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Twilight means either dawn (in the morning) or dusk (in the evening).
In the morning, dawn is when it is not dark any more, and the light of the sun is just starting to appear, before sunrise. In the evening, it is the other way around and that phenomenon is called dusk. At sunset, the sun disappears, and darkness is settling in. Light fades away.
The following have been defined:
Civil twilight is when the sun is less than 6° below the horizon. It ends at sunrise in the morning or follows sunset in the evening.
Dark twilight is when the sun is between 6° and 9° below the horizon.
Black twilight is when the sun is between 9° and 12° below the horizon.
Astronomical twilight is when the sun is between 12° and 18° below the horizon.
For all these definitions, the horizon is at sea level.
Other websites
Definition of Twilight, US Naval Observatory
Twilight time calculator
Formulae to calculate twilight duration , by Herbert Glarner
Parts of a day |
The Great Depression was the great economic crisis that started after the U.S. stock market crash in 1929. The prices on the Wall Street stock market fell a lot from October 24 to October 29, 1929. Many people lost their jobs. By 1932, 25–30% of people lost their jobs. They became homeless and poor. This ended the wealth of the Roaring Twenties. Many people think that the Great Depression started on Tuesday, October 29, but economists think Black Tuesday was just one of the causes.
From 1929 to 1932, the depression worsened. Many suspect that increased taxes on American citizens and the increased tariffs (taxes on countries which trade with the United States) worsened it. Economist Milton Friedman said that the Great Depression was worsened because the Federal Reserve printed out less money than usual.
When the Great Depression started, Herbert Hoover was the president of the United States, and as a result, he was blamed for it. People voted for a new president in 1932. His name was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt got the government to pass many new laws and programs to help people who were hurt by the Great Depression. These programs were called the New Deal.
One of these programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. The CCC put many young men to work in the outdoors. The men were paid thirty dollars a month, of which twenty five dollars was sent home to support their families, to work, and they got free food and shelter. Another program was called Social Security. Social Security gave old people a small income so they had money for things they needed. The Great Depression was really bad, but with everyone's help, it would get better. Between 1939 and 1944, more people had jobs again because of World War II, and the Great Depression came to an end.
Background
The Great Depression followed a decade of rapid economic growth and urbanization. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, business declined as it had after previous stock market crashes. However, people still had hope. John D. Rockefeller said that "These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity (wealth) has always returned (come back) and will again." But soon the bad effects of the depression grew worse and worse. More people lost jobs, money, and homes. There were reports that in Germany and the United States, there were great hunger, disease, and even starvation. Nations used protectionism more than in recent decades. This diminished international trade.
The Dust Bowl
Farmers were usually safe from the severe effects of previous depressions because they could at least feed themselves. During the Great Depression, the Great Plains were also hit hard with a drought and dust storms. This was called the Dust Bowl.
Years of overgrazing combined with drought caused the grass to disappear. With topsoil exposed, high winds picked up the loose dirt and carried it over long distances. The dust storms destroyed crops, leaving farmers without food or something to sell.
Small farmers were hit especially hard. Even before the dust storms hit, the invention of the tractor drastically cut the need for manpower on farms. These small farmers were usually already in debt, borrowing money for seed and paying it back when their crops came in. When the dust storms damaged the crops, not only could the small farmer not feed himself and his family, he could not pay back his debt. Banks would then foreclose on the mortgage and the farmer's family would be homeless, unemployed and poor.
Related pages
Dust Bowl
References
20th century in the United States |
Events
The Crusades end.
Births
February 8 – King Afonso IV of Portugal (d. 1357)
October 31 – Philippe de Vitry, French composer (d. 1361)
Pope Clement VI (d. 1352)
Theodore I of Montferrat (d. 1338)
Aimone of Savoy (d. 1343)
Deaths
March 10 – Arghun, Mongol ruler
June 18 – King Alfonso III of Aragon (b. 1265)
June 26 – Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III of England
July 15 – Rudolph I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1218)
Hong Dagu, Korean military leader (b. 1244)
Talabuga, khan of the Blue Horde |
Delhi (; Dillī; Dillī; Dēhlī), officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), is a territory in India. It includes the country's capital New Delhi. It covers an area of . It is bigger than the Faroe Islands but smaller than Guadeloupe. Delhi is a part of the National Capital Region, which has 12.5 million residents. The governance of Delhi is like that of a state in India. It has its own legislature, high court and a council of executive ministers.
Delhi is on the banks of the Yamuna River. Historians have evidence that people have been living in this region since at least the 6th century BC. People also believe that the legendary city of Indraprastha was here. This city has many remains and monuments of historic importance.
The India Gate is a war memorial in Delhi. Following the Bangladesh Liberation war in 1972, a structure consisting of a black marble plinth with a reversed rifle, capped by a war helmet and bounded by four eternal flames, was built beneath the archway. This structure, called Amar Jawan Jyoti (Flame of the Immortal Soldier), has since 1971 served as India's tomb of the unknown soldier
References
Other websites
Nightlife in Delhi
newstaza
Capital cities in Asia |
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank for the euro and administers monetary policy of the eurozone, which consists of 19 EU member states and is one of the largest currency areas in the world. It is one of the world's most important central banks and is one of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU) listed in the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The capital stock of the bank is owned by the central banks of all 28 EU member states. The Treaty of Amsterdam established the bank in 1998, and it is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. the President of the ECB is Mario Draghi, former governor of the Bank of Italy, former member of the World Bank, and former managing director of the Goldman Sachs international division (2002–2005). The bank primarily occupied the Eurotower prior to, and during, the construction of the new headquarters.
The primary objective of the ECB, mandated in Article 2 of the Statute of the ECB, is to maintain price stability within the Eurozone. Its basic tasks, set out in Article 3 of the Statute, are to set and implement the monetary policy for the Eurozone, to conduct foreign exchange operations, to take care of the foreign reserves of the European System of Central Banks and operation of the financial market infrastructure under the TARGET2 payments system and the technical platform (currently being developed) for settlement of securities in Europe (TARGET2 Securities). The ECB has, under Article 16 of its Statute, the exclusive right to authorise the issuance of euro banknotes. Member states can issue euro coins, but the amount must be authorised by the ECB beforehand.
The ECB is governed by European law directly, but its set-up resembles that of a corporation in the sense that the ECB has shareholders and stock capital. Its capital is €11 billion held by the national central banks of the member states as shareholders. The initial capital allocation key was determined in 1998 on the basis of the states' population and GDP, but the capital key has been adjusted. Shares in the ECB are not transferable and cannot be used as collateral.
The European Central Bank is the main bank of the European Union. The European Central Bank is in Frankfurt am Main. The main goal of the European Central Bank is to maintain price stability, in other words make sure inflation is below 2%. This is done by e.g. controlling the interest rates. It is also the only bank allowed to issue euro banknotes (€), used by 16 of the 28 member states of the European Union (EU).
Presidents:
Wim Duisenberg (from the Netherlands): 1998-2003
Jean-Claude Trichet (from France): 2003-2011
Mario Draghi (from Italy): 2011-present
References
European Union
Banks of Europe
Frankfurt
1998 establishments in Europe |
Friendship means familiar and liking of each other's mind.
People who are friends talk to each other and spend time together. They trust one another and also help each other when they are in trouble or are hurt. Friends are people that can be looked up to and trusted. Usually, friends have similar interests. A friend is one who admires a person's skill and helps or encourages them to make the right choices and do not get into any trouble at all.
The strength of the bond of friendship between two people can vary. If the bond is very strong, they are called best friends. This can usually be achieved by possessing the elements of friendship, by being kind, generous, loyal, honest, and by having fun. With these qualities, you can truly enjoy the bliss of friendship.
There are expectations, demands, and complaints in friendship too. If friends don't match your expectations, it does not mean you will break the friendship. It is all about understanding, realizing, and helping whenever possible.
Friendship is both good and necessary. Man cannot live all alone. He is a social being. He needs someone to share his joys and sorrows. Generally, it is only people of similar age, character, and background, mentality, etc., who can understand him and his problems. Friends are needed for support and for sharing.
There are many different types of friendships. Most people find friends at a very young age however it is harder for others. Many movies are based on a group of friends. An example of a friendship would be that of Sierra, Olivia, Emma, Langli, and Mallory in the movie Eight grade Whittier.
The word Friendship is also the official motto of Texas.
Related pages
Platonic love
Cross-sex friendship
Other websites
Friendship facts by RoastedBook.com
Sociology
Emotions
Relationships
State mottos of the United States
Texas |
The clitoris is a female genital organ. It includes erectile tissue, glands, muscles and ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels. In an embryo there is a small raised point that grows into a clitoris in girls or a penis in boys. Inside the penis, there is the urethra, but there is no urethra in the clitoris. In women, the urethra is hidden behind the clitoris and in front of the vagina. Penises with male urethras are used daily for urination, and can be used for sex: semen passes out of the body through the male urethra.
Although the parts are placed differently, the clitoris is a match to the male penis. The clitoris causes females sexual pleasure, arousal and orgasm. Rubbing or applying other consistent pressure to it is usually needed to help the female have an orgasm.
During sexual arousal, erectile tissue fills with blood. This causes the clitoris to grow. It grows until orgasm happens. Also during arousal, touching the clitoris and other sensitive areas of the female genitals makes a woman's vagina change shape and release a lubricant. The lubricant and change of shape makes it easier for a man to enter a woman and for sex to occur. Most of the clitoris is hidden inside the body. Only a small part of it is seen outside the body. Adding the outside and inside parts, the clitoris is about the same size as the penis. The clitoris and penis grow from the same tissue in the womb; they bear many similar parts.
Parts of the clitoris
Outside the body
The parts of the clitoris that can be seen from the outside are located from the clitoral junction (the point where the outer lips meet at the base of the pubic mound) to the fork (where the lower edges of the inner lips meet below the vaginal opening). The outside parts include:
the glans: the head or tip. It is filled with nerve endings. The glans creates pleasurable feelings. It also increases a woman's sexual response.
the hood: the fold of skin formed by the outer edges of the inner lips. It covers the glans. The hood is the same as the male foreskin.
the inner lips: hairless and very sensitive to touch.
Inside the body
The parts of the clitoris inside the body include erectile tissue, glands, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. In both the clitoris and the penis, there are two types of erectile tissue. These are corpus cavernosum (cavern-like body) and vestibular bulbs. These tissues fill with blood during sexual arousal. This causes an erection. The clitoral shaft is connected to the glans. It is just underneath the surface of the skin. The shaft is a round spongy erectile tissue. It is very sensitive like the glans. It feels like a hard ridge. The shaft is about long. It moves toward the pubic mound for a short distance, then bends sharply and divides. This forms two thin legs. These legs are also made of spongy tissue. The legs spread out like the wishbone of a chicken.
References
Anatomy of the female reproductive system |
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a wall that separated the city of Berlin in Germany from 1961 to 1989. It separated the eastern half from the western half. Many people thought it was a symbol of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was taken down on November 9, 1989. The Berlin Wall was about long. It was built to prevent people from escaping from the eastern half of Berlin.
Division of Germany
After World War II ended, Germany was divided into four zones, one zone for each of the main Allied countries: France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. Its capital Berlin was also divided into four zones, so that it was an enclave, like an island inside the Soviet zone. On May 8, 1949, the French, United Kingdom and US zones were made into West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD) and West Berlin. The Soviet zones were made into East Germany and East Berlin. East Germany (German Democratic Republic, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR) was founded on October 7, 1949. Europe, Germany and Berlin were divided by an iron curtain.
What led to the building of the wall
After Germany split into West and East Germany on May 8, 1949, 2.6 million East Germans left to go to West Germany. In Berlin alone, 3.6 million people fled to the west. To stop this, on August 13, 1961, the Communist government of East Germany built a wall separating East and West Berlin.
The wall was built to keep the country's people in. But the Soviets and East German government said it was to keep capitalism out. They said that West Germany refused to recognize East Germany as an independent country because they wanted to take over North-East Germany just like Hitler took over Poland.
People still tried to escape even though the Berlin Wall was there. They used many methods to get around the guards and barbed wire on the Berlin Wall.
In the late 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev said that the Soviet Union would not use the Red Army to stop the people of Eastern and Middle Europe from changing their government. After he said that, several countries began to change the way they governed their people. Hungary opened its border and people from East Germany began moving to the west through Hungary. In October 1989 mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began. The long-time leader, Erich Honecker, resigned and was replaced by Egon Krenz a few days later. Honecker had predicted in January 1989 that the wall would stand for a "hundred more years" if the conditions which had caused its construction did not change. This did not turn out to be true.
In November, 1989, the Central Committee of East Germany decided to make it easier for East Germans to pass through the wall. A mistake by the press officer meant the border was opened several hours before it should have been. Millions of East German citizens celebrated the opening of the wall. Many collected souvenirs with chisels and some television stations filmed people hitting the wall with sledge hammers.
This image of people in West Berlin hitting the wall is often said to be East Berliners breaking out. This is not true. The eastern side of the wall had no graffiti on it. All pictures of people chipping away at the wall show people hitting graffiti covered walls. Less than one year after the Berlin Wall was broken down, Germany again became one country.
Death toll
In the 28 years of its existence, between 125 and 206 people were killed when trying to cross the Berlin Wall. At least 800 more people were killed outside Berlin, trying to cross from East Germany to the west.
The East Germans did not record all of the deaths, so the real number of how many people died may never be known.
Those people who were caught alive in an attempt to flee, had to go to jail for at least five years. The first victim of the Wall was Ida Siekmann. She was fatally injured after jumping out of the window of her apartment. She fell onto the pavement on the west side. The first victim of the Wall to be shot at was Günter Litfin. He was 24 years old and was shot by police, near the railway station of Berlin Friedrichstrasse, when he tried to get into the West. This was on 24 August, 1961, only eleven days after the border had been closed.
Peter Fechter bled to death in the death strip, on 17 August, 1962. This led to a public outcry. American troops watched him, but could not help him. The East-German border policemen, who had wounded him, did not help him either.
In 1966, two children, aged ten and thirteen years, were killed in the border strip. This is unusual because the East German border police had orders to not shoot on pregnant women, children or mentally ill people.
On 6 February, 1989, border guards shot and killed Chris Gueffroy as he tried to cross the wall. He was the last person to be killed by border guards. On 8 March, 1989, Winfried Freudenberg died after falling from a gas balloon. He was the last person to die trying to cross the Berlin Wall and escape into West Berlin.
The Riots of Berlin
The Berlin wall eventually started to fall once people rioted. Many jumped on top of the wall, and even crowded against it. This caused the wall to collapse in some areas, and more people could get through to the refugee camps that were set up on the other side. "Tear down this wall!" was a speech made by United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the wall. The speech was made at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987. It was made to honor the 750th anniversary of Berlin. His speech and its fallout might have aided in the wall's demolition.
Fall of the Wall
By late 1989 the GDR was suffering from many problems such as a struggling economy, and large-scale protests. The Hungarian regime had collapsed and was dismantling its border fences with Austria by August 1989. Since the Warsaw Pact allowed citizens to travel within the Soviet bloc, many East German tourists fled to the west via Hungary. When the Hungarian government refused the GDR's demand to stop defectors, East Germany banned all travel to Hungary; prompting demonstrations and protest. This began the GDR's isolation within the bloc.
Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR since 1971, was forced to resign on October 18, 1989. He was replaced by Egon Krenz after a unanimous vote by the politburo. Under Krenz's regime, East Germans could still escape to Hungary via Czechoslovakia.
The number of defectors grew and caused tensions between East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Krenz regime decided to allow people to leave directly to the west through border checkpoints in East Berlin. This prompted many East Germans, who learned about it broadcast from West German media, to go to the border crossings and demand to be let through immediately.
Border guards at each checkpoint told the people to go back home as they had no orders that the wall would open that night. As time passed, the number of people arriving at the checkpoint was increasing and the guards were becoming alarmed. They began taking the more aggressive people aside and stamped their passports with a special stamp that allowed them access to West Berlin however, the people were not aware that they were effectively revoking their East German citizenship and were shocked to be refused entry back into the GDR. The Chief Guard of the checkpoint frantically telephoned his superiors hoping to get answers as to why so many people thought that the wall was to open. By 22:45, it was clear that the outnumbered and overwhelmed border guards would not use their weapons to suppress the crowds. The Chief Guard surrendered and ordered the gates to West Berlin to be opened. The crowds of East Berliners were met with crowds of West Berliners in a happy scene as the Berlin wall had just fallen.
Many people even climbed up onto the wall by the Brandenburg Gate in protest and began to chisel away at the wall. The GDR authorities responded to this initially by blasting the people with water cannons; this proved to be ineffective. The East German army later climbed up onto the wall to prevent others from standing on the wall. The government began demolishing the wall the next day. The fall of the wall destroyed the SED, the ruling party of the GDR, and caused many of its officials to resign. The German Democratic Republic would cease to exist less than a year later; reuniting with the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990.
What the wall was made of
The wall was changed and added to several times. It was not really a wall, but a collection of walls and fences and other devices. This is what the border fence was made of, starting from the east, going west
Concrete wall or wire fence, 2–3 meters high
Signalling system in the floor, which would cause an alarm to be sounded when touched
Contact wire fence with barbed wire fence. Taller than a man.
(Not in all places) Kennels for dogs. With German Shepherd Dogs or other trained dogs.
(Not in all places) Equipment and trenches to stop vehicles and tanks. These systems would be removed (if the West paid for the removal). Most were replaced later.
Streets to get replacements and reinforcements in.
Watchtowers (in 1989 there were 302 of them). Including searchlights
death strip. This was an area in which all of the buildings were torn down, with nowhere to hide. Sometimes there were strips of sand where footprints could be detected.
Metallic fence, then the border itself:
Concrete wall, 3.75 metres in height. Very hard to climb.
The whole was done in an a zone of between 30 and 500 m wide. The official (civil border) began before the first fence. Entering the installation required a special permit. The real border was about one or two metres in front of the concrete wall, so that the whole of the wall complex was inside East Germany (only the East Berlin part of the wall was inside East Berlin).
The border between East Germany and West Germany was also heavily defended with fences and mines. East Germans needed a special permit to live close to the border.
What is left today
After the Reunification of Germany in October 3, 1990, the Berlin Wall was demolished and taken away. A few sections of the wall remain; some of the sections became a museum.
Of the total of 302 watchtowers, 5 are left.
The so-called Todesstreifen (death zone) can still be seen in many places. Some of them are large areas of brown, uncultivated land. Sometimes they are now parks.
There is a private museum at Checkpoint Charlie.
There is a cemetery near Checkpoint Charlie, remembering the victims of the Wall.
Controversies
The East Berlin special police who guarded the wall had the order to shoot if this was necessary to stop people fleeing. East German leaders such as Egon Krenz were arrested after German reunification because guards were ordered to shoot to kill.
However, after the Wall was built, many people were no longer able to leave East Berlin using normal border posts. The only way they could do so was to race through the Wall or try to dig a tunnel underneath.
After the unification of Germany, border guards who had shot people were convicted by West German Courts. The judges said, that some of the laws of the border police (about shooting) were against human rights. They therefore should have refused to shoot.
The same was of course applied to those people who had shot border police on their flight.
Border guards who did shoot, and stop someone from fleeing could get a reward of up to 500 Marks. Some of those guards were sentenced after the unification.
The other choice was to not shoot, or to miss badly. Such guards risked losing their well-paid jobs.
Curiosities
In 1988, there was a swapping of territory between East and West Berlin. Some territory, called the Lenné triangle (near Potsdamer Platz), was now part of the West. A few days after the swap, a group of ecology protestors fled from the western police into East Berlin, over the Wall. They were given a meal and sent back by the border guards.
Another strip of land was given to West Berlin. This strip was only the width of a road which joined West Berlin with a tiny exclave.
Related pages
Iron Curtain
Ich bin ein Berliner
Tear down this wall!
Wende
References
Other websites
www.wall-berlin.org
Berlin Wall Fotos an More (In German)
Retracing the Berlin Wall
Bernauer Straße Memorial website
Allied Forces in Berlin (FR, UK & US Berlin Brigade)
Photographs of time of the Fall as well as updates on the current situation in Germany
Reports on reinforcements to Berlin Brigade
"Berlin 1969" includes sections on Helmstedt-Berlin rail operations.
Includes articles on rail transport for Berlin during the Cold War. (large files)
Berlin 1983: Berlin and the Wall in the early 1980s
Berlin Life: A concise but thorough history of the wall
Images and personal accounts
Berlin Wall - Pictures Photographs
Photos of the Berlin Wall 1989 to 1999
Images of the Berlin wall
1961 establishments in Europe
1990 disestablishments in Germany
1960s establishments in Germany |
Łódź (pronounced "wuj") is the third-largest city in Poland, with 776,000 inhabitants. It is in the Łódź Voivodeship in the centre of the country. In Polish the name also means "boat". The mayor of Łódź is Hanna Zdanowska.
History
The first documents mentioning the city date from 1332. Łódź was awarded city rights (according to the Magdeburg law) in 1432. The Congress of Vienna decided in 1815 that the city should be part of Russia. Only in 1918 did the city fall back to Poland.
Geography
The city is about 120 km south-west of Warsaw. In and around the city, there are some textile and electronics industries. Because of prolonged economic difficulties, there has been a decline in the population of the city. The city has a university and a film academy. Łódź has a humid continental climate (Dfb in the Koeppen climate classification).
Sports
There are two major football teams in Łódź: the first is called ŁKS Łódź and the second is Widzew Łódź.
Images
Notable residents
Grażyna Bacewicz, composer
Max Factor, Sr., businessman, founder of the Max Factor cosmetics company
Piotr Fronczewski, Polish actor
Marcin Gortat, NBA basketball player for the Phoenix Suns
Roman Polanski, cinema director, Oscar and Golden Palm winner
Władysław Reymont, writer, Nobel Prize winner
Paweł Rogaliński, journalist
Artur Rubinstein, pianist, settled
Julian Tuwim, poet
Miś Uszatek, cartoon character
Marek Saganowski, football player
Adam Ostrowski, better known as O.S.T.R., rapper |
Kraków (Polish: Kraków; (pronounced: ); variant English spelling Cracow; in full Royal Capital City of Krakow, Polish: Królewskie Stołeczne Miasto Kraków) is one of the oldest and largest cities in Poland. In 2014 in Kraków lived 759,800 people. It is on the Vistula river. Krakow is the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship (województwo małopolskie); before that it was the capital of Kraków Voivodship (since 14th century).
During the mid-early 19th century, Krakow became an independent city-state, under the name of "The Free, Independent and Strictly Neutral City of Krakow". However, it was annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1846.
Pope John Paul II was raised in Krakow and was its archbishop from 1964 until he was elected as Pope in 1978. When it was later announced that the city will host World Youth Day in 2016, it will be a tribute to the late Pope who became a saint in 2014.
The current mayor of Krakow is Jacek Majchrowski.
Sister cities
Kraków is twinned, or maintains close relations with:
Related pages
Trams in Kraków
Buses in Kraków
Other websites
www.e-krakow.pl |
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the county seat of Multnomah County. About 538,544 people live in the city of Portland, and about 1,927,881 people live in the city's metropolitan area. It is found in the north part of the state, where the Willamette River meets the Columbia River. Portland has the second most people of any city in the Northwest United States, after the city of Seattle.
Portland has many nicknames. One of these is "The City of Roses," because roses grow well there. Some other nicknames of Portland are "Stumptown" (from the fact that Portland was built over a forest), and "Puddletown" (from the fact that it often rains in Portland).
Many things are from Portland. Some of these things are Powell's Books, Beverly Cleary (and some of her most popular fictional characters, Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby, which also have statues in the city's Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden for Children), and the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team.
References
Cities in Oregon
County seats in Oregon
1845 establishments in the United States
19th-century establishments in Oregon |
In physics, a frame of reference, or reference frame, is a perspective that one uses to determine if an object is moving. A frame of reference consists of an object or environment that is considered to be stationary. Typically the observer is at rest in the reference frame; in this context, the term is "observational frame of reference."
For example, when you see a ball roll down a street, you can tell the ball is moving because the frame of reference is the streets, whatever may be on the side of the roads, or the Earth. All of these are frames of reference.
All measurements of motion will be compared to a frame of reference. Therefore, the most commonly used frame of reference is Earth itself, even though it moves. Stars are used as a frame of reference when discussing the motions of the Earth.
When we walk from one side of a ship to the other, our frame of reference is the ship; whether the ship is moving is not relevant to that frame of reference.
Inertial frame of reference
An inertial frame of reference is a frame that is either not moving or moving at a constant velocity. In other words, an inertial frame of reference has no net force acting upon it, and therefore Newton's laws of motion are observed.
Inertial reference frames are often used in general relativity and special relativity to describe relative motion of observers or objects and the effects they will endure.
Inertial frames of reference are useful in everyday life as well. For example, consider a situation where two cars are traveling along a road. See Figure 1. If they are separated by a distance of 100 meters, the car in the back is moving at 10 meters per second and the car in front is moving at 5 meters per second, both relative to the ground.
There are three obvious inertial reference frames that can be used to determine when the cars will be even with each other: one where the back car is not moving but the front car is moving backwards at 5 m/s, one where the front car is stationary and the back car is moving forward at 5 m/s, or one where the ground is not moving and the cars are moving at their given velocities. These three perspectives all describe the situation accurately and are physically identical.
Related pages
General relativity
Special relativity
Cartesian coordinate system
Lorentz transformation
Principle of relativity
References
Relativity
Reference |
Broadway is a -long main street in New York City. It is different from other streets in that it runs diagonally across the street grid of Manhattan, diagonally crossing newer streets. The street also goes through the Bronx. It continues north as U.S. Route 9 to Albany, the capital of New York State.
Times Square, where Broadway meets 7th Avenue and 42nd Street, is a center of entertainment and is famous for its many theaters and stage plays.
One of the New York City Subway lines, the BMT Broadway Line, runs under the street in Manhattan, south of Times Square. The IRT Broadway - Seventh Avenue Line runs under Broadway, north of Times Square.
Manhattan
Roads in New York City
Theater
The Bronx |
The Schrödinger equation is a differential equation (a type of equation that involves an unknown function rather than an unknown number) that forms the basis of quantum mechanics, one of the most accurate theories of how subatomic particles behave. It is a mathematical equation that was thought of by Erwin Schrödinger in 1925. It defines a wave function of a particle or system (group of particles) which has a certain value at every point in space for every given time. These values have no physical meaning (in fact, they are mathematically complex), yet the wave function contains all information that can be known about a particle or system. This information can be found by mathematically manipulating the wave function to return real values relating to physical properties such as position, momentum, energy, etc. The wave function can be thought of as a picture of how this particle or system acts with time and describes it as fully as possible.
The wave function can be in a number of different states at once, and so a particle may have many different positions, energies, velocities or other physical properties at the same time (i.e. "be in two places at once"). However, when one of these properties is measured it has only one specific value (which cannot be definitely predicted), and the wave function is therefore in just one specific state. This is called wave function collapse and seems to be caused by the act of observation or measurement. The exact cause and interpretation of wave function collapse is still widely debated in the scientific community.
For one particle that only moves in one direction in space, the Schrödinger equation looks like:
where is the square root of -1, is the reduced Planck's constant, is time, is a position, is the wave function, and is the potential energy, an as yet not chosen function of position. The left hand side is equivalent to the Hamiltonian energy operator acting on .
Time independent Version
Assuming that the wave function, , is separable, i.e. assuming the function of two variables can be written as the product of two different functions of a single variable:
then, using standard mathematical techniques of Partial differential equations, it can be shown that the wave equation can be rewritten as two distinct differential equations
where the first equation is solely dependent on time , and the second equation depends only on position , and where is just a number. The first equation can be solved immediately to give
where is Euler's number. Solutions of the second equation depend on the potential energy function, , and so cannot be solved until this function is given. It can be shown using quantum mechanics that the number is actually the energy of the system, so these separable wave functions describe systems of constant energy. Since energy is constant in many important physical systems (for example: an electron in an atom), the second equation of the set of separated differential equations presented above is often used. This equation is known as the Time independent Schrödinger Equation, as it does not involve .
Interpretations of the Wave function
Born Interpretation
There are many philosophical interpretations of the wave function, and a few of the leading ideas will be considered here. The main idea, called the Born probability interpretation (named after physicist Max Born) comes from the simple idea that the wave function is square integrable; i.e.
This rather simple formula has great physical implications. Born hypothesized that the above integral determines that the particle exists somewhere in space. But how can we find it? We use the integral
where is the probability of finding the particle in the region from to . In other words, all that can be known in advance about a particle in general are probabilities, averages, and other statistical quantities associated with its physical quantities (position, momentum, etc.). Basically, this is the Born interpretation.
Copenhagen Interpretation
An extension of the above ideas can be made. Since the Born interpretation says that the actual position particle cannot be known, we can derive the following. If are solutions to the wave equation, then the superposition of those solutions, i.e.
is also a solution. This implies, then, that the particle exists in every possible position. When an observer comes and measures the position of the particle, then the superposition is reduced to a single possible wave function. (i.e., → , where is any of the possible wave function states.) This idea that a particle's position cannot exactly be known, and that a particle exists in multiple positions simultaneously gives rise to the Uncertainty principle. The mathematical formulation of this principle can be given by
Where is the uncertainty in position, and is the uncertainty in momentum. This principle can be mathematically derived from the Fourier transforms between momentum and position as defined by quantum mechanics, but we will not derive it in this article.
Other Interpretations
There are various other interpretations, such as the many-worlds interpretation, and quantum determinism.
References
Basic physics ideas
Mechanics
Partial differential equations |
Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is a species of evergreen tree in the genus Myristica. It is found in tropical Southeast Asia and Australia.
Nutmeg powder can cause allergic reactions.
Spices
Magnoliales |
Pulau Run is an island in Indonesia. It is one of the smallest Islands of the Banda Islands. It is about 3 km long and less than 1 km wide.
It used to be of great importance, because of the value of the spices nutmeg and mace. Both spices are from the same tree. The trees were only grown on the Banda Islands. During the history of the spice trade sailors of the British East India Company of the second expedition of James Lancaster, John Davis and John Middleton who stayed in Bantam on Java first reached the Island in 1603. They made good contacts with the people who lived there.
Two wars were fought over the extremely costly spices.
The Treaty of Westminster ended the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652–1654. According to the treaty, Run should have been returned to England. The first attempt in 1660 failed due to formal constraints by the Dutch; after the second in 1665 the English traders were expelled in the same year and the Dutch destroyed the nutmeg trees.
After the second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667 England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands agreed in the Treaty of Breda to the status quo: The English kept the island of Manhattan which a fleet sent by the Duke of York (the future Charles II), had occupied illegally in 1664 and renamed from New Amsterdam to New York. Run was officially given to the Dutch.
The Dutch monopoly on nutmeg and mace was destroyed by the transfer of nutmeg trees to Ceylon, Singapore and other British colonies in 1817 after the capture of the main Island Bandalontor in 1810 by Captain Cole. This led to the decline of the Dutch supremacy in the spice trade, but there are still nutmeg trees growing on Run today.
Further reading
Milton, Giles. Nathaniel's Nutmeg: or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History. Penguin, 1999. ()
Islands of Indonesia |
Shinty a traditional game now mainly played in the Scottish Highlands. It involves 2 teams of twelve players using a stick (known as a "caman" from Scottish Gaelic) to put a ball in the opposing team's net.
It was once played over all Scotland but is now played mostly in the Scottish Highlands and Highland communities in the big Scottish cities. It is also played in universities and in America by enthusiasts.
The sport's rules and regulations are decided by the Camanachd Association.
It has a common ancestor with the Irish game of hurling and hurlers and shinty players sometimes hold internationals.
Other websites
An Interesting Site about the Sport
The Camanachd Association website.
Games
Sport in Scotland |
Events
February 18 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
March 18 – Sixth Crusade of Emperor Frederick II ends in truce with Sultan al-Kamil and coronation of Frederick as King of Jerusalem.
Catalans capture island of Majorca from Muslims.
University of Paris strike of 1229.
Foundation of the University of Toulouse in Toulouse, France.
Founding of the city of Turku, Finland.
Births
Deaths
January 17 – Albert of Buxhoeveden, German soldier
Yaqut al-Hamawi, Arab biographer and geographer (born 1179)
1229 |
Events
September 30 – Nurhaci, chieftain of the Jurchens and founder of the Qing Dynasty dies and is succeeded by his son Huang Taiji.
November 18 – The new St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican is consecrated, the anniversary of that of the previous church in 326.
Spanish establish a trading colony on Taiwan.
Peter Minuit, director of the New Netherland colony, begins a policy of "purchasing" Manhattan from the Lenape.
Work begins on building the sailing ship Vasa.
The Duchy of Urbino is incorporated into the Papal States.
The English Parliament impeach George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, favorite of Charles I of England.
Charles I dissolves Parliament.
The Dutch settle Manhattan, founding the town of New Amsterdam. The town would transform into a piece of what is now New York City.
In New England, the Town (later City) of Salem, Massachusetts is founded at Naumkeag |
Events
February 3 – death of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
September 30 – Accession of Henry IV of England
October 13 – Coronation of Henry IV of England
November 1 – Accession of John VI, Duke of Brittany
Deaths
February 3 – death of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster |
54 is a year in the 1st century.
Events
October 13 – Roman Emperor Claudius dies after being poisoned by Agrippina, his wife and niece.
Nero succeeds Claudius as emperor of Roman Empire
Patriarch Onesimus succeeds Stachys the Apostle as Patriarch of Constantinople.
Judea is returned piecemeal to Agrippa I's son Marcus Julius Agrippa between 48 and 54.
Saint Paul begins his third mission.
Apollos, a later assistant of Paul, is converted to Christianity in Ephesus
Maiden Castle, Dorset in Dorset was captured from the Celtic Durotriges by Vespasian. |
48 is a year in the 1st century. It was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vitellius and Poplicola.
Events
Roman Emperor Claudius makes Agrippa II superintendent of the Temple in Jerusalem
Probable date of the Apostolic Council
The Silures, with the help of Caratacus, revolt against the Romans in Britain.
The Hsiung-nu empire ends
Gallic nobles are admitted to the Roman Senate
Births
Ts'ai Lun, inventor of paper (d. 121)
Ulpia Marciana, sister of emperor Trajan (d. 112)
Deaths
Valeria Messalina, third wife of emperor Claudius
Pompey - military and political leader of Roman Republic
40s |
Events
Dogen Zenji establishes the Eiheiji temple in Japan, in doing so founding the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism.
Sultan Malik al-Muattam razes city walls.
James I of Aragon reconquers Altea, Spain. |
Events
July 6 – Mindaugas is crowned as King of Lithuania.
July – William II, Count of Holland defeats the Flemish army at Westkapelle.
A series of naval wars begins between the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice, which will continue sporadically until 1371.
King Henry III of England meets with English nobles and church leaders to reaffirm the validity of the Magna Carta.
Pope Innocent IV returns to Rome, having left nine years earlier in 1244 to depose Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and being unable to return until after Frederick's death due to the agitation throughout Europe caused by that action.
Having rebuffed the armed forces of Conrad IV of Germany, Pope Innocent IV offers Sicily to Edmund, son of King Henry III of England.
Galicia becomes a vassal state to the expanding Mongol Empire.
Deaths
January 19 – Dogen, Japanese founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism
August 11 – Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi (born 1194)
October 9 – Robert Grosseteste, English statesman and theologian
Wenceslaus I, King of Bohemia
Theobald IV of Champagne (born 1201)
Saint Richard of Chichester
King Henry I of Cyprus (born 1217)
Amadeus IV of Savoy (born 1197) |
Events
July 22 – English under the Duke of Buckingham invade the Ré Island in support of the Huguenots in La Rochelle. The invasion does not go well.
A Dutch ship makes the first recorded sighting of the coast of South Australia.
The aurochs are hunted to extinction, the last being killed by poachers in Poland.
England places the first European settlers on Barbados.
Siege of La Rochelle begins
Korea becomes a tributary state of China |
Events
January 10 – Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud executed for treason on Tower Hill, London.
January 14 – English Civil War: Fairfax appointed Commander-in-Chief.
January 29 – English Civil War: Armistice talks opened at Uxbridge.
February 2 – Covenanters defeated by Montrose at the Battle of Inverlochy
February 15 – English Civil War: New Model Army is founded officially
February 29 – English Civil War: Uxbridge armistice talks failed.
March 4 – English Civil War: Prince Rupert left Oxford for Bristol.
March 31 – Fearing the spread of the plague, Edinburgh Town Council bans all gatherings except weddings and funerals
April 3 – Lords pass Self-Denying Ordinance.
April 10 – Because of the plague, Edinburgh town council orders that the college graduation ceremony should be brought forward so that students can leave the city (in November 19, teaching continues in Linlithgow)
April 23 – English Civil War: 150 Irish soldiers bound for service with King Charles, were captured at sea by parliamentarians who celebrated St George's Day by joyfully killing them all at Pembroke.
May 9 – Covenanters defeated by Montrose at the Battle of Auldearn.
June 1 – English Civil War: Prince Rupert' army took sacked Leicester
June 10 – English Civil War: Cromwell confirmed as Lieutenant-General of Cavalry.
June 14 – English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers
June 28 – English Civil War – the Royalists lose Carlisle.
July 2: Fight at Alford, Aberdeenshire.
July 10 – English Civil War: Cromwell won the Battle of Langport, Somerset.
July 23 – Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsar of Russia came to the throne.
September 10 – English Civil War: Prince Rupert surrendered Bristol.
September 13 – Covenanters defeated Montrose at the Battle of Philiphaugh, Selkirk.
September 24 – English Civil War: Parliamentarians defeated Royalist cavalry at the Battle of Rowton Heath.
October 8 – English Civil War: Final crushing of Basing house begun.
October 8: Jeanne Mance founds the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first hospital in North America.
October 11 – English Civil War The re-fortification of Bourne, Lincolnshire castle against threatened Royalist attack, was begun.
Siege of Raglan Castle during the English Civil War
The Long Parliament outlaws the 1559 version of the Book of Common Prayer
Beginning of the Maunder Minimum, a time period when sunspots became exceedingly rare
Founding of the Stolberg-Wernigerode branch of the family of counts of Stolberg and Wernigerode in Germany
Wallpaper begins to replace tapestries as a wall decoration
Mechanical calculating machine invented by Blaise Pascal. |
Year 1072 (MLXXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
William I of England invades Scotland, and also receives the submission of Hereward the Wake.
Osbern FitzOsbern becomes Bishop of Exeter.
January 10 – Normans conquer Palermo in Sicily. |
Events
October – King Alexander III of Scotland defeats the Viking armada of King Haakon IV of Norway in the Battle of Largs.
King James I of Aragon conquers Crevillente, Spain from the Moors during the Reconquista.
Mindaugas, the only Christian king of Lithuania, is assassinated by his cousin Treniota.
The chieftains of the eastern part of Iceland become the last to pledge fealty to the Norwegian king, bringing a more complete end to the Icelandic Commonwealth and the Icelandic civil war.
Genoa captures the city of Chania on Crete from the Venetians.
Hulagu Khan is defeated in an attempted invasion north of the Caucasus.
Based on Magdeburg Law Żnin (Poland) was given city rights |
Events
Before May – Second Barons' War, a civil war in England, begins.
May 12 to May 14 – The Battle of Lewes of the Second Barons' War is fought between Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and King Henry III of England in Sussex. By the end of the battle, de Montfort's forces capture both King Henry and his brother, future King Edward I, making de Montfort the "uncrowned king of England" for 15 months before Edward escapes captivity and recaptures the throne.
June 18 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
In Spain, King James I of Aragon reconquers the cities of Orihuela in Alicante and Elx in Valencia from the Moors, ending over 500 years of Islamic rule.
The Thuringian War of Succession ends.
The state of Hesse gains its independence from Thuringia and becomes a free state of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the Peerage of England, the title Baron de Ros, the oldest continuously held peerage title in England, is created by writ of summons.
Births
May 26 – Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (died 1326)
Pope Clement V (died 1314)
Deaths |
Events
The Long Parliament passes a series of laws written to help keep Charles I's absolutist policies.
August 10 – Charles I of England runs from London to the north
Irish Rebellion of 1641 – revolt of the Gaelic Irish in Ulster against the English settlers
The Dutch found a trading colony on Dejima, near Nagasaki, Japan.
Portugal is ousted from Malacca by the Dutch.
Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is first performed.
Moses Amyraut's De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion is published.
The Norwegian city of Kristiansand was founded by King Christian IV |
Year 1680 was a leap year that started on a Monday when using the Gregorian calendar.
Events
February – the Reverend Ralph Davenant dies leaving £100 in his will to start up a new school for the poor boys of Whitechapel, in the East End.
May – an eruption occurs at the volcano Krakatoa, probably on a relatively small scale.
July 8 – The first documented tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
August 21 – Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe (New Mexico) from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
November 17 – Whigs organize pope-burning processions in London.
November 23 – Great Comet of 1680 first sighted.
Undated
Chambers of Reunion (French courts under Louis XIV): decide on complete annexation of Alsace.
First Portuguese governor is appointed to Macau.
The Swedish city Karlskrona founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocates there.
Births
January 23 – Joseph Ames, English writer (died 1759)
February 14 – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (died 1737)
February 23 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French colonizer and Governor of Louisiana (died 1767)
April 9 – Philippe Néricault Destouches, French dramatist (died 1754)
June 22 – Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter (died 1754)
September 22 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (died 1747)
October 19 – John Abernethy, Irish Protestant minister (died 1740)
November 22 – Edward Teach (Blackbeard), pirate (died 1718)
date unknown – John Machin, English mathematician (died 1752)
Deaths
February – Reverend Ralph Davenant, founder of Davenant Foundation School
February 17
Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English statesman and writer (born 1599)
Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (born 1637)
February 22 – Catherine Monvoisin, French sorceress (born c.1607)
March 14 – René Le Bossu, French critic (born 1631)
March 17 – François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer (born 1613)
March 23 – Nicolas Fouquet, French statesman (born 1615)
march 4 – Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (born 1630)
May 31 – Joachim Neander, German Calvinist clergyman (born 1650)
June 18 – Samuel Butler, English poet (born 1612)
June 10 – Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (born 1635)
July 10 – Louis Moréri, French encylopedist (born 1643)
July 26 – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet (born 1647)
July 30 – Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Irish naval commander (born 1634)
August 20 – William Bedloe, English informer (born 1650)
August 22 – John George II, Elector of Saxony (born 1613)
August 24 – Thomas Blood, thief of the English Crown Jewels (born 1618)
August 25 – Simeon of Polotsk, Belarusian churchman and poet (born 1629)
September 2 – Per Brahe (the younger), Swedish soldier and statesman (born 1602)
September 9 – Henry Marten, English regicide (born 1602)
September 10 – Baldassare Ferr, Italian castrato (born 1610)
September 11
Roger Crab, English Puritan political writer (born 1621)
Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (born 1596)
October 4 – Pierre Paul Riquet, French engineer and canal builder (born c.1640)
October 30 – Antoinette Bourignon, Flemish mystic (born 1616)
November 27 – Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit scholar (born 1602)
November 28 – Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor (born 1598)
November 28 – Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Italian architect and painter (born 1606)
December 4 – Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian (born 1616)
December 8 – Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (born 1606) |
814 was .
Events
Deaths
January 28-Charlemagne, King of the Franks |
The word Manx could mean many things related to the Isle of Man:
The Manx language, also known as Manx or Manx Gaelic
The Manx people, an ethnic group in the Isle of Man
The Manx cat, a domestic cat breed
The Manx Shearwater, a seabird
The Manx Pound, the currency of the Isle of Man
Manx cattle, Manx horse, Manx pig and Manx sheepdog, some extinct animals from the Isle of Man
Manx Radio, the national radio station of the Isle of Man |
A hierarchy (in ; this comes from -hieros, sacred, and -arkho, rule) is a way of ranking and organizing things or people. Beneath the top of the hierarchy, each part of it is below some other part. This turns out to be like a pyramid. It is a system to decide who can make decisions, and who is forced to comply with those decisions.
An example with people would be the structure of a company. There is the top manager, and there are a few levels of middle and lower management. At the bottom are the common workers. Another example would be an army that might have a general, followed by colonels, corporals, and sergeants, then privates.
In democracy this is done by educating people in the issues and then voting - in an election to choose leaders, or a referendum to actually choose one option from several. Competing power networks each form a political party and each offers only one leader or one option to the public, to simplify the issues to make decisions possible. After the decision, they typically do not fight it to the point of civil war, but wait for the next election.
In dictatorship this is done by asking one powerful person to make the decision and then agreeing to force everyone to follow it. Any who will not are exiled, imprisoned, or killed, even if the decision is not very important, since the refusal to follow is taken as a challenge to the power structure itself. There is only one power network and all others are forced to become part of it, or fight it. Civil war is much more common in a dictatorship than in a democracy.
In these examples, people who are higher up have more authority and power than people below them.
Related pages
Anarchism |
Sultan is a name for Islamic rulers.
The word sultan comes from the Arabic language. It means "strength", "authority", or "rulership". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain Muslim rulers who claimed full sovereignty. They did not have to take orders from any higher monarch, without claiming the overall caliphate. There is no specific word for a sultan's wife in Arabic. The word, sultana began to be used (as the feminine version of the Italian word for sultano) in the 16th century in Italy, to describe the wife, mother, daughter, or concubine of a sultan. The Italian word also passed to other European languages.
The dynasty and lands ruled by the Sultan is called a sultanate. During the 20th century, several Sultans in the Arab world changed their title to "Malik", which means "king" in Arabic. |
The Republic of India is divided into twenty-eight States and eight union territories, including the National Capital Territory.
States and capitals
Union territories:
India-related lists |
Finnish () is a Uralic language. It is one of the two official languages of Finland. It is also an official minority language in Sweden. Finnish is one of the four national languages of Europe that is not an Indo-European language. The other two are Estonian and Hungarian, which are also Uralic languages, and Basque.
Related languages
The Finnish grammar and most Finnish words are very different from those in other European languages, because Finnish is not an Indo-European language. The two other national languages that are Uralic languages as Finnish are Estonian and Hungarian. Estonians and Finns usually may understand each other, but their languages are very different. Even though Finnish and Hungarian are related languages, they do not look or sound similar. The Finnish and Hungarian languages separated a long time ago, and each language developed its own vocabulary. People who can speak Finnish cannot understand Hungarian without extra study, and Hungarians cannot understand Finnish. However, there are some basic words that are very similar, for example: 'hand' (Finnish 'käsi' vs. Hungarian 'kéz') 'to go' (Finnish 'mennä' vs. Hungarian 'menni'), 'fish' (Finnish 'kala' vs. Hungarian 'hal').
Finnish grammar
Finnish is a synthetic and an agglutinative language. This means that words in Finnish have a stem called "body", and other parts inside them which make up the meaning. Finnish is similar in this respect to the Japanese language, Turkish language, and Latin language. In Finnish, there are 17 cases/word types (sanatyypit). You can think of a "case" as an ending added to a word that helps describe its purpose in the sentence. Verbs have 5 tempora (present tense, past tense, perfect, pluperfect and future tense). In addition, verbs have two participle (active and passive) cases. Gerunds, which are nouns made from verbs (for example: reading - to read) also exist in Finnish (lukeminen - lukea), are abundant in Finnish.
Finnish is a complex, self-morphing language. It has been ranked as a highly difficult language for native speakers of English by the U.S. Department of State. The difficulty is due not only to the grammatical structure of the language, but also pronunciation and intonation as compared to English.
Finnish spelling and pronunciation
Finnish is pronounced the way it is spelled. The pronunciation of some letters is similar to English. However:
'j' is like English 'y' in 'yes'
's' is like English 's' in 'sad' (never like 'z')
'h' is always pronounced, even at the end of a syllable e.g. 'ahdas' ('narrow')
double vowels make the sound long
'ä' is similar to 'a' in English 'cat'
'ö' is almost like English article 'a'. It is pronounced with rounded lips, like 'eu' in French 'peur' or German 'ö'
the letter 'c' is not used. It is replaced either by 'k' or 's' to avoid confusion and make writing simple.
the letter 'q' is not used. It is replaced by either 'k' or 'kv' to make writing simple.
the letter 'y' is pronounced like the 'u' in French language, or 'i' in 'in' but with rounded lips, very close to 'ö'.
the letter 'z' is pronounced 'ts' as in German language. It is often written as "ts" to make writing simple.
the letter 'x' is usually written out as 'ks' to make writing simple, for example in the word "taksi" instead of "taxi".
English speakers often exhale when saying letters like "k", "p", and "t". They don't do this in Finnish, and to "swallow the sound", as the old saying goes, takes a lot of practice.
The proper pronunciation for the Finnish diphthongs (öy, yö, äy, eu, etc.) is difficult.
Examples of Finnish words
Basic Finnish expressions
References
Other websites
English-Finnish-English and Swedish-Finnish-Swedish dictionary
Finnic languages
Languages of Europe |
Sleep is a state of resting, which happens in animals, including humans. During deep sleep, most of the muscles that animals can otherwise control are not active, but regain the energy for the next time they wake up. Animals during sleep are usually in an unconscious, relaxed state. Like most animals, healthy sleep in humans takes place at night. Asleep describes the condition where animals are in the process of sleeping. During this time, they will not react as quickly (if at all) as they would if they were awake. They can, however, wake up from sleep more easily than from hibernation or coma. All mammals, birds, many reptiles, amphibians and fish have a sleep cycle. In humans, other mammals, and most other animals that were studied, regular sleep is essential for survival.
Sleep is extremely important to human health and well-being. Humans and animals need sleep in order for their bodies to be prepared for the next day. Everyday activities, one’s appearance, and how one expresses oneself all rely on this necessity. If one is tired (from not getting enough sleep), one will not be able to function properly in common activities. Being sleep-deprived leads to struggling to remember information, altering one’s mood, energy, health, focus and a number of other effects. Sleep deprivation (not allowing a person enough sleep) can even be used as torture. Also, the immune system releases compounds known as cytokines which are used to help fight inflammation and infection. If a person does not receive enough sleep, they will not have enough cytokines to protect them from getting sick. The body may not have time to complete memory recollection, muscle repair, and release hormones that regulate growth and appetite.
During daytime, the sun is out and most people are awake. They work, go to school, or complete daily errands and activities. Many people sleep for a short time in the early afternoon for a quick rest—or because they are not able to sleep during the day. This is called a nap. A successful nap should run between 15-30 minutes, and longer naps taking 30-60 minutes will result in feeling dazed and less attentive.
In some countries, most notably where the weather is warm, there is a tradition to take a nap right after noon, or early in the afternoon. This tradition is called siesta, and is most common in Spain and Latin America. Some stores and services close while their owners and/or employees take their siesta.
Word
The word "sleep" comes from the old Old Germanic verbs for sleep. In Old and Middle High German, it was called "SLAF". The original meaning of the word was "to slap", which was related to the word for "flabby" (not hard or firm).
Many words related to "sleep" have very different meanings. For example, "sleep" may be used to mean death, so that "putting an animal to sleep" means to kill the animal without pain. "Sleep with someone" can also have a sexual meaning.
What sleep is for
Generally, the reason for sleep is that the brain needs it. The details are not fully understood, but it is important to get enough sleep for the body and the brain to be healthy and to work properly. In general, animals (and people) sleep at periodic intervals, such as once a day. Certain animals send out signals to the others that they will soon go to sleep. Yawning is such a signal.
Both humans and many animals sleep about once a day. Some animals, such as cats, sleep many times a day for short periods up to 15 hours a day (or even longer).
When people sleep, they often have dreams. Probably some animals do, too.
Not only people sleep, but all mammals and birds, and most fish, reptiles and other animals also too.
Brief stages of sleep
There are four stages during sleep:
Stage 1: The lightest sleep of NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep which is the process of falling asleep.
Stage 2: The first stage of NREM sleep; the beginning of falling asleep including regular breathing and heart rates, the body temperature dropping, and becoming disconnected with the environment.
Stages 3: Deep NREM sleep which involves delta waves or slow waves. It is difficult to wake one up in the course of this stage as they are in deep sleep. Common disorders that occur during this stage are sleepwalking and talking.
Stage 4: The dreaming stage in which brain waves are more vigorous with rapid eye movement. Awakenings are more common in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep as opposed to NREM.
While humans sleep, REM and NREM are sleep patterns that help with long term memory, remembering information, procedural memory, and creative thinking.
Different types of sleep
REM sleep
In mammals and birds, sleep can be divided into two categories. In one of them, the eyes move rapidly. It is called REM-sleep (rapid eye movement). Most dreams take place in this phase. as the body becomes relaxed and the eyes move while sleeping. This phase helps prepare one for the next day. REM-sleep occurs normally at intervals throughout the night, and the periods of REM-sleep increase in length in the second half of the night. It is often encountered 90 minutes after falling asleep, and continues to occur every 90 minutes. REM-sleep was first discovered in 195253.
REM sleep is found in mammals and songbirds, but is "poorly established" in reptiles and fish. According to a survey:
"This remarkable similarity of characteristics may have resulted from a convergent evolution in mammals and songbirds".
NREM sleep
The other category, where this movement of the eyes does not happen, is called NREM-sleep (Non-REM sleep). In general, dreams do not occur during this time. There are three or four stages of NREM-sleep. Stage I is just barely sleeping, or dozing. Stage II is also light sleep. Normally, in adult humans, about half of the time spent asleep is spent in light sleep. Stages III and IV are called deep sleep. Deep sleep is necessary for growth and healing. It can be quite difficult to awaken someone who is in stage III or stage IV sleep. Sometimes, stages III and IV are combined and called stage III.
Adult humans normally sleep in cycles of 90 to 110 minutes each. The night's sleep can be 4 or 5 of these cycles. Each cycle includes, in this order: stage I, stage II, stage III (IV), and REM.
Getting enough sleep
People who regularly get less than 8 hours of sleep a night tend to complain more and feel very fatigued throughout the day. Getting the appropriate amount of sleep is extremely important, as it could affect one’s body and increase the chances of serious health problems. For each age group, there are different amounts of sleep that are recommended:
- Toddlers (4 to 12 months): 12 to 16 hours (w/ naps)
- Toddlers (1-2 years): 11 to 14 hours (w/ naps)
- Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10 to 13 hours (w/ naps)
- Grade Schoolers (6 to 12 years): 9 to 12 hours
- Teenagers(13-18 years): 8 to 10 hours
- Adults (including old age): 7 to 9 hours
The timing of sleep and the amount of it are both important. Both are different for different people. Some adults sleep best from 22:00 to 05:00 or 06:00 or 07:00. Some sleep best from midnight to seven or eight. These variations are normal.
How much sleep is enough also depends on age. Children need more sleep than adults. Newborn babies sleep about 18 hours per day. Small babies sleep many times a day; human babies do not develop circadian rhythms before they are 3 – 4 months old. At the age of 1 year, they sleep for about 14 hours.
A nine-year-old should sleep about 9–10 hours per day and teenagers, too, also need that much sleep. Adults who sleep less than about 8 hours a day perform worse than those who sleep that long.
Bad habits
Poor habits could affect one’s sleep schedule in many ways without taking notice. A few habits that are very common and ruin sleep are:
Overeating or being too full (since the digestive system will not work to digest those foods processed)
Sitting in front of a TV (since powerful light source produced by TV can prevent sleep)
Drinking too much (since it will cause one to use the bathroom multiple times during the night)
Going on a phone or playing a video game (since the artificial light from the screen simulates the mind and body)
Not having a bedtime routine
Any type of pain such as back, joint and tooth pain (these can making sleeping difficult and should be addressed quickly)
Having cold feet (it is better to wear something to keep warm in this case)
Using caffeine (since this can result in “all-nighters”)
Having stress (since this can keep the brain active at night, thinking of all the things on one’s mind)
Snoring (since one can be awaken by it)
Sleeping problems
A good night’s sleep is extremely important for one’s quality of life. People may have trouble going to sleep, staying asleep or getting enough sleep. This usually means that they are too sleepy in the daytime.
There are many things that influence sleep. Also some substances, called stimulants – coffee is an example – can cause poor sleep. When people have just eaten something, the body is busy digesting what they have eaten. This can cause poor sleep, too. Worrying and stress can also cause poor sleep.
There are many diseases that cause poor sleep. Fever can lead to bad dreams. Poor sleep can be a side effect of some medications.
Sleep disorders directly influence how a person sleeps. Examples of sleep disorders are narcolepsy, sleep apnea and circadian rhythm sleep disorders.
The four most common sleep disorders are:
Insomnia which consists of difficulties going to sleep at night, having no energy, waking up often in the middle of the night, waking up earlier than planned, and changing mood behaviors.
Sleep apnea which is due to the lack of breathing for several seconds which results in the brain awakening and forcing a respiratory effect to breathe harder. As a result of the multiple occurrences during the night, the body cannot go back to sleep, leading to fatigue.
Restless leg syndrome is a need to move one’s leg while resting. Having the urge to move one's feet during the night may affect the ability to fall and stay asleep.
Narcolepsy, the inability to control the brain’s sleep/wakefulness cycle which leads to daytime sleepiness and falling asleep at unexpected times.
Sleep specialists - doctors specialized in sleeping problems - often suggest better sleep hygiene to people with sleeping problems. Sleep hygiene means things people can try, such as:
get to sleep quick and early
avoid extreme emotion in the hours before sleep
try to get up at the same time every day (sticking to a routine)
sleep in a cool, quiet and very dark place with the right mattress, lighting, blanket, pillow and temperature.
avoid bright light the last hour before bedtime. Eat dinner at least 3 hours before bedtime so the digestive system has time to break it down.
avoid a big meal just before bedtime
get enough exercise every day
sleep in varying positions. However, avoid sleeping on the stomach as it starts to flatten the curve of the spine, which can lead to severe lower back pains
References
Other websites
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
National Sleep Foundation
World Sleep Foundation
National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
Basic English 850 words
VOA Special English words |
North Macedonia (Macedonian: Северна Македонија - Severna Makedonija) officially the Republic of North Macedonia (Macedonian: Република Северна Македонија - Republika Severna Makedonija (Albanian: Republika e Maqedonisë së Veriut ) is a country located on the Balkan peninsula and in Southeastern Europe. It was part of Yugoslavia. North Macedonia borders Serbia to the north, Albania to the west, Greece to the south, and Bulgaria to the east. The country's currency is the Macedonian denar (MKD).
The capital and largest city is Skopje, with more than 500,000 residents. It has many smaller cities. Some important ones are Bitola, Prilep, Tetovo, Kumanovo, Ohrid, Veles, Stip, and Strumica.
North Macedonia is often called a land of lakes and mountains. There are more than 50 lakes and sixteen mountains higher than 2000 meters above sea level.
North Macedonia is a member of the United Nations and World Trade Organization (WTO). It joined NATO on 30 March 2020. Since December 2005, it is a candidate for joining the European Union.
The language spoken by the majority of the population is Macedonian. Albanian is also spoken by the Albanian minority (25%) living in the country. North Macedonia has two official languages, Macedonian and Albanian (since 2019).
History
Ethnic Macedonians are Slavic peoples. The Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. What is now North Macedonia used to be the Bulgarian occupation zone of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Vardarska Macedonia became a Communist state in 1945 and called itself the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in the southeastern part of the country of Yugoslavia. When that country broke up in 1991, North Macedonia became independent.
In past centuries the territory which today is the Republic of North Macedonia was ruled by many different states such as Bulgaria and many other empires.
During the Yugoslav Wars, Macedonia was mostly peaceful. However in 2001, fighting broke out between ethnic Albanians and Slavic Macedonians. The fighting ended with the Ohrid Agreement.
Earliest Residents
People have been living in North Macedonia for over 1000 years[sic] (10,000 years). The first people that lived in Macedonia were the Neolithic people. They lived in Macedonia from 7000 to 3500 BCE. From 1000 to 1 BCE, Dacians, Thracians,Illyrians, Celts, and Greeks inhabited Northern Macedonia.
Alexander the Great's Empire
The Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia was just hundreds of small, independent, city-states. One example of a city state is Illyria. They sometimes merged together, but not often. One city-state that grew over time was the kingdom of Macedon. The Greek kingdom of Macedon is best known for Alexander the Great. He invaded and controlled the Middle East (excluding Arabia),Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Gujarat state of India. However, when Alexander died in 323 BCE, at the age of 33, he lost his vast empire. The empire was divided into 5 countries, Lysimachia (Macedon), Cassander (Northern Greece), the Antigonid Empire (Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Southern Greece), the Ptolemaic Empire (Egypt), and the Seleucid Empire (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan).
Roman Rule
Towards the end of the 3rd century BCE, the Romans invaded the Balkan peninsula. Illyria was taken over in 9 CE. The North and East of Macedonia were taken over by the Roman Empire in the year 29 CE. They became the Roman province of Moesia. Starting in the 3rd century CE, the borders of Macedonia were being attacked by the Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Avars, and others. In 395 AD, the Roman Empire split in two. They were the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire).
Byzantine Rule
Although, Macedonia was part of the Byzantine Empire, there was little Byzantine influence. In the mid-6th century, Slavic tribes started to settle in Macedonia. From the 7th century to the 13th century, Byzantine Macedonia was governed by local princes and kings, allied with the Byzantine Empire. In the 9th century, the Byzantine Empire brought Christianity to Macedonia. The people who brought Christianity to Macedonia were saints Cyril and Methodius. Their goal was to bring Christianity and the Cyrillic alphabet to Slavs in Europe.
Ottoman Rule
The Ottoman Empire was originally a small city-state in Turkey. The city-state grew, and it invaded Adrianople in 1354. From there, it expanded and took over Turkey. Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, did not get invaded by the Ottomans until 1453. After the Battle of the Maritsa River, the Ottomans conquered southern Serbia and Macedonia. Macedonia was under Ottoman Rule until 1913.
Yugoslav Rule
After the Ottoman Empire dissolved, Macedonia became a part of the newly formed country Yugoslavia. From 1914 to 1941, Yugoslavia was a monarchy. During WW2, the Axis Powers took over Yugoslavia. Macedonia was taken over by Bulgaria. The Axis powers left Yugoslavia after WW2. After WW2, Yugoslavia became a communist state. Josip Broz Tito was the leader of Yugoslavia from 1944 to 1980. In 8 September 1991, Macedonia became an independent state.
Naming dispute with Greece
Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia were arguing over the name Macedonia. The United Nations calls the Republic of North Macedonia, "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) (Macedonian: Поранешна Југословенска Република Македонија - ПЈРМ - Poranešna Jugoslovenska Republika Makedonija -PJRM). The north and northeast part of Greece has been called Macedonia for ages and officially since 1912, just like Kent, the southeast county of England, has been called Kent for a long time. 'FYROM' is also used by NATO and many other international organisations. But, many countries now call the country 'Republic of Macedonia'. The United Kingdom, for example, uses Republic of Macedonia in the diplomatic list.
On 17 June 2018, North Macedonia and Greece agreed to the Prespa agreement which would see the country change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia. The government started completing the constitutional change needed to change the country's name, which was completed on 12 February 2019.
Politics
North Macedonia is a democratic country with a parliament.
Related pages
List of rivers of North Macedonia
Macedonia
North Macedonia at the Olympics
North Macedonia national football team
360° Virtual tour of North Macedonia
Notes
References
North Macedonia |
Anorexia nervosa (usually just called anorexia) is an eating disorder.
People with anorexia think that they are fat, or desperately fear becoming fat even if they are very skinny. To try to lose weight, anorexics do not eat enough. When they do eat, they do not eat the amount of food their body needs, in an effort to avoid gaining weight. This causes them to lose too much weight too quickly. This is very harmful to a person's body. There are various treatments for anorexia. One example is the Maudsley Method. This type of treatment is for patients who are 18 or younger. Two thirds of adolescent anorexia patients are 'recovered' at the end of this treatment. People with anorexia are more likely to die than people with any other mental illness.
Diagnosis
Doctors use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to make a medical diagnosis and decide if a person has anorexia or not. Four signs of anorexia are listed in the manual. People do not have to show all four signs for the doctor to decide that they have anorexia.
Signs of anorexia
People with anorexia do not want to keep a body weight and BMI that is normal for their age and height.
People with anorexia think that they are fat. They are afraid of gaining weight.
People with anorexia have low self-esteem because of the shape or weight of their body. Also, they do not think that low body weight is a problem.
A woman with anorexia might not have their period multiple months in a row (one period is sometimes called a menstrual cycle). They also must make sure the woman is not pregnant and has not had their periods stop permanently due to their age, which is called menopause.
Symptoms of anorexia
Rapid, unexplained weight loss
Refusal to maintain a healthy weight
Low self-esteem and distorted self-image
Frequent weighing, "body-checking", or negative comments on appearance
Amenorrhoea, the loss of menstrual periods
Low body temperature
Low pulse, blood sugar and blood pressure
Depression
Dangers of anorexia
Total self-starvation
Heart attack or heart failure
Kidney failure
Electrolyte imbalance
Muscle and organ damage (when the body has no fat to live off of, it begins to digest muscle and tissue)
Suicide
Causes
There is no single cause of anorexia. Researchers believe that it is caused by a combination of biological and environmental factors. It has been linked to the media. Many people think that anorexia is caused by wanting to be thin like models in magazines. However, it is not that simple.
People who develop anorexia tend to be perfectionistic. They are also more likely to have problems socializing. There has been research about the link between anorexia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a disorder that involves problems with socializing. Another symptom of autism spectrum disorder is OCD, which has also been linked to anorexia. Starvation is known to create antisocial behavior so there needs to be research that compares those traits in anorexics with people who have recovered.
References
Related pages
Bulimia nervosa
Eating disorders |
Madness (or Insanity) is a word that can have different meanings:
Up to about the 19th century someone who acted strangely, or outside the socially accepted norms was called mad or insane. This could range from having bizarre ideas to someone having delusions or hallucinations, as they are common in some mental illnesses, such as psychosis.
Today, those having delusions or hallucinations (or other mental illnesses) are sometimes called mad or insane by people who are not doctors. Doctors say they have "mental disorders
Certain diseases, such as rabies, lead to a markable change in behaviour. An animal that suffers from rabies is sometimes called rabid or mad.
Being able to tell right from wrong is the base of a working society and of law; for this reason, the law treats those people differently who are not able to make this distinction.
Related pages
Lunatic
Psychiatry
Insanity defense
Mental illnesses |
Rabies is a neurotropic (referring to the nuerons) virus, viral zoonotic disease (can spread to humans by animals) that causes acute encephalitis.
Usually, people (and animals) die from it (it is fatal). There is no cure for it. People who are treated soon after becoming infected have a chance to survive.
The disease is transmitted through the saliva and the blood. The usual form of getting it is a bite of a rabid mammal. Pets, like dogs need to be vaccinated against it, in most countries.
Treatment
There is no cure for Rabies. There is a vaccine (medicine to try to prevent rabies) against it. The vaccine was first developed by Louis Pasteur and Pierre Paul Émile Roux in 1885. This vaccine used a live virus grown in rabbits, and weakened (through drying it). The first person to be vaccinated was Joseph Meister (a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a dog). Vaccines similar to this are still used today, but other vaccines (growing the virus using cell cultures) are more used.
There is also a form of treatment that can be done once a person has been bitten. It needs to be done within 6 days of being bitten. There is no way to know whether someone is infected, until it's too late. Treatment starts with washing the wound. This is done to reduce the number of virus particles that enter the body. Often patients are given one dose of immunoglobulin and a certain number of vaccines, over a determined period of time, usually a month.
Other websites
History of Rabies in Los Angeles
References
CDC. Human-to-human transmission of rabies via a corneal transplant -- France. MMWR 1980;29:25-6
Javadi MA, Fayaz A, Mirdehghan SA, Ainollahi B. Transmission of rabies by corneal graft. Cornea. 1996 Jul;15(4):431-3.
Manbir Online
CNN News report of CDC news release - July 1, 2004.
Associated Press report: Families of rabies transplant victims react to deaths - July 3, 2004
BBC News Europe Report: Romanian killer bear had rabies - 19 October, 2004.
First Unvaccinated Rabies Survivor Goes Home - January 3, 2005
Other websites
Rabies Information
Rabies - A Comprehensive Guide
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
World Health Organization factsheet on Rabies
World Health Organization factsheet on Rabies vaccine
Rules for importing pets to the United Kingdom
A Rabies-Free World, Inc. - NPO dedicated to fighting rabies worldwide
Rules for importing pets to the European Union
Rules for importing pets to the European Union Q&A
Aspen Skunk Rabies Research
"When Raccoons Attack" from Field & Stream Online
“Only Known Unvaccinated Rabies Survivor Thrives” (USA Today) Progress report on the one known survivor of rabies
Diseases caused by viruses |
Tirana ( or Tirana) is the capital city of Republic of Albania. It is the largest city in that country. The population of the city is estimated at 353,400 people (2003). Other people think there may be up to 1 million people who live in the city. Tirana was founded in 1614. It became Albania's capital city in 1920.
References and notes |
John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015) was an American mathematician who worked in game theory and differential geometry. He was born in Bluefield, West Virginia. He shared the 1994 Memorial Prize in Economics with two other game theorists, Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.
Early life
Nash was born on June 13, 1928, in Bluefield, West Virginia. He studied at Princeton University and at Carnegie Institute of Technology.
Career
The winner of a Westinghouse scholarship, he attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he received both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in 1948. From Pittsburgh he went to Princeton University where he worked on his equilibrium theory. He received a Ph.D. in 1950 with a dissertation on non-cooperative games. The thesis, which was written under the supervision of Albert W. Tucker, contained the definition and properties of what would later be called the Nash equilibrium. His studies on this subject led to three articles:
"Equilibrium Points in N-person Games", published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) (1950);
"The Bargaining Problem" (April 1950) in Econometrica, and
"Two-person Cooperative Games" (January 1953), also in Econometrica.
Nash also did important work in the area of manifolds (complex spatial structures):
"Real algebraic manifolds", (1952) Ann. Math. 56 (1952), 405 – 421. (See also Proc. Internat. Congr. Math., 1950, (AMS, 1952), pp. 516 – 517.)
This work led to Nash embedding theorem: "Two real algebraic manifolds are equivalent if and only if they are analytically homeomorphic."
Personal life
He is best known in popular culture as the subject of the Hollywood movie, A Beautiful Mind, about his mathematical genius and his struggles with schizophrenia, with which he was diagnosed.
Nash married Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Lardé in 1957. They had one son. Nash had a first son out of wedlock to Elenor Stier.. In 1963, the couple divorced. They later remarried in 2001. Nash lived in West Windsor Township, New Jersey for a long time.
Death
On May 23, 2015, Nash and his wife Alicia were killed in a car accident near Monroe Township, New Jersey. A taxi that they were riding in was struck by another vehicle and the pair was ejected from the taxi. Nash was 86 years old.
References
Other websites
Autobiography at the Nobel Prize website
Nash's home page at Princeton
John Forbes Nash Jr Information
Nash FAQ from Princeton's Mudd Library, including a copy of his dissertation in PDF format
Beautiful mind, unconventional matter , a 2001 Daily Princetonian interview
PBS documentary
John Nash speaks out about alleged bisexuality
Abel Prize winners
American geometers
American Nobel Prize winners
Scientists from West Virginia
People with schizophrenia
Road accident deaths in New Jersey
1928 births
2015 deaths
Differential geometers |
John Nash may mean
John Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928 – 2015), American mathematician and economist. Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in game theory in 1994.
John Nash (architect) (1752–1835) British architect. |
Calisthenics is a series of exercises used to develop strength, power and balance or a repeated rhythmical exercise that uses the weight of the body as resistance or the systematic exercises for attaining strength-gracefulness or the practice of calisthenic exercises.
The name calisthenics is Greek in origin, a combination of the words 'beauty' and 'strength'.
Calisthenics is recommended for general good health, light exercises designed to promote general physical fitness.
Related pages
Equilibrioception
Flexibility training
Jogging
Training
Weight training
Fitness |
Muteness means not being able to speak. A person that cannot speak is called a mute. A mute keeps the ability to hear the speech of others. If not, the person would be a deaf mute.
Muteness is a type of speech disorder. A person who chooses not to speak is said to be silent rather than mute. Slang for this (British English) is "keeping mum".
Originally, the common word dumb or dumbness used to mean "unable to speak". Unfortunately this was taken over to mean "unwilling to speak". So people prefer "muteness". "Dumb" is a much commoner word, and might be used if it would not be misunderstood.
Cause (eteliology)
In general, someone who is mute may be mute for one of several different reasons: genetics, psychological, or trauma.
For children, a lack of speech may be developmental, neurological, psychological, or due to a physical disability or a communication disorder.
Adults who previously had speech and then became unable to speak: this may be due to disease, injury, damage or surgery affecting areas of the brain needed for speech. Loss of speech in adults may occur, but rarely, for psychological reasons. Damage (however caused) to the parts of the brain needed for speech is called aphasia.
Action
Treatment or management of muteness depends on what has caused the absence of speech. When there is an absence of speech, a speech assessment is strongly recommended to determine cause and treatment. Treatment of absence of speech is possible in a variety of cases. If the absence of speech is determined to be a permanent condition, a range of assistive and augmentative communication devices are available to aid communication.
Speech-generating devices help people with speech deficiencies.
References
See also
Aphasia
Aphonia
Autism
Deafness
Dysarthria
Health
Disability |
A wooden spoon is a spoon that can be made from wood. Wooden spoons are used for mixing food. Wooden spoon is also a term for last place in a sporting contest.
Other websites
Stuart King's collection of carved wooden spoons
Food utensils
sv:Slev |
Table tennis, also known as Ping Pong (a trademarked name), is one of the most popular sports in the world, with players in many countries. It is played by two or four people on a table. To play this game, people use bats and small celluloid balls. You need also a net and a table. Table tennis was invented in England in 1880.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the worldwide organization, was founded in 1926. Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988.
Many of the best players in the world today come from China.
乒乓球 (Ping Pang Qiu) is the official name for the sport in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
卓球 (Takkyu) is the official name for the sport in Japan.
History
The sport comes from England during the Victorian era, where it was played by the upper-class as a game to be played after meals. It has been suggested that simpler versions of the game should be developed by British military officers living in India during the 1860s or 1870s, who brought it back with them. A row of books stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball.
The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before the British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd coined the term in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then came to describe the game played using the rather expensive equipment, Jaques provided, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers then enforced its trademark for the term in the 1920's making the various associations change their names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but trademarked, name.
The next most important innovation was by James W. Gibb, a British addict of the sport, who discovered novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the US in 1901 and found them to be ideal for the game. This was followed by E.C. Goode who, in 1901, invented the modern version of the racket by fixing a sheet of rubber to the wooden blade. Table tennis became more popular by 1901, to the extent that tournaments were being organised, books being written on the subject, and an unofficial world championship was held in 1902.
In 1921, the Table Tennis Association was founded, and in 1926 renamed the English Table Tennis Association. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) followed in 1926. London hosted the first official World Championships in 1926. In 1933, the United States Table Tennis Association, now called USA Table Tennis, was formed.
In the 1930s, Edgar Snow commented in Red Star Over China that the Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War had a "passion for the English game of table tennis" which he found "bizarre". On the other hand, the popularity of the sport waned in 1930s Soviet Union, partly because of the promotion of team and military sports, and partly because of a theory that the game had adverse health effects.
In the 1950s, paddles that used a rubber sheet combined with an underlying sponge layer changed the game dramatically, introducing greater spin and speed. These were introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. The use of speed glue beginning in the mid 1980s increased the spin and speed even further, resulting in changes to the equipment to "slow the game down". Table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in 1988.
Related pages
Tennis
Other websites
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)
OOAK Table Tennis Forum
Koxtonsmart Table tennis
Summer Olympic sports
Summer Paralympic Games
Indoor sports |
Ping Pong may refer to:
table tennis: A kind of exercise.
Ping Pong (manga): a Japanese cartoon of table tennis. |
Nayarit is a middle sized Mexican state. It is on the West coast of Mexico (on the Pacific Ocean shore).
Native people from Nayarit are called Nayaritas (singular: Nayarita).
States of Mexico |
Filipino might mean:
Anything related to the Philippines
Filipino language, a form of the Tagalog language
Filipinos, a group of people from the Philippines |
Mindanao is one of the three main island groups in the Philippines. It is the southernmost major island of the Philippines, and is the only island in the Philippines to have many Muslim people. Mindanao is northeast of Sabah. It may also refer to the main island in the group.
Islands of the Philippines |
A phylum (plural: phyla) is the third highest rank used in the biological taxonomy of all organisms. The second rank is kingdom and the highest is domain. Usually biologists count about 32 phyla of animals, about 14 of plants, and about 8 phyla of fungus, but definitions vary.
With genome analysis, groups of phyla have been put together based on evolutionary relationships. These are informal, not part of the standard classification.
Botanists usually prefer the word division instead of phylum.
Related pages
List of animal phyla
Other websites
Hogenboom, Melissa 2015. All animal life in 35 photos. BBC Earth.
Taxonomy |
Knuckles is also the name of a Sonic the Hedgehog-related video game character.
A knuckle, in anatomy, is where two bones join in the hands or feet. When talking about humans, knuckles most often refer to the joints in the fingers.
Animal knuckles, such as pig knuckles are sometimes sold as food.
Joints |
Conduction in physics is about forms of energy, namely heat or electricity.
Heat conduction takes place between two objects in contact with each other. Heat energy moves from one to the other. In heat conduction, the heat energy travels from the hot point to a cold point. Eventually, the two materials will even out in temperature as the heat keeps on transferring until the temperatures are the same. This is equilibrium. For example, a pan of hot soup is taken off the oven and put on a table. The area of the table under the pot gets hot. Heat from the pot moved to the table top by conduction.
Electrical conduction is usually done through wires or cables. Something that electrons can easily move through is a good electrical conductor. Metals are mostly good conductors. An insulator like rubber is a poor conductor. Plastics are insulators. Some materials, such as glass, are conductors for heat but not electricity.
Besides conduction, the other major ways of moving energy are by radiation and convection.
Related pages
electrical conductor
heat conduction
fiber optics
Basic physics ideas |
A royal family is the family of a monarch (king or queen of a country). Or, it is someone who is related to a queen, king or a monarch. Examples of royal families are the British Royal Family, Dutch Royal Family and Thai Royal Family. Many countries have abolished royalty altogether, as in post-revolution France, the United States, Brazil, Portugal, China, Germany, Austria, Russia, Turkey, Ethiopia, Iran, etc.
Royalty and nobility
Monarchy |
A general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to mean the elections held for a nation's primary legislative body. This is different from primary elections, by-elections or local elections. In the United Kingdom when Parliament is dissolved every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant and a general election is held.
References
Types of elections |
The 2005 United Kingdom General Election was an election held on May 5, 2005 to elect 646 members to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The three main candidates to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom are shown to the right.
The election resulted in the Labour Party and it's leader Tony Blair winning a majority in the House of Commons for the third time in a row. The Labour Party did lose 47 of their seats in parliament and the amount of votes they got dropped by 5.5% from the 2001 General Election. Many people believe the Labour Party lost support because of Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair's unpopular decision to send troops to Iraq in 2003.
Results
Labour Party (355 MP's, 35.2% of vote)
Conservative Party (198 MP's, 32.4% of vote)
Liberal Democrats (62 MP's, 22.0% of vote)
UK Independence Party (0 MP's, 2.2% of vote)
Scottish National Party (6 MP's, 1.5% of vote) - Scotland only
Green Party (0 MP's, 1.0% of vote) - England and Wales only
Democratic Unionist Party (9 MP's, 0.9% of vote) - Northern Ireland only
British National Party (0 MP's, 0.7% of vote)
Plaid Cymru (3 MP's, 0.6% of vote) - Wales only
Sinn Féin (5 MP's, 0.6% of vote) - Northern Ireland only
Ulster Unionist Party (1 MP, 0.5% of vote) - Northern Ireland only
Social Democratic and Labour Party (3 MP's, 0.5% of vote) - Northern Ireland only
Respect Party (1 MP, 0.3% of vote)
Scottish Socialist Party (0 MP's, 0.2% of vote) - Scotland only
Veritas (0 MP's, 0.1% of vote)
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (0 MP's, 0.1% of vote) - Northern Ireland only
Scottish Green Party (0 MP's, 0.1% of vote) - Scotland only
Socialist Labour Party (0 MP's, 0.1% of vote)
Liberal Party (0 MP's, 0.1% of vote)
English Democrats (0 MP's, 0.1% of vote) - England only
The constituencies of Blaenau Gwent and Wyre Forest elected Independent candidates. The seat of Glasgow East was won by the Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin, who is not considered to be of any political party.
The next election was held on May 6, 2010. See United Kingdom general election, 2010
Related pages
MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005
2005 in the United Kingdom
2005 elections
United Kingdom general elections
May 2005 events |
Dover can refer to:
Dover, Delaware, the capital of Delaware
Dover, Kent, a town in England
Dover, Arkansas, a city in Arkansas
Dover, Idaho, a city in Idaho
Dover, Kentucky, a city in Kentucky
Dover, New Hampshire, a city in New Hampshire
Dover, New York, a city in New York
Dover, Pennsylvania, a city in Pennsylvania
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, a city in Maine |
Milenko Stefanović (born February 19, 1930 in Belgrade, Serbia, then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is the most famous Serbian classical and jazz clarinet player – soloist, former Principal Clarinetist of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Professor at the Josip Slavenski School of Music, University of Pristina and University of the Arts in Belgrade.
Education
Stefanovic began his music study at the age of five. He graduated and completed his postgraduate studies from the Belgrade Conservatory. His major teacher was Professor Bruno Brun, the founder of modern Serbian school of clarinet playing. Additionally, he studied chamber music and orchestral playing in Salzburg, Austria, in the class of Igor Markevich, Erich Leinsdorf and Fernand Oubradous.
Awards
Stefanovic was a top-prize winner or finalist in the major Yugoslavian and international competitions, including the competitions in Sarajevo (1952), Skopje (1954), Ljubljana (1956), Moscow (1957), Munich (1957), Geneva (1957) and Prague (1959). Additionally, he was honored with the Award of the Yugoslavian Radio-Television (Ohrid, 1972), awards of the City of Belgrade for the best concert in the previous concert season (1976, 1981, 1986), as well as with 7th July Award (1962), the state’s highest award for the arts. In 2007, upon recommendation of the Expert Committee of the Ministry of Culture, he was awarded Special Acknowledgement for the Highest Contribution to the National Culture of the Republic of Serbia. In 2010 the Association of Musical Artists of Serbia awarded him with The Lifetime Achievement Award.
Performance career
During his long career, Stefanovic performed throughout Europe, Africa and North America. Stefanovic recorded for the leading radio and television stations in the country and abroad: United Kingdom, Italy, France, USSR, Germany, etc. As a soloist, member of various chamber groups and orchestras, he collaborated with distinguished Yugoslavian and international artists, including: Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Bernard Keeffe, Oivin Fjeldstad, Francesco Mander, Jerzy Katlewicz, Jovan Sajnovic, Uros Lajovic, Anton Kolar, Anton Nanut, Petr Vronsky, Zbigniew Chwedczuk, Oskar Danon, Dusan Skovran, Josef Daniel, Zivojin Zdravkovic, Julio Maric, Franc Klinar, Roman Skrepek, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Vanco Cavdarski, Bogo Leskovic, Djura Jaksic, Mladen Jagust, Aleksandar Lekovski, Bogdan Babic, Vojislav Simic, Eric Hope, Evgeni Korolyov, Michel Dussault, Andreja Preger, Viktor Jakovcic, Freddy Dosek, Zorica Dimitrijevic-Stosic, Mirjana Krsljanin, The Zagreb Soloists, The Belgrade Trio, The Serbian String Quartet, The Zagreb Quartet and many others.
He was one of the few artists honored to perform Copland’s Clarinet Concerto under the baton of Maestro Aaron Copland (1961).
He was a long-time principal clarinetist of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (1954-1976).
Stefanovic also played jazz – as a soloist and member of the Belgrade Jazz Trio and Markicevic Quintet.
He has a number of personally dedicated clarinet works by prominent Yugoslavian composers: Dejan Despic, Aleksandar Obradovic, Petar Bergamo, Dusan Radic, Petar Ozgijan, Miodrag Ilic.
Stefanovic was the chair of the committee in numerous Yugoslavian and international competitions.
Compositions
Stefanovic wrote numerous jazz compositions and some film music.
Teaching career
He taught at the Josip Slavenski School of Music, University of Pristina and University of the Arts in Belgrade. His former students hold teaching positions in music schools and universities and play in orchestras in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Stefanovic wrote several textbooks for the clarinet students.
He served as the Vice-Chancellor and member of the Board of Trustees of the University of the Arts in Belgrade.
Affiliations
Stefanovic is an honorary member and former president of the Association of Musical Artists of Serbia.
Other websites
Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra
Association of Musical Artists of Serbia
The Faculty of Arts of Priština
The Music Teacher's List
Clarinet Teachers
Faculty of Music in Belgrade
School of Music Josip Slavenski
1930 births
Living people
classical musicians
jazz musicians
Clarinetists
Serbian musicians
Yugoslavian people
People from Belgrade |
Flash memory is a memory storage device for computers and electronics. It is most often used in devices like digital cameras, USB flash drives, and video games. It was developed in the 1980s from the earlier and similar EEPROM.
Flash memory is different from RAM because RAM is volatile (not permanent). When power is turned off, RAM loses all its data. Flash can keep its data intact with no power at all. A hard drive is also permanent (non-volatile) storage, but it is bulky and fragile. Flash memory is one kind of Non-volatile random-access memory. It is slower than RAM but faster than hard drives. It is often used in small electronics because of its small size and lack of moving parts.
The main weakness of flash memory is that it is more expensive than hard drives for the same amount of storage. Another weakness is the number of times that data can be written to it. Data can be read from flash as many times as desired, but after a certain number of "write" operations, "write cycles", it will stop working. Most flash devices are designed for about 100,000 - 1,000,000 write cycles.
EEPROM has the same limitation that flash does: ones made in the 20th century could only survive about 100,000 write cycles, later increased to about a million. It is more expensive than flash, so it is rarely used for storage greater than 128kB. The main difference between EEPROM and flash memory is that most EEPROM devices can erase any byte of memory at any time. Flash memory can only erase an entire chunk, or "sector", of memory at a time. Both EEPROM and flash are subject to the limitation that only bytes in an 'erased' state can be written, which means that if the user wants to change only one byte of flash, the entire sector must be erased and re-written. This means that flash memory can wear out faster than EEPROM. Some flash memory can store hundreds of gigabytes, or even terabytes. Many are in the form of a pen drive.
Flash memory is used in USB Drives, solid-state drives, computer RAM (occasionally), hybrid drives (small SSD + hard drive), graphics cards, and memory cards.
Related pages
USB flash drive
Computer memory |
Bottrop is a city in west central Germany, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen). Bottrop is in the Ruhr industrial area, It is next to Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail center. There are factories producing coal-tar derivatives, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. The population is currently 119,655. Bottrop grew as a mining center beginning in the 1860s and was chartered as a city in 1921. In 1975 it was put together with the unification with the neighbor communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left in 1976.
History
The place is first heard of in 1150, as Borthorpe. This name means village on the hillside. In the year 1423, Bottrop is awarded the status of a market town. In 1786 the first cotton mill opens. Coal mining starts in 1856. The city gets town privileges in 1919. In 1953, the population passed 100.000 people for the first time.
Popular persons
Josef Albers
August Everding
Theo Jörgensmann
References
Other websites
Official city website
Urban districts in Regierungsbezirk Münster |
Puducherry, which used to be called Pondicherry is a Union territory of India. Pondicherry is divided into four separate parts: Puducherry district, Karaikal district, Yanam district , and Mahe district. These four areas are under one name because they were all once ruled by the French. Chandranagore, the fifth former French colony 30 kilometers north of Kolkata, in West Bengal, India, is now outside this unconnected territory.
When India took control of them, they took them in as one territory. Pondicherry is going through a name change to Puducherry, which means "new village" in the local language. It covers an area of 183 mi² or 474 km²; it is bigger than Andorra but smaller than Saint Lucia.
Its a very nice tourist attraction. Its has many heritage buildings with old French architecture. The Boulevard is ellipse-shaped with two clock towers of the Small Market and the Big Market. The area of boulevards close to the Beach is called White Town. This was the area where initial French settlements were made. That's why it is called White town area. |
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in New York City, New York in the Bronx. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the American League (AL) east division. They are one of two MLB teams based in New York City, the other being the National League's (NL) New York Mets. They won 27 World Series championships to date, more than any other team in the Major Leagues. From 1923 to 2008, the Yankees home stadium had been Yankee Stadium. Currently, they are playing at their new Yankee Stadium.
The word "Yankee" (slang for "American") and the "Uncle Sam" top hat, make up part of what they are all about. As with the more common use of the term "Yankee", the team name is more often called "the Yanks". Their most commonly used "unofficial" nickname is "the Bronx Bombers", or simply "the Bombers". This nickname was given to them by the press a long time ago. It refers to their ability to hit home runs a lot (a home run is sometimes called a "bomb"). A less used nickname is "the Pinstripers", for their well-known uniform style.
The Yankees currently don't have a team captain. Derek Jeter retired after the 2014 season
The Yankees' current team ace is Geritt Cole.
The New York Yankees' main rival is the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees' current team manager is Aaron Boone.
The Yankees' current General Manager is Brian Cashman.
The official fight song for the Yankees is "Here Come the Yankees".
After the game, they play Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York".
They have 18 retired numbers, more than any other teams in MLB. The number 42 was retired not only in the Yankees but also throughout Major League Baseball in honor of Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier.
The Yankees were also the last team to repeat as World Series champions. They won three straight titles from 1998 to 2000.
References
Other websites
Official website of the New York Yankees
New York Yankees Home Uniform - American League (AL) - Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Page - SportsLogos.Net
Further Reading
Pinstripe Pride by Marty Appel
The Bronx |
Events
The city of Oslo is founded by Harald Hardråde of Norway.
Battle of Pasinler – Seljuks defeat a force of Byzantines and Georgians.
Benedict IX driven from Rome, ending his third and final pontificate. |
Sir Terry Pratchett OBE (Terence David John Pratchett; 28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author. He was known for his fantasy works, including the famous Discworld series. His first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. He was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England.
Pratchett died at his home in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England on 12 March 2015 from a severe chest infection with final complications from his Alzheimers, aged 66.
References
Other websites
TerryPratchettBooks.com Official US site
Transworld Official UK, Europe and Canada site
TerryPratchettBooks.org Fan site
1948 births
2015 deaths
English science fiction writers
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Disease-related deaths in Wiltshire
English novelists
Infectious disease deaths in England
Writers from Buckinghamshire |
Events
Damietta is besieged by the knights of the Fifth Crusade.
Livonian Brothers of the Sword begin to conquer Estonia.
Minamoto no Sanetomo becomes Minister of the Right (udaijin) of Japan.
Alfonso IX of Castile founds a university in Salamanca. |
Events
March 30 – The Sicilian rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers begins
March – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, brother to Prince of Wales Llywelyn the Last, attacks an English castle
Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I of Germany makes his sons Albert I of Germany and Rudolph II of Austria as rulers of the of Austria and Styria, thus founding the Habsburg dynasty in those territories.
Floris V, Count of Holland defeats the Frisians at the battle of Vronen and retrieves the body of his father, who had been dead for 26 years. |
A critic is a person who reviews things like movies, books, and food to see if they are any good and if other people would like them. They write reviews about what they have seen or read.
Critics may write about art, music, theatre, politics, movies, television, books, or anything in which good or bad is a matter of personal opinion.
Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Raymond Williams, Susan George, John Ruskin, Rene Ricard, John Amis, Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza, George Bernard Shaw, Robert Schumann and Pauline Kael are some famous critics of art, music, politics and movies.
Related pages
Art critic
Criticism
Movie criticism
Music critic |
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855), was a 19th-century Danish philosopher and theologian, and is usually thought of as the first existentialist philosopher.
He wrote many philosophical books about faith, existence, emotions, and feeling. He disliked people who tried to make Christianity political and people who tried to limit the single individual in favour of groups of many people. Many people have found his works interesting and have said that they were great works of philosophy. Ludwig Wittgenstein, a 20th-century philosopher, thought Kierkegaard was "by far, the most profound thinker of the nineteenth century".
Life
He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He attended Copenhagen University and earned his master's degree in 1841. During this time, he met and fell in love with Regine Olsen in 1837. Although they were engaged for a time, Kierkegaard ended the engagement in 1841.
After breaking up with Regine, he spent much of his time writing book after book, in a highly dramatic yet subtle way. He also wrote some of his works using pen names, or pseudonyms. He died in Copenhagen. Although his works were not very popular during his lifetime, after his death they became influential in the 20th century.
Works
Books by Kierkegaard. Either/Or and Fear and Trembling, both published in 1843, are thought to be especially significant.
(1841) The Concept of Irony (Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt Hensyn til Socrates)
(1843) Either/Or (Enten - Eller)
(1843) Fear and Trembling (Frygt og Bæven)
(1843) Repetition (Gjentagelsen)
(1844) Philosophical Fragments (Philosophiske Smuler)
(1844) The Concept of Dread (Begrebet Angest)
(1845) Stages on Life's Way (Stadier paa Livets Vei)
(1846) Concluding Unscientific Postscript to The Philosophical Fragments (Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift)
(1847) Edifying Discourses in Divers Spirits
(1847) Works of Love (Kjerlighedens Gjerninger)
(1848) Christian Discourses (Christelige Taler)
(1849) The Sickness Unto Death (Sygdommen til Døden)
(1850) Training in Christianity (Indøvelse i Christendom)
Related pages
List of Danish writers
References
1813 births
1855 deaths
19th-century philosophers
Danish writers
People from Copenhagen |
Events
January 20 – Poland cedes Kyiv, Smolensk, and eastern Ukraine to Russia in the Treaty of Andrusovo that put a final end to the Deluge, and Poland lost its status as a Central European power.
April 27 – The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
June 12-17 – In the Raid on the Medway, a Dutch fleet under admiral Michiel de Ruyter burns Sheerness, sails up the River Medway, raids Chatham dockyards and escapes with the royal barge The Royal Charles.
June 15 – The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys. He transfuses the blood of a sheep to a 15-year-old boy. (Though this operation is a success, a later patient dies from the procedure and Denys is accused of murder).
June 20 – Dutch troops attack Royal Navy ships in London and Chatham and burn them.
July 31 – Second Anglo-Dutch War ends: The Treaty of Breda ends the war. The treaty also recognizes Acadia as a French possession.
October 18 – Brooklyn is chartered under the name Brueckelen by Mathias Nicolls, Governor of New Netherland.
November 25 – Devastating earthquake rocks Caucasia, killing 80,000 people.
Suleiman I becomes Shah of Persia.
The Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb buys off the bandit Shivaji by making him a Rajah and allowing him to collect taxes.
Robert Hooke demonstrates that the alteration of the blood in the lungs is essential for respiration.
The War of Devolution begins, France invades Flanders and Free County.
Louis XIV of France abolishes the Livre Parisis (Paris Pound) in favor of the much more widely used Livre Tournois (Tours Pound). He also designates Gabriel-Nicolas de la Reynie as first chief of "police" of Paris.
French army uses grenadiers.
Yohannes succeeds his father Fasildos as Emperor of Ethiopia.
Births
August 11 - Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Tuscan princess
November 30 - Jonathan Swift, Irish writer |
Despotism is a form of government that is controlled by one person or a small group of people. The person who controls the state is called a despot. The despot has complete control of the state, like a dictator or tyrant. In history, the pharaohs of Egypt were despots. The word despot is thought to come from the Ancient Greek word despotes, which means "the master".
According to Montesquieu, the difference between absolute monarchy and despotism is as follows. In the case of the monarchy, a single person governs with absolute power by fixed and established laws, whereas a despot governs by his or her own will and caprice.
The importance of the idea of despotism is that today it is a very common type of dictatorship or direct rule. Ruling monarchies are today few in number.
Even when there are elections, as there are for the Russian presidency, opposition candidates are at such a disadvantage that they are rarely, if ever, successful.
Despotism has always been associated with Eastern rather than Western states. Of the former Soviet Union, it is only the new states to the west which have attempted, with difficulties, to build genuine democracies (such as Moldova and Ukraine).
References
Forms of government |
Lakshadweep (; ISO: , formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy and Aminidivi Islands (), are a group of islands in the Arabian Sea. They belong to India. Their capital is Kavaratti. It covers an area of . Eleven of the 36 coral atoll islands of Lakshadweep are inhabited.
The islands are the only coral atolls in India. The people living there are Malayalam and Mahl people, who have been influenced by Arab traders. Lakshadweep is a Muslim region just like the neighbouring Maldives, where tourism is strictly regulated. Lakshadweep has the largest percentage of Muslims - 98%, even larger percentage than Jammu and Kashmir and is the only Muslim-majority Indian administrative division entirely within India.
Apart from the emerging tourism, government jobs, fishing and coconut production are the mainstays of the Lakshadweep economy.
Territorial symbols of Lakshadweep
Other websites
Commonwealth dependent states
Islands of India
Territories of India |
Daman and Diu is a union territory in India. It covers an area of 50 mi² or 130 km², it is bigger than Saint Helena but smaller than Wallis and Futuna.
The territory used to belong to Portugal. |
A riding helmet, sometimes called a horse riding helmet, is a type of helmet made for people who ride horses. It is important to wear a riding helmet when riding. It is easy for a person to fall off a horse and hit his or her head. Riding helmets keep the rider of a horse from being hurt. Horses can accidentally step on a person who has fallen to the ground.
Helmets should be worn by all riders, but are most often worn by English style riders.
Protective clothing
Horse riding
Headgear |
Ketchup is a kind of thick, liquid sauce. It is made from tomatoes, so it is sometimes called tomato sauce. Usually it is used to add flavour to food. Some people like to eat sausages, burgers, hotdogs or fishsticks with ketchup. Ketchup tastes very unlike the real tomato.
History
Tomato ketchup
Although today's ketchup is tomato based, it did not appear until about a century after other types. By 1801, a recipe for tomato ketchup was created by Sandy Addison. It was later printed in an American cookbook, the Sugar House Book.<ref>Taken from "The Sugar House Book", 1801.
Get [the tomatoes] quite ripe on a dry day, squeeze them with your hands till reduced to a pulp, then put half a pound of fine salt to one hundred tomatoes, and boil them for two hours.
Stir them to prevent burning.
While hot press them through a fine sieve, with a silver spoon till nought but the skin remains, then add a little mace, 3 nutmegs, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper to taste.
Boil over a slow fire till quite thick, stir all the time.
Bottle when cold.
One hundred tomatoes will make four or five bottles and keep good for two or three years."'
The salt in this recipe, which served as a preservative, gives it a very salty taste. This recipe is important because tomato was not widely accepted by people in North America in the early 1800s. Many believed it was poisonous. </ref> James Mease published another recipe in 1812. In 1824, a ketchup recipe using tomatoes appeared in The Virginia Housewife. This was an important 19th-century cookbook written by Mary Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's cousin.
As the century went on, ketchup became more popular in the United States. More Americans began to like tomatoes. Tomato ketchup was sold locally by farmers. A man named Jonas Yerks (or Yerkes) is believed to have been the first man to make tomato ketchup a national phenomenon. By 1837, he had produced and distributed the condiment nationally. Shortly after that, other companies did the same. F. & J. Heinz created their tomato ketchup in 1876. Heinz tomato ketchup was advertised: "Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household!"
The Webster's Dictionary of 1913 defined "catchup" as a "table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc. [Written also ketchup]."
Modern ketchup emerged in the early years of the 20th century. This came from a debate over the use of sodium benzoate as a preservative in condiments. Harvey W. Wiley challenged the safety of benzoate. In response, business owners, particularly Henry J. Heinz, pursued a different recipe that did not use that preservative.
Prior to Heinz (and his fellow innovators), commercial tomato ketchups of that time were watery and thin. This was due to the use of unripe tomatoes. Those tomatoes were low in pectin. They were less vinegary than modern ketchups. By pickling ripe tomatoes, the need for benzoate was eliminated. There was also no spoiled ketchup or loss in flavor. The changes also helped make it an important American condiment according to some experts.
Until Heinz, most commercial ketchups appealed to two of the basic tastes: bitterness and saltiness. But the switch to ripe tomatoes and more tomato solids added a stronger umami'' taste. The major increase in the concentration of vinegar added sourness and pungency to the range of sensations experienced while eating it.
In the past, ketchup was produced from fresh tomatoes after harvesting. Vacuum evaporation made it possible to turn tomatoes into a very thick tomato paste. This made it easy to store at room temperature. This allows a factory to produce ketchup throughout the year.
Later innovations
In fast food chains, ketchup is often put in small packets that hold ketchup inside. Users tear the side or top of the packet. They then squeeze the ketchup out of the ketchup packets. In 2010, Heinz is offering an alternate squeeze and dip cup. This is meant to offer a cleaner method of dispensing the product.
In an earlier approach, some fast food outlets dispense ketchup from pumps into paper cups. Some restaurants still use this method.
In October 2000, Heinz introduced colored ketchup products called EZ Squirt. They included green, purple, pink, orange, teal, and blue colored ketchup. These products were made by adding food coloring to the traditional ketchup. these products have been discontinued.
Standards and Regulations
Regulations in Canada
In Canadian markets, the manufacturing of ketchup is regulated by the Food and Drug Regulation. Ketchup, a heat processed product, must be made from the juice of red-ripe tomatoes or sound tomato trimmings where the skins and seeds have been removed. The ketchup must contain vinegar, salt, seasoning and a sweetening ingredient. They may also contain a class II preservative and food colouring, though not required.
Regulations in the United States
In the United States, ketchup is regulated and standardized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ketchup must be prepared from a tomato concentrate, juice from mature red Lycopersicum esculentum tomatoes or liquid residue from preparing tomatoes for canning or partial juice extractions. The tomato skins, seeds and other hard substances must be strained. Additionally, ketchup must contain any combination of vinegars, nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners, and/or spices, flavouring, onions or garlic.
References
Condiments |
Finnish may mean:
Anything related to Finland
Finns, the people of Finland
The Finnish language |
Events
July 21 – Treaty of Passarowitz signed
November 22 – Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") is killed in battle when a British boarding party cornered and then shot and stabbed him more than 25 times.
November 30 – After the death of Charles XII, Ulrika Eleonora becomes Queen of Sweden.
December 17 – Austria, Great Britain, and France declare war on Spain, launching the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar. (History of Sudan (Coming of Islam to the Turkiyah))
Births
March 31 - Mariana Victoria of Spain, queen regent of Portugal (d. 1781)
November 3 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (d. 1792)
Deaths
May 7 - Mary of Modena, queen of James II of England (b. 1658)
July 30 - William Penn, American settler, founder of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
November 22 - Blackbeard, English pirate (b. c. 1680)
November 30 - King Charles XII of Sweden (b. 1682)
December 10 - Stede Bonnet, the "gentleman pirate" |
Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a territory in India. It covers an area of 188 mi² or 487 km², it is bigger than Andorra, but smaller than Saint Lucia.
Territories of India |
Events
Canonization of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Vilnius becomes capital of Lithuania
The Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) is signed, deciding on the border for the first time
Pharos of Alexandria Lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the world) is destroyed by many earthquakes |
Danish can mean:
Something of or about Denmark, a country in Europe
Danish language
Danish people, a group of people that is born in Denmark
Danish pastry, often called just Danish |
A birthday is the day when a person was born. In many places, on a person's birthday, he or she celebrates with friends and family at a party, where they eat cake or other foods, and get gifts.
Western birthdays
Not everyone celebrates birthdays, including Jehovah's Witnesses.
In many English-speaking countries, people sing the song "Happy Birthday to You" to the person celebrating her or his birthday. There are similar songs in other languages.
A birthday cake is usually decorated and covered with candles. Most of the time, the number of candles is the same as the age of the birthday person.
Coming of age
Children usually reach their age of majority on a birthday.
In the United States of America and Czech republic, a person can buy tobacco and pornography, vote, and become a legal adult at age 18.
In Judaism, boys have a bar mitzvah around the time they become 13. Girls sometimes have a bat mitzvah around their 12th or 13th birthday.
In Latin America, a quinceañera party marks a girl's 15th birthday.
Astrology
A person's astrological sign is based on his or her birthday.
Symbolism
Birthstones
A birthstone symbolizes the month of birth. In 1912, the Jewelers of America agreed on a list of birthstones:
References |
Events
Births
April 28 – Edward IV of England
Deaths |
Yi I (December 26, 1536–1584) was a Korean Confucian scholar. His mother was a famous calligraphist, Shin Saimdang. He was very intelligent as a child, learning to read at three and being very bright at his studies. He was also devoted to his parents: when his mother was sick, he prayed to his ancestors to heal her; and when his father was sick, he cut his own finger with a knife and let his father drink his blood (at that time, people thought human blood was very good medicine).
Works
Seonghakjipyo (성학집요 聖學輯要)
Gyukmongyogyul (격몽요결 擊蒙要訣)
Donghomundap (동호문답 東湖問答)
Gijasilgi (기자실기 箕子實記)
Gyungyeonilgi (경연일기 經筵日記)
Suneon (순언 醇言)
Korean people
Confucianism
1536 births
1584 deaths |
Sunrise is a Japanese animation company. The staff uses the name Hajime Yatate in all their productions by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but this is not a real person--it is a name that all the people who work for the studio use for themselves.
Some cartoons made by the company are:
Argentosoma (also "Argento Soma, and "Argent Soma")
(The) Big O
Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Brain Powerd (also "Brain Powered")
Brave Raideen (勇者ライディーン; Yuusha Raidiin) (co-production with Tohoku Shinsha)
City Hunter
Cowboy Bebop (Co-production with Tokyo Movie Shinsha)
Cyborg 009 (1979 color series; co-production with Toei Animation)Crest of the Stars (星界の紋章; Seikai no Monshō)Dirty PairFuture GPX Cyber Formula (新世紀ＧＰＸサイバーフォーミュラ; Shin Seiki GPX Saibaa Fohmyura) (literally "New Century GPX Cyber Formula")Gasaraki Infinite Ryvius (無限のリヴァイアス; Mugen no Ryvius)
InuYasha (犬夜叉)
My-HiME (舞-HiME)
My-Otome
Mobile Suit Gundam (機動戦士ガンダム; Kidō Senshi Gandamu) co production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Outlaw Star
Overman King Gainer
Planetes
Scryed
The Ultraman (co-production with Tsuburaya Productions)
The Vision of Escaflowne (天空のエスカフローネ; Tenkuu no Esukaforohne) (literally "Escaflowne of the Heavens")
Witch Hunter Robin
Yakitate!! Japan (焼きたて!! ジャぱん)
Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (鎧伝サムライトールパー) (Ronin Warriors)
Entertainment companies |
Romanian could mean:
Anything related to the country of Romania
Romanians, the people of Romania
The Romanian language |
X-radiation is a kind of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays are waves of X-radiation. X-rays have a shorter wavelength, and therefore more energy, than ultraviolet radiation. They have a much shorter wavelength than visible light (the light that we can see). Radiation with shorter wavelengths (more energy) than the X-ray is called Gamma radiation (γ-rays). These are all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The wavelength of X-rays covers a wide range. Most X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometres. This corresponds with frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×1016 Hz to 3×1019 Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV.
X-rays can go through many solid materials. For this reason, taking photograms with X-rays is used in medicine in order to see bones and other things inside the body. Sometimes the term "X-Ray" means these pictures instead of the radiation that makes them.
What these images show will depend on three things: Rayleigh scattering, Compton scattering and photoabsorption. The images show bone because it is dense enough that X-rays are not able to pass through it. Instead, the X-rays are either absorbed or scattered. The images do not show skin and muscle, however, because these tissues are transparent enough for the X-rays to pass through them without being absorbed too much. To detect tumors, other imaging devices are used; such as magnetic resonance imaging. A computed tomography scanner combines an X-ray machine and computer to construct a three dimensional (3D) picture. This has some ability to see other things besides bone.
X-rays are made by hitting metal with fast-moving electrons. They are photons, tiny packets of energy that can move atoms and change chemicals in the body. They are ionizing radiation but the things they do depend on the wavelength of the X-rays (or how much energy they have). X-rays with smaller energies ("soft" x-rays) cause the photoelectric effect. Mid-level energies cause Compton scattering. High-level energies ("hard" X-rays) cause pair production. X-rays used for making pictures of people have low to medium energy. Radiation therapy that treats cancer uses Compton scattering and sometimes Pair production.
There are small amounts of X-rays in the air. Like other energy in the air, X-rays can change living cells. Exposing the human body to high doses of X-rays for a long time is dangerous. It can cause cancer. However, cancer cells are hurt more easily, so X-rays are sometimes used to kill them.
Related pages
X-ray crystallography
Interventional Radiology
References
Medical procedures
Light
Electromagnetism
Medical imaging |
A computed tomography (CT) scanner is an X-ray machine that takes cross section images. They can help a doctor in diagnosis.
Medical equipment
Laboratory equipment
Medical imaging |
Hanoi () is the capital of Vietnam. It is also the second most populated city in the country. In 2004, about 3,083,800 people lived in the city. It has been the capital of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) since 1945 and the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (all of Vietnam) since 1976. Before that, it was the capital of the country now called Vietnam for most of the time from at least the 11th century until 1802. The city is on the right of the Red River, and the city's name translates to English as "inside the river". Things made there include machine tools, plywood, textiles, chemicals and handicrafts. Hanoi is at 21°2' North, 105°51' East, 1,760 km north of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Popular tourist sites in the city include Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Hoa Lo Prison, and the Palace of Literature. Nearby Hanoi is also where pho, Vietnamese beef noodle soup, was first created.
References
Capital cities in Asia
Cities in Vietnam |
This article contains information about the series of books written by C.S. Lewis. For information about the film series, see The Chronicles of Narnia movie series.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy books, written by British author C. S. Lewis. They have been published since 1954 and have sold over 100 million copies in 41 languages. The books were written by Lewis between 1949 and 1954, they were also illustrated by Pauline Baynes. In 2005, 2008 and 2010, the first three books were made into movies.
The seven books
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Completed by the end of March 1949 and published by Geoffrey Bles in London on 16 October 1950, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of four ordinary children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, who have been evacuated to the English countryside from London in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II. They discover a wardrobe in Professor Digory Kirke's house that leads to the magical land of Narnia. The Pevensie children help Aslan, a talking lion, save Narnia from the evil White Witch, who has reigned over the land of Narnia for a century of perpetual winter. The children become kings and queens of this new-found land and establish the Golden Age of Narnia, leaving a legacy to be rediscovered in later books.
Prince Caspian
This book is set 1300 years after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Narnia is ruled by the Telmarines, a very mean people. The Pevensie children are called to Narnia by Susan's horn, which is blown by Prince Caspian. There is a big war between the Telmarines and Narnians. At the end of the book, Peter and Susan are told that they will not be able to come back to Narnia. The book was published in 1951.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
In the third book, Lucy and Edmund return to Narnia with their cousin, Eustace. They travel on a ship with Caspian, now King of Narnia. They are looking for seven lords who were sent away from Narnia by Caspian's uncle, Miraz. This book was published in 1952.
The Silver Chair
Eustace returns to Narnia with Jill, a friend from school. He finds Caspian very old. Aslan tells Jill to find Rillian, Caspian's son, who has been missing for many years. A Marsh-Wiggle named Puddleglum travels with them. This book was published in 1953.
The Horse and His Boy
This book is set during the rule of the Pevensies. Shasta, is a young boy living in the country of Calormen. He decides to run away when he finds out he is not the son of Arsheesh. He heads north to Narnia with a talking horse, Bree, a Calormene noblewoman, Aravis, and her talking horse, Hwin. It was published in 1954.
The Magician’s Nephew
This book is set before any of the others. It tells about a boy, Digory, and his friend, Polly. They travel to Narnia through the experiments of Digory's uncle, Andrew. It describes the creation (beginning) of Narnia and the first King and Queen. It also shows the beginning of Jadis, who is called the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The book was published in 1954.
The Last Battle
Completed in the spring of 1953 and published in 1956, The Last Battle tells about the end of the world of Narnia. Jill and Eustace return to save Narnia from Shift, an ape, who tricks Puzzle, a donkey, into pretending to be the lion, Aslan. The Pevensie children (without Susan, who has decided that Narnia was just part of a game they played as children), along with their parents and friends, die in a train crash and lived in Narnia forever with Aslan.
Adaptations
The Chronicles of Narnia have been made into several movies, TV films, video games, and stage plays.
The Chronicles of Narnia movie series
The first was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was released in 2005, made a world-wide total of $744,783,957. Prince Caspian, released on May 16 2008, is the second of seven movies to be released by Disney Pictures. Disney also had plans to create the third book in the series: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was released in 2010.
Video games
2005 - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Released for Xbox, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Game Boy Advance)
2008 - The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Released for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Windows, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS)
2010 - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Released for Mobile, iPhone, iPod Touch)
References
Other websites
Fantasy books |
Asatru (Icelandic: Ásatrú) is a religion which involves the worship of ancient Germanic spirits and Gods. It got its official legal establishment in the 1970s in Iceland by the efforts of Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson and other Icelanders who had rejected Christianity and had been performing "Launblót" (secret offering) to the old pre-Christian Nordic Gods and Goddesses, a practice that has been known in Iceland since "Kristnitaka" (Christianization of Iceland). The name comes from two words in a language called Old Norse. It means "faith in the Æsir." The Æsir are the Germanic gods.
A person who practices Asatru is called an Asatrui (pl. Asatruar), and is sometimes referred to as a heathen. Sometimes Asatru is also called Wodanism, Wotanism or Germanic paganism.
Common books that describe the knowledge in depth include the Sagas and the Eddas.
Gods and Goddesses
Asatru is a polytheistic religion in which various goddesses and gods are worshipped. The most prominent are Thor, Odin, Freyja, Frigg, Freyr, Tyr, Loki, and Heimdall.
Festivals
Major holidays revolve around the changing seasons with Yule being the most important. It is celebrated in late December and continues for twelve days.
Other websites
Asatru (German/English)
Paganism |
Otherkin are people who believe that part of them is not human inside. They say that, inside themselves, they feel more like another animal than a human. That other animal can be e.g. a wolf, a dragon or an alien. Some otherkin say that they are vampires and are usually acting like them, e.g. by drinking blood.
Otherkin may also identify as feeling a special connection to other natural elements, i.e. minerals, the likes of fire, water, and wind, plants, etc..
Otherkin is a neologism—a new word—and it is usually used only by people who say they are otherkin. The definition can change depending on who uses the word. Some otherkin say that their souls or minds are not human, that they were another species in a past life, or that being not-human is part of their religion. (Otherkin practice many different religions, however.) A few of them say that their physical bodies are not human, either, but there is no proof either for or against that.
Lifestyles
Psychology |
Pedro Romeiras was a Portuguese principal ballet dancer born 3 July 1961, in Lisbon. He was the gold medal winner of the II Prix Français de la Danse 1982.
1961 births
Living people
Romeiras, Pedro
People from Lisbon |
A bonfire or balefire is a large controlled outdoor fire made from bales of straw or wood. The word is believed to come from "bone fire". In the time of the Celts, there were midsummer festivals where animal bones were burnt to ward off evil spirits.
What it means in Great Britain
In Great Britain, bonfires are particularly associated with Guy Fawkes Night. This night is also known as fireworks night or bonfire night. On this night, people celebrate that the Gunpowder Plot was discovered. This discovery took place on 5 November 1605. They do this celebration each year. (It is called an annual celebration.)
In Northern Ireland, bonfires are associated with celebrations on the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.
What it means in Japan
In Japan, large fires called bon-bi are set to welcome the return of the spirits of the ancestors. Though the two terms are not etymologically or historically related, they serve similar purposes and indicate the universal importance of large fires.
Use of bonfires for rituals
Bonfires were also used for rituals. The idea was that the fire would purify. It was used to consecrate things, or people, that is to make them sacred, in some way. In ancient times, cattle were important symbols of wealth and status. Such cattle were led through the smoke of a bonfire. Couples who were to be wed on May Day would leap through the flames of the bonfire to seal their vows. Coals from a bonfire would be taken home to light the fires in family hearths. This practice was thought to bring good fortune. People also believed that the residents of the Faery realm were incapable of producing fire themselves; embers of bonfires would be carried to the underworld and tended there.
Neopagan and Wiccan beliefs
Along with the Maypole, the bonfire is an important component of the Wiccan and Neopagan celebration of Beltaine, also known as May Day.
Nine woods are placed into a traditional Wiccan balefire. These woods are rowan, dogwood, elder, poplar, oak, juniper, holly, cedar, and apple. Occasionally, pine is also used instead of holly or elder, as are a handful of other woods. In some regions, superstition, religious belief, or tradition prohibits the cutting of certain trees.
Pictures
Related pages
Walpurgis Night
Pyre
Other websites
Dancing May Day Through History
Festivals
Fire |
Bic Runga (born January 13, 1976) is a singer from New Zealand. She was born in Christchurch. She has sold lots of albums in New Zealand.
The names of her albums are:
Drive
Beautiful Collision
Live in Concert (With the Christchurch Symphony)
Birds
1976 births
Living people
New Zealand singers
Pop musicians
People from Christchurch |
The Sputnik programme was a Soviet Union spacecraft programme. Sputnik 1, the first satellite in the programme, was launched on October 4, 1957. This was the first man-made satellite ever to enter orbit.
The United States was very surprised when the Soviet Union sent Sputnik 1 into space. It did not want to fall behind. So, it began spending more money on science and education. This was when the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States began.
Etymology
The word Sputnik comes from the ,
or , not .
References
Other websites
Sputnik, Citizendium
Soviet spacecraft
Satellites
1950s in the Soviet Union |
Carnival is a public festival which takes place in many cities and towns in many countries around the world. It is in February or March each year. Carnival can sometimes last for several weeks. In some places there is only one day of celebration. There are often street parades, bands, costumes and many people wear masks. Carnival is linked to religious traditions in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, and it is also linked to local customs.
Background
Lent
Many Christian churches have a 40-day "season" of fasting called Lent, in which Christians prepare for Easter which is one of the two most important feasts in the Christian year (the other being Christmas). Easter is in late March or April. Lent always begins on a Wednesday, which is called Ash Wednesday in February or March. On that day, many people go to church and have some ash smeared on their forehead as a sign of sorrow for their sins. Then for 40 days, they try to work hard on improving themselves and thinking about the teachings of Jesus. It is usual for people to "give up" something for Lent. They might stop smoking or stop watching TV so they can spend more time reading the Bible or talking with the family. Many people give up all their favourite foods and have no cake, wine, beer, chocolate, ice cream or other luxury foods.
The name "carnivale" comes from Italian and means "putting aside the flesh". This means that during Lent people were not to think about their "flesh" (their bodies) but do things that were good for their souls. The word "flesh"" also means "meat" so many people would eat no meat during Lent.
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday". This was the day just before Lent. The first day of Lent was called Mecredi Meagre meaning "Mean Wednesday". ("Mean" used to mean "poor" and "thin" rather than "nasty".)
During the Middle Ages in Europe, it was normal for people to have a big feast on the Tuesday before the Lenten fast started. In many towns this developed into a big public party, with entertainment in the town square. There is a famous painting by Pieter Bruegel dating from the 1550s and showing the "Battle of Carnival and Lent". (See top of page)
About Pieter Bruegel's famous painting
In this picture by Pieter Bruegel, a man representing Carnival is pushed on a barrel by people in costumes and masks. He is about to do battle with Lent. His weapon is a skewer covered with pieces of roast meat. He balances a blackbird pie on his head. Lent, who is very skinny, fights him with two little fish on a bread-board. The person at the front wears a mask and plays a very noisy instrument called a rummelpott.
Modern celebrations of Carnival
Nowadays many cities and towns around the world celebrate Carnival for a week or more. The final day of the celebration is Mardi Gras, when there is often a parade. In some cities the Mardi Gras parade is held on the weekend before Lent begins, rather than on the Tuesday, so as not to disturb the business and traffic of the town.
In some towns such as the Belgian town of Binche the preparations for the Carnival are complex and start many weeks before Carnival takes place, with most of the town's people taking part in some way. The Carnival of Binche is listed with UNESCO as an event of great historic importance because it has been held there in almost the same way for more than 500 years.
Carnival is celebrated differently around the world, but there are some things that are similar:
There is often dressing-up in fancy costumes, which often include masks.
There is usually a street parade of people and musicians. There may also be floats which are decorated vehicles.
There is often loud noises, bright colours and scary faces. These are to frighten evil spirits away while people are fasting. A traditional reason that the performers wear masks is so that the evil spirits do not know who they are.
In the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, which is one of the biggest and most famous in the world, a major feature is the glamorous costumes as both men and women wear bright colours and wonderful headdresses to dance down the street to the sound of many bands. In Rio there are many very large and expensive decorated floats.
In New Orleans the bands are one of the most important parts of the Carnival celebrations. In Düsseldorf in Germany, one of the features of the Carnival parades are the enormous models of politicians and other well-known people. In Sydney, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras which started out as a parade for Sydney's homosexual community, now includes exhibitions, live theatre and competitions, and stretches over two weeks.
In Venice the Carnival was celebrated from December 26 until Lent began. During that time, people were allowed to disguise themselves by wearing masks in the street. In the 1930s this was forbidden by the Italian Government, but in 1980 a mask-makers shop was set up in Venice again. Soon the old tradition was brought back, and now many people dress in costume and wear masks for two weeks before Lent begins.
In Brussels in Belgium, the main Carnival procession is held in the Grande Place, the town square in front of the Gothic Town Hall with its huge tower. Every part of the procession is ruled by a tradition, but some of the traditions are so old that no-one remembers what they mean anymore. At the beginning of the procession is a large group of people dressed in beautiful costumes of silk and velvet, who act out an historic scene of the coming of the King of Spain and his royal court to Brussels 500 years ago. When they have taken their seats, there comes an amazing procession which includes stilt walkers, fire eaters, Goldilocks with a dancing bear, a mad camel, a wizard, lots of men in huge feathery headdresses, and the Archangel Michael whose job is to frighten the Devil. These characters are traditional to Brussels. In every city, the characters that take part are different.
Uruguay
The country of Uruguay in South America is a fun place to be during Carnival. In Uruguay, Carnival has its own special musical performance.
During February and March, it is summer in Uruguay. Everybody goes into the streets, from old people to children. There are people dancing, singing, and playing a special kind of music. This kind of dance and music is called murga.
People do murga performances in groups. The biggest groups have 17 people. They wear funny clothes with lots of colors. They play the drums and sing. The members of the groups are not professional singers or dancers. They are people with other jobs. Each group prepares and practices their own dance and songs for months. Then, they try to be the best group at the festival. Each group's dance and songs last about 45 minutes. The songs are stories about important people or events in the news, so people think watching murga is like watching a play at the theater.
Uruguay’s Carnival started over 100 years ago. It is the world's longest and is about 40 days long. People still work during that time, but in the evenings and on weekends, they enjoy the festival.
Different uses of the word "carnival"
Although the word "carnival" still has its old meaning, it is often used to mean public entertainments of different kinds. Some towns have carnivals that have nothing to do with Lent and are at different times of year. Nowadays there are all sorts of different carnivals. Some of these carnivals, like the Notting Hill Carnival in London and the Melbourne Cup Racing Carnival in Australia are very famous.
The word "carnival" is now used for festivals, parades and competitions of all sorts. There are school sports carnivals, folk carnivals, multi-cultural carnivals, horse racing carnivals, wine and food carnivals and boating carnivals.
Related pages
Christianity
Advent
Christmas
Epiphany (holiday)
Ash Wednesday
Lent
Easter
Pentecost
Carnival of Blacks and Whites
Religious festivals |
Fasting is a kind of abstinence. It is when someone does not eat or drink for some specified period of time. It is only the case if the person does so of his or her own will. It may also be that the person only eats and drinks certain kinds of food. Most often, fasting is done for religious reasons. Depending on the tradition, fasting practices may forbid sexual intercourse, (or any sexual desire), masturbation, as well as refraining from eating certain types or groups of food (e.g. meat).
Fasting for religious and spiritual reasons has been a part of human custom since pre-history. It is mentioned in the Qur'an, in the Mahabharata, in the Upanishads, and in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament. In Buddhism it is also taught as a way to getting Nirvana.
In almost all cases, there are exceptions for observing the fasting. These are made for the following groups of people
children
pregnant women
Those who have a disease, or are recovering from one
In some cases, old people
Politics
Fasting as a form of protest is called a hunger strike.
Intermittent fasting
Timed fasting is known as Intermittent fasting.
There are different ways to time your fast. You can:
Not eat for 16 hours
Not eat for 20 hours
Not eat for one day and feast on the next day and repeat
Eat one meal a day
Religious behavior and experience
Food and drink |
Walpurgis Night (Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish, Vappu in Finnish, Volbriöö in Estonian, Valpurģu nakts or Valpurģi in Latvian, Walpurgisnacht in German), Čarodějnice in Czech is a holiday celebrated on April 30 or May 1, in Finland, Sweden, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Estonia, Latvia and Germany.
Origins
The festival is named after Saint Walburga (known in Scandinavia as "Valborg"; alternative forms are "Walpurgis", "Wealdburg", or "Valderburger"), born in Wessex in 710 a niece of Saint Boniface. According to legend, she was a daughter to the Saxon prince St. Richard. Together with her brothers she travelled to Württemberg, Germany where she became a nun and lived in the convent of Heidenheim, which was founded by her brother Wunibald. Walburga died on 25 February 779 and that day still carries her name in the Catholic calendar. However she was not made a saint until 1 May in the same year, and that day carries her name in the Swedish calendar.
Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from Pagan spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. Viking fertility celebrations took place around April 30 and due to Walburga being declared a saint at that time of year, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walburga was worshipped in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration.
Germany
In Germany, Walpurgisnacht, the night from April 30 to May 1, is the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring. When the travel to that mountain is too far, they may also chose another hill in the region they live.
"Walpurgis Night (in German folklore) the night of April 30 (May Day's eve), when witches meet on the Brocken mountain and hold revels with their Gods..."
"Brocken the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany. It is noted for the phenomenon of the Brocken spectre and for witches' revels which reputably took place there on Walpurgis night.
The Brocken Spectre is a magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown onto a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. The phenomenon was first reported on the Brocken."
—Taken from Oxford Phrase & Fable.
Paganism |
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