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Bird flu (also called avian influenza, avian flu, bird influenza, or grippe of the birds), is an illness caused by a virus. The virus, called influenza A or type A, usually lives in birds, but sometimes infects mammals, including humans. It is called influenza when it infects humans.
There are many types of influenza A, which was first found in a bird in Italy in 1878. Most types have weak symptoms, such as breathing problems, similar to the common cold.
But some types kill birds, and a few kill humans and other mammals. One type of bird flu, called Spanish flu, killed 50 to 100 million people in 1918/1920. Another type, called Asian Flu killed one million in 1957, and another one, called Hong Kong Flu, also killed one million people in 1968.
A subtype, called H5N1, killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997, but did not kill again until 2003, this time in China. Until the middle of 2005, it was primarily found in southeast Asia but since then has spread to parts of Africa and Europe. It has killed tens of millions of birds and resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of millions of other birds to limit its spread. So far it is mostly a bird disease and rarely infects humans. The concern about H5N1 is that it is constantly evolving at a very fast rate and could create a human flu pandemic that could kill many millions of people. Governments around the world are spending billions of dollars to deal with this problem: studying H5N1, creating vaccines, conducting pandemic practice exercises, stockpiling useful flu medication, and many other important activities.
References
Diseases caused by viruses
Zoonoses |
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy is a controversy about a series of cartoons. They were first published in a Danish newspaper. The publication led to an outcry, and sparked violent protests in the Islamic world, with many people dying. The cartoons were drawn and created by Kurt Westergaard.
The crisis began after cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. Danish Muslim organizations staged protests in response. As the controversy has grown, some or all of the cartoons have been reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries. The protests got worse when fake cartoons were released.
One of the cartoons showed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Some people thought this was saying that all Muslims are terrorists. But other cartoons made fun of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. One insulted the editors of the newspaper, by using the language Farsi.
Critics claims that the cartoons are culturally insulting, Islamophobic, blasphemous, and intended to humiliate a "marginalized" minority. However, supporters of the cartoons claim they illustrate an important issue and their publication exercises the right of free speech. They have also claimed that similar cartoons are made relative to other religions, arguing that Islam and its followers have not been targeted in a discriminatory way.
Related pages
Jesus with erection
References
Other websites
The page in Jyllands-Posten that contains Muhammad cartoons
Controversies
History of Islam
2005 |
Blasphemy is a word that means speaking badly about a religion, or insulting a god. Some religions see blasphemy as a religious crime. Many countries witha state religion have laws that make blasphemy a crime. For example, blasphemy can be punished with the death penalty in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. In other countries, the punishment for the crime is a fine, or imprisonment.
Some countries do not have laws against blasphemy. For example, after the French Revolution, France made blasphemy legal to make sure people would have freedom of religion and the freedom of the press.
The United States, Canada, and many European countries, have laws to protect people who speak badly about religion. Sometimes people do this in a satirical way, like with a movie that makes fun of a religion. In these countries, profanity is often protected by freedom of speech as well.
Related pages
Heresy
Profanity
Sacrilege
References
Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression (ISSN US 0363-3659)
Levy, L. Blasphemy. Chapel Hill, 1993.
Dartevelle, P., S Borg, Denis, Ph., Robyn, J. (eds.). Blasphèmes et libertés. Paris: CERF, 1993
Plate, S. Brent Blasphemy: Art that Offends (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2006) []
Other websites
Catholic Encyclopedia: Blasphemy
Jewish Encyclopedia: Blasphemy
Comprehensive academic study comparing global legal approaches to blasphemy in light of the Jyllands-Posten controversy
The Rational Response Squad: The Blasphemy Challenge
A More4 news film report on how insulting the prophet Mohammed in Pakistan is a capital offence, and defiling the Koran carries life imprisonment.
Theology |
Events and trends
September 1, 1181 - Pope Lucius III becomes 171st pope
June 25, 1183 - Frederick I and the Lombard League sign the Peace of Constance
1183 - Saladin takes over Syria and becomes sultan
November 25, 1185 - Pope Urban III becomes 172nd pope
October 21, 1187 - Pope Gregory VIII becomes 173rd pope |
Brie is a type of soft cheese with a yellowish interior and a white layer (the "rind") on the outside of the cheese. The rind is eaten as well as the inside of this cheese. Like other cheeses, Brie is a dairy product made from cows' milk. Brie cheese may be served with fruit as a dessert at the end of a meal, or with a relish.
The cheese is sometimes served slightly melted or baked, in a round, lidded ceramic dish, and topped with nuts or fruit, or both.
How it is made
Brie is a French cheese, and protected by AOC (Appellation d'origine contrôlée). This means only this cheese from this region (near Paris) can properly call itself "brie". This is ignored by some countries outside Europe, but the system of AOC is used in the wine business, so many parts of the world do honour it, and have similar arrangements.
The milk of soft cheeses (à pate molle in French) is not heated during the production of the cheese. Talleyrand said about this kind of cheese that it was the king of cheeses. He said that in the 19th century. This kind of cheese has been made for at least 1000 years.
In Europe this cheese is usually not treated chemically, so it might change in consistency or color. It will go bad if it is not kept cool. If that means it is kept in a refrigerator, note that it should not be eaten that cold. It is best eaten when it is somewhat below normal room temperature. In most countries, brie-style cheeses are made with Pasteurized milk.
Brie can be aged, that is, carefully treated for up to a year. Then it has a darker colour and a stronger taste. This is rarely seen outside of France.
Types of Brie
The following kinds of Brie exist:
Brie de Meaux, from Champagne (region), AOC since 1986. The 1998 production was 7683 tonnes.
Brie de Melun, from Ile-de-France, AOC since 1980. 264 tonnes produced in 1998.
Other French Bries are:
Brie fermier, Île-de-France
Brie de Melun bleu
Brie petit moulé
Brie laitier
Brie de Coulommiers
Bries from outside France:
Somerset Brie, England
Brie Manoir, Québec
Bleubrie, Québec
Brie de Meaux
Cheeses are made into round loaves, of about 36 cm in diameter. The cheeses then weight about 2.5 kilograms. It is best tasted from April to October, after a ripening period of 8 to 10 weeks. About 2% of the production occurs on farms.
Brie de Melun
The Brie de Melun is smaller than the Brie de Meaux, but more salt is added to it. The ripening period is 10 weeks. It is best consumed April to September, but it can be found March to November, in some locations. About 5% of production occurs on farms.
What Brie should look like
When people buy Brie, they should make sure that it has the following traits:
It is soft.
Brie is covered in a white layer. There may be reddish patches in the layer.
The interior of the cheese should be yellowish.
The cheese has a distinct smell which is often considered to be good.
It should taste slightly nutty.
French cheeses |
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (February 2, 1754 - May 17, 1838) was a French diplomat.
He was a bishop and worked successfully for Louis XVI. He changed sides and served the French Revolution and Napoleon I. When Napoleon started losing his wars, Talleyrand changed sides again and served Louis XVIII. He represented France at the Congress of Vienna. He changed sides once more and served Louis Philippe I. Since the beginning of the 19th century he was known simply as Talleyrand. He is widely seen as one of the most pragmatic and influential diplomats in European history. He was known to accept bribes from other European powers, especially while he served under Napoleon.
Related pages
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Mary Wollstonecraft
Other websites
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Perigord 1754-1838
Society of friends of Talleyrand
Career of Mme Grand, Talleyrand's wife
1754 births
1838 deaths
French diplomats |
Pasteurization (or pasteurisation) is a process of heat processing a liquid or a food to kill pathogenic bacteria to make the food safe to eat. It involves heating the food to kill most harmful microorganisms. Producers pasteurize dairy and other foods to make them safe to eat. The process is named after Louis Pasteur. He was the first person to learn how to do it successfully. The first pasteurization was done by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard on 20 April 1862.
Unlike sterilization, pasteurization is not intended to kill all microorganisms in the food. Instead, pasteurization gets a "log reduction" in the number of microorganisms. It brings their number down so they are unlikely to cause disease if the product is kept in the refrigerator and consumed before its sell-by date. Commercial sterilization of food is not common, because it tends to destroy the flavour of the food.
Milk pasteurization
Pasteurization is usually done to milk, which was first suggested by Franz von Soxhlet in 1886. There are two popular ways to pasteurize milk. First, high temperature/short time (HTST), and second, ultra-high temperature (UHT). HTST is the most common method. Milk only labeled pasteurized (or past) is usually treated with the HTST method, whereas milk labelled ultra-pasteurized or UHT must be treated with the UHT method. HTST is when the milk is at a temperature of 72 degrees Celsius (or 161.5 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 15 seconds. UHT is when the milk is at a temperature of 138 °C or 280 °F for at least two seconds.
Pasteurization rules are usually set by national food safety agencies (like the USDA in the United States and the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom). These agencies say milk has to be HTST pasteurized to have the "pasteurized" label. There are different rules for different dairy products, depending on the fat content and what they will be used for. For example, the pasteurization rules for cream are different than the rules for fluid milk, and the standards for pasteurizing cheese are designed to keep the phosphatase enzyme fresh, which helps in making the cheese.
HTST pasteurized milk normally has a refrigerated shelf life of two or three weeks, but ultra pasteurized milk can last much longer when refrigerated, sometimes two or three months. When UHT pasteurization is mixed with safe handling and container technology, it can even be stored unrefrigerated for even longer periods of time.
Alternative pasteurization standards and raw milk
In addition to the standard HTST and UHT pasteurization standards, there are other lesser-known pasteurization techniques. The first technique, called "batch pasteurization", involves heating large batches of milk to a lower temperature, typically . The other technique is called higher-heat/shorter time (HHST), and it lies somewhere between HTST and UHT in terms of time and temperature. Pasteurization causes some irreversible and some temporary denaturization of the proteins in milk.
In most legislations, double pasteurization is not allowed. A heat treatment at a lower temperature or for a shorter time is sometimes performed. Possibly, such milk could be called "raw milk" or, confusingly, "unpasteurized milk". It cannot be called "pasteurized", even though a significant number of pathogens are destroyed during the process.
In recent years, there has been some consumer interest in raw milk products, due to perceived health benefits. Advocates of raw milk maintain, correctly, that some components survive in milk that has not been pasteurized. Specifically, raw milk contains immunoglobulins and the enzymes lipase and phosphatase, which are inactivated by heat. Raw milk also contains vitamin B6 of which up to 20% may be lost on heat treatment. It is also claimed to contain beneficial bacteria which aid digestion and boost immunity.
Commercial distribution of packaged raw milk is not allowed in most US states.
Some doctors (and some raw milk advocates) acknowledge that certain people should not drink raw milk, including pregnant or breast-feeding mothers, those undergoing immunosuppression treatment for cancer, organ transplant, or autoimmune diseases; and those who are immunocompromised due to medical conditions such as AIDS.
In fact, some doctors suggest that babies and breast-feeding mothers avoid all but UHT pasteurized dairy products.
In Africa, it is common to boil milk whenever it is harvested. This intense heating greatly changes the flavor of milk, which the people in Africa are accustomed to.
Unpasteurized milk
Milk pasteurization standards have been subject to increasing scrutiny in recent years, due to the discovery of pathogens that are both widespread and heat resistant (able to survive pasteurization in significant numbers). Researchers have developed more sensitive diagnostics, such as real-time PCR and improved culture methods, that have enabled them to identify pathogens in pasteurized milk.
One bacterium in particular, the organism Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), which causes Johne's disease in cattle and is suspected of causing at least some Crohn's disease in humans, has been found to survive pasteurization in retail milk in the U.S., the U.K., Greece, and the Czech Republic. The food safety authorities in the U.K. have decided to re-evaluate pasteurization standards in light of the MAP results and other evidence of harmful, pasteurization-resistant pathogens.
The USDA (which is responsible for setting pasteurization standards in the U.S.) has not re-evaluated their position on pasteurization adequacy. They do not dispute the studies, which are at this point accepted by the scientific community, but maintain that the presence of MAP in retail pasteurized milk must be due to post-pasteurization contamination. However, some researchers within the FDA, which is responsible for food safety in the U.S., have begun pushing for a re-evaluation of these results. There is a small but growing body of criticism directed at these agencies by Crohn's disease sufferers, scientists, and doctors. Some have suggested that the U.S. dairy industry has been successful in suppressing the agencies' response to a potential health crisis, for fear of consumer panic which would lead to a decrease in milk consumption. It is worth noting that while MAP has not been definitely proven to be harmful in humans, all other mycobacteria are pathogenic, and it has been definitively shown to cause disease in cattle and other ruminants.
A newer method called flash pasteurization involves shorter exposure to higher temperatures, and is claimed to be better for preserving color and taste in some products.
The term cold pasteurization is used sometimes for the use of ionizing radiation (see food irradiation) or other means (e.g. chemical) to kill bacteria in food. Food irradiation is also sometimes called "electronic pasteurization".
Products that are commonly pasteurized
Beer
Canned food
Dairy products
Eggs
Juices
Milk
Syrups
Vinegar
Water
Wines
References
Rosenau, M.J., The Milk Question, Haughton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1913.
Food preservation |
Soft cheese (in French: Fromage à pate molle) is any kind of cheese that does not get heated during production.
An example of soft cheese would be Brie.
Cheeses |
A cult is a group of people who have a religion or a set of beliefs. In modern times the term "cult" usually does not mean a mainstream religion, but a group set up "in opposition to a centre of established authority". New Age religions were often called cults because they were thought to be deviant social movements.
The word cult originally meant a system of ritual practices. It was first used in the early 17th century to mean homage paid to a divinity. It came from an ancient Latin word cultus meaning "worship".
A cult is often a small, newly started religious movement. Cults have beliefs or practices that many people think of as being odd, or that have practices that most people in the world do not practice. More than that, cults have often been led by people who are not elected, and control the group according to their own wishes. Some cult leaders have been dangerous criminals (Charles Manson; Peoples Temple) or even lunatics. Killings and mass suicides have occurred in cults (Order of the Solar Temple; Heaven's Gate). Of course, a "suicide" enforced by armed guards carrying sub-machine guns (Peoples Temple; Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God) is not a simple suicide as generally understood. It is at least an assisted and coerced suicide.
Whether a religious group is or is not a cult can be a hard question to answer. What is at one point in time considered a cult may later be accepted as a religion and what at one point of time is considered an accepted religion may later become a cult.
Treatment of cult members
Mind control
Some form of persuasion or mind control can be used to recruit and maintain members. The objective is to prevent the faithful from thinking critically, and making choices in their own best interest.
"I will state that coercive persuasion and thought reform techniques are effectively practiced on naïve, uninformed subjects with disastrous health consequences. I will try to give enough information to indicate my reasons for further inquiries as well as review of applicable legal processes".
The following methods have been used in some or all cults studied:
People are put in physically or emotionally distressing situations;
Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized;
They receive what seems to be unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader or group;
They get a new identity based on the group;
They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives and the mainstream culture) and their access to information is severely controlled.
This view is disputed by some. Society for the Scientific Study of Religion stated in 1990 that there was not sufficient research for a consensus, and that "one should not automatically equate the techniques involved in the process of physical coercion and control with those of nonphysical coercion and control".
Management style of cults
An oft-repeated criticism of cults is that their management style is dictatorial and exploitative. The following is one example:
"The beliefs of all these cults are absolutist and non-tolerant of other systems of beliefs. Their systems of governance are totalitarian. A requirement of membership is to obey absolutely without questioning. Their interest in the individual’s development within the cult towards some kind of satisfactory individual adult personality is by their doctrines, very low or nonexistent. It is clear that almost all of them emphasize money making in one form or another, although a few seem to be very much involved in demeaning or self denigrating activities and rituals. Most of them that I have studied possess a good deal of property and money which is under the discretionary control of the individual leaders".
Use of violence
Ownership of weapons and violence has occurred in some cults. The Branch Davidians under the direction of David Koresh used violence against Federal agencies, with tragic results for both sides. The later FBI report reveals the extent of their arms stockpile.
The People's Temple included guards armed with submachine guns. These guards killed the visiting U.S. Congressman Ryan, and stood around the believers as they committed suicide. Members of the Manson Family were convicted of several murders.
Related pages
Sect
Religion
References
Further reading
Jenkins, Philip 2000. Mystics and messiahs: cults and new religions in American history. Oxford University Press.
Snow, Robert L. 2003. Deadly cults: the crimes of true believers. Praeger/Greenwood.
Tobias, Madeleine Landau; Lalich, Janja and Langone, Michael 1994. Captive hearts, captive minds: freedom and recovery from cults and abusive relationships.
Wohlforth, Tim & Dennis Tourish 2000. On the edge: political cults left and right. Sharpe.
Barrett D.V. 2001. The new believers: a survey of sects, cults and alternative religions. London: Cassell.
Zellner W.W. & Petrowsky Marc 1998. Sects, Cults, and Spiritual Communities: A Sociological Analysis
Dawson, L. Lorne 2006. Comprehending cults: the sociology of new religious movements |
The Cult are a English rock band. They formed in 1982 under the name Death Cult and later renamed to Southern Death Cult in 1983, then was again renamed to their current name The Cult.
Studio albums
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
English hard rock bands
English heavy metal bands
English punk bands |
1028 (MXXVIII) was a common year when the Julian calendar was used. It was the twenty-eighth year of the 2nd millennium and the 11th century.
Events
November 12 – Dying Emperor Constantine VIII of the Byzantine Empire marries his daughter Zoe of Byzantium to his chosen heir Romanus Argyrus.
November 15 – Romanus Argyrus becomes Eastern Roman Emperor as Romanus III. |
Events
Anselm of Canterbury leaves Italy.
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, becomes King of Germany.
Ottokar, Count of Steyr, becomes Margrave of the Karantanian March, later known as Styria |
James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. His books include Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, The Drifters, Texas, and Poland. Most of his 40 books are very large sagas. They are about the lives of many generations in a particular place. His non-fiction writings include the 1992 book The World is My Home and Sports in America.
Michener wrote that he did not know who his parents were or exactly when and where he was born. He was raised by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Some have argued that Mabel was his birth mother. He graduated from Swarthmore College, where he played basketball, in 1929. He later studied at the Colorado State Teachers College. He taught there for several years. He also taught at Harvard University.
His writing career began during World War II. He was assigned to the South Pacific Ocean as a naval historian. He used his time there as the basis for Tales of the South Pacific, his first book. This book was the basis for the musical South Pacific.
Michener met his wife Mari while in Japan. His novel Sayonara is autobiographical.
On January 10, 1977, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald R. Ford.
In his final years, he lived in Austin, Texas, where he died of kidney failure on October 16, 1997 at the age of 90.
Books by James A. Michener
Alaska
The Bridge at Andau
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Caravans
Caribbean
Centennial
A Century of Sonnets
Chesapeake
Collectors, Forgers - And A Writer: A Memoir
The Covenant
Creatures of the Kingdom
The Drifters
The Eagle and The Raven
The Fires of Spring
The Floating World
Hawaii
Iberia
Japanese Prints
Journey
Kent State: What Happened and Why
Legacy
Literary Reflections
Mexico
Miracle in Seville
The Novel
Pilgrimage: A Memoir of Poland and Rome
Poland
Presidential Lottery
The Quality of Life
Rascals in Paradise
Recessional
Return to Paradise
Sayonara
Six Days in Havana
The Source
Space
Sports in America
Tales of the South Pacific
Texas
The World is My Home
This Noble Land
Ventures in Editing
The Voice of Asia
Years of Infamy
References
1907 births
1997 deaths
Deaths from renal failure
Writers from Pennsylvania
Writers from Hawaii
Writers from Austin, Texas
Harvard University faculty
Educators from Pennsylvania
Educators from Hawaii
Educators from Austin, Texas |
Events
King Sverker I of Sweden is killed and succeeded by Eric IX of Sweden.
Eric IX of Sweden tries to conquer Finland
The first fire insurance policy is issued. It is in Iceland.
Church of Ireland starts obeying the Pope.
Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Henry II of England and brings the province of Aquitaine to English control.
Births
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury
Alfonso II of Aragon
Deaths
Suryavarman II, Khmer king, builder of Angkor Wat
King David I of Scotland |
The War of 1812 was fought between the British Empire and the United States from 1812 to 1815 on land in North America and at sea. The British forces were helped by Canadian militia (volunteers) and Native Americans because British soldiers were busy fighting Napoleon I in Europe.
In nearly every battle, the British defeated the attacking American forces. The war increased nationalism in both Canada and the United States.
Causes
One reason given by Americans for declaring war was that the British were bothering American ships. The British claimed to be looking for British sailors who had deserted. Many British sailors deserted from the
miserable conditions and the harsh discipline. Originally, many of the sailors had been pressed into service. It was the practice of the British to arrest any man they found on a street and to force him to serve on their ships. Many British sailors who escaped signed on as crew aboard American merchant ships. The British claim was somewhat true.
In 1807, an American ship was boarded and then fired on, which created outrage among the American public. The British were also seizing American sailors at sea and forcing them to serve in the navy.
The numbers of American seamen pressed into British service is not well known and may have been greatly exaggerated. The British were also sponsoring Native American territories in the Midwest to stop the United States from expanding westward. That made 10,000 Native Americans fight for the British.
Napoleon I started the French invasion of Russia in 1812, just as the war started in North America. The Americans thought that the British would be busy fighting the French during the Napoleonic Wars to do much in North America.
The war
Fighting began when the United States started to attack the Canadian provinces in 1812. However, the British and the Canadians successfully defended their borders. In 1813, British and American ships fought in the Battle of Lake Erie. Americans under Oliver Hazard Perry won, which gave them control of Lake Erie. American forces raided and burned Toronto, which was then called York.
In 1814, Napoleon I abdicated the French throne. That freed up experienced British troops to be sent to North America. They burned the unfinished Washington, DC, and also attacked Baltimore. An American lawyer, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem about the Battle of Baltimore. The poem was later used to give the words to a song that later became the US national anthem: "The Star Spangled Banner." The war ended in 1815. The British attacked New Orleans but were stopped by the Americans under General Andrew Jackson.
Unknown by both sides, a peace treaty had already been signed.
On July 2, 1812, the Cuyahoga Packet, an American ship, was captured by Canadian Lieutenant Frederic Rolette in the Detroit River.
On July 12, 1812, Americans from Detroit won offensives in Upper Canada and were led by William Hull.
On July 17, 1812, a force of British troops, French voyageurs, and Indians captured Fort Mackinac, in Michigan territory. That victory brought more Native American support. The British got control of Mackinac Island and northern Michigan.
In the Siege of Detroit (August 15-16, 1812), Americans led by Commander William Hull resisted the British troops of Isaac Brock and their allies Tecumseh's Confederacy. Seven Americans died. When Hull surrendered Detroit, 1600 American militia were freed and escorted south by the Canadians to protect them from Tecumseh's Confederacy. It is estimated that over 582 American soldiers were imprisoned in Quebec.
On August 19, 1812, the ships of USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere fought a battle about 400 miles (650 km) southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The USS Constitution won.
On October 13, 1812, British defenders under Major General Isaac Brock attacked American occupation forces at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Brock died, and Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe took command.
Peace
The two countries signed the Treaty of Ghent to end the war, on December 24, 1814 in Belgium. Fighting continued into January 1815 because the forces did not know about the treaty, but no great changes took place afterward. The British stopped impressing sailors because the Napoleonic Wars had been finished.
Most Americans heard of the victory in the Battle of New Orleans before they heard of the treaty. The Federalist Party, which had opposed the war, became disliked as pro-British and soon disappeared.
Winner
From the British perspective, the War of 1812 was a minor sideshow. The Americans called it their victorious "Second War for Independence". The British remembered it as the Americans trying to take advantage of their being involved in a war against the French Empire and paid no attention to American grievances.
In Canada, the War of 1812 was an unwanted war. It concerned the distant capitals of Washington, DC, and London, not them. In Lower Canada, now Quebec, it was considered an Anglo-Saxon war. In Quebec there was little love for the British, but the British had guaranteed their right to speak French. Since they did not know what would happen if the Americans took over, they chose the lesser evil and supported the British.
Upper Canada (later part of the Province of Ontario) had been settled by American Loyalists who fled after the Revolutionary War. They had little love of their former countrymen in the US but had become outnumbered by Americans who later came north to settle. When the Americans attempted to invade Canada, the Canadian militias were eager to defend their homeland.
In US history, the War of 1812 is the most obscure conflict. The average American remembers very little about the war. Some may remember The Star Spangled Banner, the Burning of Washington, or the Battle of New Orleans. Otherwise, it is a little-understood conflict. The issues are complex. Most scholars would agree it was fought over maritime issues. Since the British Navy was then the most powerful in the world, it was easier to attack the British on land by invading Canada. Former US President Thomas Jefferson predicted the "acquisition of Canada, will be a mere matter of marching."
British who knew about the little war felt that they had won, no matter what Americans thought. Canadians kept their independence from the US and so felt that they had won. The Americans felt they won although they lost in Canada since they lost none of their territory, repelled the invasion of Maryland, were free to fight the Indians without British interference, and were no longer impressed on the high seas. Of all three, the British are perhaps the happiest because they have completely forgotten about the war.
Notes
Other website
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/War_of_1812 War of 1812 -Citizendium
References
1810s in the United States
Wars involving the British Empire
Wars involving the United States |
Chandigarh, also called "The Beautiful City", is a city in India. It is a union territory, because it is the capital of two states: Punjab and Haryana. As a territory it does not belong to either state. Before 1 november,1966 it was capital of Punjab, but after formation of Haryana on 1 November, 1966 it become a union territory.There are many tourism places in Chandigarh like Rock garden, Rose garden and Sukhna lake.
Chandigarh came into existence in 1952 when its first stone was laid. It is one of the modern cities of India, designed by a French architect Le Carbusier. It was the dream city of India's first Prime Minister, Sh.Jawahar Lal Nehru.
It is well known for its mixed cultural background and its fast development in the field of Information Technology. It has outlets of many famous multinational companies established here and is emerging as a hub for business development. The territory covers an area of 44 mi² or 114 km², it is bigger than Montserrat but smaller than Jersey. It's also the proposed capital of Khalistan.
Territorial symbols of Chandigarh
Capital cities in India
Punjab, India
Haryana
Territories of India |
Convection is the movement of heat because of the movement of warm matter.
For example, atmospheric circulation moves warm air to cool places, causing wind. Wind, in turn, can enter and cool a room if the window is open. The movement of the clouds, the ocean currents and many types of heaters are examples of convection.
Forced convection and natural convection
Convection can happen naturally ("natural convection") or because of a moving device ("forced convection").
The fan is a device that produces the movement of the air artificially. The air in this case is moving because of the rotation of the fan. This is an example of "forced convection".
Natural convection happens because a fluid is lighter if is hot and it is heavier if is cold, so if a fluid has a hot part and a cold part, the hot part will naturally move upward and the cold part naturally moves downward. For example, if the water in a pot is hotter near the bottom because of the fire, it moves from the bottom to the surface. At the same time the water near the surface is colder so it moves to the bottom.
Convection currents
Convection currents occur when there are significant differences in temperature between two parts of a fluid. When this happens, hot fluids rise and cold fluids sink. This causes movements or currents in the fluid. Atmospheric circulation, for example, is made by convection currents.
Related pages
Heat transfer
Heat conduction
Thermal radiation
References
Basic physics ideas
Fluid mechanics
Heat transfer |
A chipmunk is a small squirrel-like rodent. It is in the Sciuridae family. About twenty-three species fall under this title, with one species in North America.
The name may have originally been spelled "chitmunk" (perhaps from a Native American word meaning "red squirrel"). However, the earliest form comes from the Oxford English Dictionary (in 1842) as "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck".
Chipmunks are hoarders, meaning they store food for winter.
Popular culture
Chip 'n Dale, two Disney cartoon characters, are famous chipmunks in pop culture. Another such trio is Alvin, Simon and Theodore (created by Ross Bagdasarian).
References
Other websites
Squirrels
Mammals of North America |
Major General Vicente Mondéjar Piccio (1 March 1927 – 28 April 2015) was a Filipino soldier. He was Chief of the Philippine Air Force during the last years of the dictatorship of Marcos, notably during the 1986 People Power Revolution.
Other websites
Biography from the Philippine Air Force website
1927 births
2015 deaths
Filipino military people
Generals |
The Piccio family is a family of Portuguese Jewish origin. The family's name is an Italianisation of the original Portuguese Figo.
People
Efrem Piccio, Venetian rabbi
Lazzaro Piccio, Venetian rabbi
Vicente Mondéjar Piccio, a general in the Philippine air force
References
Italian families |
Events
Portugal established
Births
Pope Gregory IX
Deaths
Pope Innocent II |
Donald Duck is a cartoon character created by Walt Disney. He is a white duck with an yellowish-orange bill and legs. He usually wears a sailor cap, a blue sailor shirt and a black or red bow tie. He first appeared on-screen in "The Wise Little Hen" on 9 June 1934. Donald is Scrooge McDuck's nephew. His girlfriend is Daisy Duck. His nephews are Huey, Dewey and Louie. Donald appeared in animated shorts, comic books, and newspaper comic strips. Donald Duck appears frequently in The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Donald Duck is the third most popular cartoon character of all time, after Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. Donald Duck has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 2004.
References
Fictional characters introduced in the 1930s
Duck, Donald
Kingdom Hearts characters |
Events
January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign the Triple Alliance.
February 26-March 6 What is now the northeastern United States was paralyzed by a series of blizzards that buried the region.
March 2 — Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain shown in Drury Lane The Loves of Mars and Venus.
March 31 – Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, acting on the advice of King George begins the Bangorian Controversy by saying that God favors churches with no government.
June 24 — The Premier Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), a branch of Freemasonry, is started in London.
September: The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, what is later to become the Ancient Order of Druids (AOD).
December 24/25 A disastrous storm flood hits the North Sea coast between the Netherlands and Denmark. Thousands die or lose their houses.
Voltaire is sentenced to Bastille for a year because of his satirical writings.
Spain unites its South American colonies as New Grenada.
Montevideo, Uruguay, founded by Portuguese.
A rift between George I of Great Britain and his son the Prince of Wales leads to the latter being thrown out of the royal household.
Births
December 25 – Pope Pius VI, Roman Catholic pope during the French revolution. (d. 1799)
References
Other websites |
Montevideo is the capital and the largest city in Uruguay. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1717. Its best neighbourhood is called Carrasco. This neighbourhood is very exclusive due to its architectural styles.
References
Other websites
1726 establishments
18th-century establishments in the Viceroyalty of Peru
18th-century establishments in Uruguay |
Esther is the name of a book in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and the Old Testament, and also its title heroine. It is the basis for the Jewish celebration Purim.
Author and Date
Although it is never said who wrote the book of Esther, from inside evidence it is possible to make some guesses about the author and when it was written. The author was a Jew, because he emphasizes where the Jewish festival came from and from the Jewish nationalism inside the story. The author probably lived in a Persian city, because he knew Persian customs well, and does not say anything about the land of Judah or Jerusalem. The earliest date of the book would be a little while after the events were told, for instance, about 460 B.C. (before Ezra's return to Jerusalem). It is also thought that the festival of Purim had been celebrated some time before this book was written.
Purpose, Themes, and Features
Purpose
The author's main purpose was to write about how the yearly festival of Purim started and to make people remember the saving of the Jewish people during King Xerxes' reign. The book shows both the start of the festival and why it should continue to be celebrated.
Themes
In the book, the author repeatedly talks about the conflict between Israel and the Amalekites, a conflict that began during the exodus and continued through Israel's history. The author of Esther views them as the symbol of all the powers of the world against God's people. Now that Israel has been released from captivity, Haman's dangerous edict is the final try in the Old Testament time to get rid of them. When Haman is defeated, Israel enjoys a time of rest.
Feasting is another important theme in Esther, as seen in the picture on the left. Banquets are the setting for important parts of the story. There are ten banquets.
Style and Features
Repetition is one of the main stylistic features of the book of Esther. The three groups of banquets come in pairs; there are two lists of the king's servants; two reports that Esther hid her identity; two gatherings of women; two houses for the women; two fasts; two talks by Haman with his wife and friends; two sudden visits to the king by Esther; two coverings of Haman's face; two royal commands; two cool-downs of the king's anger; two days for the Jews to protect themselves and take vengeance; and two letters about how Purim started.
Another important feature of this book that has often been wondered about is that it never directly talks about God, worship, prayer, or sacrifice. This has made some people think the book is not as religious as other books. However, it is possible that the author purposefully did not say anything about God or anything religious to show more clearly that it is God who controls all the "unimportant" coincidences that are in the story and ends in saving the Jews.
Content
The Book of Esther is about a Jewish girl adopted by her uncle, Mordecai, after her parents died.
The Persian King Xerxes kicked out his wife, Queen Vashti, after she refused his demand, and fell in love with Esther at a beauty contest. He took Esther as the new Persian queen, not knowing she was an Israelite.
Haman, Xerxes' prime minister, developed a grudge against Mordecai because he would not bow down to him, but only to the God of Israel. He despised Mordecai because he was a Jew, and tried to trick the king into making a law to kill all Jews. Haman was unaware that Queen Esther herself was a Jew.
Queen Esther discovered the plot by Haman and worked to stop it. She invited the king to dine with Haman present so she could tell him about the plot. But her courage failed her and she said nothing.
She again invited King Xerxes and Haman to dine and this time she told the king of Haman's plot. The king, furious, stormed out and Haman begged Esther for mercy. When the king returned, he mistakenly believed Haman had molested his queen, and had him hanged on the same gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai. In the end, thanks to Esther's courage and influence, the king changed the law and saved the Jewish people.
References
Old Testament books |
Clay is a fine-grained silicate mineral made when rocks break down. Wet clay is soft and can be shaped to make pottery, bricks and other things. When it is shaped and then fired in a kiln to make it hard, it becomes pottery.
Clay often contains some water because the water molecules stick to the tiny grains. There may also be some organic materials in the clay.
There are 35 recognized clay mineral species on Earth, they make muds stick together ('cohesive'), or able to flow ('plastic'). The thixotropy of clay sometimes causes landslides.
Quartz, feldspars, iron oxides, and carbonates can weather to sizes of a typical clay mineral. The formation of clay is well understood. It can come from soil, volcanic ash, and glaciation. Ancient mudrocks are another source, because they weather and disintegrate easily.
Clay is by far the smallest particles recognized in mudrocks. A clay particle is about 1/1000th the width of a sand grain. This means a clay particle will travel 1000 times further at constant water velocity, thus requiring quieter conditions for settlement. Where the grains are more than a few millimeters wide, the material is called silt, not clay.
References
Sedimentary rocks |
The rifle is a gun with a stock to brace against the shoulder and a barrel with twisting grooves. The grooves are called rifling and make bullets spin as they fly through the air. Rifles are made to shoot many different sizes of bullets using different amounts of gunpowder. Rifles are usually made to be able to hit targets at long ranges. Modern rifles are made for many different purposes. Some are made for hunting animals. Some are made for soldiers to use in war. Others are made for police to have in case they need them. Some rifles are made for target shooting.
Types
Rifles can work in different ways. Some rifles have what is called a bolt action. A small handle is used to move a part of the rifle called a "bolt". By moving the bolt backward, then forward, allows the shooter put a bullet in the chamber ready for firing. It also ejects any spent shells still in the chamber from any previously fired rounds. The rifle in the picture above is a bolt action. Some rifles are semi-automatics, where a bullet is loaded (automatically) and fired each time the trigger is pulled. Some are fully automatic, which work like semi-automatics but allow the shooter to fire more than one bullet at a time by holding down the trigger. The automatic rifle stops firing when the trigger is released or it runs out of ammunition.
Related pages
Assault rifle
Battle rifle
CornerShot
References
Other websites
Quick Guide to Olympic Shooting
Nazarian's Gun's Recognition Guide on Bolt Action Rifles
Nazarian's Gun's Recognition Guide on Automatic Rifles
UK Air Rifles
Israeli Special Forces Rifles at isayeret.com
On the AK-47's social and military effect on history
WW2-era Small Arms
ShootingWiki.org Competition Arms Database |
Events
July 25 - A Solar eclipse happened. It was one of the reasons Charles Messier became an astrologer.
February 15-Jeremy Bentham |
Deuterocanonical books means "second canon" in Greek. It usually means the parts of the Bible that are only used by some Christian churches (mostly Roman Catholic and Orthodox). The books only exist in Greek language manuscripts that were written by the Jewish people living in Greek speaking areas of the Mediterranean Sea between 250 and 50 BC, as were all of the books of the Old Testament. It was not until circa 900 AD that the Old Testament as known in Jewish and Protestant religions was written in Hebrew and limited to the current so-called "canons".
The books are not part of the Jewish Tanakh (also called the Hebrew Bible), although they were quoted as Scripture well into the Middle Ages as is found in the Jewish Mishna and later Rabbinical writings, even into the 6th century AD. The current Jewish canon was closed by the time of the Masoretic Text in the 10th century AD.
Some books considered deuterocanonical by Catholics are:
The Book of Tobit
The Book of Judith
The First Book of Maccabees, also called 1 Maccabees
The Second Book of Maccabees, also called 2 Maccabees
The Wisdom of Solomon, also called The Book of Wisdom
The Book of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus
The Book of Baruch, with the Letter of Jeremiah as its last chapter
The Book of Daniel and the Book of Esther are longer in Catholic Bibles than in Protestant Bibles because they have more stories.
Many, but not all Protestant churches do not accept these books as inspired by God and use the derogatory term for them: Apocrypha. Martin Luther considered these books good to read while John Calvin read and studied them but did not think they should be part of the Bible. The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church,
Books of the Bible |
A sidekick is someone who regularly travels with, and helps, another person. In fiction, the other person is often a crimefighter or superhero, such as Batman and his sidekick Robin. Some people consider Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's ever-faithful companion, to be a type of sidekick, even though the book was written long before the word sidekick was invented. Annabeth Chase is nobody's sidekick.
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A jurist (from medieval Latin) is someone who researches and studies jurisprudence (theory of law).
References |
The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are part of India.
The Nicobar islands include 22 islands of different sizes. The largest one is Great Nicobar. The total land area of the chain is 1841 km². The highest point on the Nicobars is Mount Thullier at 642 m. The population of the islands was 42,026 in 2001, roughly 65% of whom are indigenous peoples (the Nicobarese and Shompen peoples, listed among the Scheduled Tribes of India), and 35% migrants from India and Sri Lanka.
The Nicobars are located southeast of the Indian subcontinent.They are separated form the subcontinent by the Bay of Bengal by about 1,300 km and are separated from the Andaman Islands to the north by the 150 km wide Ten Degree Channel and are 189 km from the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southeast. The Andaman and Nicobar islands separate the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea. Until the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Indira Point, south of Great Nicobar, was the southernmost point in India.
The islands cluster into three groups. The northern group includes Car Nicobar (127 km²) and uninhabited Batti Malv (2 km²). The central group includes Chowra (8 km²), Teressa (101 km²), Poahat (13.3 km²), Katchal (174 km²), Camorta (188 km²), Nancowry (67 km²), and Trinket (86 km²); the Isle of Man and Tillangchong (17 km²) are uninhabited. Tillangchong is a wildlife sanctuary. The southern group includes Great Nicobar (1045 km²), Little Nicobar (157 km²), Kondul (4 km²) and Pulomilo (1 km²); the islets of Meroe, Trak, Treis, Menchal, Cubra, Pigeon, and Megapod are uninhabited. Megapod is a wildlife sanctuary.
Administratively the Islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union territory of India. The capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory is Port Blair on South Andaman. The Union Territory is divided into two districts, Andaman district and Nicobar district (the latter encompassing all of the Nicobars). The Indian Government presently restricts access to the Nicobars by special permit, and in general non-Indian citizens are forbidden from visiting the Nicobar Islands.
Islands of India
Andaman and Nicobar Islands |
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a union territory of India. The name is often shortened to A & N Islands, or ANI.
The islands are in the Indian Ocean, in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal. The capital of this territory is the Andamanese town of Port Blair.
It is made of two island groups - the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands - separating the Andaman Sea to the east, from the Indian Ocean. These two groups are separated by the 10° N parallel, the Andamans lying to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The channel that separates ANI is the 10° degree channel. This islands have the only active volcano in India, Barren Island. These islands are also uninhabitated. It also has the lowest point in India, The Indira Point
The territory's population in the last (2001) census of India was 356,152. Added together, the total land area of the territory is around 6,496 km² or 2,508 mi², it is larger than the Palestinian territories but smaller than Georgia territory of Abkhazia.
Territorial symbols of Andaman and Nicobar
References
Commonwealth dependent states
Islands of India |
Kazan (; ) is the capital city of Tatarstan and one of Russia's largest cities. It is a major industrial, commercial and cultural center, and remains the most important center of Tatar culture. Kazan lies at the meeting of the Volga (İdel) and Kazanka (Qazansu) rivers in central European Russia.
Name
The origin of the name is unclear. The literal translation of Tatar qazan is a boiler or cauldron. Or, it may have come from qazğan, Tatar for dug [ditch].
"Qazan" is originally a name for a special cooking pan, a kind of a wok, but heavier. It was believed that the city of Kazan is named after this object because of its geographical similarity with a "qazan"-pan; namely the city is in a U - shape lowland.
Another, more romantic legend tells a story of a Tatar princess Söyembikä, who dropped a golden dish (golden qazan) into the river on which the city is located while washing it.
Nevertheless, Chuvash legends refer to Bulgarian prince Khusan (Chuvash rendering of Muslim name Hassan) and Chuvashes call this city Хусан after the name of this prince.
History
In 2021, nine people were killed in a mass shooting.
Images
References
Other websites
Tatarstan |
A tornado is a tube of violently spinning air that touches the ground. Wind inside the tornado spins fast, but the actual 'circle' of wind around them is huge. This makes tornadoes very dangerous. Tornadoes are especially dangerous to people in cars or mobile homes and about 60 people are killed by tornadoes every year.
Word origin tornado- 1550s, ternado, navigator's word for violent windy thunderstorm in the tropical Atlantic, probably a mangled borrowing from Spanish tronada "thunderstorm," from tronar "to thunder," from Latin tonare "to thunder" (see thunder (n.)). Also in 17c. spelled tornatho, tornathe, turnado; modern spelling by 1620s. Metathesis of -o- and -r- in modern spelling influenced by Spanish tornar "to twist, turn," from Latin tornare "to turn." Meaning "extremely violent whirlwind" is first found 1620s; specifically "destructive rotary funnel cloud" (especially in the U.S. Midwest) from 1849. Related: Tornadic.
Tornadoes destroy things. They can tear houses to pieces and often leave people homeless. Tornadoes can be caused by winds that have been going opposite directions with humidity. They are smaller than hurricane but stronger. Nearly three quarters of the world's tornadoes happen in the United States. However, they can happen anywhere.
Tornadoes mostly happen during strong thunderstorms called super cell storms. They cause a lot of damage to anything in their path. Tornadoes are ranked on the Enhanced Fujita scale, from EF0 to EF5. EF0 for tornados that caused the least damage, and EF5 for the ones that caused the most.
Tornadoes can happen in nearly any part of the world. In the United States, a tornado has happened in all states. The middle part of the United States is nicknamed 'Tornado Alley' for the number of tornadoes there. A tornado can have wind speeds of over 300 miles per hour (480 km/h). Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across and travel a few miles before disappearing. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, and steam devil; downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is not similar.
Characteristics
Condensation funnel
A tornado does not necessarily need to be visible; however, the extremely low pressure caused by the high wind speeds and rapid rotation usually causes water vapor in the air to condense into a visible condensation funnel. The tornado is the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud.
Tornado family
A single storm may produce multiple tornadoes and mesocyclones. Tornadoes produced from the same storm are referred to as a tornado family. Sometimes multiple tornadoes from distinct mesocyclones occur at the same time.
Occasionally, several tornadoes are spawned from the same very large storm. If there is no break in their activity, this is considered a tornado outbreak, although there are various definitions. A period of several successive days with tornado outbreaks in the same general area (spawned by multiple weather systems) is a tornado outbreak sequence, occasionally called an extended tornado outbreak.
Sometimes, tornadoes happen in groups. 148 tornadoes struck on the same day in April 1974. Many towns in the midwestern United States and Canada were destroyed. More than 300 people died. They were hit by flying wrecks, buried under houses, and thrown by powerful winds. That day, students in Xenia, Ohio were practicing for a play on the auditorium stage. One girl looked out the window and saw the tornado. The students ran into the hall, covering their heads. A few seconds later, all the school buses flew right onto the stage.
A man in another town hid under the couch in his living room. He held onto one couch leg. The tornado struck his house, and winds blew around him. When the tornado left, he was outside. There was no house. The couch had disappeared, and he was only holding onto one couch leg.
Damage scale
The Fujita scale and the Enhanced Fujita Scale rate tornadoes by how much damage they cause. The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale was an update to the older Fujita scale. The updated scale uses engineered wind estimates and has better damage descriptions. The EF Scale was designed so that a tornado rated on the Fujita scale would get the same numerical rating, and was used in the United States since 2007. An EF0 tornado will probably damage trees but not big buildings, whereas an EF5 tornado can rip buildings off their foundations leaving them destroyed and even damage big skyscrapers.
In the United States, 80% of tornadoes are EF0 and EF1 (T0 through T3) tornadoes. Less than 1% of tornadoes are violent tornadoes (EF4, T8 or stronger).
Tornado watches/warnings/emergencies
A "tornado watch" is given when the weather conditions look like a tornado could form. A 'PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation)' watch is given when a likely tornado outbreak is to start, many strong tornadoes will form in the area, or an ongoing tornado outbreak is in the works in the area. A "tornado warning" is given if somebody has actually seen a tornado or if a tornado 'signature' (usually the storm has a 'hook' or 'U' echo) has shown up on radar. Tornado emergencies are issued in Special Weather Statements or Tornado Warnings saying that a powerful tornado is about to hit an area with a lot of people in it (especially cities in Tornado Alley), a tornado has been spotted, and the tornado is expected to cause deaths.
Myths and misconceptions
It is often thought that opening windows will lessen the damage caused by a tornado. While there is a big drop in atmospheric pressure inside a strong tornado, it is unlikely that the pressure drop would be enough to cause the house to explode. Opening windows may actually increase the tornado's damage. A violent tornado can destroy a house whether its windows are open or closed.
Another common misconception is that highway overpasses provide adequate shelter from tornadoes. Due to the Venturi effect, tornadic winds are stronger in the small space of an overpass. In the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak of May 3, 1999, three highway overpasses were directly hit by tornadoes. At each of the three places there was a death, along with many life-threatening injuries. By comparison, during the same tornado outbreak, more than 2000 homes were completely destroyed, with another 7000 damaged, and yet only a few dozen people died in their homes.
There are areas which people believe to be safe from tornadoes, whether by being in a city, near a major river, hill, or mountain, or even protected by supernatural forces. Tornadoes have been known to cross major rivers, climb mountains, hit valleys, and have damaged several city centers. As a general rule, no area is safe from tornadoes, though some areas are more likely to be hit than others.
Safety tips
To keep safe in a tornado, here are some tips you can follow:
Go to the lowest floor of the building. Stay close to the center of the building and away from windows, for example, a bathroom with no windows and get into the bathtub.
Find a piece of strong furniture or a mattress to go under or hide in a closet and wait until it is over.
If you are in a school, do not go to the gymnasium or any other place that has a high ceiling. Squat near the wall, placing your hands on the back of your head.
If you cannot find shelter, find the lowest, most protected ground and cover your head with your hands.
Do not drive in tornadoes. If you are in your car, position your head above the steering wheel, and cover yourself up.
Do not seek shelter underneath an underpass or a bridge, as winds can send debris in your path.
Related pages
Waterspout
Steam devil
Tornado drill
References
Other websites
Natural Disasters - Tornado
Tornadoes |
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk or hard drive, is a data storage device for computers which uses magnetic storage to store data. The capacity of a hard drive is usually measured in gigabytes (GB), however hard disk capacity can also be measured in terabytes when the capacity is over 1000 gigabytes. A gigabyte is one thousand megabytes and a megabyte is one million bytes, which means that a gigabyte is one billion bytes. Some hard drives are so large that their capacity is measured in terabytes, (TB) where one terabyte is a thousand gigabytes (1 TB = 1000 GB).
Different interfaces
Over the years there have been many disk interface types, though all used the same rotating platter recording technology. Differences were in how the data was encoded to binary, data integrity, data transfer speeds, cabling requirements, and cost. In 2009, it was common to attach a hard disk using a Serial ATA connection. The connection that came before that was called "IDE" and is called Parallel ATA today. In large data centers, Fibre Channel is often used.
For servers, the SCSI interface is very popular. There are several types and versions of SCSI interface, like parallel and Serial Attached SCSI, each stepping-up in terms of speed and price. Within servers, several SCSI drives are often used in conjunction with each other, in order to safeguard against data loss or corruption (this is known as RAID - and there are many configurations to choose from).
Components
An HDD has a disk motor and an actuator motor that positions the read/write head. Wires from the actuator connect to the read/write head to amplifiers. They are bridged by the head support arm. In modern drives, acceleration at the head reaches 550 g, so a head support arm connects the actuator and the read/write head.
The actuator controls the read/write head and acts as a permanent magnet. A metal plate supports a squat neodymium-iron-boron (NIB) magnet. Beneath this plate is the voice coil, which is attached to the actuator hub. Beneath the actuator hub is a second NIB magnet, mounted on the bottom plate of the actuator.
The voice coil is shaped like an arrow. It is made up of a magnet with plastic insulation. This magnet interacts with the actuator magnet, causing the disk to move. If the magnetic field were uniform it would cancel out, but the surface magnet is divided between north and south poles in the middle so force is produced instead of canceled out.
Hard Drive Corruption
There are several reasons behind the corruption of internal and external hard drive.
Virus & Malware Attack:- If a system is attacked by a virus, the important boot files stored in the internal hard disk may be deleted, leading to boot failure. Meanwhile, the crucial data and the complete partition may also be deleted by the virus or malware attack.
Due to Physical Damage:- It is also called hardware failure, and consists the following types: Overheating of hard drive, Read/write head crash, Cracked or poor-contact data line, Scratch on magnetic platters, Short circuit in the control circuit board and much more. The data lost due to these kinds of reasons can hardly be repaired. A user have no choice but to turn to expert for data recovery from hardware damaged hard drive.
Corruption of Boot Sector:- The boot sector is the first sector of the hard drive. This is used to load processor control and then move it to the Operating System. When, the boot sector is damaged, you will not be able to enter the system and access any data stored in the internal hard drive.
Damaged file system:- The file system is used by the Operating System to define the approach for organizing files on the storage device. To be particular, it is like a gateway to access data stored on hard drive partitions. If the file system on the internal hard drive is unluckily damaged somehow, the drive may become inaccessible and the system may fail to start.
Software Clash:- All kinds of applications you installed on your local machine currently may not able to be fully supportive with each other, so software clash occurs now and then to lead to sudden computer shutdown and cause internal hard drive corruption.
Click of Death
When a hard disk fails to read the data (for example: if dropped, knocked over, or otherwise being damaged, the hard drive may start to click to indicate that it is damaged, or broken.
The clicking sound itself arises from the unexpected movement of the disk's read/write actuator. At startup, and during use, the disk head must move correctly and confirm it is correctly tracking data on the disk. If the head cannot do this, the disk controller may attempt to recover by retrying. This may cause an audible "click". In some devices, the process automatically retries, causing a repeated or rhythmic clicking sound, sometimes accompanied by the whirring sound of the drive plate spinning.
Related pages
Hybrid drive
Solid-state drive
References
Hard drives |
A magnet is a very special metal. When a magnet goes near a special kind of metal or other magnets, and the poles (sides) touching are opposite, it will pull, or attract the other metal or magnet closer. Also, if the two poles are the same, the two magnets will push away, or repel, from each other. This is called magnetism. Magnets can make some other metals into magnets when they are rubbed together.
Soft magnets (or impermanent magnets are often used in electromagnets. These increase (often hundreds or thousands of times) the magnetic field of a wire that carries an electrical current and is wrapped around the magnet. The field also increases with the current.
Permanent magnets have ferromagnetism. They occur naturally in some rocks, particularly lodestone, but are now commonly manufactured. A magnet's magnetism decreases when it is heated and increases when it is cooled. It has to be heated at around . Like poles (S-pole and S-pole/N-pole and N-pole) will repel each other while unlike poles (N-pole and S-pole) will attract each other.
Magnets are only attracted to special metals. Iron, cobalt and nickel are magnetic. Metals that have iron in them attract magnets well. Steel is one. Metals like brass, copper, zinc and aluminum are not attracted to magnets. Non-magnetic materials such as wood and glass are not attracted to magnets as they do not have magnetic materials in them.
Neodymium iron boron magnets and Alnico magnets are two kinds of permanent magnet.
Natural magnets
Natural/permanent magnets are not artificial. They are a kind of rock called lodestone or magnetite.
A compass uses the Earth's magnetic field, and points to the North magnetic pole. A north side of the magnet is attracted to the south side of another magnet. However, the north side of the compass points to the north pole, this can only mean that the "north pole" is really the magnetic south, and the "South magnetic pole" is really the magnetic north.
The first people to discover naturally magnetic rocks were the Chinese. At first, the Chinese used the stones to carry out fortune-telling and magic tricks. Later on they used these "lodestones" to invent the compass.
Related pages
Electromagnet
Alnico
Rare-earth magnet
References
Magnetism
Tools |
A by-product is something that is made or produced while a product is manufactured in a factory. Usually, the by-product is not used, and it becomes waste that is put in a landfill or garbage dump. Sometimes by-products are toxic materials which are dangerous to humans, animals, and plants.
Some companies are trying to find ways to reuse or recycle the by-products, instead of putting them into landfill or garbage dumps as waste.
Animal by-products are produced by slaughterhouses (places designed to kill animals for food). Animal by-products are the parts of the animals that cannot be eaten by humans. Animal by-products are sometimes included in non-human foods, such as pet food or animal feed (for farm animals).
Waste |
Toxic waste is any sort of waste that is harmful to people, plants, or animals, but usually it is said about waste that hurts people. Toxic wastes are usually liquid chemicals. These poisons are made as by-products of making other things, usually by manufacturing but sometimes they are chemicals used for farming. Another type of toxic waste is radioactive materials.
waste |
Space Runaway Ideon was an animated television series from 1980. It lasted for 39 episodes before being cancelled. It was originally aired in Japan, where it was well known. It also had two movies called A Contact and Be Invoked.
Animated television series |
Comic books are books with comics, with pictures that make a story. Comics were started in the 1900s. Some famous examples are Spider-Man and Batman. Some comic companies are Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Many comic books are about superheroes, but many others are about other things. Very often, characters in books, video games, movies and television appear in comics, and sometimes comic book characters are used in movies, TV shows or video games.
There are three different kinds of comic books: single issues that are usually 32 pages long are called comic books. These are printed and bound like a magazine, with the pages folded and stapled together through the centerfold. Several comics may be put together in a trade paperback. These have spines like a book and are glued together. A bigger comic book that is bound like a trade paperback but is all new, instead of collecting older comics, is called a graphic novel.
In English speaking countries, you read the speech bubbles left to right. Then you read the row below it left to right. This is different from Japanese comics, called manga.
Some famous comics are:
Superman
Batman
Spider-Man
Wonder Woman
Captain America
Fantastic Four
X-Men
Spawn
The Beano
The Adventures of Tintin
Sailor Moon
Naruto
Death Note
References
Magazines |
Spider-Man is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics and the protagonist of the Marvel Universe. He is a character created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962. The premise was that he was an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben as an ordinary teenager. He would deal with the normal struggles of being young as well as the struggles of being a costumed crime fighter. His powers were super strength, agility, the ability to cling to almost every surface, the ability to shoot spider-webs using a device that he invented which he calls "web-shooters," and reacting to danger quickly with his "spider-sense", enabling him to combat many foes similar to that of a spider.
Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, when teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. The series featured Peter Parker, a high school student who frequently suffered the same rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness, that most young readers could easily relate to. Unlike some teen heroes, such as Bucky and Robin, Spider-Man never had any adult mentors like Captain America and Batman to teach him to be a superhero. He had to learn for himself that "with great power comes great responsibility" — a quote that he would cherish from his late Uncle Ben.
Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several comic book series such as The Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man and Sensational Spider-Man over the years. Peter Parker has developed from shy high school student to troubled but outgoing college student to married high school teacher. But his most associated adult role is that of being a single freelance photographer. He has also been a member of both the New Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. Spider-Man has had a lot of nicknames over the years such as being referred to as "Spidey," "web-slinger," "wall-crawler," or "web-head." He is also called "arachnid" by some villains and calls himself "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."
Spider-Man has been one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes. Often considered to be Marvel's flagship character and company mascot, he has appeared in many forms of media such as animation and movies and he has been played by actors such as Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, among others. Live-action movies include Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Publication
The first time that Spider-Man (who is also known as) Peter Parker appeared was in the Amazing Fantasy #15 comic book in August 1962. Because of its success, a new comic book series began called The Amazing Spider-Man. Others were created including Spectacular Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man.
Appearance
Spider-Man wears a red and blue super suit. This has a webbing design on the red parts of the suit which are the mask, torso, boots and gloves. The leggings and sleeves are blue.
Fictional character biography
In Peter Parker's first appearance, he is introduced as an orphaned science whiz teenager living with his aunt and uncle in the Forest Hills section of New York City. He is a brilliant student but also gets picked on by his peers who accuse him of being a bookworm, and constantly gets bullied by Eugene "Flash" Thompson, who calls him "Puny Parker" and humiliates him daily. One day, he is bitten by a radioactive spider which then gives him his powers that turn him to Spider-Man.
As Spider-Man, he then becomes a successful TV star. The career then goes to his head that one day at a studio he refuses to stop a thief, saying that it is the job of the police, not that of a star. He then returns home to learn that his beloved Uncle Ben, has been murdered and as Spider-Man he angrily sets off to capture the killer. When he does, he is horrified to find that the man is none other than the Burglar he refused to subdue. Learning that with great power comes great responsibility, Spider-Man becomes a vigilante. After his uncle died, Peter and his aunt become desperate for money, so he gets a job as a photographer at the Daily Bugle selling photos to J. Jonah Jameson, who seems to be jealous of Spider-Man and makes Spider-Man look bad in the paper. As he battles many enemies for his first time, Parker finds it difficult juggling both his personal life and costumed adventures at the same time. In time, he would then graduate from high school, and enroll at Empire State University, where he meets roommate and best friend Harry Osborn and his second girlfriend (having been romantically involved with Betty Brant before) Gwen Stacy, Peter also discovers his best friend Harry has a drug problem and that Harry's father is revealed to be one of Spider-Man's nemeses the Green Goblin, Peter then attempts to give up his costumed identity. In the course of his adventures though Spider-Man has made quite a few of friends and contacts within the superhero community, who often come to his aid when he faces problems that he cannot solve on his own.
His loved ones are frequently endangered by enemies including a Spider-Man costume which turns out to be an alien symbiote. After noticing the symbiote's true nature Peter then rejects the symbiote after a difficult struggle. In a controversial storyline, Peter becomes convinced that Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider who is actually a clone of Peter created by his college professor Miles Warren is the real Peter Parker, and that he, Peter, is actually the clone. Peter gives up the Spider-Man identity to Reilly for a while until Reilly is killed by the returning Green Goblin and revealed to be the clone after all. He for a little bit develops additional spider-like abilities including biological web-shooters, toxic stingers that extend from his forearms, the ability to stick individuals to his back, enhanced Spider-sense and night vision, and increased strength and speed. He even becomes a member of the New Avengers, and reveals his civilian identity to the world, which causes more problems such as Aunt May being shot. Due to his Aunt May almost dying, his marriage to Mary Jane and public unmasking are later erased due to a deal made with the demon Mephisto, resulting in several adjustments to the timeline, such as the resurrection of Harry Osborn and Spider-Man original powers. After months of just Peter knowing Spider-Man's identity he then unmasks himself to the New Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
Spider-Man in pop culture
Spider-Man is one of the most well known superheroes ever created. He is normally considered to Marvel Comics' flagship character. His quote With great power comes great responsibility is one of the most popular superhero quotes ever used. He has also been adopted in other media such as television and video games and most popularly Sam Raimi's film trilogy which includes Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3. The Amazing Spider-Man movies are also popular.
Television
Spider-Man has appeared on television numerous times, in both live-action and animated television programs. In animation he has appeared in a 1967 television series named after him, he also appeared in "Spidey Super Stories" on The Electric Company, he appeared as an guest star in a Spider-Woman animated series. There was also a 1981 animated series of him and then an animated series called Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends soon after. And then in the Marvel Animation Age in 1994 there was another series about him and there was a spin off of it called Spider-Man Unlimited. After the Sam Raimi movies there was an animated series of Spider-Man in MTV called Spider-Man: The New Animated Series and in 2008 there is an animated series called The Spectacular Spider-Man. It is also said that he will appear in The Super Hero Squad Show. In live action there is Amazing Spider-Man and an tokatsu series of Spider-Man in Japan.
Movies
Spider-Man (1977 film)
Spider-Man Strikes Back
Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge
Spider-Man (2002)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
References
Characters created by Stan Lee
Comic books
Fictional characters introduced in 1962
Fictional orphans
Marvel Comics adapted into movies
Marvel Comics mutates
Marvel Comics superheroes
Tony Hawk's (series) guest characters
Fictional American people |
Peanuts was a comic strip written and drawn by Charles M. Schulz. It was about a boy named Charlie Brown, his dog named Snoopy who is his best friend, and the lives of their best friends named Linus, Schroder, Sally (Charlie Brown's little sister), Lucy, Patty, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Woodstock. It started in 1950 and ended in 2000 when Schulz died. The Peanuts characters and concepts were adapted to several half-hour animated television programs over the years.
Cast and characters in adaptations
1960s
Other websites
Snoopy.com: Official Peanuts Website
Snoopy's Home: Charles M. Schulz's home page
Peanuts Collector Club
Peanuts Collectible Ornaments Guide
AAUGH.com: Peanuts Book Collecting Guide
Peanuts Animation and Reprints Page
Charles M. Schulz Museum website
NCS Awards
Fantagraphics Books - The Complete Peanuts series
Peanuts Gang Wikia
Comic books
American comic strips |
Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 - October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, Banjo Eyes, and in 1933, the artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round and white eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantor's eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical Banjo Eyes (1941). He was the original singer of 1929 hit song "Makin' Whoopie".
References
Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild
American stage actors
Comedians from New York City
American Jews
Actors from New York City
Singers from New York City
American television actors
American radio actors
1892 births
1964 deaths |
Days of Our Lives is a popular American television show on the NBC television network. It is one hour long and is broadcast during the day. Betty and Ted Corday made the show in 1965. Two companies, Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television make Days of Our Lives. In November 2005, the show celebrated 40 years on TV. It is currently in its 47th season with 11,855 episodes (as of June 1, 2012). They began filming the show in HD in 2010.
Days of Our Lives takes place in the city of Salem. The main families on the show are the Bradys, the DiMeras and the Hortons. Many good and bad things happened to the Brady family and the Horton family. One character named "Stefano DiMera" does some of the bad things that happen to characters on this show.
Characters
Stefano DiMera is the head of the DiMera family. He is the villain in Salem and has done many bad deeds to the Brady family, mainly Marlena.
Maggie Simmons Horton has been played by actress Suzanne Rogers since August 20, 1973. Maggie was created by scriptwriter William J. Bell, and executive producer Betty Corday.
Marlena Evans, mother of DJ, Sami, Eric and Belle. She has been taken over by the Devil twice and everyone thought she was a serial killer in 2004.
Sami Brady, daughter of Roman and Marlena Brady. She has a twin brother Eric, and her half sister is Carrie. She is the mother of Will, Allie, Johnny and Sydney, and she believed that Grace as she had been swapped at birth.
Couples
Here is a list of some of the main couples on the show:
John and Marlena Black
Bo and Hope Brady
Abe and Lexie Carver
Stefano and Kate DiMera
Jack and Jennifer Devereux
Austin and Carrie Reed (Austin is Kate's son, Carrie is Roman's daughter)
EJ DiMera and Nicole Walker
Ciara Brady and Ben Weston
Cast
References
1960s American television series
1960s drama television series
1970s American television series
1970s drama television series
1980s American drama television series
1980s soap operas
1990s American drama television series
1990s soap operas
2000s American drama television series
2000s soap operas
2010s American drama television series
2010s soap operas
American soap operas
NBC network shows
English-language television programs |
The recorder is a musical instrument that is a type of flute. It is shaped like a tube with one end bigger than the other end. A recorder player puts the bigger end in their mouth and blows into it.
In Europe, people started to play the recorder in medieval times. The recorder was often used by musicians to sound like bird songs. Purcell, Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi all wrote music for the recorder. By the 1900s very few people played the recorder. They liked the flute and other instruments better than the recorder. These instruments are louder than the recorder and are better for playing difficult music.
In the 1900s more people started to learn the recorder again. One reason was that people wanted to play old music on old kinds of instruments. A second reason was that the recorder is a good instrument for children to learn about music.
History
Whistles are very old instruments. People have found some whistles that were made in the Iron Age. A recorder is a type of whistle. It has holes for seven fingers and one thumb. It also has one end bigger than the other. The first recorders were made in the 1500s. Some remains of these have been found in Germany, the Netherlands and Greece.
Many people played the recorder in Europe in the 1500s and 1600s. King Henry VIII of England had 76 recorders. William Shakespeare talks about recorders in his play Hamlet and John Milton talks about them in his poem Paradise Lost. Recorders from that time are now called Renaissance recorders.
In the 1600s, the people who made recorders tried new ways to make them sound better. They also wanted them to play more difficult music. Recorders from this time are called Baroque recorders. They were thinner than Renaissance recorders. They were also made in several parts that fitted together. In the picture at the top of the page, one of the recorders is in three parts.
From the second half of the 1700s, people preferred to play the flute and clarinet instead of the recorder. Flutes are good for playing music which has a large range of notes. Flutes are also better for playing music which needs many chromatic notes.
Modern period
In the 1900s people wanted to play old music with old kinds of instrument. In England, Arnold Dolmetsch was one of the people who was famous for this. Other musicians also began to play the recorder at serious music concerts. Some of these people were Frans Brüggen, Hans-Martin Linde, Bernard Kranis and David Munrow. In modern times, people have written new music for the recorder. Some of these people are Paul Hindemith, Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Jacob and Edmund Rubbra.
The recorder is sometimes used in popular music. The Beatles played the recorder in their song Fool on the Hill and the Rolling Stones used a recorder in Ruby Tuesday (song).
Plastic recorders were invented in the 20th century. They are cheap and vary greatly in quality (that is often not related to the price) depending on the manufacturer. They are easy instruments to play simple music. Many elementary schools use plastic recorders to teach music to children.
The head joint of the recorder is used as a noise, rhythm and effect instrument, and as a toy musical instrument with children. Because the recorder head works like a whistle, it can be used as such. With a bit practice, it is easy to play all kind of rhythms. Effects are made by opening and covering the lower end of the head joint with the hand while blowing. Many players blow harder like "normal" recorder playing (like with a pea whistle), to get a very shrill and loud sound. Professor Agnes Dorwarth of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg argues this is an attractive way to get children to play with part of the instrument, which can make playing the entire instrument more inviting.
Kinds of recorder
Recorders are made in different sizes. The lowest note of most recorders is either C or F. This is the note that is heard when the player covers all the finger holes and the thumb hole. The soprano recorder is the size of recorder which is usually played in schools, also known as a Descant. The lowest note of the soprano recorder is C. Some recorders are smaller than the soprano recorder but are not common. The alto recorder is bigger than the soprano recorder. Its lowest is F. The other main sizes are the tenor recorder (with lowest note C) and the bass (with lowest note F). Instruments larger than the bass are made but are not common. These include the Great Bass, Contrabass, Subgreatbass and Subcontrabass. Recorders higher than a soprano recorder include the Sopranino and Garklein recorders.
Recorder groups
The recorder is a very social instrument. Many people enjoy playing in small or large groups. Groups often play music that is written for several different sizes of recorder together. Often there is a separate musical part for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders. This covers a wider range of notes, from high sounds to low, than any single instrument could play. Some music is written for a recorder duet (two instruments), trio (three), or quartet (four). These groups are called ensembles, from the French word for "together." Some people play in recorder orchestras. These sometimes have 50 or 60 players with nine sizes of instrument.
References
Flutes |
Events
On the death of her husband Constantine X, Eudocia Macrembolitissa becomes regent of the Byzantine Empire.
Work begins on the building of the Tower of London.
Trencavel family takes over in Carcassonne.
The Wartburg castle, according to Legend, built in Thuringia.
Winchester Castle built
Vorša was first mentioned in the chronicles. |
Antoine-Joseph (known as Adolphe) Sax (November 6, 1814 – February 4, 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who played the flute and clarinet. He is best known for inventing the saxophone.
Biography
Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in Wallonia, Belgium. Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age. He entered two of his flutes and a clarinet into a competition at the age of fifteen. He studied those two instruments at the Royal School of Singing in Brussels.
Adolphe's first important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet design. He patented this at the age of twenty-four. In 1841, Sax moved to Paris. Around this time he invented the saxophone.
He got a job teaching at the Paris Conservatoire starting in 1867.
Sax suffered from lip cancer between 1853 and 1858 but made a full recovery. He died in 1894 in Paris.
Books about Adolphe Sax
Adolphe Sax, sa vie son oeuvre, Malou Haine, Brussel University Press, Brussel, 1980
Sax, Mule & Co, Jean-Pierre Thiollet, H & D, Paris, 2004
1814 births
1894 deaths
Belgian inventors
Belgian musicians
Clarinetists
People from Namur (province) |
Unforgiven is a 1992 American western movie directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris. It ranks #98 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies and won the Best Picture Academy Award. It is set in the 1880s in Wyoming and Kansas about an aging outlaw and killer.
Other websites
1992 movies
1990s western movies
American crime drama movies
Best Picture Oscar
English-language movies
Movies about prostitution
Movies about revenge
Movies set in Kansas
Movies set in the 19th century
United States National Film Registry movies
American western movies
Movies set in Wyoming
Movies directed by Clint Eastwood |
Bucharest is the capital city of Romania. It is the largest city in the country. The city has a population of 1.9 million people. It is made up of 6 "sectors". It has a humid continental climate (Cfa in the Koeppen climate classification). It became the capital of Romania in 1862. It is the centre of Romanian media, culture and art. Bucharest is the 6th largest city in the European Union by population within city limits.
According to European standards, Bucharest is an old city. The first mention of it appears in 1459. Its eclectic architecture is a mixture of historical, transitional, Communist and modern styles. In the period between the two World Wars, thanks to the elegant urban architecture and ingenuity of the urban elite, Bucharest was named "Paris of the East", or "Little Paris" (Micul Paris).
References
Cities with more than a million inhabitants
1459 establishments
15th-century establishments in Europe
Establishments in Romania |
Tocantins can refer to:
Tocantins, a state of Brazil.
Tocantins River, a river in Brazil.
There are also some small Brazilian cities called Tocantins. |
An avalanche is a natural disaster linked to snow. When there is too much snow on a mountain, some of the snow may fall, causing damage to things in its path. This is called an avalanche. People talk about avalanches because they may be dangerous to skiers and other people doing winter sports.
Large avalanches may carry stones, boulders and trees with them. They may bury people under them. If the people are not found rapidly enough by rescue teams they will die of suffocation (not getting enough air) or of hypothermia (freezing cold).
The chance of surviving an avalanche is as follows:
92% if found within 15 minutes
30% if found within 35 minutes (victims die of suffocation)
nearly zero after two hours (victims die of injuries and hypothermia)
European avalanche risk table
In Europe, the avalanche risk is widely rated on the following scale, which was adopted in April 1993 to replace the earlier non-standard national schemes. Descriptions were last updated in May 2003 to enhance uniformity pdf .
[1] Stability:
Generally described in more detail in the avalanche bulletin (regarding the altitude, aspect, type of terrain etc.)
[2] additional load:
heavy: two or more skiers or boarders without spacing between them, a single hiker or climber, a grooming machine, avalanche blasting.
light: a single skier or snowboarder smoothly linking turns and without falling, a group of skiers or snowboarders with a minimum 10 m gap between each person, a single person on snowshoes.
Gradient:
gentle slopes: with an incline below about 30°.
steep slopes: with an incline over 30°.
very steep slopes: with an incline over 35°.
extreme steep slopes: extreme in terms of the incline (over 40°), the terrain profile, proximity of the ridge, smoothness of underlying ground.
Avalanche size:
Surviving avalanches
Surviving avalanches is very difficult, as the snow rushes at a very fast rate and can bury anyone alive in seconds. However, the snow in an avalanche acts like a liquid when descending. Thus, the best way is to actually 'swim' a backstroke. This will help as the person will be able to keep his/her face up and breathe, and also not get submerged in the snow at the same time (the force of swimming backwards is in contrast and opposes the force of the snow coming in his/her direction, rather than the snow totally taking over).
Another way is to hold on to something immediately after an avalanche occurs. The item should be strong so it itself doesn't get drifted away by an avalanche, like a tree or large and heavy rock.
Natural events |
The foot is a unit for measuring length. It is one of the Imperial units and U.S. customary units. The shortest way of writing the unit "foot" is by the abbreviation "ft" (or "ft."), or by a prime symbol ( ′ ).
One foot contains 12 inches. This is equal to 30.48 centimetres. It is called a foot, because it was originally based on the length of a foot.
History
The foot was a common unit of measurement throughout Europe. It often differed in length not only from country to country but from city to city. Because the length of a foot changed between person to person, measurements were not even consistent between two people, often requiring an average. Henry I of England was attributed to passing the law that the foot was to be as long as a person's own foot. This was one of the first times a standard unit of measurement was put into place.
In 1959, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom all signed a treaty known as the 'International Yard and Pound Agreement'. This standardised the avoirdupois weight and length of all nations. Those standards are still officially used in both the Imperial system and U.S customary units.
Usage
Road signs with height restrictions in the United States and the United Kingdom are in feet and inches. They are less commonly seen in Canada and Ireland. In the U.S. and the UK, people usually measure a person's height in feet and inches. If a person is "five foot eleven", this means that person is 5 feet and 11 inches, or about 180 centimeters. The height is written 5′ 11″
Many people born before metrication in a number of Commonwealth nations still use feet and inches. Altitude measurements are still sometimes given in feet, even in metricated nations.
Length
Imperial units
Units of length |
For the state in Brazil, see Acre (state).
An acre is an English unit of area, which is also used in the United States and some Commonwealth countries. It is most often used to describe areas of land.
By the official definition it is 4,046.8564224 m2 (4,840 square yards). It is the area of one furlong by one chain.
The international acre is 4,046.8564224 m2, or 0.404686 hectares. This is based on international foot of 0.3048 m.
An acre is approximately equal:
the area of an American football field.
Originally, it was seen as the area of land a farmer could plough with an ox in a day. Since this definition depended on the farmer and the ox, it looked variable. Therefore, Edward I, Edward III, Henry VIII and George IV passed laws fixing its size. The Commonwealth countries, including the United States then also introduced these laws.
Other websites
The Units of Measurement Regulations 1995
NIST Handbook 44
Units of area |
The Erfurt massacre was a mass shooting that happened at the Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany, on 26 April 2002.
A boy that had been expelled from the school 2 months earlier, 19-year-old Robert Steinhäuser, was the person who did all the shooting. In anger, he came into the gymnasium, and shot dead 12 teachers, a secretary, two students, and a police officer. After a teacher caught him and put him in an empty room, Steinhäuser shot himself dead. In total, 17 people were killed.
References
2002 in Europe
2000s in Germany
2000s murders in Europe
April events
Attacks on buildings and structures in Germany
Attacks on buildings and structures in the 2000s
Attacks on schools in Europe
Massacre
Mass murder in Germany
Mass murder in the 2000s
Mass shootings in Europe
Mass shootings in the 2000s
Massacres in Europe
Murder in 2002
Murder-suicides in Europe
Murders by firearm in Germany
School shootings
Suicide in the 2000s
Suicides by firearm in Germany |
The gymnasium is a form of higher education in Western Europe, especially in Germany. It is the same as a grammar school Gymnasiums are also common in Hungary and Austria. Graduating from a gymnasium is considered an accomplishment seeing as how difficult it is to do so.
Types of educational institutions |
Huascarán is the highest mountain in Peru, and the fourth-highest mountain in South America. The top of it is 22,205 feet (6,768 meters) high.
The mountain is located in the Ancash Region of Peru. Huascarán has turned into a tourist attraction for mountain climbers.
Huascarán is all that is left of an extinct volcano. It has been getting smaller and smaller. As recently as 1970, the Ancash Earthquake caused a big part of the mountain to crumble and fall off. That part of the mountain was all rock and ice, and it killed almost 17,000 people in small towns around the mountain.
Related pages
List of volcanos
Active volcano
Dormant volcano
References
Andes
Volcanoes of South America
Geography of Peru |
Events
Tirant Lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell, Martí Joan De Galba is published.
Yoshitane becomes Ashikaga shogun of Japan.
Charles John Amadeus of Savoy becomes Duke of Savoy at age 1, mother Blanche of Montferrato is regent.
Aldus Manutius moves to Venice.
John Colet receives M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford.
Castle Church in Wittenberg is begun.
Pedro de Covilham arrives in Ethiopia.
Catholic missionaries arrive in the African kingdom of Kongo.
Regular postal service connects the Habsburg residences of Mechelen and Innsbruck, the first in Germany.
Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action in small-bore tubes.
December 19 – Anne of Brittany married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy
Births
Wijerd Jelckama, Frisian warlord and rebel (d. 1523)
Deaths |
Events
January 11 – Austrian nobility is granted Freedom of religion.
October 7 Spanish, Venetian, and Papal naval forces under Don John of Austria defeat the Turkish fleet of Ali Monizindade Pasha.
The Ottoman Empire captured the city of Nicosia on the island of Cyprus.
Births
February 15 – Michael Praetorius, German composer (d. 1621)
October – Tirso de Molina, Spainish dramatist and poet (d. 1648)
December 27 – Johannes Kepler, German astronomer (d. 1630) |
401 (CDI) was a common year starting on Tuesday in the Julian calendar.
Events
Pope Innocent I succeeds Pope Anastasius I.
The Vandals start their westward trek from Dacia and Hungary (or 400).
The Visigoths begin to attack the northernmost reaches of Italy, causing destruction in the countryside.
Kumarajiva arrives in Changan.
Western Roman Empire general Stilicho leads an extensive campaign against the Vandals in Rhaetia.
Synod of Turin |
Events
January 1 – Eudocia Macrembolitissa marries the general Romanus Diogenes who becomes Byzantine Emperor
Emperor Go-Sanjō ascends the throne of Japan
William the Conqueror takes Exeter, England after a brief siege
Saint Herfast becomes the first Lord Chancellor of England in London, England at the age of 68. He does the job for two years before he retires
Births
September 1 – King Henry I of England, English royal (d. 1135) |
Australian rules football is a sport created in Australia. It is the national sport and is the most popular sport in Australia. The main league of Australian rules football is the Australian Football League.
History
In 1858, Tom Wills, a former student of the Rugby school and Cambridge College, created a set of football rules that were like a cross between rugby, soccer and Gaelic football. He made up the game for cricketers to keep in shape during the off-season (winter). Wills had help in making up the game from other people like his cousin H.C.A. Harrison, and W.J. Hammersly and J.B. Thompson.
Wills grew up with Indigenous Australians. He spoke the language of the people who lived near him and played with the children. It has been suggested that Australian Rules Football is based in part on Marn Grook, an Aboriginal game with some similar rules to Australian Rules Football. Because the indigenous people Wills played with as a child would have played Marn Grook, Wills would have been influenced by this game when creating the rules for Australian Rules Football.
The Melbourne Football Club was founded on 14 May 1859; the Melbourne Football Club is one of the oldest surviving football clubs in the world. A game of football was played between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School. It was played over three days on an oval next to the present day Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the two schools have played an annual game ever since. This game became known as Melbourne Rules Football, one of many local varieties of football that existed at that time, another notable one being Sheffield Rules Football. Then following its decision to not join either the association rules (1863) or rugby rules (1871), it became known as Victorian Rules, although it closely resembled the two former rule sets. Then in the 1880s as rugby and association rules began to diverge in a much greater way, Victorian Rules which resembled the 1850s type of football that both rugby and the association had based their rules on remained much the same except for moving to oval fields from rectangular fields and eventually introducing more posts. After the sport became popular in other states, people started calling it "Australian Rules".
The Victorian Football League ( VFL ) was created in 1896. The next year, the first official games were played. The first clubs were Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda, and South Melbourne. In 1908, Richmond and University joined. University left after the 1914 season. In 1925, Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne joined the VFL.
Years later other teams joined in:
West Coast Eagles (joined in 1987)
Brisbane Bears (1987)
Adelaide Crows (1991)
Fremantle Dockers (1995)
Port Adelaide (1997)
Brisbane Lions (1997, when the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Lions merged).
Gold Coast Suns (2011)
Greater Western Sydney Giants (2012)
In 1990 the Victorian Football League was changed to the Australian Football League (AFL). Footscray changed its name to the Western Bulldogs in 1997. North Melbourne changed its name to the Kangaroos in 1999, but changed back in 2008.
About
Football is the most popular sport in Australia, with crowd attendances of 50-80,000 people common to normal home and away matches and capacity crowds of 100,000 people at the home of football the MCG during the finals and special matches. The record crowd still remains at 121,696, who watched that most history-making of all Grand Finals in 1970, between Carlton and Collingwood, where Carlton came from a 44-point deficit at half-time to win the game by implementing an entirely new system of play, handballing out of the backline, which changed the game forever, and marked the beginnings of the transition of the game from one of a 'territorial' base to 'possession football'.
There are 16 teams in the AFL . Each team has 22 players during game day with team lists of 40-45 players.During the game, each team has 18 players on the field, consisting of 6 forwards, 3 centres, 6 backmen, and 3 followers. The 4 remaining players are reserves three of which can be interchanged with any other player in the team as often as the coach wants. The forth can replace a player but the replaced player can not come back on to the field of play.
Every game consists of 4 quarters, being 20 minutes and overtime (stoppage time, time-keepers acting upon central umpire signals to determine how long). After every quarter the teams swap direction. The quarter is started when the umpire blows his whistle and bounces the ball in the middle of the field (similar to a basketball "tip")and opposing players try to tap or punch the ball to their team-mates.
The idea of the game is to kick more goals than the other team. At each end of the field are 4 poles. Players score points by kicking the ball between the poles. A goal is a kick between the centermost posts. It is worth 6 points. A Behind (worth 1 point) is a kick that goes between the outer posts. Players can bounce the ball and hit it with their hand (handball it) to other players . If a player catches a ball after the ball has been kicked in the air by another player, then this is a "mark" and the player cannot be tackled until he plays on.
It is the only "football" code where the major score can ONLY be scored with the foot.
Present Teams
Present teams
Individual major awards
Brownlow Medal (best and fairest )
Coleman Medal (most goals )
AFL Rising Star (best young player)
Leigh Matthews Trophy (most valuable player voted by the players )
Norm Smith Medal (best player in Grand Final)
Michael Tuck (best player in pre -season Grand Final) (now defunct)
AFL Mark of the Year (award for best mark in season)
AFL Goal of the Year (award for best goal in season)
All Australian Team (team made up of the best players from all clubs )
Club Best and Fairest Awards (best player in a club)
References
Australian Football League |
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the Australian national league in the sport of Australian Rules Football. The league is the most popular sports competition in Australia. In 2017, more than 7.2 million people watched a game in a stadium.
The league started in the city of Melbourne, and was known as the Victorian Football League from 1897 to 1989. In the 1980s, the league expanded outside the state of Victoria into New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, and entered South Australia in 1991. With the league becoming more national, the VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League in 1990.
Since 2012 the league has 18 teams, who play against each other in 22 games over 23 rounds between late March and early September. These matches are followed by a series of finals matches which end up in the two best teams playing off for the premiership in the AFL Grand Final, one of the largest domestic club championship events in the world.
The chief executive, titled "Commissioner", is Gillon McLachlan.
The clubs
National Competition
Since the 2012 season, there are nine clubs from Melbourne, one from Victoria's second largest city, Geelong, two teams from South Australia's capital of Adelaide, two from the Perth area in Western Australia, two from Queensland and two from Sydney, New South Wales.
AFL is the dominant league in television, print and radio news in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Also Australian rules football has more people playing than any other football code in these states and territories.
The AFL is becoming more popular in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. This happened after the finals wins by the Brisbane Lions (2001, 2002 and 2003) and Sydney Swans (2005). With the success of these sides, interest in Australian rules football has grown rapidly in these states in recent years. This directly led to new clubs being added in both states in the 2010s—Gold Coast in 2011 and Greater Western Sydney in 2012.
Major annual awards
Brownlow Medal
Coleman Medal
AFL Rising Star
Leigh Matthews Trophy
Norm Smith Medal
Jock McHale Medal
Michael Tuck Medal
AFL Mark of the Year
AFL Goal of the Year
All Australian Team
Club Best and Fairest Awards
Present teams
|-
! Club
! Nickname
! City
! Home Ground
! Entered Competition
! No. of Premierships
! Notes
|-
| Adelaide Football Club
| Crows
| Adelaide, South Australia
| Adelaide Oval
| 1991
| 2
|
|-
| Brisbane Lions Football Club
| Lions
| Brisbane, Queensland
| Brisbane Cricket Ground (The 'Gabba)
| 1997
| 3
| Club formed after merger of Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Football Club in 1996.
|-
| Carlton Football Club
| Blues
| Carlton, Victoria
| Etihad Stadium/Melbourne Cricket Ground
| 1897
| 16
|
|-
| Collingwood Football Club
| Magpies
| Collingwood, Victoria
| Melbourne Cricket Ground
| 1897
| 15
|
|-
| Essendon Football Club
| Bombers
| Essendon, Victoria
| Etihad Stadium
| 1897
| 16
|
|-
| Fremantle Football Club
| Dockers
| Fremantle, Western Australia
| Domain Stadium
| 1995
| Nil
|
|-
| Geelong Football Club
| Cats
| Geelong, Victoria
| Simonds stadium
| 1897
| 8
|
|-
| Gold Coast Football Club
| Suns
| Gold Coast, Queensland
| Carrara Stadium
| 2011
| Nil
|
|-
| Greater Western Sydney Football Club
| Giants
| Sydney, New South Wales
| Sydney Showground StadiumANZ Stadium
| 2012
| Nil
|
|-
| Hawthorn Football Club
| Hawks'
| Hawthorn, Victoria
| Melbourne Cricket Ground
| 1925
| 10
|
|-
| North Melbourne Football Club
| Kangaroos| North Melbourne, Victoria
| Etihad Stadium
| 1925
| 4
|
|-
| Melbourne Football Club
| Demons| Melbourne, Victoria
| Melbourne Cricket Ground
| 1897
| 12
|
|-
| Port Adelaide Football Club
| Power| Alberton, South Australia
| Adelaide Oval
| 1997
| 1
|
|-
| Richmond Football Club
| Tigers| Richmond, Victoria
| Melbourne Cricket Ground
| 1908
| 11
|
|-
| St Kilda Football Club
| Saints| St Kilda, Victoria
| Etihad Stadium
| 1897
| 1
|
|-
| Sydney Swans Football Club
| Swans| Sydney, New South Wales
| Sydney Cricket GroundANZ Stadium
| 1897
| 5
| Relocated from South Melbourne, Victoria in 1982.
|-
| West Coast Eagles Football Club
| Eagles| Perth, Western Australia
| Domain Stadium
| 1987
| 3
|
|-
| Western Bulldogs Football Club
| Bulldogs| Footscray, Victoria
| Etihad Stadium
| 1925
| 2
| Formerly the Footscray Football Club, renamed in 1998.
|}
Legends of the Game
In 1996, twelve Hall of Fame members were declared Legends of the Game. Another member of the Hall of Fame is declared a legend every few years. The following is a list of Legends of the Game.
Ron Barassi Junior (added 1996) Haydn Bunton Senior(added 1996) Roy Cazaly (added 1996) John Coleman (added 1996) Jack Dyer (added 1996) Graham Farmer (added 1996) Leigh Matthews (added 1996) John Nicholls (added 1996) Bob Pratt (added 1996) Dick Reynolds (added 1996) Bob Skilton (added 1996) Ted Whitten Senior (added 1996) Ian Stewart (added 1997) Gordon Coventry (added 1998) Peter Hudson (added 1999) Kevin Bartlett (added 2000) Barrie Robran (added 2001) Bill Hutchison (added 2003) Jock McHale (added 2005) Darrell Baldock (added 2006) Norm Smith (added 2007) Alex Jesaulenko (added 2008) Kevin Murray (added 2010) Barry Cable (added 2012) Royce Hart (added 2013) Tony Lockett (added 2015) Malcolm Blight (added 2017)''
VFL/AFL Records
Highest scoreGeelong - 37.17 (239) vs. Brisbane Bears Carrara Oval, May 3, 1992.
Highest winning marginFitzroy - 190 pointsWaverley Park, July 28, 1979.
Highest aggregate score 52.33 (345) - Melbourne 21.15 (141) vs St Kilda 31.18 (204)MCG, May 6, 1978
Highest score in one quarterSouth Melbourne - 17.4 (106) vs. St Kilda Lake Oval, July 26, 1919
Largest crowdCarlton v Collingwood - 121,696 MCG, September 26, 1970 (Grand Final)
Largest Home & Away Season crowdMelbourne v Collingwood - 99,346 MCG, 1958
Largest crowd for a game between a Victorian and non-Victorian clubAdelaide Crows v St Kilda Saints - 99,645 MCG, September 27, 1997 (Grand Final)
Largest crowd for a game between non-Victorian clubsWest Coast Eagles v Sydney Swans - 97,431MCG, September 30, 2006 (Grand Final)
Largest International crowdMelbourne v Sydney - 32,789B.C. Place, Vancouver, Canada, 1987
Most premierships Carlton 16, most recent 1995, Essendon 16, most recent 2000
Most wooden spoons (last position at the end of the Home and Away Season) St Kilda - 26, most recent 2000
Most consecutive premiershipsCollingwood - 41927-1930
Most games won in a seasonEssendon - 24 (incl. finals)2000
Most consecutive winsGeelong - 231952-1953
Most consecutive games unbeatenGeelong - 261952-1953
Most consecutive lossesUniversity - 51 (1911-1914)
Most games played in a careerBrent Harvey (North Melbourne) - 432 games
Most games as club captainStephen Kernahan (Carlton) - 226 games
Most goals in a career Tony Lockett (St Kilda/Sydney) - 1359 goals
Most goals in a gameFred Fanning (Melbourne) - 18 Goals
Most goals in a seasonBob Pratt (South Melbourne, 1934) and Peter Hudson (Hawthorn, 1971) - 150 goals
Most consecutive matchesJim Stynes (Melbourne) - 244
Most consecutive matches from debutJared Crouch (Sydney) - 194 (Ended Rd 13, 2006 due to unknown injury)
Tallest playerAaron Sandilands (Fremantle), Peter Street (Western Bulldogs) - 211cm
Shortest playerDanny Craven (St Kilda/Brisbane) - 162cm
Heaviest playerAaron Sandilands (Fremantle) - 124kg
Longest kickAlbert Thurgood (Essendon) - 98.48m (109 yards, 1 foot, 3.2 inches) |
Urbain Grandier (born 1590 in Bouère, Mayenne, France ; died April 18,1634 in Loudun, France) was a free-thinking cleric. A satirical publication against Richelieu was attributed to him. After this, Pierre-Martin de Laubardement, a statesman was charged to lead the process against Grandier in 1633. He was charged of having bewitched the ursuline nuns of Loudun. They became obsessed by him. His friend, Claude Quillet agreed to defend him in court, but without success.
He was condemned to burn at the stake as a witch in 1634.
English literature
The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley, published in 1952
1590 births
1634 deaths
Executed French people
French Roman Catholics
People executed by burning
People executed for witchcraft |
Armand Jean du Plessis, better known as Cardinal Richelieu (9 September 1585–4 December 1642) was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman. His full name was Armand Jean du Plessis. He was later created the Duke of Richelieu and duke of Fronsac.
In order to keep the diocese of Luçon, Armand Jean needed to become a monk. He joined the Grande Chartreuse, the main monastery of the Carthusian order. This monastery is in the Isère département, near Grenoble. As a comparison, Luçon is near La Roche-sur-Yon.
He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607. For this he obtained a dispensation of the pope; at age 21, he was too young to become a bishop. He later entered politics and became a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state. He became a cardinal in 1622. He became King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; then Jules Cardinal Mazarin became chief minister.
The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister". As a result, he is sometimes said to be the world's first Prime Minister. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strongly centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty; although a Roman Catholic cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers. With these alliances, he tried to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.
As an advocate for Samuel de Champlain and of the keeping of Quebec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and saw the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye return Quebec to French rule under de Champlain, after the settlement had been captured by the Kirkes in 1629. This in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of French-speaking culture in North America.
Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; most notably, he founded the Académie française, the learned society responsible for matters of the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet l'Éminence rouge ("the Red Eminence"), from the red shade of a cardinal's vestments and the style "eminence" as a cardinal.
1585 births
1642 deaths
French Roman Catholics
French nobility
French politicians
Dukes and duchesses |
Belaying is a way to hold and control a rope for a person who is rock climbing. A climber has to be attached to a rope so they do not fall very far. A person on the ground who is belaying is called a belayer.
The belayer usually puts the rope through a belay device, which lets the rope move through the device in one direction (as the climber being belayed goes up). If the climber falls, the device lets the belayer also hold the rope still, so the climber hangs in the air but does not hit the ground.
A belayer can hold the weight of the climber with the rope and help prevent an injury caused by a fall.
Reference
Rock climbing
Ropework |
Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 thrilling movies in American cinema. The American Film Institute presented it on June 12, 2001.
# Psycho (1960)
# Jaws (1975)
# The Exorcist (1973)
# North by Northwest (1959)
# The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
# Alien (1979)
# The Birds (1963)
# The French Connection (1971)
# Rosemary's Baby (1968)
# Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
# The Godfather (1972)
# King Kong (1933)
# Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
# Rear Window (1954)
# Deliverance (1972)
# Chinatown (1974)
# The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
# Vertigo (1958)
# The Great Escape (1963)
# High Noon (1952)
# A Clockwork Orange (1971)
# Taxi Driver (1976)
# Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
# Double Indemnity (1944)
# Titanic (1997)
# The Maltese Falcon (1941)
# Star Wars (1977)
# Fatal Attraction (1987)
# The Shining (1980)
# The Deer Hunter (1978)
# Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
# Strangers on a Train (1951)
# The Fugitive (1993)
# The Night of the Hunter (1955)
# Jurassic Park (1993)
# Bullitt (1968)
# Casablanca (1942)
# Notorious (1946)
# Die Hard (1988)
# 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
# Dirty Harry (1971)
# The Terminator (1984)
# The Wizard of Oz (1939)
# E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
# Saving Private Ryan (1998)
# Carrie (1976)
# Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
# Dial M for Murder (1954)
# Ben-Hur (1959)
# Marathon Man (1976)
# Raging Bull (1980)
# Rocky (1976)
# Pulp Fiction (1994)
# Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
# Wait Until Dark (1967)
# Frankenstein (1931)
# All the President's Men (1976)
# The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
# Planet of the Apes (1968)
# The Sixth Sense (1999)
# Cape Fear (1962)
# Spartacus (1960)
# What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
# Touch of Evil (1958)
# The Dirty Dozen (1967)
# The Matrix (1999)
# The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
# Halloween (1979)
# The Wild Bunch (1969)
# Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
# Goldfinger (1964)
# Platoon (1986)
# Laura (1944)
# Blade Runner (1982)
# The Third Man (1949)
# Thelma and Louise (1991)
# Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
# Gaslight (1944)
# The Magnificent Seven (1960)
# Rebecca (1940)
# The Omen (1976)
# The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
# The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
# Poltergeist (1982)
# Dracula (1931)
# The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
# The Thing from Another World (1951)
# 12 Angry Men (1957)
# The Guns of Navarone (1961)
# The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
# Braveheart (1995)
# Body Heat (1981)
# Night of the Living Dead (1968)
# The China Syndrome (1979)
# Full Metal Jacket (1987)
# Blue Velvet (1986)
# Safety Last (1923)
# Blood Simple (1984)
# Speed (1994)
# The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Lists of movies
American Film Institute |
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam was a country that existed from 1955 to 1975. It occupied in the southern of what is now Southern Vietnam. The country was south of the local Demilitarized Zone.
History
South Vietnam establised on 26 October, 1955 after the 1955 Referendum. It was first ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem until 1963. After the 1963 coup, South Vietnam was run by a military government. It lasted until 1967. From 1967, On 1 April, 1967, the Second Republic was established. This Second Republic lasted until the Fall of Saigon when the president Duong Van Minh surrendered to Viet Cong. South Vietnam ceased to exist on 30 April, 1975. This day is also known as Black April to Vietnamese anti-communists.
Related pages
State of Vietnam
References
Notes
1955 establishments in Asia
1976 disestablishments in Asia
20th century in Vietnam
Former countries in Southeast Asia
States and territories established in the 20th century
States and territories disestablished in the 20th century |
Robert Ludlum (May 25 1927 - March 12 2001) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of The Bourne Identity from 1980, which was made into a movie in 2001.
Other websites
Official website of Robert Ludlum
1927 births
2001 deaths
Writers from New York City |
Events and trends
1170 – Assassination of Thomas à Becket
1171 – Saladin ends the Islamic ruling of Fatimid, bringing back Sunni rule in Egypt.
1179 – Third Council of the Lateran condemns Waldensians and Cathars as heretics (people who turn away from certain religious beliefs); reformation of clerical life
Significant people |
The Arabs ( ʻarab) are an ethnic group widespread in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is one of the Semitic languages, which is also the name of the ethnic family which they belong to.
Who is an Arab
There are three points which decide whether someone is considered Arab or not:
Political: whether they live in a country which is a member of the Arab League (or the Arab World); this definition covers more than 450 million people.
Linguistic: whether their main language is Arabic; this definition covers more than 423 million people.
Genealogical: whether they can trace their ancestry back to the people who first lived on the Arabian Peninsula.
Minorities are the Iraqi Turkmens in some Arab countries. The Iraqi Turkmen are often considered Arab, but they are an Turkic ethnic group with their own language and culture. The same goes for Berbers and Bedouins.
There are many people who can be called Arabs by these points, but who do not think of themselves as Arab. Examples include modern Egyptians (Coptics) and the Syriacs (Aramaics/Assyrians). Although they live in countries like Syria or Egypt which is part of the Arab League and speak the official language-Arabic, they are different cultural groups. They have their own languages, culture, identity and churches, such as the Coptic Church and the Syriac Catholic and Orthodox churches. Even though many have assimilated to Arab society, they have their own heritage that spans 3,000 years.
Traditional genealogy
In Islamic and Jewish tradition, Arabs are a Semitic people who trace their ancestry from Ishmael, a son of the ancient patriarch Abraham and Hagar. Medieval Arab genealogists separate the Arabs into two groups: the "original Arabs" of South Arabia, descending from Qahtan (identified with the biblical Joktan) and the "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of North Arabia, descending from Adnan who is descended from Ishmael.
Religion
Most Arabs today follow the religion of Islam, whose greatest prophet is Muhammad. Christianity makes up the largest religious minority - most of the Christians that do consider themselves Arabs belong to the Greek Orthodox Church with smaller numbers of Roman Catholics.
While Coptic and Maronite Catholic Christians are native Arabic-speakers, many reject the Arab pan-ethnicity, but are still considered Arab by outsider sources.
There are some small communities practicing Judaism and polytheism (the worship of many gods). Yazidis are sometimes counted as Arabs.
References
Other websites
A is for Arabs: What the world owes Arabs and Muslims
Maps of the Arab World
News from Arabic countries
Business news from Arab countries
Arabia in ancient history - with a discussion of the ancient usage of the word Arab
Araboo.com - Arab Guide
Arabic Search - Arabic ThroughSearch
Ancient history |
A mebibyte is a unit of measure. It represents 1024 * 1024 bytes.
A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, symbol MiB.
1 MiB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024 kibibytes
The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB). This can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 106 bytes = 1,000,000 bytes, depending on context (see binary prefix for background). The two numbers are relatively close together, but mistaking the two has nevertheless led to problems.
The unit MiB was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in December 1998. Use of mebibyte and related units is strongly endorsed by IEEE and CIPM and is becoming more common.
One mebibyte equals 1024 (= 210) kibibytes, and 1024 mebibytes equal one gibibyte.
Mibibyte is a common misspelling, presumably from the "i" in the abbreviation or confusion about how the surrounding prefixes (i.e. "kibi" and "gibi") were actually formed. The "i" is actually from the end of the prefix. Tebi- and pebi- are similarly abbreviated Ti- and Pi-, but they are not usually misspelled, as storage sizes (and corresponding terms) currently are only this large in specialized situations.
Related pages
Megabyte
Kibibyte
Gibibyte
Tebibyte
Other websites
NIST Prefixes for binary multiples
Computing measurement |
Clergy are people who have an office in a Christian church or other religion such as a rabbi or a priest. Clergy are often ordained before they are allowed to do their work.
Related pages
Clergyman
Muslim clergy
Rabbi
Priest
Religious workers |
Acre is a state in the Northern Region of Brazil. It borders other two states, Amazonas and Rondônia. It also borders two countries, Bolivia and Peru. Its capital city is Rio Branco. Other important cities are: Cruzeiro do Sul, Tarauacá, Sena Madureira, and Brasiléia.
The state is mostly covered by the Amazon Rainforest. There are many rivers in Acre. Some of the rivers are the Juruá, Purus River, Acre River, Tarauacá, Muru, Embirá, and Xapuri.
The economy is based on agriculture, cattle animal husbandry, and rubber production.
Until the start of the 20th century, Acre was a territory of Bolivia. Since the 19th century, most people from Acre were Brazilian people, and they created an independent state.
In 1889, the Bolivians tried to control the area again and there were fights.
On November 17, 1903, Acre become a Brazilian territory. On June 15, 1962, it was unified and became a state.
References
States of Brazil |
The roller coaster (some people say the simple form coaster) is a kind of theme park ride. A roller coaster is usually a small train. It has a number of carriages that travel on a track. This track has hills that go up and valleys that go down. Sometimes it has other features that will turn the train upside-down. The track can be made from wood or steel. Some roller coasters are made for children, so they do not travel very fast. Other roller coasters are made very tall and they travel very fast. Riders are generally held in place with a bar, a belt, or something similar.
Scientifically, a roller coaster works because of gravity, a force that pulls things down to the ground. Most roller coaster trains are pulled to the top of a hill on a chain. The train will slide down the track, which has a number of hills and valleys. As it slides downhill it goes faster, and it slows down when climbing.
History
In the United States, LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first roller coaster on January 20, 1865. He named his ride the "Switchback Railway," and workers pulled the carriage to the top of the track. The first modern steel roller coaster was the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland. It opened in 1959.
Types of roller coasters
Roller coaster rails are made of wood or steel.
Steel roller coasters can be separated into many more types. On a Wing Coaster riders sit on either side of a roller coaster track and nothing is above or below the riders.
On a flying roller coaster riders lie face down so they feel like they are flying. Cars hang below the track.
On a Floorless Coaster riders sit with no floor underneath them, so their feet can swing freely just above the track.
Some roller coasters spin riders.
Both steel and wooden roller coasters can turn riders upside down. This is called an inversion.
Son of Beast was the only wooden roller coaster to have an inversion. However the loop was removed after an incident and after another incident, the ride was torn down. In 2013, Hades 360 and Outlaw Run have inversions. The Smiler has the world record for the most inversions.
Famous roller coasters
References
Fuji-Q Highland'
Nagashima Spa Land
Other websites
Coasterpedia, the Roller Coaster Wiki |
The Zimbabwe dollar was a currency for Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2009. Zimbabwe had the highest rate of inflation in the world. The rate of inflation grew to 231,150,888.87% in July 2008.
Because of hyperinflation, or inflation that is out of control, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had to print banknotes with higher values to cope with the rising cost of living. In January 2009, Zimbabwe released a banknote for one hundred trillion dollars, or $100,000,000,000,000.
The Zimbabwe dollar had to be revalued three times due to the rising cost of living: in August 2006, August 2008 and February 2009. In August 2006, the first revaluation dollar was violent and too quick, meaning that many people lost their savings because they were unable to convert it into the new currency without fear of violence and corruption.
Since 12 April 2009, Zimbabwe stopped using the Zimbabwean dollar and adopted currencies from other countries, such as the United States Dollar and the Euro.
References
Notes
Sources
Zimbabwe |
Bahia is a state in the northeast area of Brazil on the Atlantic Ocean coast.
Geography
The capital city of Bahia is Salvador. Other cities where many people live are Feira de Santana, Vitória da Conquista, Itabuna, Ilhéus, and Juazeiro. Almost all of Bahia is 200 m above the sea level. The São Francisco River is the longest river in Bahia. Salvador was the capital of Brazil from 1549 until 1763.
Economy
Bahia is the sixth richest Brazilian state. The economy of Bahia is based on industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, tourism, mining and services.
Culture
Bahia is said to have the greatest and most African influence, in terms of culture and customs, in Brazil. Some of these are the martial art of capoeira and African-derived music such as samba, afoxé, and axé.
Acarajé is a popular street food. It is one of the symbols of the culture of Bahia.
References
States of Brazil |
Body modification (or body alteration) is when a person changes their body in a way that lasts forever or for a long time. There are many different kinds of body modification, like piercing, circumcision, or tattoos. Almost all cultures do some kind of body modification.
Arguments
People who do not like body modification sometimes call it "disfigurement" or "mutilation." They believe that if someone changes their body, it is wrong and they are doing something dangerous or unethical.
Why people do body modification
Body modification is done for different reasons. Religions might tell people that they should change their bodies to look a certain way. Other people with body modifications might just like the way the body modifications look, or how they feel good during sex.
Kinds of body modification
Common body modification
Body piercing is when a hole is made through the skin, and a piece of jewelry is put into the hole. Some piercings can be stretched so they fit larger, thicker kinds of jewelry.
Tattooing is when ink is put under the skin to make a picture. Whole body tatooing and tattooing of the lips and eyes would be thought extreme by some.
Scarification is when part of the skin is removed to create a scar.
Branding is when the skin is burned to create a scar.
"Extreme" body modification
Tongue splitting is when a person's tongue is split in two like a snake's.
Subdermal implant is when a small object is placed right underneath a person's skin.
Transdermal implant is when a small object is placed underneath a person's skin, but part of it pokes out of the skin and is visible.
Extra ocular implant (eye jewellery) is when a tiny chip of metal is placed in someone's eye.
Other body modification
Amputation is when a body part is cut off
Health
Body art |
A serial killer is someone who murders several people at different times (similar killers of more than one person are mass murderers and spree killers). The victims are usually people the serial killer does not know, and the killer commits his crimes to get a certain kind of excitement or other feeling. They usually have no practical motive such as robbery or revenge.
Serial killer first became a commonly used phrase for this kind of killer in the 1970s. This was the result of the crimes of people like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. Jack the Ripper is thought by many to be one of the first serial killers that many people knew about, even though his victims were killed long before the phrase was invented.
A serial killer's crimes are nearly always alike in some way. The killer may only attack a certain type of person, for instance women of a certain age or appearance (young or old, blonde or dark-haired). He may always use the same kind of weapon to kill his victims, or may treat them in a certain manner, such as tying them up with the same kind of rope or adhesive tape. Some serial killers have had very strange habits which leave evidence of their work at each crime; for instance Albert de Salvo, the Boston Strangler, would tie the cord with which he had strangled a woman around her neck in a special bow. To law enforcement officers a serial killer's habits are known as his signature, and they are always valuable leads in detecting who he is and capturing him.
Some of the worst serial killers have been doctors. Harold Shipman, a British general practitioner, is thought to have killed up to 250 of his patients. John Bodkin Adams, also British, is thought to have killed 163 patients. Burke and Hare, the 'resurrectionists', killed to sell bodies to a doctor, Robert Knox.
References |
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international environmental organization. It was founded as the World Wildlife Fund, which is still its official name in Canada and the United States.
Most of its offices are in Switzerland. Their mascot, or logo, is the Giant Panda. It is the world's largest independent wildlife management organization. It has over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries. WWF supports 15,000 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity. About 90% of its fundraising money is from donations by private individuals and businesses.
The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our natural environment". Much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change. The organization runs more than 1,200 field projects worldwide each year.
References
International environmental organizations
Companies of Switzerland
Conservation
Charities |
Deforestation is when forests are destroyed by cutting trees (logging) and not replanting them. The most common reason is to clear the land to make farms and ranches. They also cut trees for firewood and lumber and to make room for cities. Deforestation destroys the habitat of many animals, leading to their death. The loss is more severe in so called primary forests, which are forests that have yet been untouched by humans. Deforestation also releases sequestered carbon.
Restoring trees in deforested places is called reforesting.
Causes of deforestation
Land has other uses besides growing trees. The biggest uses of land that was once forested are for farming and ranching. Some land is also used for roads and buildings, especially in urban areas. As the population grows, people need to remove more trees. They also use the wood from the trees as lumber to make buildings and other things, or they burn the trees as firewood.
Forests have the following functions:
regulation of the water cycle
production of soil
providing habitat for animals
providing most of our oxygen
maintain the oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2)
balance in the atmosphere
regulation of temperature
prevention of soil erosion
tree diseases
Forests are often planted to protect against natural disasters. When forests are lost, very often the soil they protected is also lost. This loss of soil is called erosion.
Trees are also important for carbon sequestration. When the trees burn or rot, the carbon in them returns to the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, deforestation causes global warming. Tropical deforestation is responsible for about 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2020, a team of scientists studied worldwide deforestation efforts and found they were not working. They said the idea of everyone working toward the same goal had to change because different groups of people had different reasons for cutting down forests.
References
Related pages
Desertification
Other websites
APP & APRIL announces end to deforestation in Indonesia
Forests
Environmental issues |
Scuba diving is an activity where people (called "scuba divers", or simply "divers") can swim underwater for a long time, using a tank filled with compressed air. The tank is a large metal cylinder made of steel or aluminum.
The word scuba is an acronym from Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
History
In the 1600s, a diving bell would be lowered that had trapped air in it. A diving bell is like a large heavy upside-down bucket that holds air inside when lowered into the water. A diver would breathe that air and swim in an and out of the bell to work until the air became bad. Later fresh air was pumped to the diving bell through a hose, so the diver could stay longer.
The first diving suits used a heavy copper diving helmet with windows and a hose from an air pump. The helmet was clamped to a waterptoof diving suit. Divers would wear heavy weghts and walk on the seafloor as it was not safe to swim. The air hose would send air to the helmet from a pump on land or on a boat above the diver. The air would pass trough the helmet and out into the water through a valve, and the diver would breathe from the air in the helmet. This wasted a lot of air, but there was no way to only supply air when the diver needed it. This is called a free-flow system.
Jacques Cousteau was a Frenchman who developed several important parts of the scuba system and made it useful. One part was a better regulator that only sent air when the diver breathed in. This let the divers go farther on one tank. It was made with a mouthpiece on a rubber hose, so a heavy helmet was not needed. It was light enough to use with fins and easily swim. He also took many underwater movies and showed people what was under the water and why it needed to be protected.
There have been improvements to scuba equipment since Cousteau to make it safer and easier to use.
Equipment
Scuba tank, (one or more) containing air. The air is ordinary compressed air for most dives, but for longer dives a mixture of air with more oxygen, called nitrox can be used to avoid decompression sickness, also called the bends (a painful or deadly problem from going to the surface too fast). The tank is attached to the diver by a harness, which is often part of the BCD. For deeper dives a breathing gas containing helium can be used to prevent nitrogen narcosis, which can make the diver behave as if drunk, and is dangerous.
Regulator for breathing the air from the tank. This reduces the pressure of the air coming from the tank. It adjusts the air to the pressure of the water around the diver so they can breathe easily at any safe depth. There is also an air pressure gauge to show how much air is left in the tank.
BCD (buoyancy control device) to control whether the diver floats or sinks. The diver can add air from an inflator valve or remove air by opening a dump valve. Divers may also wear weights to stop themselves from floating upwards when their diving suit is too buoyant. The BCD lets the diver adjust their buoyancy so they can be neutral (float in place) at a depth they want. If the diver swims upward the air in the BCD will expand because the water pressure is less, and the diver must let some air out or float to the surface. If the diver swims down the air will compress and the diver must put in more air or sink to the bottom, so the diver must carefully control how much air is in the BCD whenever their depth changes.
Depth gauge, to know how deep they are and there may be a watch to tell the time or a dive computer to show how slowly they must come up to be safe from decompression sickness. A safe dive depends on how long and how deep the diver goes, and how long it has been since the last dive.
Most divers wear a diving suit to keep warm. This is usually a wetsuit made from foam neprene rubber, but for colder water a dry suit can be used.
Divers wear a mask to see through, because the human eye cannot focus properly in water.
Swimfins are worn on the feet to swim better.
A snorkel can be used for breathing at the surface when swimming face down
Certification
Divers face dangers that can hurt or kill them if they don't know what to do. They can use up all their air, or get decompression sickness or nitrogen narcosis. A person must be trained to use the equipment and dive safely. When they show that they can dive safely they get a certification card. The biggest organization for certifying divers is PADI - Professional Association of Diving Instructors - but there are many others, depending on the country. Some tourist places have a short course without certification and then the instructor will lead the diver in a shallow dive, all in one day.
Because of special dangers, there are advanced classes for things like diving in or around underwater shipwrecks, cave diving, and deep diving (more than 60 feet or 18 meters).
Related pages
freediving - Diving without scuba equipment (holding your breath). Snorkeling equipment is often used in freediving. No certification is needed but it can still be dangerous.
References
Diving |
A capillary is a blood vessel. It does not have the muscular/elastic tissue of other blood vessels. It has a single celled wall to help substances be transported through organisms.
Capillaries are small, and smaller than any other blood vessels. They are about 5-10 μms big, which connect arteries and venules, and enable the moving of water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, as well as many other nutrients and waste chemicals between blood and surrounding tissues.
Anatomy
Blood moves from the heart to arteries, which branch and narrow into smaller arteries, and then branch more into capillaries. After oxygen has been moved to the tissue, capillaries join and widen to become small veins and then widen more to become veins, which return blood to the heart.
The "capillary bed" is the network of capillaries supplying an organ. The more metabolically active the cells, the more capillaries it will require to supply nutrients and carry away waste products.
Special arteries connect between arterioles and venules and are important in bypassing the flow of blood through the capillaries. True capillaries come from mainly from metarterioles and provide movement between cells and the circulation. The width of 8 μm forces the red blood cells to partly fold into bullet-like shapes in order to bypass them in single file.
Precapillary muscles are rings of smooth muscles at the start of true capillaries that handle blood flow into true capillaries and control blood flow through a body part or area.
Physiology
The capillary wall is a one-layer tissue so thin that gas and other items such as oxygen, water, proteins and fats can pass through them driven by pressure differences. Waste items such as carbon dioxide and urea can move back into the blood to be carried away for removal from the body.
The capillary bed usually moves no more than 25% of the amount of blood it could contain, although this amount can be increased through auto regulation by making the smooth muscle relax in the arterioles that lead to the capillary bed as well as metarterioles making themselves smaller.
The capillaries do not have this smooth muscle in their own wall, and so any change in their width is passive. Any signaling molecules they release (such as endothelin for constriction and nitric oxide for dilation) act on the smooth muscle cells in the walls of nearby, larger vessels, e.g. arterioles.
Capillary's ability to move items can be increased by the release of certain cytokines, such as in an the body defending itself from germs.
Related pages
Alveolar-capillary barrier
Blood brain barrier
Capillary action
Hagen-Poiseuille equation
References
Other websites
Blood vessels |
Viriato Clemente da Cruz, an Angolan poet and politician, was born in 1928 in Kikuvo (Porto Amboim), Angola and died in Beijing, China on 13 June 1973.
He is considered one of the most important Angolan poets of his time. He wrote poems in Portuguese and Angolan languages. He took part in the fight to free Angola from Portuguese rulers.
Political work
He was educated in Luanda, the capital of Angola, which was then ruled by Portugal. As a young man in 1957 he went to Paris, where he met Mario Pinto de Andrade, another Angolan poet and politician, who helped with his political ideas. In the 1960s they helped create the group called the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA—from the Portuguese name ).
The MPLA was in not in Angola at this time, but was first in Conakry (the capital of Guinea) and then later in Leopoldville, Congo (now Kinshasa the capital of the DRC). Viriato da Cruz became secretary-general of the MPLA. After some time he and others, did not agree with some people in the group and this led to fighting in the streets of Leopoldville.
Exiled in China
Viriato da Cruz went to Beijing, China in the 1960s because of the fighting in the MPLA. At first, the Chinese government welcomed him. He was well known because he had helped create the MPLA. The Chinese wanted Viriato da Cruz to help them bring Maoist socialism to Africa.
This was a big problem for Viriato and his family. His ideas were not the same as the Maoists. He thought that stronger countries can not bring a socialist revolution to other places. He was very brave and did not change his ideas. This was against the Chinese Maoist idea of world revolution.
Viriato da Cruz wanted to leave China and return to Africa, but the Chinese government would not let him go and they were not good to him. This may be because he could have made trouble for their work in Africa.
Last years of life
The last years of the life of Viriato da Cruz were unhappy and difficult. He was weak, without much food, and he died on 13 Jun 1973. His dead body was taken away in a military vehicle and his burial was without any ceremony.
Some Angolan people think that this was shocking, because Viriato da Cruz worked hard for Angola and was one of the leaders of the liberation from Portugal.
Principal books
Poems (1961). Among these poems, Namoro, Sô Santo and Makézu are well-known.
1928 births
1973 deaths
Poets
Angolan people |
Molluscs (or mollusks) are an important phylum of invertebrate animals. Most of them are marine. They have huge numbers in-shore, that is, in shallow water. They are the largest marine phylum, with about 85,000 living species, 23% of all named marine organisms. They also occur in freshwater and on land.
Mollusks are extremely varied: they have great diversity. That may be why there is no word in English for the phylum as a whole. "In an evolutionary sense, mollusks are plastic material". They have much more variety than their ancient rivals, the brachiopods.
Most molluscs have shells, but some groups do not: octopods, slugs, and the gastropods known as sea slugs.
Diversity
Many mollusks also live in freshwater and terrestrial habitats. They are highly diverse, not just in size and in anatomical structure, but also in behaviour and in habitat.
The phylum is usually divided into 9 or 10 taxonomic classes, of which two are entirely extinct. Cephalopod molluscs, such as squid, cuttlefish and octopus, are among the most neurologically advanced of all invertebrates: they have good brains and complex behaviours. Either the giant squid or the colossal squid is the largest known invertebrate species. The gastropods (snails and slugs) are by far the most numerous molluscs in terms of classified species, and account for 80% of the total. The scientific study of mollusks is called malacology.
Main features
The three most universal features defining modern mollusks are:
a mantle with a cavity used for breathing and excretion,
the presence of a radula, and
the structure of the nervous system.
Other than these things, mollusks have so much variety that many textbooks use a "hypothetical ancestral mollusk" to summarize them (see below). This has a single, "limpet-like" shell on top, which is made of proteins and chitin reinforced with calcium carbonate. It is secreted by a mantle covering the whole upper surface. The underside of the animal consists of a single muscular "foot".
The mollusk's feeding system starts with a rasping "tongue", the radula. The complex digestive system uses mucus and microscopic, muscle-powered "hairs" called cilia. The generalized mollusk has two paired nerve cords, or three in bivalves. The brain, in species that have one, circles the oesophagus. Most mollusks have eyes, and all have sensors to detect chemicals, vibrations, and touch. The simplest type of molluscan reproductive system relies on external fertilization, but more complex variations occur. All produce eggs, from which may emerge trochophore larvae, more complex veliger larvae, or miniature adults.
A striking feature of molluscs is the use of the same organ for multiple functions. For example, the heart and nephridia ("kidneys") are important parts of the reproductive system, as well as the circulatory and excretory systems. In bivalves, the gills both "breathe" and produce a water current in the mantle cavity: this is important for excretion and reproduction. In reproduction, molluscs may change gender to accommodate the other breeding partner.
Good evidence exists for the appearance of gastropods, cephalopods and bivalves in the Cambrian period, 541 to 485.4 million years ago (mya). Before that, the evolutionary history of molluscs' emergence from the ancestral Lophotrochozoa is still unclear.
Mollusk species can also represent hazards or pests for human activities. The bite of the blue-ringed octopus is often fatal, and that of Octopus apollyon causes inflammation that can last for over a month. Stings from a few species of large tropical cone shells can also kill: their venom have become important tools in neurological research. Schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia, bilharziosis or snail fever) is transmitted to humans via water snail hosts, and affects about 200 million people. Snails and slugs can also be serious agricultural pests, and accidental or deliberate introduction of some snail species into new environments has seriously damaged some ecosystems.
A "generalized mollusk"
Because mollusks have so many different shapes, many textbooks start the subject of molluscan anatomy by describing what is called an archi-mollusc, hypothetical generalized mollusc, or hypothetical ancestral mollusc (HAM) to illustrate the most common features in the phylum. The picture is rather similar to modern monoplacophorans: some think it may resemble very early mollusks.
The generalized mollusk is bilaterally symmetrical and has a single, "limpet-like" shell on top. The shell is secreted by a mantle covering the upper surface. The underside consists of a single muscular "foot". The visceral mass, or visceropallium, is the soft, nonmuscular metabolic region of the mollusc. It contains the body organs.
Taxonomy
Classes of molluscs:
Aplacophora: molluscs: the living ones are shell-less
Bivalvia: Most shellfish; clams, oysters, scallops, mussels
Cephalopoda: Squid, Octopus
Gastropoda: whelks, limpets, snails, slugs, Nudibranchs
Helcionelloida: (see below)
Monoplacophora: molluscs with a cap-like shell
Polyplacophora: Chitons
†Rostroconchia: an extinct group
Scaphopoda: the tusk shells
Helcionelloida
It has become clear that the fossil taxon Helcionelloida does not belong to the class Gastropoda. It is now a separate class in the Mollusca. Parkhaev (2006, 2007) created the class Helcionelloida, whose members were previously treated as "Paleozoic mollusks of uncertain systematic position" by Bouchet & Rocroi.
Uses
Many mollusks are eaten as food: clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, squid (calamari) and land snails (escargot)
Oysters sometimes make pearls, which are valuable and used to make necklaces. Other shells are collected for their beauty and sometimes used to make jewelry.
References |
A sponge is a member of the phylum Porifera. It is a simple animal with many cells, but no mouth, muscles, heart or brain. It is sessile: it cannot move from place to place the way most animals can. A sponge is an animal that grows in one spot like most plants do. Nevertheless, sponges are quite successful.
The basic body plan is a jelly-like layer sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. Their bodies are full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them. Most of them feed on bacteria and other microorganisms. A few of them eat tiny crustaceans.
There are more than 10,000 species of sponge. Most sponges live in the ocean. A few live in fresh water. All sponges take in water through pores (little holes) in their bodies. The water goes out through a big tube in the center. Most sponges filter (take out) little bits of food from the water going through their bodies. Animals that get food this way are called filter feeders.
Sponges are the oldest animals with fossil evidence (from ~635 million years ago).
What makes them different
Sponges are simple animals. A few things make them different from other animals.
A living sponge can change the shape of its body. Most cells in its body can move around; a few cells can even change from one type of cell to another.
Like cnidarians (jellyfish, etc.) and ctenophores (comb jellies), and unlike all other known metazoans, sponges' bodies are made of a non-living jelly-like mass sandwiched between two main layers of cells.
Sponges have no nervous system. Their middle jelly-like layers have many different types of cells. Some types of cell in their outer layers may move into the middle layer and change their functions.
Sponges can deter predators by releasing a chemically active compound that can contain toxins and also affect organisms competing with them.
Different kinds of sponges
There are four classes of sponges. The difference between these kinds is in how their skeleton is made.
Demosponges is a class that contains most of the sponges. The sponges in this class make their skeleton from spongin. Spongin is a special protein. All the large sponges are in this order.
Bony sponges use calcium carbonate to make the skeleton. They are known as Calcarea. They are usually very small, only 3-4 inches in height. Of the about 15,000 sponges known, about 400 are Calcarea.
Glass sponges use silicon dioxide to make their skeletons. They are sometimes called Hexactinellida. Most of these live very deep in the ocean. There are about 500 different kinds of glass sponges, in 17 different families. These sponges make for about 7% of all known sponges.
Homoscleromorpha are a class which was part of the Demosponges. Actually, they are well separated from the demosponges.
Life functions
Movement
Sponges are sessile, they live in one place, where they are fixed to the ground. A few sponges can change their position, they can move at speeds of between 1 mm and 4 mm a day. They do this like amoebae. A few species can contract their whole bodies. Many can close their openings/holes.
Carnivorous sponges
A few species live in waters where there is very little food available. They have therefore changed, and became predators. They eat small crustaceans and other small animals. Most of these sponges belong to the family Cladorhizidae, but a few members of the Guitarridae and Esperiopsidae are also carnivores. In most cases little is known about how they actually capture prey. Some species are thought to use either sticky threads or hooked spicules. Most carnivorous sponges live in deep waters, up to , and the development of deep-ocean exploration techniques is expected to lead to the discovery of several more. However one species has been found in Mediterranean caves at depths of 17-23m alongside the more usual filter feeding sponges. The cave-dwelling predators capture crustaceans under long by entangling them with fine threads, digest them by enveloping them with further threads over the course of a few days, and then return to their normal shape; there is no evidence that they use venom.
Most known carnivorous sponges have completely lost the water flow system and choanocytes. However the genus Chondrocladia uses a highly modified water flow system to inflate balloon-like structures that are used for capturing prey.
Reproduction in Sponges
Asexual reproduction
Sponges usually reproduce when little pieces break off. If such a piece has the right types of cells it can grow to become a new sponge. A few sponges can also use budding. With budding a small sponge grows on the parent; when it is done growing, it simply falls off. When the conditions are bad, some sponges can also grow lumps of unspecialised cells. These will not develop until the conditions improve again. They can then either make a new sponge, or they can use the skeleton of the parent sponge (that died).
Sexual reproduction
Most sponges reproduce sexually. They can make sperm cells that are released into the water. These are either captured by another sponge, and are then transported to the egg cells of the parent. This is known as viviparous. Both cells are joined to form larvae, which can swim off to find a good place to settle.
The other way, known as oviparous is that both sperm cells and egg cells are released into the water. These then combine outside the sponges.
Use as tools
By dolphins
A report in 1997 described how bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay used sponges as tools: A dolphin may attach a marine sponge to its rostrum (snoutlike projection). It is thought the sponge is used to protect the rostrum when the dolphin is looking for food in the sandy sea bottom but scientists have not confirmed this. The behaviour, known as sponging, has only been seen in this bay, and is almost exclusively shown by females. A study in 2005 concluded that mothers teach the behaviour to their daughters, and that all the sponge-users are closely related. This suggests that it is a fairly recent innovation. Dolphins also use sponges as an exfoliator, rubbing their skin against the sponge attached to the rock to get rid of their old/dry skin.
By people
The calcium carbonate or silica spicules of most sponges make them too rough for most uses, but two genera, Hippospongia and Spongia, have soft, entirely fibrous skeletons. Early Europeans used soft sponges for many purposes including padding for helmets, portable drinking utensils and municipal water filters. Until synthetic sponges were invented, they were also used as cleaning tools, for painting, and as contraceptives. In the 20th century, overfishing is a problem. This has caused the animals, as well as the industry behind it to be close to extinction.
Many objects with sponge-like textures are now made of substances that do not come from poriferans. Synthetic "sponges" include personal and household cleaning tools; breast implants; contraceptive sponges.
The luffa "sponge", also spelled loofah, which is commonly sold for use in the kitchen or the bath, is not derived from an animal but from the fibrous "skeleton" of a gourd (Cucurbitaceae).
Gallery
References
Basic English 850 words |
A kibibyte is a unit of information or computer storage. A kibibyte is 1024 bytes, 1024 kibibytes are a mebibyte.
Related pages
Kilobyte
Mebibyte
Gibibyte
Tebibyte
Computing measurement |
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is a 2003 action movie from Paramount Pictures. It is the second movie to star Angelina Jolie as the title character from the Tomb Raider video games.
2003 movies
American adventure movies
English-language movies
Paramount movies
Movies based on video games
2000s adventure movies |
The amplitude or peak amplitude of a wave is a measure of how big its oscillation is.
Amplitudes are always measured as positive numbers (for example: 3.5, 1, 120) and are never negative (for example: -3.5, -1, -120). That's because distance can only be greater than zero or equal to zero; negative distance does not exist.
The distance from the top of one peak to the bottom of another is called peak-to-peak amplitude. Another way to describe peak-to-peak amplitude is to say that it is the distance between the maximum positive value and the maximum negative value of a wave is the maximum displacement of a wave from an equilibrium position
Related pages
Waves and their properties:
Frequency
Period
Wavelength
Amplitude modulation
Vibration control
Vibration isolation
Wave physics
Mechanical vibrations |
Ska is a popular music from Jamaica that began in the 1950s. Ska music that was first played at a slower tempo then became reggae in the late 1960s.
Ska music bands include singers, electric guitars, electric bass guitar, piano, organ, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. In ska, the electric guitar and piano normally play short chords on the off-beat. If you go "one and two and three and four", the off-beat is the "and".
A ska singer does a style of Jamaican singing called "toasting." When a singer is "toasting", they make sounds, repeat words, invent rhymes, and shout into the microphone. The Jamaican "toasting" style of singing and talking was adapted into rap music in the 1980s.
How Ska musicians dress
Musicians who play ska dress in hats and suits. Many ska bands wear clothes with a chessboard pattern of black and white squares. Doc Martens are a common type of shoe. This pattern symbolizes the way that ska music mixes of Black and White musicans and styles of music.There was a British genre of ska-punk influenced by The Specials, Madness and the English Beat, that began to dress in kilts.
1980s Ska Revival
Even though ska was developed in the 1950s, it became popular again in the 1980s in Britain. In the 1980s, ska bands such as The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, UB40 and Madness played ska music.
1990s Ska mixed with punk rock
In the 1990s, some bands mixed ska music with Punk rock to make ska-punk. This kind of ska music is from England and the United States. Some pop-punk bands from the 1990s mixed pop-punk with ska-punk.
Ska bands and singers
No Doubt
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Specials
The Selecter (British band)
The Beat (British band)
Madness (English band)
Sublime
Prince Buster (Jamaican singer)
Desmond Dekker (Jamaican singer)
The Bodysnatchers (female British band)
The Skatalites (Jamaican band)
Streetlight Manifesto (American band)
The Toasters (American band)
The Slackers (New York City band)
Rusted Root (American band)
Westbound Train (Boston band)
Reel Big Fish
Suburban Legends (American band)
Catch 22 (American band)
Less Than Jake
Lord Creator (Jamaican singer)
The King Blues (British band)
Related pages
Scat singing
References
Other websites
Going to a Ska Show? Here's What to Wear (LA Weekly)
Music genres
Jamaica
British culture
1950s establishments in North America |
The Braille system is a way of writing things. It is named after Louis Braille, the French man who invented it. The system is used by blind people to read and write. The Braille system uses a set of raised bumps or dots that can be felt with a finger. Each set of dots is a character in an alphabet, and the numbers and some punctuation.
Before Braille
Louis Braille was not the first person to think about how to let the blind read and write. In the 17th century the Italian Jesuit Francesco Lana thought about different systems of writing for the blind. He invented a system of dashes that could be felt.
Valentin Haüy was one of the first French who was interested in the problems the blind had when they wanted to communicate. Haüy was born in Picardie in 1745, and studied languages at the university in Paris. First he studied deaf people who could not speak, then blind people. In his opinion the biggest problem of the blind was that they could not read. He then invented a system which allowed them to read and write sentences and to do mathematics. Later he started a school for blind children. His writing system used two columns which had between one and six positions each. Vowels had a dot in the left column, for example.
Charles Barbier used a similar system, because Napoleon wanted a code that soldiers could use to exchange messages silently and without light at night. Barbier called it night writing. Night writing uses two columns of six dots. It uses phonemes (separate sounds), not letters. Barbier's system was too hard for soldiers to learn, and the military did not use it. From the year 1821, he started to test his system in the school Haüy had founded. There it became very successful. Even though the system was difficult to learn, it did help the blind to read better than earlier systems. Barbier had understood that it was better to use a system that used dots over one that used lines.
Barbier met Braille when he visited the National Institute of the Blind. Braille saw the biggest problem of the code: The human finger cannot feel the whole symbol at one time. This makes it impossible to move rapidly from one symbol to the next. Braille's change was to use a 6 dot cell — the braille system — which completely changed how the blind would read and write.
The Braille alphabet
Braille can be seen as the world's first binary way of character encoding. The system as originally invented by Braille has two parts
Defining the letters of the French language with tuples (groups) of six bits or "dots".
Showing these six-bit characters as raised dots in Braille cell.
Braille is used with different languages today. In each language, the letters are encoded differently, depending on the alphabet. The list of codes is known as braille code, or code page. There are also different braille codes in use for special purposes, like writing shorthand, mathematics or music.
To make it possible to read faster, certain transcriptions of Braille use shortened words, or contractions. This is known as Grade 2 Braille.
The Braille cell
Braille uses cells of six raised dots, in two columns of three dots. The dot positions on the left are numbered one, to three, the ones on the right four to six, as shown in the picture.
Each symbol is coded with certain dots present, and others absent. The dots are approximately 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) high; inside the cell, the dots are about 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) apart. The space between the dots of two cells is about 0.15 inches (3.75 mm) horizontally and 0.2 inches (5 mm) vertically. A standard braille page is 11 inches by 11 inches and typically has between forty and forty-two braille cells per line and twenty-five lines.
Encoding
As first made by Louis Braille, the first group of characters, using just the top 4 dots of the braille cell, represents letters "a" through "j" (this group of ten characters is called a decade). Dot 3 (bottom left) is added to each of the "a" through "j" symbols to give letters "k" through "t". Both of the bottom dots (dots 3 and 6) are added to the first decade to give letters "u", "v", "x", "y", and "z". The letter "w" is left out of this group because French did not use the letter "w" when Louis Braille made his alphabet. The fifth decade is the same as the first decade, but shifted down by a row (dots 1 and 4 are blank).
English braille has codes for the letters and some punctuation, and some double letter signs and word signs directly, but capitalization and numbers need a prefix symbol. In practice, braille produced in the United Kingdom does not use capital letters.
There are braille codes for representing shorthand (produced on a machine which embosses a paper tape) and for representing mathematics (Nemeth Braille) and musical notation (braille music).
Writing braille
Braille can be made using a "slate" and a "stylus" in which each dot is created from the back of the page, writing in mirror image, by hand, or it may be produced on a special braille typewriter or "Perkins Brailler", or produced by a braille embosser attached to a computer. It may also be made using a refreshable braille display.
Extensions
The six bit braille code is very limited, it only allows 64 different possible combinations. This means that many things need more than one braille character to be coded. One example for this is how numbers are coded in English braille: First there is a symbol that says the next symbol is a number, and then there is the symbol for the number. The symbol for number is usually given only once; every symbol that follows is treated as a number, until there is a space.
Braille has been extended to an 8 dot code, particularly for use with braille embossers and refreshable braille displays. In 8 dot braille the added dots are added at the bottom of the cell, giving a cell 4 dots high by 2 dots wide. The additional dots are called 7 (for the lower-left dot) and 8 (for the lower-right dot). 8-dot braille has the advantages that capital and lower cases of the letters are directly coded in the cell, a capital letter does not need two cells. All the printable ASCII characters can be represented in a single cell, and all 256 possible combinations of 8 bits are encoded by the Unicode standard. Braille with six dots is frequently stored as braille ASCII.
Braille transcription
Grade 1 braille
It is possible to transcribe braille by replacing each letter with the braille code for the letter. This is usually known as Grade 1 Braille. Grade 1 braille is mostly used by beginners.
The basic problem of Grade 1 braille is that braille letters are much larger than printed ones. The standard page is 11"x11" (28 cm by 28 cm) in size and only has room for twenty-five lines of forty characters. This means a book would need to be very thick compared to a standard printed book.
Grade 2 braille
For this reason almost all English braille books use a transcription known as Grade 2 braille. Grade 2 braille uses contractions, which allows to save space and increase reading speed. Grade 2 braille was developed by linguists (people who study languages), who also looked at customs, styles and practices. Transcribing a text into Grade 2 braille is difficult, and the people doing the transcription need to have a special education.
In English, there are 23 words which are replaced with a single letter. That way, the word but is contracted (shortened) to the single letter b, can to c, do to d, and so on. Even this simple rule has exceptions and special cases, which must be thought of. As an example, only the verb to do is replaced by d, the noun do (which stands for a note in music) is a different word, and is written in full.
Sometimes, part of words are contracted, and a character can mean different things in different parts of a word. There are many rules for this process. For example, the character with dots 2-3-5 (the letter "f" lowered in the braille cell) stands for "ff" when used in the middle of a word. At the beginning of a word, this same character stands for the word "to" although the character is written in braille with no space following it. At the end of a word, the same character represents an exclamation point.
The contraction rules cannot be used when it would make a problem with a prefix or suffix on the word. Also, some rules are flexible and may depend on the situation. So when the rules permit the same word to be written in more than one way, preference is given to "the contraction that is closer to the correct pronunciation."
Grade 3 braille
Grade 3 Braille is a system that includes many additional contractions. It is almost like a shorthand. It is rarely used for books, but people use it to be able to write and read fast, for themselves. It can be used for taking notes.
Grade 4 braille
Only very few people can use grade 4 braille. It uses many rules to shorten grade 3 even further. It allows a blind person to use shorthand to follow spoken conversation. Very often, systems of seven or eight dots are used.
Braille on banknotes
The current Canadian paper money has raised dots on the bills that shows its value. This helps blind people who might otherwise be cheated. This 'tactile feature' does not use standard braille but, instead, a system developed by working with blind and visually impaired Canadians after they found that not all people who needed it could read braille.
Writing systems other than Braille
Braille may not be the main way blind people read and write. In Britain (for example), of the two million visually impaired people, only about 15-20 thousand use Braille. In the U.S.A. according to the 2015 Annual Report from the American Printing House for the Blind, there were 61,739 legally blind students registered in the U.S. Of these, only 8.6% (5,333) were registered as braille readers, 31% (19,109) as visual readers, 9.4% (5,795) as auditory readers, 17% (10,470) as pre-readers, and 34% (21,032) as non-readers.
Currently, among the estimated 85,000 blind adults in the United States, 90% of those who are Braille-literate are employed. Among adults who do not know Braille, only 33% are employed.
Younger people are turning to electronic text on computers which can be read aloud by software programs. This is a good communication method they can use with their friends. Inevitably, software will go on advancing, as it does in all its functions. Also, there are audio sources for literature: some are available for use without computer links. Much thought is going into all these issues.
A term which is useful to know is "accessible publishing": Accessible publishing means books and other texts are available in formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. Examples are: varieties of larger fonts, specialised fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, Braille, e-books, and automated Audiobooks and digital talking books. This means that Braille is only one way for sighting-impaired people to go; also that there are many more partially sighted people than registered blind people. The partially sighted obviously have more choices.
Braille for other scripts
There are many extensions of Braille for additional letters with diacritics, such as ç, ô, é.
When braille is adapted to languages which do not use the Latin alphabet, the blocks are generally assigned to the new alphabet according to how it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet, not the alphabetic order of the national script. This is the case with Russian (Cyrillic alphabet), Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese. In Greek, for example, gamma is written as Latin g, even though it is the third letter of that alphabet (like the Latin c). Hebrew beth, the second letter of the alphabet and cognate with the Latin letter b, is instead written v, as it is commonly pronounced. Esperanto letters with circumflexes, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ and ŝ, are written as those letters without circumflexes with a filled sixth dot.
More differences are in Chinese braille. In Mandarin Braille, which is based on Zhuyin rather than the Latin Pinyin alphabet, the Latin braille values are used for the first consonants and the simple vowels. There are additional blocks for the tones, diphthongs, and any following vowel + consonant combinations. Cantonese Braille is also based on Latin braille for many of the initial consonants and simple vowels, but the blocks also have different values depending on whether they are in a leading syllable or following syllable position. For instance, the block for Latin k represents old-style Cantonese k (g in Yale and other modern Romanizations) when initial, but aak when final, while Latin j represents Cantonese initial j but final oei.
However, at least two adaptations of Braille have completely reassigned the Latin sound values of the blocks. These are:
Japanese Braille
Korean Braille
In Japanese Braille, alphabetic signs for a consonant and vowel are combined into a single syllable block; in Korean Braille, the consonants have different leading and following syllable forms. These changes made Braille much more compatible with Japanese kana and Korean hangul, but meant that the Latin sound values could not be kept.
Reading Braille
Trained readers of Braille can read about 100 words per minute; trained readers who do not have sight problems can get to around 250 to 300 words per minute.
References
Other websites
The National Library for the Blind
Unified (English) Braille Code (including information specific to British braille)
English Braille: American Edition
Online Braille Translation
How Braille Began —a detailed history of braille's origins and the people who supported and opposed the system.
A braille alphabet card |
A switch is something that changes the flow of an electrical circuit. The most common kind of switch is something (for example a railroad switch) which can be taken off of one course and put onto another. The term "switch" usually means electrical power. In applications where more than one switch is needed, (i.e. a telephone service) mechanical switches have been replaced by electronic switches which can be controlled automatically.
The switch is called a "gate" when used in a mathematical form. In logic, arguments are represented as logic gates. The use of electronic gates to work as a system of logical gates is the basic idea behind the computer —i.e. a computer is a lot of electronic switches that work as logic gates.
Types of switch
There are many types of switches. Some of these are:
DIP switch
Reed switch
Rocker switch
Micro switch
Relay switch
Rotary switch
Surface mount switch
Toggle switch
Tilt switch
Time switch
Other meanings
The word 'switch' can also mean to change between two things. For example, on a railway line, sometimes the track can split into two different tracks. If the train is travelling on one line and changes over to the other, it has just done a switch.
Related pages
Electricity
Railway
Electronic components |
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban KC, (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), was an English philosopher, statesman, and author. He has been described as one of the greatest thinkers ever whose ideas have changed the way people think.
Life
He was born in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the nephew of Queen Elizabeth's advisor, William Cecil. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first job was as a lawyer. He later became a Member of Parliament and in 1586 he took a leading part in having Mary Queen of Scots executed. He became a friend of Robert Deveraux, the Earl of Essex, in 1591, and received many valuable gifts from him. After Essex led a rebellion against the Queen, Bacon was one of the people who led the investigation which led to Essex's execution in 1601.
Bacon was often in trouble for spending too much, and in 1601 he was arrested for debt. When King James became king in 1603, Bacon's position improved. He was knighted in 1603. He was one of the people who argued for the joining of England and Scotland together as one country, which happened after his lifetime, in the 1700s. Bacon married Alice Barnham in 1606, and the next year he was made the Solicitor General. He continued to be given better paying positions including Attorney General, Lord Keeper, and Lord Chancellor.
He was made Baron Verulam in 1618, and Viscount St Albans in 1621. Because he did not have children both titles ended when he died.
He used his positions to make more money for himself, and in 1621 the Parliament found that he was corrupt. He was fined £40,000 and removed from all his jobs. King James overturned the fine, but he was kept as a prisoner in the Tower of London for a while.
Studies
He became best known as a leading thinker in new ways of looking at the world. His writings started and made famous a way of thinking about science. This way of thinking is now called the Baconian method. It is based on looking at the world by making experiments. After watching the results the scientist comes up with an idea to explain what has happened. This idea or hypothesis is then further tested by more experiments. This way of thinking about science is called inductive methodology. In Bacon's time these methods were linked with magic including hermeticism and alchemy. Alchemy was the study of fire, earth, water and air. Alchemists tried to make gold from lead.
Notes
Other websites
The Francis Bacon Society
Contains the New Organon, slightly modified for easier reading
Francis Bacon of Verulam. Realistic Philosophy and its Age (1857) by Kuno Fischer and John Oxenford in English
1561 births
1626 deaths
16th-century philosophers
17th-century English philosophers
Attorneys general
Deaths from pneumonia
Infectious disease deaths in England
Lord Chancellors
Spies
Writers from London |
Sled dogs, known also as sleigh dogs, sledge dogs or sleddogs are types of dogs that are used to pull a wheel-less vehicle on runners (a sled or sleigh) over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.
Working dogs |
The Overland Expedition, also called the Overland Relief Expedition or Point Barrow-Overland Relief Expedition, was a long trip in 1897–8, by three officers of the United States Coast Guard (then named the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service), with the help of two civilians, using sled dogs and reindeer to rescue more than 250 whalers trapped in the Arctic Ocean by ice around their ships.
The rescue was ordered by then-U.S. President William McKinley. McKinley later talked about the rescue in a letter dated January 17, 1899 to the United States Congress, in which he asked Congress to award the officers Congressional Gold Medals, and to pay the civilians for their help:
It will be remembered that in the month of October, 1897, reports were
received here of the probable loss of the whaling fleet in the Arctic
regions, and of the likelihood that nearly 300 men, composing the
officers and crews of the fleet, would perish from hunger unless succor [an old word for help] could reach them early in the spring. ...
The overland expedition was formed, and consisted of First Lieut. David
H. Jarvis, Revenue-Cutter Service, commanding; Second Lieut. Ellsworth
P. Bertholf, Revenue-Cutter Service, and Dr. Samuel J. Call, surgeon of
the Bear, all volunteers. ...
They were materially aided by Mr. W.T. Lopp, agent of the American Missionary Society at Cape Prince of Wales, and Artisarlook, a native of that region, both of whom, at great personal sacrifice, left their families and accompanied the reindeer herd to Point Barrow.
The overland expedition, after a difficult and hazardous journey of
nearly 2,000 miles through the storms and bitter cold of an Arctic
winter, reached Point Barrow with the herd on the 29th of March, 1898,
three months and twelve days from their landing from the Bear at
Cape Vancouver, Alaskan coast of Bering Sea. They arrived none too soon. ... [due to] bad sanitary conditions and want of proper food, the men from the whale ships quartered there were found upon the verge of great suffering, while sickness had broken out among them. ...
I have therefore the honor to submit the following recommendations and
to ask your favorable action: ...
That gold medals of honor of appropriate design, to be approved by
the Secretary of the Treasury, be awarded to Lieutenants Jarvis and
Bertholf and Dr. Call, commemorative of their heroic struggles in aid of
suffering fellow-men. ...
That the sum of $2,500 be appropriated to be disbursed by the
Secretary of the Treasury in bestowing rewards upon W.T. Lopp,
Artisarlook, and native herders, who rendered material aid to the relief
expedition.
References
Fog, Men, and Cutters: A Short History of the Bering Sea Patrol, by Dennis L. Noble, Ph.D. from the USCG website
William McKinley papers from Project Gutenberg
List of Congressional Gold Medal Recipients from the Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
1890s in the United States |
Number theory is a part of mathematics. It explains what some types of numbers are, what properties they have, and ways that they can be useful.
Topics in number theory are:
Prime numbers
Factorization
Matrix
Important theorems in number theory are:
Chinese remainder theorem
Fundamental theorem of arithmetic
Fermat's last theorem
Fermat's little theorem
Applications
A well-known application of number theory is encrypted messaging (encryption). Data compression also makes use of the field.
Further reading
G.H. Hardy; E.M. Wright (2008) [1938]. An introduction to the theory of numbers. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921986-5.
Vinogradov, I.M. (2003) [1954]. Elements of Number Theory (reprint o 1954 ed.). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
Ivan M. Niven; Herbert S. Zuckerman; Hugh L. Montgomery (2008) [1960]. An introduction to the theory of numbers (reprint of the 5th edition 1991 ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-81-265-1811-1.
Kenneth H. Rosen (2010). Elementary Number Theory (6th ed.). Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-321-71775-7.
Borevich, A. I.; Shafarevich, Igor R. (1966). Number theory. Pure and Applied Mathematics. 20. Boston, MA: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-117850-5. MR 0195803.
Serre, Jean-Pierre (1996) [1973]. A course in arithmetic. Graduate texts in mathematics. 7. Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-90040-7.
Other websites
Number Theory
Number Theory Web |
Tear gas is the name for a number of chemical compounds. They are not actually gases. They are fine powders or mists of liquid. The chemicals are acidic and cause pain in the eyes. Tear gas may cause temporary blindness for up to 45 minutes. Tear gas is commonly used by police to control crowds. Phenacyl chloride (CN) liquid and CS powder are two of the chemicals that are often found in tear gas. Pepper spray is another chemical compound that acts very similarly and is sometimes used to control crowds.
Tear gas is a chemical weapon, and was used as a weapon in the First World War. The 1925 Geneva Protocol is not specific enough about the use of irritating agents, such as tear gas in war. The Chemical Weapons Convention, of 1992 prohibits the use of tear gas for warfare. The use as a riot control agent is not covered by the treaty.
Problems of using tear gas
The use of tear gas is also has problems: Usually, cartidges of tear gas are thrown; they can hit and injure people. A case of serious vascular injury from tear gas shells has also been reported from Iran, with high rates of associated nerve injury (44%) and amputation (17%), as well as instances of head injuries in young people. Directly exposing skin to tear gas may lead to chemical burns and allergic reactions of the skin.
In the short term, the medical consequences are usually limited to skin inflammation. delayed complications are also possible: people with respiratory conditions such as asthma are likely to need medical attention and may sometimes require hospitalization or even ventilation support. Skin exposure to CS may cause chemical burns or induce allergic contact dermatitis. When people are hit at close range or are severely exposed, eye injuries involving scarring of the cornea can lead to a permanent loss in visual acuity. Frequent or high levels of exposure carry increased risks of respiratory illness.
References
Related pages
Chemical warfare
Other websites
Riot Agents
Chemical compounds
Law enforcement equipment |
"Kaba Ma Kyei" (), which means "Until the World Crumbles", is the national anthem (song) of Myanmar. The melody and lyrics were created by Saya Tin, and became the Burmese national anthem in 1947.
Burmese lyrics
Burmese
IPA pronunciation
MLC Transcription System|MLC transcription
kam.bha ma.kye / mran.ma prany /
tui. bhui: bwa: a.mwe cac mui. hkyac mrat nui: pe //
prany htaung su. kui a.sak pe: lui. tui. ka kwai ma.le /
da tui. prany da tui. mre to. puing nak mre //
tui. prany tui. mre a.kyui: kui
nyi nya cwa tui. ta.twe htam: hsaung pa sui. le
to. ta wan pe a. hpui: tan mre //
English translation
Official
Till the end of the world, Myanmar
Since she is the true inheritance from our forefathers, we love and value her.
We will fight and give our lives for the union
This is the country and land of our own
For her prosperity, we will responsibly shoulder the task,
Standing as one in duty to our precious land.
Literal
Until the world crumbles, Myanmar!,
Our ancestors gave us the inheritance after fighting wars with love.
We will sacrifice our lives and our labours to protect the Union.
This is our Nation, this is our Land, the land that we own.
Our nation, our land will prosper with productivity and equality as pictured
To unite in keeping to the duties of our valuable land.
National anthems
Myanmar |
Yangon () also known as Rangoon, is the largest city in Myanmar. It was also the capital city until 2006. The city is by a river called Hlaingthayar, and is close to the sea. Yangon has more than 4 million people living there.
History
Yangon was founded as Dagon in the 6th century AD by the Mons, who ruled Lower Burma at that time. Dagon was a small fishing village centered about the Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1755, King Alaungpaya conquered Dagon and renamed it "Yangon". The British captured Yangon during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26) but returned it to Burma after the war. The city was destroyed by a fire in 1841.
The British took Yangon and all of Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, and then changed Yangon into the most important city of British Burma. The British constructed a new city on a grid plan on delta land. It was bound to the east by the Pazundaung Creek and to the south and west by the Yangon River. Yangon became the capital of all British Burma after the British had captured Upper Burma in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. By the 1890s Yangon's increasing population and commerce gave birth to prosperous residential suburbs to the north of Royal Lake (Kandawgyi) and Inya Lake. The British also established hospitals including Rangoon General Hospital and colleges including Rangoon University.
Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings and traditional wooden architecture, was known as "the garden city of the East." By the early 20th century, Yangon had public services and infrastructure on par with London.
Before World War II, about 55% of Yangon's population of 500,000 was Indian or South Asian, and only about a third was Bamar (Burman). Karens, the Chinese, the Anglo-Burmese and others made up the rest.
After World War I, Yangon became the center of Burmese independence movement. The leftist Rangoon University students led the way. Three nationwide strikes against the British Empire in 1920, 1936 and 1938 began in Yangon. Yangon was under Japan's occupation (1942–45), and was heavily damaged during World War II. Yangon became the capital of Union of Burma on 4 January 1948 when the country regained independence from the British Empire.
Gallery
References
Cities in Myanmar
Former national capitals |
Pyinmana (, ; population: 100,000 (2006 estimate)) is a small town in Mandalay Division of Myanmar. The government in 2005 decided to move the capital city from Yangon to an area two miles (3.2 km) away west of Pyinmana on November 6, 2005, near the town, named Naypyidaw, which means Royal City. Pyinmana is approximately north of Yangon.
Towns in Asia
Myanmar |
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