1891. After New York Giants manager John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a "white elephant on his hands", team manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot, presented McGraw with a stuffed toy elephant at the start of the 1905 World Series. McGraw and Mack had known each other for years, McGraw accepted it graciously. By 1909, the A's were wearing an elephant logo on their sweaters, in 1918 it turned up on the regular uniform jersey for the first time. In 1963, when the A's were located in Kansas City, then-owner Charlie Finley changed the team mascot from an elephant to a mule, the state animal of Missouri; this is rumored to have been done by Finley in order to appeal to fans from the region who were predominantly Democrats at the time. Since 1988, the Athletics' 21st season in Oakland, an illustration of an elephant has adorned the left sleeve of the A's home and road uniforms.

Beginning in the mid 1980s, the on-field costumed incarnation of the A's elephant mascot went by the name Harry Elephante. In 1997, he took Stomper. Through the seasons, the Athletics' uniforms have paid homage to their amateur forebears to some extent; until 1954, when the uniforms had "Athletics" spelled out in script across the front, the team's name never appeared on either home or road uniforms. Furthermore, neither "Philadelphia" nor the letter "P" appeared on the uniform or cap; the typical Philadelphia uniform had only a script "A" on the left front, the cap had the same "A" on it. In the early days of the American League, the standings listed the club as "Athletic" rather than "Philadelphia", in keeping with the old tradition; the city name came to be used for the team, as with the other major league clubs. After buying the team in 1960, owner Charles O. Finley introduced new road uniforms with "Kansas City" printed on them, as well as an interlocking "KC" on the cap. Upon moving to Oakland, the "A" cap emblem was restored, although in 1970 an "apostrophe-s" was added to the cap and uniform emblem to reflect the fact that Finley was in the process of changing the team's name to the "A's".

While in Kansas City, Finley changed the team's colors from their traditional red and blue to what he termed "Kelly Green, Wedding Gown White and Fort Knox Gold". It was here that he began experimenting with dramatic uniforms to match these bright colors, such as gold sleeveless tops with green undershirts and gold pants; the innovative uniforms only increased after the team's move to Oakland, which came at the time of the introduction of polyester pullover uniforms. During their dynasty years in the 1970s, the A's had dozens of uniform combinations with jerseys and pants in all three team colors, in fact did not wear the traditional gray on the road, instead wearing green or gold, which helped to contribute to their nickname of "The Swingin' A's". After the team's sale to the Haas family, the team changed its primary color to a more subdued forest green and began a move back to more traditional uniforms; the team wears home uniforms with "Athletics" spelled out in script writing and road uniforms with "Oakland" spelled out in script writing, with the cap logo consisting of the traditional "A" with "apostrophe-s".

The home c

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. In the prize announcement The Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned: Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Yunus was the first Bangladeshi to get a Nobel Prize. After receiving the news of the important award, Yunus announced that he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor.

Former U. S. president Bill Clinton was a vocal advocate for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Yunus. He expressed this in Rolling Stone magazine as well as in his autobiography My Life. In a speech given at University of California, Berkeley in 2002, President Clinton described Yunus as "a man who long ago should have won the Nobel Prize I’ll keep saying that until they give it to him." Conversely, The Economist stated explicitly that Yunus was a poor choice for the award, stating: "...the Nobel committee could have made a braver, more difficult, choice by declaring that there would be no recipient at all."He is one of only seven persons to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal. Other notable awards include the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1984, the World Food Prize, the International Simon Bolivar Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord and the Sydney Peace Prize in 1998, the Seoul Peace Prize in 2006. Additionally, Yunus has been awarded 50 honorary doctorate degrees from universities across 20 countries, 113 international awards from 26 different countries including state honours from 10 countries.

Bangladesh government brought out a commemorative stamp to honour his Nobel Award

Sweet Starfire is a futuristic romance written by Jayne Ann Krentz and released in 1986. Krentz likened the novel to a historical romance set in another world, its success inspired her to begin writing historical romances under the pseudonym Amanda Quick. In the early 1980s, Krentz wrote several contemporary romances under the pen name Stephanie James. One of these, The Devil to Pay, released in 1985, featured a heroine who wrote science fiction novels. Readers enjoyed the small science fiction references in the story, inspiring Krentz to incorporate those elements into a romance plot. Before the 1980s, there was zero overlap between the popular fiction genres of romance novels and science fiction. Beginning in the early 1980s, time travel themes began to appear in some romances, but the novels focused on the difficulties of assimilation as a conflict between the hero and heroine. Krentz's follow-up to The Devil to Pay, Sweet Starfire, was the first romance novel to embrace science fiction precepts.

It launched the futuristic romance subgenre. The novel was released in 1986, it was re-released in 2002 in an omnibus edition with Crystal Flame. Krentz credits these two novels with giving her the inspiration to write historical romances, she has since released more than a dozen bestselling historical romances under the pen name Amanda Quick. The novel is set in a futuristic universe; the hero, Teague Severance, is captain of a starship. Cidra Rainforest hires him to help her find a shrine built by the Ghosts, an alien race which has gone extinct; the shrine to hold the secret to perfect mental communion, desired among the sect to which Cidra belongs. The journey brings them to the planet Renaissance. Cidra saves his life; the duo find the shrine. Cidra discovers that she is not a true member of the sect - rather than seeking mental communion at all costs, she is a fighter, wanting a good life for herself, she joins Teague's sect. By now, the protagonists are in love and prepared to spend their lives together.

Sweet Starfire is in some ways a classic romance novel. While on a journey, the heroine meets a man, the opposite of everything she thought she wanted and by the end of the novel they have fallen in love; the novel is set in a futuristic world. The plot uses several tropes common to science fiction novels; the hero's home is in a remote part of the galaxy, still becoming used to the idea of spaceflight. He is physical rather than intellectual. Krentz remarked that the novel is a historical romance set in a different world; the race the protagonists seek are revealed to be extinct because they gave up on the messiness of life in favor of the ideal of mental harmony. They stopped bearing children, the race died out; the heroine expresses anger that the Ghosts gave up on continuing their line. She chooses to turn her back on the sect that favors mental harmony in favor of one that values love and families and is willing to fight for those ideals. Critic John J. Pierce attributes this Darwinian philosophy to the influence of Robert Heinlein, whose books were favorites of Krentz.

Romantic Times awarded the novel 4.5 out of 5 stars. Reviewer Tara Gelsomino praised the depth of the emotional relationship that Krentz created between the protagonists and the sexual tension that simmered between them. Pierce, John J.. Odd Genre: A Study in Imagination and Evolution. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26897-5 – via Questia