Which class of birds are classed as 'raptors'?

Birds of Prey Class | Rocky Mountain Raptor Program Birds of Prey Class Raptor Enclosure Upgrade to Protect Educational Raptors from Avian Influenza RMRP Events Jan 28 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm This is a great time to meet some of the RMRP educational ambassadors.   24th Annual Gala & Auction @ Fort Collins Hilton Feb 25 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm This is one of our largest fundraisers of the year.  Come and dine, view birds, bid on great items, and enjoy. Earth Day at the RMRP @ Rocky Mountain Raptor Program Apr 22 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Help us protect the spaces we share on the only planet we call home. RMRP Open House @ Rocky Mountain Raptor Program May 13 @ 11:00 am – 3:00 pm Come on over and learn how we rehabilitate 300 injured raptors annually. Export to XML Are you a Colorado Government Employee? If so, you can easily designate your charitable contribution to RMRP  through the Colorado Combined Campaign. Right now, State employees are  participating in workplace giving campaigns and making pledges via  payroll deduction, cash, check or credit card. No matter the amount,  your contribution makes a huge difference! Colorado Combined Campaign: http://www.colorado.gov/ccc/   Birds of Prey Class All bird lovers will enjoy the Birds of Prey class taught by RMRP Director, Judy Scherpelz. “I present the class with explanations to reach all interest levels. The more you know about birds and their environment, the more enjoyment you will get in watching them in their natural surroundings.” The 2016 Birds of Prey class offers an enjoyable learning experience for all students. The series of classes begins in September and runs through November. Five classes are held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the sixth day is a field trip to explore Northern Colorado to practice your newly learned raptor identification skills. You can take the whole series or just individual classes. For the best learning experience, we recommend the whole series.   Session 1 - September 10, 2016.  9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Why Birds are Cool! Examines bird anatomy and physiology and why they do what they do. Courtship, breeding, population trends, migration, and environmental issues will be discussed. Session 2 - September 24, 2016. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Why They Do That Thing They Do. Covers behaviors and how the different species of raptors respond to breeding and migration pressures, weather, territorial protection, hunting, defense and much more. Session 3 – October 8, 2016. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Is that an Eagle or a Hawk? Explores individual species habitats and identification of hawks (buteos and accipiters), vulture, and eagles. Photographs and live raptors will help participants identify Colorado’s raptors. Session 4 – October 22, 2016. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.:  Falcons, Harriers, Osprey and Kites, Oh My! This class focuses on individual species habitats and identification of Colorado falcons and other raptor misfits. Photographs and live raptors will help to learn identification. Session 5 - November 5, 2016. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Owls! Explores individual species habitats and identification of Colorado owls. Photographs and live raptors will help participants identify the 13 species of owls found in Colorado Session 6 - November 19, 2016. 9 a.m. to approximately 3 p.m.:  Field Trip Features a raptor-watching field trip covering a variety of nesting habitats throughout northern Colorado. Trip focuses on how and where to ethically observe birds of prey and field identification of birds in local areas.   Fees are $50 per class or $275 for all six classes.  All sessions begin promptly at 9 a.m. and will be held at 720-B East Vine Drive, Fort Collins, Colorado. To register by email or by phone, send your inquiry to judy@rmrp.org or call (970) 484-7756. You may also download the Birds of Prey Class 2016 registration form  and mail it in with your payment.  Rocky Mountain Raptor Program Mailing Address: 2519 South Shields Street, #115, Ft. Collins, Colorado 80526 Location: 720 B East Vine Drive, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526 Phone: 970-484-7756


Which book of the Bible has only on chapter?

The 5 Shortest Books of the Bible, in Order The 5 shortest books of the Bible, in order by Jeffrey Kranz | Jan 17, 2016 | Bible facts | 8 comments What’s the shortest book of the Bible? (Spoiler alert: it’s 3 John, and I’ll explain why later.) The Bible is a pretty long book , and that might give the impression that every book of the Bible is long, too. But good news! Not every book of the Bible is so long. It has some tiny documents in it. In fact, the shortest books of the Bible are shorter than this blog post. The shortest books of the Bible Here are the five shortest books of the Bible, beginning with the very shortest. These measurements are by words in the original languages. Each of these books is only one chapter long, and would take you a few minutes to read, tops: Jude  (461 words) I got these word counts using Word Lists in Logos Bible Software . Again, these aren’t listed by English word count: this is from the underlying Greek and Hebrew. “That’s a lot of work, dude! Why not just count the verses?” Because verses vary in length, and with such brief books, it’s best not to risk it. And if we were going by verse count, we’d be dealing with a different ordered list. Philemon has more verses than Obadiah (the shortest book in the Old Testament), but fewer words. Second John has fewer verses than Third John, but more words. If we were going by verse count, we’d still know the shortest books of the Bible, but we’d have them out of order. Contrast that with the longest books Here’s an infographic comparing the shortest books of the Bible to the longest books of the Bible . Read these books front-to-back One of the best habits to form when studying the Bible is to read the entire book you’re working with in one sitting. It’s certainly helped me with this project . If you’re setting out to study a book of the Bible, it’s best to try reading the entire book at once.  Andy Naselli just wrote a nice bit on this at the Desiring God blog: Have you ever read the  Gospel according the Matthew  straight through in one sitting? Or  Romans ? Or  Job ? Or  Revelation ? If not, you’re missing out. That’s the way they’re meant to be read. He’s right. The Bible’s made up of letters and stories and oracles, but we tend to treat it more like a reference guide. Maybe that’s because the Bible’s so big—really, where are you going to find the time to read 150 Psalms? Reading entire books of the Bible at once can be a tough habit to get into, but starting with some of the shortest books of the Bible might help you get the hang of it. And by the way, this blog post is weighing in at around 450 words, so if you can read this sort of stuff, Third John , Second John , and Philemon will be no problem at all!  In fact, here’s a challenge: set a timer for 15 minutes and read all five of these books. Not only will you have read five books in one sitting, but you’ll be able to say you read Obadiah —how many people do you know who can say that? (Probably not many … it’s the least popular book of the Bible .) Download that chart for yourself Plug in your email address and I’ll send you a copy on the infographic in this piece. You’ll also be first in line to hear about more cool stuff that happens around here. =) Email address What about the other books of the Bible? So you know the shortest five books of the Bible (and the longest five, from that infographic). But what about the other 59 books in the middle? How do they line up? Well, here’s every book of the Bible, lined up from shortest to longest, with word counts. I’ve linked each book to a brief summary that I’ve written. 1


In which year was the Russian space station 'Mir' launched?

NASA FACTS/Russian Space Stations - Wikisource, the free online library NASA FACTS/Russian Space Stations 118549 NASA FACTS — Russian Space StationsNASA NASA Facts Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058 Russian Space Stations Introduction The International Space Station, which will be assembled between mid-1998 and 2003, will contain many Russian hardware elements developed in the nearly 30 years of the Russian space station program. The history of Russian space stations is one of gradual development marked by upgrades of existing equipment, reapplication to new goals of hardware designed for other purposes, rapid recovery from failures, and constant experimentation. The earliest Salyut stations were single modules, designed for only temporary operations. Mir, the most recent station, is a permanent facility in orbit since 1986 with a base made up of four separately-launched modules. Additional modules have been added to now total six laboratory modules and one docking module, added to allow the Space Shuttle to more easily dock with the station. U.S. Space Shuttles have been periodically docking with the Mir since July 1995. U.S. astronauts have maintained a permanent presence onboard Mir since March 1996 and that presence is expected to continue through 1998. Prelude to Space Stations (1903-1964) In 1903, Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote Beyond the Planet Earth, a work of fiction based on sound science. In it, he described orbiting space stations where humans would learn to live in space. Tsiolkovsky believed these would lead to self-contained space settlements and expeditions to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids. Tsiolkovsky wrote about rocketry and space travel until his death in 1935, inspiring generations of Russian space engineers. Soviet engineers began work on large rockets in the 1930s. In May 1955, work began on the Baikonur launch site in central Asia. In August 1957, the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile lifted off from Baikonur on a test flight, followed by the launch of Sputnik 1, world’s first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin lifted off from Baikonur in the Vostok 1 capsule, becoming the first human in space. A year later, Soviet engineers described a space station comprised of modules launched separately and brought together in orbit. A quarter-century later, in 1987, this concept became reality when the Kvant module was added to the Mir core station. First-Generation Stations (1964-1977) 1976-77 Last Almaz station First-generation space stations had one docking port and could not be resupplied or refueled. The stations were launched unmanned and later occupied by crews. There were two types: Almaz military stations and Salyut civilian stations. To confuse Western observers the Soviets called both kinds Salyut. Salyut 1 station with Soyuz about to dock The Almaz military station program was the first approved. When proposed in 1964, it had three parts: the Almaz military surveillance space station, Transport Logistics Spacecraft for delivering soldier-cosmonauts and cargo, and Proton rockets for launching both. All of these spacecraft were built, but none was used as originally planned. Soviet engineers completed several Almaz station hulls by 1970. The Soviet leadership ordered Almaz hulls transferred to a crash program to launch a civilian space station. Work on the Transport Logistics Spacecraft was deferred, and the Soyuz spacecraft originally built for the Soviet manned Moon program was reapplied to ferry crews to space stations. Salyut 1, the first space station in history, reached orbit unmanned atop a Proton rocket on April 19, 1971. The early first-generation stations were plagued by failures. The crew of Soyuz 10, the first spacecraft sent to Salyut 1, was unable to enter the station because of a docking mechanism problem. The Soyuz 11 crew lived aboard Salyut 1 for three weeks, but died during return to Earth because the air escaped from their Soyuz spacecraft. Then, three firstgeneration stations failed to


Guanaco | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants ABOUT Camels, guanacos, llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas are all members of the camel family. Cool critters: Guanacos are graceful animals related to camels. Pronounced "gwa NAH ko," they live throughout South America in dry, open country in the mountains or on the plains. Guanacos have a calm attitude, so people started to domesticate them for use as pack animals. Llamas are descendants of wild guanacos that were domesticated 6,000 to 7,000 years ago. Andean peoples raise them for wool, meat, and skin and also used them as pack animals.  The result is the llama of today, which is the domesticated version of the guanaco—llamas don’t exist in the wild. Another branch of the family tree is the alpaca, which is also a type of domesticated guanaco raised for its soft wool. An alpaca, a domesticated type of guanaco. Everyone knows what a llama looks like, but what are guanacos? Standing less than 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall at the shoulder, guanacos have a slender body, long legs, and a long neck. They are shorter and smaller than their camel relatives. Although they seem delicate, guanacos can weigh up to 265 pounds (120 kilograms). Male guanacos are larger than the females. All guanacos have a thick, wooly coat that can be light brown, brownish yellow, or a rusty red. Their belly, rump, and the backs of the legs are usually white; the head, ears, and nape of the neck are gray. These colors help guanacos blend in with their grassland and desert habitats. Guanacos have large eyes with thick lashes to protect them from dust and dirt kicked up by heavy winds. Their ears are large and pointed. Though related to camels, they do not have any humps on their back. What they do share in common with camels are their feet. Two padded toes on each foot help with footing on rocky trails or gravel slopes. Their feet are best described as “squishy.” Most guanacos live in herds. They run when threatened, and their best chance of escaping a predator, such as a mountain lion or fox, is to do it all together. If they run in a group, this may confuse the predator, making it harder to focus on any one individual. Guanacos at the San Diego Zoo sound an alert call when animal trainers walk one of the Zoo's wolf ambassadors by their enclosure. Even though the wolf is on a leash, he’s still a wolf, after all! Guanacos have many ways of getting around. In the open places where they live, there is no place to hide. But guanacos are excellent runners, reaching speeds of 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour, just like horses. Their soft-soled hooves gain traction on the gravelly terrain. Baby guanacos, called chulengos or guanaquitos, are able to run soon after birth. Guanacos are also strong swimmers and are comfortable standing or lying in mountain streams. Whether walking, running, or swimming, guanacos are athletic. All animals have many ways of communicating, although some ways are more pleasant than others. The guanaco starts out using the standard method of ears, body, and tail positions. When the ears are up, it means the animal is relaxed. Ears forward means the guanaco is alarmed, and ears laid flat signals aggression. A tail pointing down is normal, straight out is a sign of an alert guanaco, and straight up is an aggressive signal. A nose-to-nose encounter is a type of greeting, while slouching down indicates submission. Guanacos also communicate through vocalizations. Their sounds range from high-pitched trills to snorting and shrieking. Their alarm call sounds like a cross between a bleat and a laugh. Guanacos have other communication methods that some people might find gross. They can spit up to a distance of 6 feet (1.8 meters) and have great aim. What’s in their spit? Their stomach contents, made up of food that has been stewing in digestive juices. Food is not just for eating, as far as guanacos are concerned!  Guanacos also use their dung as a form of communication: dung piles mark territory boundaries for them. The next time you meet a guanaco, you'd better hope it has nic


The film which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1942 also featured an Academy Award winning performance from Greer Garson. What was its title?

1942 Academy Awards® Winners and History Actor: JAMES CAGNEY in "Yankee      Doodle Dandy" , Ronald Colman in "Random Harvest",     Gary Cooper in "The Pride of the Yankees", Walter Pidgeon     in "Mrs. Miniver", Monty Woolley in "The Pied     Piper" Actress: GREER GARSON in "Mrs. Miniver", Bette Davis in "Now,      Voyager" , Katharine Hepburn in "Woman of the Year",     Rosalind Russell in "My Sister Eileen", Teresa Wright     in "The Pride of the Yankees" Supporting Actor: VAN HEFLIN in "Johnny Eager", William Bendix in "Wake     Island", Walter Huston in "Yankee      Doodle Dandy" , Frank Morgan in "Tortilla Flat",     Henry Travers in "Mrs. Miniver" Supporting Actress: TERESA WRIGHT in "Mrs. Miniver", Gladys Cooper in "Now,      Voyager" , Agnes Moorehead in "The       Magnificent Ambersons" , Susan Peters in "Random     Harvest", Dame May Whitty in "Mrs. Miniver" Director: WILLIAM WYLER for "Mrs. Miniver", Michael Curtiz for "Yankee      Doodle Dandy" , John Farrow for "Wake Island",     Mervyn LeRoy for "Random Harvest", Sam Wood for "Kings      Row" The      country was in the midst of World War II, and many of the awards      (and the themes of the films of 1942) reflected the country's      pre-occupation with the war or the conflict. Some of the nominated      1942 films with propagandistic war themes included Mrs.       Miniver, Yankee        Doodle Dandy , Wake Island, The Invaders, The         Pied Piper, To the Shores of Tripoli, This Above          All, and The Fleet's In, to name a few. The Best Picture winner, Mrs. Miniver was      an influential film that helped to contribute to the Allied      effort. The intense British melodrama was the story of a brave,      upper middle class British family (headed by Greer Garson and      Walter Pidgeon) struggling during the war with the parents      separated. In particular, it provided a picture of a courageous      English woman who met the demands of wartime. The film ended      with the oratorical words of the vicar (Henry Wilcoxon): "This      is the people's war! It is our war! We are the fighters. Fight      it then. Fight it with all that is in us. And may God defend       the right!" Director William Wyler's Mrs. Miniver,      adapted from Jan Struther's series of articles, was nominated      with twelve nominations in all the major categories and won      six Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting      Actress, Best B/W Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Screenplay      (to four writers, one being James Hilton who had written many      other novels that became famous films, including Lost       Horizon (1937) , Goodbye, Mr.        Chips (1939) , and Random Harvest (1942)). The film garnered Oscar nominations and/or wins      in all four acting categories. [It was the first film      in Academy history to receive five acting nominations.] The      Miniver family consisted of the architect husband, played by      Walter Pidgeon (nominated for Best Actor), joined by his indomitable      wife Greer Garson (nominated for Best Actress for the title      role), and their daughter-in-law Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright,      nominated for Best Supporting Actress). Both Pidgeon and Garson      had appeared as a popular romantic film couple before, most      recently in the Best Picture-nominated film Blossoms in       the Dust (1941). Pidgeon and Garson would appear in many      more films together as husband-wife. Henry Travers and Dame      May Whitty were nominated for supporting roles as Mr. Ballard      and as the village matriarch Lady Beldon (co-star Teresa Wright's       grandmother). The defeated Best Picture nominees in 1942 included: director Orson Welles' second film       - the badly mutilated film by RKO, adapted from a Booth Tarkingt


After the overthrow of the Manchu emperors in 1911, who became China’s first President?

Milestones: 1899–1913 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1899–1913 The Chinese Revolution of 1911 In October of 1911, a group of revolutionaries in southern China led a successful           revolt against the Qing Dynasty, establishing in its place the Republic of China           and ending the imperial system. Photograph of Revolutionaries in Shanghai In the Nineteenth Century, the Qing Empire faced a number of challenges to its           rule, including a number of foreign incursions into Chinese territory. The two           Opium Wars against Western powers led by Great Britain resulted in the loss of           Hong Kong, forced opening of “treaty ports” for international trade, and large           foreign “concessions” in major cities privileged with extraterritorial rule.           After its loss in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), Imperial China was forced to           relinquish control over still more of its territory, losing Taiwan and parts of           Manchuria and ending its suzerainty over Korea. The Russo-Japanese War           (1904–05) firmly established Japanese claims to the Northeast and further           weakened Qing rule. The combination of increasing imperialist demands (from both           Japan and the West), frustration with the foreign Manchu Government embodied by           the Qing court, and the desire to see a unified China less parochial in outlook           fed a growing nationalism that spurred on revolutionary ideas. As Qing rule fell into decline, it made a few last-ditch efforts at           constitutional reform. In 1905, the court abolished the examination system,           which had limited political power to elites who passed elaborate exams on           Chinese classics. Faced with increasing foreign challenges, it worked to           modernize its military. With its central power weakening, the court also           attempted a limited decentralization of power, creating elected assemblies and           increasing provincial self-government. Qing Soldiers Although the Qing court maintained a degree of control within China in these           years, millions of Chinese living overseas, especially in Southeast Asia and the           Americas, began pressing for either widespread reform or outright revolution.           Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao emerged as leaders of those proposing the creation           of a constitutional monarchy. Sun Yat-sen led the amalgam of groups that           together formed the Revolutionary Alliance or Tongmenghui. The Revolutionary           Alliance advocated replacing Qing rule with a republican government; Sun himself           was a nationalist with some socialist tendencies. Both the revolutionary leaders and the overseas Chinese bankrolling their efforts           had their roots in southern China. The Revolutionary Alliance attempted seven or           more different revolts against the Qing in the years leading up to the           revolution, most of which originated in south China and all of which were           ultimately stopped by the Qing army. Finally, in the autumn of 1911, the right set of conditions turned an uprising in           Wuchang into a nationalist revolt. As its losses mounted, the Qing court           responded positively to a set of demands intended to transform authoritarian           imperial rule into a Constitutional monarchy. They named Yuan Shikai the new           premier of China, but before he was able to retake the captured areas from the           revolutionaries, the provinces started to declare their allegiance to the           Revolutionary Alliance. Dr. Sun was in the United States on a fundraising tour           at the time of th


Which garden plant has the Latin name Lathyrus Odoratus?

Lathyrus odoratus - Plant Finder Plant Finder Tried and Trouble-free Recommended by 2 Professionals Common Name: sweet pea Native Range: Crete, Italy, Sicily Zone: 2 to 11 Height: 3.00 to 8.00 feet Spread: 2.00 to 3.00 feet Bloom Time: May to July Bloom Description: Cultivars in all colors except yellow Sun: Full sun Garden locations Culture Cool weather annual that is best grown in rich, humusy, medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun. Tolerates some light shade. Compost may be incorporated into the growing area prior to planting. Best performance occurs in cool soils (soil mulch helps) in cool summer climates with good air circulation. Sweet pea can be a challenge to grow well in hot and humid summers where, as temperatures rise, plants will decline rapidly to the point where removal from the garden becomes necessary. Provide even moisture and regular fertilizer throughout the growing season. Avoid overhead watering to the extent possible. In St. Louis, start seed indoors about 6-8 weeks prior to last spring frost date to maximize bloom time. In warm winter areas, seed may be sown in fall or late fall for winter and spring bloom. Avoid planting sweet peas in the same location in consecutive years. Plants may be grown in bushy mounds or as climbers. Climbers need a support structure on which to grow (e.g., trellis net, fence, strings, stakes or bamboo pyramid). Deadhead spent flowers to prolong bloom. Propagate by seed. Noteworthy Characteristics Lathyrus odoratus, commonly called sweet pea, is a bushy or climbing annual that features highly fragrant flowers (odoratus meaning fragrant) on winged stems clad with medium to dark green leaflets in pairs. Stems end in tendrils which enable plants to climb. As a vine, it will climb to 6-8’ in a single season. Without support, it grows in a bushy mound to 2.5’ tall. Fragrant keeled flowers bloom in clusters. In St. Louis, flowers will bloom well from spring to early summer before succumbing to hot temperatures. Further north in cool weather summers, bloom will continue throughout summer to fall. Species plants feature purple flowers, but numerous cultivars now provide a large variety of additional flower colors (pink, red, blue, lavender, purple, white and bicolor). Cultivars come in large, intermediate and dwarf sizes. Genus name comes from the Greek word lathyros for pea or pulse. Specific epithet means fragrant. Problems No serious insect or disease problems Slugs and snails are attracted to young plants. Aphids may appear. Unlike edible vegetable peas (see Pisum sativum), sweet pea fruits are inedible and poisonous to humans. Garden Uses


If you ordered “cuisses de grenouilles” in a French restaurant, what would you be getting?

A Short History Of Frogs Legs | Manchester Confidential A Short History Of Frogs Legs Alexandre Moreau at 63 Degrees talks about one of the most popular dishes on his menu Written by  The Confidentials | Follow @ | Wednesday, 25 July 2012 10:13 YOU can't get much more French than frogs legs. Or so the cultural stereotype would have you believe. In fact people were sucking on these little hoppers long before France was even invented. Alexandre Moreau at the Northern Quarter's French restaurant 63 Degrees introduced it as a starter last year. He says, “Whenever frogs legs are mentioned on a menu, the general consensus is to link the dish back to French cuisine. But it's been a common food source for thousands of years – records trace its use back as far as the first century AD. “The story of the French love for frogs legs began much later – in the twelth century. A large number of monks, deemed to be growing too fat, were ordered by the church authorities to exclude meat from their diets for a number of days. “Luckily the monks had qualified frogs as fish, so they were allowed to enjoy this delicacy. The many religious French peasants dutifully followed their example and the national dish was born. “At 63 Degrees, we decided to bring this dish to the UK along with our snails to allow the British customer to have a real taste of authentic French cuisine in Manchester. But what do frogs legs actually taste like? (And don't say 'chicken'.) Here's Gordo's impression of the dish as it is served at 63 Degrees: “Frogs legs with cress is a deal more feminine and sexy than it sounds; a Monet of a dish with the legs boned and skewered, cooked gently to preserve their delicate flavour and perched over a languid pond of a thick watercress purée.” Alexandre reports that it has turned out to be one of their most popular starters, with people ordering it for experimentation, fun, and a genuine love of frogs legs. Says Alexandre, “We hope our cuisses de grenouilles will be enjoyed for many more months to come.” Cuisses de grenouilles en cresson nière (Frogs legs with cress) is available on the a la carte menu at 63 Degrees for £7.80. It's also served as part of the Tasty Tuesdays offer – 5 courses for £24.50.  Find out more .


Death Valley, the Lowest and Hottest Place in the U.S. By Amanda Briney Updated November 30, 2016. Death Valley is a large part of the Mojave Desert located in California near its border with Nevada. Most of Death Valley is in Inyo County, California and comprises most of Death Valley National Park. Death Valley is significant to the United States geography because it is considered the lowest point in the contiguous U.S. at an elevation of -282 feet (-86 m). The region is also one of the hottest and driest in the country. The following is a list of ten important geographic facts to know about Death Valley: 1) Death Valley has an area of about 3,000 square miles (7,800 sq km) and runs from the north to the south. It is bounded by the Amargosa Range to the east, the Panamint Range to the west, the Sylvania Mountains to the north and the Owlshead Mountains to the south. 2) Death Valley is located only 76 miles (123 km) from Mount Whitney , the highest point in the contiguous U.S. at 14,505 feet (4,421 m). 3) The climate of Death Valley is arid and because it is bounded by mountains on all sides, hot, dry air masses often get trapped in the valley. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Therefore, extremely hot temperatures are not uncommon in the area. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134°F (57.1°C) at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913. 4) Average summer temperatures in Death Valley frequently exceed 100°F (37°C) and the average August high temperature for Furnace Creek is 113.9°F (45.5°C). By contrast, the average January low is 39.3°F (4.1°C). 5) Death Valley is a part of the U.S. Basin and Range province as it is a low point surrounded by very high mountain ranges. Geologically, basin and range topography is formed by fault movement in the region that causes land to drop down to form valleys and land to rise up to form mountains. 6) Death Valley also contains salt pans which indicate that the area was once a large inland sea during the Pleistocene epoch. As the Earth began to warm into the Holocene , the lake in Death Valley evaporated to what it is today. 7) Historically, Death Valley has been home to Native American tribes and today, the Timbisha tribe, which has been in the valley for at least 1,000 years, inhabits the region. 8) On February 11, 1933, Death Valley was made a National Monument by President Herbert Hoover . In 1994, the area was re-designated as a National Park. 9) Most of the vegetation in Death Valley consists of low-lying shrubs or no vegetation unless near a water source. At some of Death Valley's higher locations, Joshua Trees and Bristlecone Pines can be found. In the spring after winter rains, Death Valley is known to have large plant and floral blooms in its wetter areas. 10) Death Valley is home to many different types of small mammals, birds, and reptiles. There are also a variety of larger mammals in the area which include Bighorn Sheep, coyotes, bobcats, kit foxes and mountain lions. To learn more about Death Valley, visit the official website of Death Valley National Park and the Guide to Death Valley from Go California at About.com. References Wikipedia. (2010, March 16). Death Valley - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley Wikipedia. (2010, March 11). Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_National_Park


Where would you find Concorde, Emile Zola, Danube, Rome, Franklin D Roosevelt and Stalingrad in close proximity?

Paris Metro to get around in a hurry Bookmark BonjourLaFrance · Tell a Friend · Print Page · Contact Us Here are the Paris Metro Stations on the Paris Metro Map.  You'll notice that the Paris Metro map has a grid : "A to H" horizontally and "1 to 8" vertically.  Below the Paris Metro Map you'll find the 343 Paris Metro stations listed with their grid coordinates.  This will help you plan your trip and learn how the Paris Metro works. Each Paris Metro line has a : Name simply designated by its two terminal stations (Pont de Levallois - Gallieni) See map below in the squares : "B2" and "H4" A color (for Pont de Levallois - Gallieni it is a sort of khaki) A number (3) which is presented in a circle with the color of the line The Direction you should take when you get on a metro is designated by the terminal station.  So, if you get on at Malhesherbes (C3) and want to travel to Wagram (C3) you would take Direction "Pont de Levallois".  If you wanted to go to Europe (C3) you'd take Direction "Gallieni". If you wanted to go to Monceau (C3) on the blue line 2, you'd go to Villiers then change to line 2 Direction "Porte Dauphine"...the terminal station. The frequency is about every 3 minutes. Depending on the line and the time of day. During rush hours they can run 1 per minute. So, you don't need to run...        there's always a Metro. They operate from about 5h00 to midnight. Here are the prices for Metro tickets... better to buy a pack if you've got a certain amount of travelling to do. You can always use them the next time        you come to Paris! 1 Metro/ RER (within Paris) ticket costs 1.70€        (as of November 2013) The price of a pack of 10 Metro/ RER tickets is 13.30€ (a savings of about 27% over buying single tickets) Now you're ready to explore Paris. Frankly the metro is the quickest way to get around... even if it is underground and you don't get to "see" Paris P.S. Remember you can get a special Paris Metro Pass called Paris Visite This is perfect for visiting Paris and its regions and gives you access to the buses and Metro.  For transport options to Charles de Gaulle or Orly Airport and which Metro stations they visit click here : Airport Shuttle From Gare du Nord to other mainline Train Stations. Click on EACH STATION name on the image below for Station DETAILS:


Which novel of 1874 opens with the words: “When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance from his ears.....”?

Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - Google Books Far from the Madding Crowd 1 Review https://books.google.com/books/about/Far_from_the_Madding_Crowd.html?id=xJfRiFvrs-oC Set in his fictional Wessex countryside in southwest England, Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy's breakthrough work. Though it was first published anonymously in 1874, the quick and tremendous success of Far from the Madding Crowd persuaded Hardy to give up his first profession, architecture, to concentrate on writing fiction. The story of the ill-fated passions of the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors offers a spectacle of country life brimming with an energy and charm not customarily associated with Hardy. ("When Farmer Oak smiled, " the novel begins, "the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears. . . .") ----The text is based on the authoritative Wessex Edition of 1912, revised and corrected by Hardy himself. ----This edition is the companion volume to the Mobil Masterpiece Theatre WGBH television presentation broadcast on PBS. It stars Paloma Baeza as Bathsheba Everdene, Nathaniel Parker as Gabriel Oak, Nigel Terry as Mr. Boldwood, and Jonathan Firth as Frank Troy. Adapted by Philomena McDonagh, Far from the Madding Crowd is directed by Nick Renton. The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesignedthe series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices. From inside the book What people are saying -  Write a review LibraryThing Review User Review  - hitomik - LibraryThing This is a love story, and there are five people who fall in love with someone. However, there were only two people who at last became happy, and others couldn’t be happy at all. I felt sorry for them, but anyway, it was good that Gabriel, a quite earnest became happy. Read full review Far from the madding crowd User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict Random's Modern Library is reproducing this Hardy standard as a tie-in to a Masterpiece Theater presentation and offering a quality hardcover for a reasonable price. Read full review Contents View all » Common terms and phrases appeared Bath Bathsheba beautiful began better Casterbridge CHAPTER church close colour Cornhill Cornhill magazine dark dead door Dorset edition eyes face Fanny Robin farm feeling flock Frank Gabriel Oak gate girl gone hand Hardy's head heard heart hill horse husband Jan Coggan Joseph Poorgrass Jude the Obscure knew Laban leave Leslie Stephen Liddy light lived looked ma'am Madding Crowd maltster Mark Clark marriage marry Maryann Matthew Moon Mayor of Casterbridge mind minutes Miss Everdene mistress morning murmured neighbours never night Norcombe novel Oak's once opened passed Pennyways poor Puddletown replied revisions round seemed Sergeant Troy sheep sheep shearers shepherd side Smallbury speak stood story Tall tell there's thing Thomas Hardy thought to-night tone trees Troy's turned twas voice waggon waited walked Weatherbury Wessex whilst wife wish woman women words young About the author (1998) Thomas Hardy (1840 1928), enduring author of the twentieth century, wrote the classics Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and many other works. Falck-Yi is Teacher of English at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Sim


Which novelist and playwright is commemorated by the Rodin sculpture which stands in the Boulevard Raspail in Paris?

Auguste Rodin - New World Encyclopedia Auguste Rodin Next (Augustin-Jean Fresnel) Auguste Rodin. Auguste Rodin (born François-Auguste-René Rodin; November 12, 1840 – November 17, 1917) was a French sculptor , and one of the pre-eminent sculptors of the modern era. He played a pivotal role in redefining sculpture in the late nineteenth century, both excelling at and transcending the academic Beaux-Arts tradition. Possessing an ability to organize a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface, he set himself apart from the predominant figure sculpture tradition of the time. Despite Rodin's belief that contemporary sculpture was stale and limiting, he did not set out to rebel against tradition. He was schooled traditionally, and wanted academic recognition. [1] Yet Rodin's most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. A pose might be considered too informal, the exactness of his forms too real, or the lack of a heroic theme found disrespectful. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy, but did not change his style, and successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community. His work represents in artistic form the growth of democracy , in which the common people began to matter as much as the elites. His art reflected this trend away from the struggle of the great hero toward common humanity. Contents By the turn of the century, Rodin was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought his work, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. Biography The Gates of Hell, Musée Rodin. Rodin was born in 1840 into a working-class family in Paris, the son of Marie Cheffer and Jean-Baptiste Rodin, a police department clerk. He was largely self-educated, [2] and began to draw at age ten. From 14 to 17, he attended the Petite École, a school specializing in art and mathematics, where he studied drawing with de Boisbaudran and painting with Belloc. Rodin submitted a clay model of a companion to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1857 in an attempt to win entrance; he did not succeed, and two further applications were also denied. [3] Given that entrance requirements at the Grand Ecole were not considered particularly demanding, [4] the rejections were considerable setbacks. Rodin's inability to gain entrance may have been due to the judges' Neoclassical tastes, while Rodin had been schooled in light, eighteenth century sculpture. Leaving the Petite École in 1857, Rodin would earn a living as a craftsman and ornamenter for most of the next two decades, producing decorative objects and architectural embellishments. Rodin's sister Maria, two years his senior, died of peritonitis in a convent in 1862. Her brother was anguished, and felt guilty because he had introduced Maria to an unfaithful suitor. Turning away from art, Rodin briefly joined a Christian holy order. Father Peter Julian Eymard recognized Rodin's talent, however, and encouraged him to continue with his sculpture. He returned to work as a decorator, while taking classes with animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye. The teacher's attention to detail—for example, in rendering the musculature of animals in motion—significantly influenced Rodin. [5] In 1864, Rodin began to live with a young seamstress named Rose Beuret, with whom he would stay—with ranging commitment—for the rest of his life. The couple bore a son, Auguste-Eugène Beuret, in 1866. The year that Rodin met Beuret, he offered his first sculpture for exhibition, and entered the studio of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, a successful mass producer of objects d'art. Rodin worked as Carrier-Belleuse' chief assistant until 1870, designing roof decorations and staircase and doorway embellishments. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War , Rodin was called to serve in the National Guard, but his service was brief due to his near-sightedness. [6] Decorators' work had dwindled because of the war, yet Rodin needed to support his family. Carrier-Belleuse soon asked Rodin to join him in Belgium , where they would work on ornamentation for B


Who was the President of the USA when Hawaii became a state?

Hawaii becomes 50th state - Aug 21, 1959 - HISTORY.com Hawaii becomes 50th state Publisher A+E Networks The modern United States receives its crowning star when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4, 1960. The first known settlers of the Hawaiian Islands were Polynesian voyagers who arrived sometime in the eighth century. In the early 18th century, American traders came to Hawaii to exploit the islands’ sandalwood, which was much valued in China at the time. In the 1830s, the sugar industry was introduced to Hawaii and by the mid 19th century had become well established. American missionaries and planters brought about great changes in Hawaiian political, cultural, economic, and religious life. In 1840, a constitutional monarchy was established, stripping the Hawaiian monarch of much of his authority. In 1893, a group of American expatriates and sugar planters supported by a division of U.S. Marines deposed Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii was established as a U.S. protectorate with Hawaiian-born Sanford B. Dole as president. Many in Congress opposed the formal annexation of Hawaii, and it was not until 1898, following the use of the naval base at Pearl Harbor during the Spanish-American War, that Hawaii’s strategic importance became evident and formal annexation was approved. Two years later, Hawaii was organized into a formal U.S. territory. During World War II, Hawaii became firmly ensconced in the American national identity following the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In March 1959, the U.S. government approved statehood for Hawaii, and in June the Hawaiian people voted by a wide majority to accept admittance into the United States. Two months later, Hawaii officially became the 50th state. Related Videos


What is the name of the highest caste in Hindu society?

Hinduism: Caste System, Reincarnation, and Karma Philosophy 312: Oriental Philosophy Hinduism: The Caste System,  Reincarnation, and Karma I. The Caste System--(groups assigned by birth not personality). The Hindu conception of the social order is that people are different, and different people will fit well into    different aspects of society.  Social order or social class according    to varna forms the framework of moral duties according to personal characteristics    of individuals (not necessarily birth). A. Historically the caste system dates back to the Aryan invasion of India around 2,000 BC. B. Society is divided into four main groups (with a fifth, "the untouchables," outside of the caste   system). Passage from the Rig Veda: (The world was formed from Purusa whose body is described as follows.) "The brahmin was his mouth, his two arms became the rajanya (kshatriyas), his thighs are what the vaisya are, and from his feet the shudra was made."  1. Brahmin: the seers, the reflective ones, the priests. a. The intellectual and spiritual leaders. b. In our society, they would correspond to the philosophers, religious leaders, and teachers. 2. Kshatriyas--(pronounced something like "kshot ree yahs") the born administrators (formerly nobles, rajahs, and warriors). a. The protectors of society. b. In our society, the politicians, police, and the military. 3. Vaisyas: (pronounced something like "vy sy us") the producers, the craftsmen, artisans, farmers. a. The skillful producers of material things. b. In our society, the merchants. 4. Shudras--(pronounced something like "shoo drrahs") the unskilled laborers or laboring class. a. The followers or the maintenance people. b. The so-called menial workers or hard laborers. C. Advantages to the Caste system. The heritability of intelligence and factors of personality raise some interesting philosophical questions.  1. What we would like people to be is not usually what they are. Many persons would be more comfortable in their own social class. 2. Unless unequals are separated into different classes, many persons would be "born losers." 3. Egalitarianism is the belief that privileges are proportional to the responsibilities and a denial of the tyranny of the majority. II. Reincarnation: the philosophical basis of this belief is the consideration that if individual souls ( jivas ) are eternal, where did they come from? A. The spirit is independent of the body and the situation the spirit is in. Passage from the Gita: "Worn out garments are shed by the body; worn out bodies are shed by the dweller." 1. At the subhuman level the passage is almost automatic up the chain of being. 2. At the human level comes consciousness which implies freedom, responsibility, and effort. 3. The consequences of your past decisions have determined your present state. B. Law of Karma--the moral law of action and reaction. 1. The present condition of your soul (confusion or serenity) is a product of your past decisions. You have made yourself what you are. 2. Your present thoughts, decisions, and actions determine your future states. ("Unsettled state" = "bad karma.")  Karma can be altered through natural and moral decision and action. 3. Every person gets what that person deserves--even though decisions are freely arrived at, there is no chance in the universe. Karma is the middle way between determinism and indeterminism. 4. The assumption is that we will not change the world in any significant way--the world is the training ground for     Atman-Brahman. 5. There is no randomness or accident in the universe. "There are no lost traces."  Karma is not fate or strict causality.


In which capital city are the Vondelpark gardens?

Visiting - Your official guide to Amsterdam | I amsterdam READ MORE Jumping Amsterdam Saddle up for a weekend of equestrian entertainment at Jumping Amsterdam. The annual event brings together the world’s best riders for four days of show jumping and dressage competitions and shows, with evening entertainment, an exhibition area and various bars and restaurants. FIND OUT MORE Whisky Weekend Whisky Weekend Amsterdam returns for its annual event, transforming Amsterdam's Posthoornkerk into a tasting room and hot spot for all things whisky. FIND OUT MORE National Tulip Day The Dutch tulip season officially gets underway in January every year as the National Tulip Day comes to town! Everyone is invited to pick their own tulip for free from a specially constructed ‘picking garden’ at Amsterdam’s Dam Square. FIND OUT MORE! Amsterdam's most romantic hotel suites Here’s our pick of the most unique, luxurious or downright decadent hotel rooms and suites in Amsterdam, ideal for a naughty weekend getaway, an extra-special occasion or an indulgent Valentine’s break.


In which business did millionaire J D Rockefeller make most of his money?

John D. Rockefeller - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com John D. Rockefeller A+E Networks Introduction John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company, became one of the world’s wealthiest men and a major philanthropist. Born into modest circumstances in upstate New York, he entered the then-fledgling oil business in 1863 by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio, refinery. In 1870, he established Standard Oil, which by the early 1880s controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. Critics accused Rockefeller of engaging in unethical practices, such as predatory pricing and colluding with railroads to eliminate his competitors, in order to gain a monopoly in the industry. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court found Standard Oil in violation of anti-trust laws and ordered it to dissolve. During his life Rockefeller donated more than $500 million to various philanthropic causes. Google John D. Rockefeller: Early Years and Family John Davison Rockefeller, the son of a traveling salesman, was born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York . Industrious even as a boy, the future oil magnate earned money by raising turkeys, selling candy and doing jobs for neighbors. In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to the Cleveland, Ohio , area, where John attended high school then briefly studied bookkeeping at a commercial college. Did You Know? One of the charitable organizations established by John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, founded in 1909. Less than 20 years after its creation, the Commission had achieved its primary goals, the successful eradication of hookworm disease across the southern United States. In 1855, at age 16, he found work as an office clerk at a Cleveland commission firm that bought, sold and shipped grain, coal and other commodities. (He considered September 26, the day he started the position and entered the business world, so significant that as an adult he commemorated this “job day” with an annual celebration.) In 1859, Rockefeller and a partner established their own commission firm. That same year, America’s first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania . In 1863, Rockefeller and several partners entered the booming new oil industry by investing in a Cleveland refinery. In 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Celestia “Cettie” Spelman (1839-1915), an Ohio native whose father was a prosperous merchant, politician and abolitionist active in the Underground Railroad . (Laura Rockefeller became the namesake of Spelman College, the historically black women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia , that her husband helped finance.) The Rockefellers went on to have four daughters (three of whom survived to adulthood) and one son. John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil In 1865, Rockefeller borrowed money to buy out some of his partners and take control of the refinery, which had become the largest in Cleveland. Over the next few years, he acquired new partners and expanded his business interests in the growing oil industry. At the time, kerosene, derived from petroleum and used in lamps, was becoming an economic staple. In 1870, Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, along with his younger brother William (1841-1922), Henry Flagler (1830-1913) and a group of other men. John Rockefeller was its president and largest shareholder. Standard Oil gained a monopoly in the oil industry by buying rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing its products around the globe. In 1882, these various companies were combined into the Standard Oil Trust, which would control some 90 percent of the nation’s refineries and pipelines. In order to exploit economies of scale, Standard Oil did everything from build its own oil barrels to employ scientists to figure out new uses for petroleum by-products. Rockefeller’s enormous wealth and success made him a target of muckraking journalists, reform politicians and others who viewed him as a symbol of corporate greed and criticized the methods with which he’d built his empire. As The New York Times reported in 1937: “H


Which Shiite honorific title means ‘miraculous son of God’?

Shiites | Article about Shiites by The Free Dictionary Shiites | Article about Shiites by The Free Dictionary http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Shiites Related to Shiites: Sunni , Isis Shiites (shē`ītz) [Arab., shiat Ali,=the party of Ali], the second largest branch of Islam, Shiites currently account for 10%–15% of all Muslims. Shiite Islam originated as a political movement supporting Ali Ali (Ali ibn Abu Talib), 598?–661, 4th caliph (656–61). The debate over his right to the caliphate caused a major split in Islam into Sunni and Shiite branches, and he is regarded by the Shiites as the first Imam, or leader: Shiite derives from the phrase ..... Click the link for more information.  (cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam) as the rightful leader of the Islamic state. The legitimacy of this claim, as initially envisioned by Ali's supporters, was based on Muhammad's alleged designation of Ali as his successor, Ali's righteousness, and tribal customs, given his close relation to the Prophet. Ali's right passed with his death in 661 to his son Hasan Hasan , c.625–c.669; son of Ali and Fatima (daughter of Muhammad the Prophet). When Ali was killed in 661, Hasan became caliph, but he was not strong enough to withstand the threat of arms of the Umayyads and under pressure abdicated in favor of Muawiya. ..... Click the link for more information. , who chose not to claim it, and after Hasan's death, to Husein Husein or Husayn , c.626–680, Muslim leader, second son of Ali and Fatima (daughter of Muhammad). With the assassination of his father in 661 and the acquiescence of his brother Hasan, the caliphate passed out of the Alid family, although many continued to ..... Click the link for more information. , Ali's younger son. The evolution into a religious formulation is believed to have been initiated with the martyrdom of Husein in 680 at Karbala (today in Iraq), a traumatic event still observed with fervor in today's Shiite world on the 10th of the month of Muharram of the Muslim lunar year. The Shiite focus on the person of the Imam made the community susceptible to division on the issue of succession. The early Shiites, a recognized, if often persecuted, opposition to the central government, soon divided into several factions. The majority of the Shiites today are Twelve-Imam Shiites (notably in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India, and Pakistan). Others are Zaydis (in Yemen), and the Ismailis Ismailis , Muslim Shiite sect that holds Ismail, the son of Jafar as-Sadiq, as its imam. On the death of the sixth imam of the Shiites, Jafar as-Sadiq (d. 765), the majority of Shiites accepted Musa al-Kazim, the younger son of Jafar, as seventh imam. ..... Click the link for more information.  (in India, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen). The central belief of Twelve-Imam Shiites is the occultation (or disappearance from view) of the 12th Imam. The 12th Imam is considered to be the only legitimate and just ruler, and therefore no political action taken in his absence can be fruitful. While this position has provided Shiite clerics with the means to survive an often hostile environment, the need for an alternative formulation capable of framing political militancy has fostered activist movements within the Shiite tradition, occasionally leading to dissidence (see Babism Babism , system of doctrines proclaimed in Persia in 1844 by Ali Muhammad of Shiraz. Influenced by the Shaykhi Shiite theology that viewed the Twelve Imams as incarnations of the Divine, Ali Muhammad proclaimed himself the Bab, ..... Click the link for more information. ). The religious authority of the Shiite clerics is derived from their role as deputies of the absent 12th Imam; they are as such the recipients of the khums religious tax, a source of substantial economic autonomy. Shiite clerics are often refered to as mullahs and mujtahids. The most prominent clerical position is that of marja al-taqlid. The Shiite clergy does not, however, have a formal hierarchy. The honorific ayat Allah or ayatollah [Arab.,=sign of God] is a modern


Who designed the Crystal Palace, the Great Exhibition building of 1851?

AD Classics: The Crystal Palace / Joseph Paxton | ArchDaily AD Classics: The Crystal Palace / Joseph Paxton AD Classics: The Crystal Palace / Joseph Paxton 01:00 - 5 July, 2013 Save this picture! The Crystal Palace, 1851. © wikiarquitectura.com The Crystal Palace was a glass and cast iron structure built in London , England, for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The building was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, an architect and gardener, and revealed breakthroughs in architecture, construction and design. More on the Crystal Palace after the break... +13 In January 1850 a committee was formed to choose the design for a temporary exhibition building that would showcase the latest technologies and innovations from around the world: The “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations.” The structure had to be as economical as possible, and be built before the exhibition was scheduled to open on May 1st, 1851. Within 3 weeks the committee received 245 entires, all of which were rejected. It was only after this that Paxton showed his first interest in the project. Save this picture! Interior view of the Crystal Palace, 1851. © paristeampunk.canalblog.com Already a famous gardener at the time, Paxton experimented extensively with glasshouse construction. Using combinations of prefabricated cast iron, laminated wood, and standard sized glass sheets, Paxton created the “ridge-and-furrow” roof design. In 1836 this system was used for the first time in the “Great Stove” - the largest glass building at the time. Save this picture! First sketch for the Great Exhibition Building by Sir Joseph Paxton. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Paxton proceeded to visit Hyde Park, where he quickly doodled his famous concept drawing of the Palace (the sketch is now held in the Victoria and Albert Museum). The drawing included all the basic elements of the building, and within two weeks all calculations and detailed plans were submitted.  Save this picture! Part front (left) and part rear (right) view and floor plan of London's Crystal Palace. © Wikimedia Commons Paxton’ design was based on a 10in x 49in module, the size of the largest glass sheet available at the time. The modular system consisted of right-angled triangles, mirrored and multiplied, supported by a grid of cast iron beams and pillars. These basic units were extremely light and strong and were extended to an incredible length of 564 meters. The design was also influenced by Paxton’s passion for biomimicry; he drew inspiration from the giant leaves of the Victoria Amazonica waterlily.  Save this picture! Detail © greatbuildings.com Impressed by the low cost proposal, the committee accepted Paxton’s innovative plan, leaving only 8 months for construction, which commenced immediately in Hyde Park. 5000 workers handled more than 1000 iron columns and 84,000 square meters of glass. All parts were prefabricated and easy to erect, and every modular unit was self supporting,  allowing the workers freedom in assembling the pieces. Thanks to Paxton’s simple and brilliant design, over 18,000 panes of glass sheets were installed per week, and the structure was completed within 5 months. The Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill, 1854. Photo by Philip Henry Delamotte © Wikimedia Commons Queen Victoria wrote in her journal on May 1st 1851 :  "This day is one of the greatest and most glorious of our lives… It is a day which makes my heart swell with thankfulness… The Park presented a wonderful spectacle, crowds streaming through it, – carriages and troops passing… The Green Park and Hyde Park were one mass of densely crowded human beings, in the highest good humour… before we neared the Crystal Palace, the sun shone and gleamed upon the gigantic edifice, upon which the flags of every nation were flying… The sight as we came to the centre where the steps and chair (on which I did not sit) was placed, facing the beautiful crystal fountain was magic and impressive. The tremendous cheering, the joy expressed in every face, the vastness of the building, with all its decoration and exhibits, the sound


It’s an old joke that “a man is only as the woman he feels” but who said it first?

Joke Collection 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 Fig Newton 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton 1000 grams of wet socks = 1 Liter Hosen 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin 10 millipedes = 1 centipede 2 monograms = 1 diagram A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change and she does. A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals. As Adlai Stevenson once said: "Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them." The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel. I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes. Steven Wright jokes On the other hand, you have different fingers. My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted. Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country. I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone. Did you sleep well? No, I made a couple of mistakes. I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place. When I get real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great parking spot, then sit in my car and count how many people ask me if I'm leaving. A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths. I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it. I went to the bank and asked to borrow a cup of money. They said, "What for?" I said, "I'm going to buy some sugar." I eat swiss cheese from the inside out. I had amnesia once or twice. The sun never sets on the British Empire. But it rises every morning. The sky must get awfully crowded. You know how it is when you decide to lie and say the check is in the mail, and then you remember it really is? I'm like that all the time. If you can wave a fan, and you can wave a club, can you wave a fan club? When I was in boy scouts, I slipped on the ice and hurt my ankle. A little old lady had to help me across the street. If you write the word "monkey" a million times, do you start to think you're Shakespeare? Smoking cures weight problems ... eventually ... Yesterday I told a chicken to cross the road. It said, "what for?" I xeroxed my watch. Now I have time to spare. I moved into an all-electric house. I forgot and left the porch light on all day. When I got home the front door wouldn't open. There aren't enough days in the weekend. If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey? The sign said "eight items or less." So I changed my name to Les. In school, every period ends with a bell. Every sentence ends with a period. Every crime ends with a sentence. I had some eyeglasses. I was walking down the street when suddenly the prescription ran out. When I turned two I was really anxious, because I'd doubled my age in a year. I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I'm six I'll be ninety. You know how it is when you're walking up the stairs, and you get to the top, and you think there's one more step? I'm like that all the time. I put hardwood floors on top of wall-to-wall carpet. If a word in the dictionary were mispelled, how would we know? It's a good thing we have gravity or else when birds died they'd just stay right up there. Hunters would be all confused. I wrote a few children's books ... not on purpose. I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time." So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance. I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, "Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours." He said, "Yes, but not in a row." I saw a small bottle of cologne and asked if it was for sale. She said, "It's free with purchase." I asked her if anyone bought anything today. There was a power outage at a department store yesterday. Twenty people were trapped on the escalators. For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier ... I put them in the same room and let t


Which garden plant has the Latin name, Galanthus Nivalis?

Galanthus nivalis - Plant Finder Plant Finder Tried and Trouble-free Recommended by 4 Professionals Common Name: snowdrop Height: 0.50 to 0.75 feet Spread: 0.25 to 0.50 feet Bloom Time: February Sun: Full sun to part shade Water: Medium Garden locations Culture Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, humusy soils in part shade. Grows particularly well under deciduous trees where exposure to the sun is full in early spring but gradually changes to part shade as the trees leaf out. Also prefers cool climates, and tends to be somewhat short-lived when grown south of USDA Zone 7. Plant bulbs 2-3” deep and space 2-3” apart in fall in groups of at least 25 bulbs. In optimum growing conditions, this bulb will naturalize well by both self-seeding and bulb offsets to form large colonies. Allow foliage to yellow after bloom before removing it from garden areas. If left alone, foliage disappears by late spring as bulbs go dormant. Noteworthy Characteristics Galanthus nivalis, commonly called snowdrop, is a bulbous perennial that is native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It has escaped gardens and naturalized in parts of eastern North America. It is a true harbinger of spring that typically blooms from late February to late March in the St. Louis area, often poking its head up through snow cover if present. The common name refers to the supposed resemblance of the flowers to drops of snow. Each flower has six tepals (three spreading outer tepals and three shorter inner tepals). Genus name comes from the Greek words gala meaning milk and anthos meaning flower in reference to the color of the flowers. Specific epithet means snowy. Problems No serious insect or disease problems. Wear gloves when planting bulbs to avoid possible skin irritation. Garden Uses Best massed in sweeping drifts in areas where they can naturalize, such as woodland margins or in lawns under large deciduous trees. Also effective in groupings in rock gardens, border fronts, in front of flowering shrubs or along walks or paths. Mix with other early flowering bulbs such as Eranthis (winter aconite).


What was the name of Josiah Wedgwood's factory near Hanley?

BBC - Stoke & Staffordshire - History - Josiah Wedgwood Josiah the man But who WAS Josiah Wedgwood? Lynn Miller, from the Wedgwood Museum, tells us... Born at the Churchyard Works, Burslem, in 1730, Josiah Wedgwood commenced work as an independent potter, renting the Ivy House Works from his kinsmen (Thomas and John Wedgwood of the Big House, also in Burslem) from May Day 1759. So, May 1st 1759 - over 250 years ago - is the official birthday of the company. Through the perfection of his cream coloured earthenware body, he came to the attention of Her Majesty Queen Charlotte, wife of George III.  For her, he made a tea and coffee service in his newly perfected ceramic. After this she not only allowed Wedgwood to style himself 'Potter to Her Majesty', but to call his newly developed cream-ware body, 'Queen's Ware', a name by which it is still known today. Etruria From there, things could only go up. On 13 June 1769 Wedgwood threw six so-called 'First Day's Vases' in order to celebrate the opening of his new factory. This factory was in a specially created model industrial area, where workers and works were sited alongside each other in conditions that Josiah, a noted liberal, considered ideal for the time. The area, near what is now Hanley, was called 'Etruria' echoing the great pre-Roman Etruscan pottery region.  In fact, the motto of the factory was 'Artes Etruriae Renascuntur' - 'The Arts of Etruria are reborn', and appeared on the First Day's Vases. Jasper The period of the Wedgwood and Bentley Ornamental Ware Partnership witnessed the introduction of a revolutionary new stoneware body, which Wedgwood was to christen Jasper.  This was probably the most significant innovation in ceramic history since the Chinese discovery of porcelain - nearly one thousand years earlier! Josiah had an eye for beauty, and employed many notable artists - including George Stubbs, John Flaxman Jnr and William Hackwood - to model and design bas-reliefs for use on this new ceramic body. Man of science... Wedgwood was also noted for being a competent scientist. His invention of the pyrometer to measure the higher degrees of heat firing in the bottle kilns earned him the title of Fellow of the Royal Society (January 1783). In March 1786 he became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in October of the same year a Fellow of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Portland Vase In 1789 Wedgwood produced his first perfect copy of the renowned Portland or Barberini vase in the Jasper body. In 1790 Wedgwood took his three sons John, Josiah II and Thomas, and his nephew Thomas Byerley into partnership. (John and Tom resigned their partnerships in 1793).  ...and of conscience He was also noted as a great philanthropist, and produced many copies of the small size so-called 'Slave Medallion'. 'Am I not a man and a brother?' The kneeling manacled figure of a slave, surmounted by a legend 'Am I not a Man and a Brother?', formed the seal of the Abolition of Slavery Movement. Wedgwood's interpretation, in Jasper, in the form of a small sized medallion was freely distributed world-wide to his fellow supporters. (For more about the Slave Medallion, look for the link on the right-hand side of this webpage) Tributes over the years Following a short illness Josiah Wedgwood  died on 3 January 1795, and was buried at the Church of St Peter ad Vincula in Stoke town centre. His marble memorial sculpted by John Flaxman Jnr was erected at this parish church in 1802, and can still be viewed there. On the monument a tribute states - 'He converted a rude and inconsiderable Manufactory into an elegant Art and an important part of the National Commerce'. Wedgwood's burial stone at St Peter's A most fitting tribute to this multi-talented individual was given in 1863 by William Ewart Gladstone, the prime minister who was also a collector of Wedgwood ware. He said of Josiah I '......that he was the greatest man who ever, in any age or country, applied himself to the important work of uniting art with industry'. Other dedications are in the


Which of Rodin's sculptures originally called The Poet, stands as the headstone for his grave in Meudon Cemetery?

The Works of Rodin The Works of Rodin The Works of Rodin The Works of Rodin The Works of Rodin Sunday, 12 October 2008 The Works of Rodin Auguste Rodin (born François-Auguste-René Rodin; November 12, 1840–November 17, 1917) was a French artist, most famous as a sculptor. He was the preeminent French sculptor of his time, and remains one of the few sculptors widely recognized outside the visual arts community. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, he possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy about his work, but did not change his style, and successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community. From the unexpected realism of his first major figure—inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy—to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his Worl’s Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. He married his life-long companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculpture suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades his legacy solidified. Rodin was born in 1840 into a working-class family in Paris, the second child of Marie Cheffer and Jean-Baptiste Rodin, who was a police department clerk. He was largely self-educated, and began to draw at ten. Between ages 14 and 17, Rodin attended the Petite École, a school specializing in art and mathematics, where he studied drawing and painting. His drawing teacher, Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, believed in first developing the personality of his students such that they observed with their own eyes and drew from their recollections. Rodin still expressed appreciation for his teacher much later in life. Rodin submitted a clay model of a companion to the grand Ecole in 1857 in an attempt to win entrance; he did not succeed, and two further applications were also denied. Given that entrance requirements at the Grand École were not particularly high, the rejections were considerable setbacks. Rodin's inability to gain entrance may have been due to the judges' Neoclassical tastes, while Rodin had been schooled in light, eighteenth-century sculpture. Leaving the Petite École in 1857, Rodin would earn a living as a craftsman and ornamenter for most of the next two decades, producing decorative objects and architectural embellishments. Rodin's sister Maria, two years his senior, died of peritonitis in a convent in 1862. Her brother was anguished, and felt guilty because he had introduced Maria to an unfaithful suitor. Turning away from art, Rodin briefly joined a Catholic order. Father Peter Julian Eymard recognized Rodin's talent and, sensing his lack of suitability for the order, encouraged Rodin to continue with his sculpture. He returned to work as a decorator, while taking classes with animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye. The teacher's attention to detail—his finely rendered musculature of animals in motion—significantly influenced Rodin. In 1864, Rodin began to live with a young seamstress named Rose Beuret, with whom he would stay—with ranging commitment—for the rest of his life. The couple bore a son, Auguste-Eugène Beuret (1866–1934). That year, Rodin offered his first sculpture for exhi


In the Bible, which general led 300 men against the Midianites?

MIDIAN AND MIDIANITES - JewishEncyclopedia.com JewishEncyclopedia.com The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia - Phrase search: Midian was the son of Abraham and Keturah. His five sons, Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah (R. V. "Abida"), and Eldaah, were the progenitors of the Midianites (Gen. xxv. 1-4; I Chron. i. 32-33). The term "Midian" ( ), which seems to be derived from the Arabic root (= "place of judgment"), denotes also the nation of the Midianites, the plural form, , occurring only in Gen. xxxvii. 28, 36 (in the latter passage seems to be a scribal error for ) and Num. xxv. 17, xxxi. 2. Their geographical situation is indicated as having been to the east of Palestine; Abraham sends the sons of his concubines, including Midian, eastward (Gen. xxv. 6). But from the statement that Moses led the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian, to Mount Horeb (Ex. iii. 1), it would appear that the Midianites dwelt in the Sinaitic Peninsula. Later, in the period of the Kings, Midian seems to have occupied a tract of land between Edom and Paran, on the way to Egypt (I Kings xi. 18). Midian is likewise described as in the vicinity of Moab: the Midianites were beaten by the Edomite king Hadad "in the field of Moab" (Gen. xxxvi. 35), and in the account of Balaam it is said that the elders of both Moab and Midian called upon him to curse Israel (Num. xxii. 4, 7). Further evidences of the geographical position of the Midianites appear in a survey of their history. Wars. In the time of Moses the Midianites are first mentioned as having had a priest by the name of Reuel or Jethro , who became afterward Moses' father-in-law. Toward the close of the forty years' wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness, the Midianites were allied with the Moabites in the attempt to exterminate the Israelites. For this reason Moses was ordered by God to punish the Midianites. Moses, accordingly, despatched against them an army of 12,000 men, under Phinehas the priest; this force defeated the Midianites and slew all their males, including their five kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. It may be noted that these five princes of Midian are called by Joshua (xiii. 21) the vassals of Sihon, the king of the Amorites. It is possible that Sihon had previously conquered Midian and made it a dependency, and that after his death the Midianites recovered their independence. The Israelitish soldiers set on fire all the cities and fortresses of the Midianites, carried the women and children into captivity, and seized their cattle and goods. The Israelites were afterward ordered by Moses to slay every Midianite male child and every woman, sparing only the female children (Num. xxxi. 2-18). It appears from the same account that the Midianites were rich in cattle and gold. The narrative shows that each of the five Midianite tribes was governed by its ownking, but that all acted together against a common enemy; that while a part of each tribe dwelt in cities and fortresses in the vicinity of Moab, another part led a nomadic life, living in tents and apparently remote from the seat of the war. For, after the Midianites had been "exterminated" by the army of Phinehas, they reappear some hundreds of years later, in the time of Gideon. The Biblical account of the battle between the Midianites and Gideon (Judges vi.-viii.) asserts that the Israelites suffered at the hands of the Midianites for a space of six years. The Midianites seem to have been then a powerful and independent nation; they allied themselves with the Amalekites and the children of the East, and they oppressed the Israelites so severely that the last-named were obliged to seek refuge in caves and strongholds; they destroyed their crops and reduced them to extreme poverty (ib. vi. 1-6). The allied army of Midianites and Amalekites encamped in the valley of Jezreel (ib. vi. 33) after having crossed the Jordan. Gideon with his army encamped by the fountain of Harod, the Midianite army being to the north of him. With 300 men Gideon succeeded in surprising and routing them, and they fled ho


Who became the first prime minister of Israel in 1948?

David Ben-Gurion | prime minister of Israel | Britannica.com prime minister of Israel Levi Eshkol David Ben-Gurion, original name David Gruen (born Oct. 16, 1886, Płońsk, Pol., Russian Empire [now in Poland]—died Dec. 1, 1973, Tel Aviv–Yafo , Israel ), Zionist statesman and political leader, the first prime minister (1948–53, 1955–63) and defense minister (1948–53; 1955–63) of Israel. It was Ben-Gurion who, on May 14, 1948, at Tel Aviv, delivered Israel’s declaration of independence. His charismatic personality won him the adoration of the masses, and, after his retirement from the government and, later, from the Knesset (the Israeli house of representatives), he was revered as the “Father of the Nation.” David Ben-Gurion with Golda Meir at the Knesset in Jerusalem, 1962. Fritz Cohen/© The State Govenment of Israel Ben-Gurion, born David Gruen, was the son of Victor Gruen , one of the leaders in Płońsk of the “Lovers of Zion,” a movement that was disseminating among the oppressed Jews of eastern Europe the idea of the return to their original homeland of Israel. Zionism fascinated the young David Gruen, and he became convinced that the first step for the Jews who wanted to revive Israel as a nation was to immigrate to Palestine and settle there as farmers. In 1906 the 20-year-old Gruen arrived in Palestine and for several years worked as a farmer in the Jewish agricultural settlements in the coastal plain and in Galilee , the northern region of Palestine. There he adopted the ancient Hebrew name Ben-Gurion. Suffering the hardships of the early pioneers, including malaria and hunger, he never lost sight of his goal. It was owing to his efforts that the 1907 convention of his Zionist socialist party, Poale Zion (“Workers of Zion”), included the following declaration in its platform: “The party aspires to the political independence of the Jewish people in this land.” With the outbreak of World War I , the Turkish governors of Palestine, their suspicions aroused by his Zionist activity, arrested Ben-Gurion and expelled him from the Ottoman Empire . During the height of the war, he traveled to New York , where he met and eventually married the Russian-born Pauline Munweis. In the last stages of World War I, the British supplanted Turkish rule in the Middle East; and with this change the Jewish settlers and their friends and supporters abroad began to realize that Zionism could rely for future assistance on Britain as well as on the wealthy and influential segments of American Jewry. Following the British government’s publication on Nov. 2, 1917, of the Balfour Declaration , which promised the Jews a “national home” in Palestine, Ben-Gurion enlisted in the British army’s Jewish Legion and sailed back to the Middle East to join the war for the liberation of Palestine from Ottoman rule. Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales The British had already defeated the Turks when the Jewish Legion reached the battlefield, and, when Britain received the mandate over Palestine, the work of realizing the “Jewish national home” had begun. For Ben-Gurion, the “national home” was a step toward political independence. To implement it, he called for accelerated Jewish immigration to Palestine in the effort to create a Jewish nucleus that would serve as the foundation for the establishment of a Jewish state . That nucleus was the Histadrut —the confederation of Jewish workers in Palestine founded in 1920 by Ben-Gurion (who was elected its first secretary-general) and his colleagues. The Histadrut rapidly became a central force in social, economic, and even security affairs, attaining the position of a “state within a state.” Ten years later, in 1930, a number of labour factions united and founded Mapai , the Israeli Workers Party, with Ben-Gurion at its head. In 1935 he was elected chairman of the Zionist Executive, the highest directing body of world Zionism, and head of the Jewish Agency , the movement’s executive branch. Structures of Government: Fact or Fiction? As the Jewish settlement strengthened and deepened its


Who was president of the USA between 1925 and 1929?

Calvin Coolidge | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Calvin Coolidge As America's 30th President (1923-1929), Calvin Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts of frugality amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era. At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible. Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement," wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith. "His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history ... in a time of extravagance and waste...." Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. Slowly, methodically, he went up the political ladder from councilman in Northampton to Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. En route he became thoroughly conservative. As President, Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying. He refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. His first message to Congress in December 1923 called for isolation in foreign policy, and for tax cuts, economy, and limited aid to farmers. He rapidly became popular. In 1924, as the beneficiary of what was becoming known as "Coolidge prosperity," he polled more than 54 percent of the popular vote. In his Inaugural he asserted that the country had achieved "a state of contentment seldom before seen," and pledged himself to maintain the status quo. In subsequent years he twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee River. The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...." Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more." But no President was kinder in permitting himself to be photographed in Indian war bonnets or cowboy dress, and in greeting a variety of delegations to the White House. Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose." And in 1928, while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he issued the most famous of his laconic statements, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." By the time the disaster of the Great Depression hit the country, Coolidge was in retirement. Before his death in January 1933, he confided to an old friend, ". . . I feel I no longer fit in with these times." The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.


Which Australian city shares its name with the wife of William IV?

Adelaide Suggest a new Did you know? topic Adelaide Colonel William Light was appointed to the position of surveyor-general for South Australia in 1836. Light was under time constraints to select the site for the capital city and survey the land, as colonists who had already purchased South Australian land from England were keen to take it up. He selected a site on the east of St Vincent's Gulf for the capital after rejecting Encounter Bay and Port Lincoln. Light believed the advantage of the site was that it was near both the Port River for a water supply and the Mount Lofty Ranges, which would attract rain and provide an attractive backdrop to the city. Its main disadvantage was that it was 12 kilometres from the suitable port site - now Port Adelaide. The city of Adelaide was named after Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV of England. Adelaide was born in 1792, the eldest daughter of the duke of Saxe-Meiningen. She married William, then the Duke of Clarence, in 1818. She had not met him before the wedding. Adelaide became queen in 1830 when William ascended to the throne. Her two daughters died in childhood leaving William's niece, Victoria, heir to the throne. William asked the South Australian Colonization Commissioners to name the colony's capital after his queen. Adelaide's central thoroughfare was named for the king and its central square after the heir. Queen Adelaide died in 1849. According to Cockburn, Adelaide might have been called Wellington after the Duke of Wellington who assisted the passage of the South Australian Colonization Bill through the British parliament.


Four Irishmen have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, three are Shaw, Becket, Heaney who is the forth?

Samuel Beckett - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki       Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics Top rankings for Samuel Beckett 4th Top Irish people Did you know ... More interesting facts on Samuel Beckett Include this on your site/blog: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Irish writer. For the Scott Bakula character, see Sam Beckett . Samuel Beckett 1969 Influences Dante Alighieri , Arnold Geulincx , James Joyce , Marcel Proust , Jean Racine , Arthur Schopenhauer , J.M Synge , W.B. Yeats , Seán O'Casey , Oscar Wilde , Marquis de Sade , René Descartes , Laurence Sterne , Democritus , John Milton , Immanuel Kant , Bishop Berkeley Influenced Edward Albee , Paul Auster , John Banville , Donald Barthelme , William S. Burroughs , Italo Calvino , Marina Carr , J. M. Coetzee , Don DeLillo , Philip K. Dick , Václav Havel , Eugene Ionesco , B. S. Johnson , Sarah Kane , Derek Mahon , David Mamet , Bruce Nauman , Edna O'Brien , Jamie O'Neill , Damian Pettigrew , Harold Pinter , Alberto Ruy-Sánchez , Sam Shepard , Tom Stoppard Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde writer, dramatist and poet, writing in English and French . Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalist . As a student, assistant, and friend of James Joyce , Beckett is considered one of the last modernists ; as an inspiration to many later writers, he is sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists . He is also considered one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called " Theatre of the Absurd ." As such, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. [2] Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for his "writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama —in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". [3] Beckett was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. He died in Paris of respiratory problems. Contents Biography Early life and education The Beckett family (originally Becquet) were rumoured to be of Huguenot stock and to have moved to Ireland from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598, though this theory has been criticised as unlikely. [4] The Becketts were members of the Church of Ireland . The family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock , was a large house and garden complete with tennis court built in 1903 by Samuel's father William. The house and garden, together with the surrounding countryside where he often went walking with his father, the nearby Leopardstown Racecourse, the Foxrock railway station and Harcourt Street station at the city terminus of the line, all feature in his prose and plays. Beckett's father was a quantity surveyor and his mother a nurse. [5] Samuel Beckett was born on Good Friday, April 13, 1906 to William Frank Beckett, a 35 year old Civil Engineer, and May Barclay (also 35 at Beckett's birth); they had married in 1901. Beckett had one older brother, Frank Edward Beckett (born 1902). At the age of five, Beckett attended a local playschool, where he started to learn music, and then moved to Earlsford House School in the city centre near Harcourt Street. In 1919, Beckett went to Portora Royal School in Enniskillen , County Fermanagh —the school Oscar Wilde attended. A natural athlete, Beckett excelled at cricket as a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler . Later, he was to play for Dublin University and played two first-class games against Northamptonshire . As a result, he became the only Nobel laureate to have an entry in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack , the "bible" of cricket. [6] Early writings Beckett studied French, Italian, and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927. While at Trinity, one of his tutors was the eminent Berkeley scholar and Berkelian Dr. A. A. Luce . Beckett graduated


By what name was Botswana known before 1967?

Botswana historical place names and terminology Back to contents || Back to top Bamalete Old form of BaLete (the polity with capital now at Ramotswa). See Bamangwato for discussion of this form of the name. The form Bamalete is still found on signs in Ramotswa. Back to contents Bamangwato The Ngwato state which the British encountered in the 19th century was a multi-ethnic one. Its core group was the Ngwato clan whose totem was phuti (duiker). However it also included a variety of other groups, including other Tswana groups, Kalanga, BaKgalagari, and Basarwa. Perhaps about one-fifth of the population were Ngwato in the strict sense. (The 1942 census counted 17,850 Ngwato in a total African population of 100,987 in the Bamangwato Reserve: Schapera Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes (1952) p. 65.) According to the linguist Desmond Cole, writing in 1955, the simple form BaNgwato is more recent than the forms which became Bamangwato: ... in some of the cases where the tribal name derives from the name of a former chief, as most of them do, possessive forms are used, thus: (batho) bagammaNgwato ((people) of the mother of Ngwato), (batho) bagaMalete ((people) of Malete), (batho) bagaMotlhware ((people) of Motlhware. {Footnote 2: Sometimes, but less typically, bammaNgwato (hence the popular "Bamangwato"), baMalete and baMotlhware. Why bagammaNgwato should incorporate mma- (mother of) is not clear, though this occurs often in names of men in the Eastern dialects...} Even in these cases, nevertheless, the modern tendency is to follow the practice elsewhere and to use the simple nouns Bangwato, Balete, Batlhware... [Desmond T. Cole, An Introduction to Tswana Grammar (Cape Town: Longman Penguin Southern Africa, 1992) [first published 1955] p. xx.] (As regards the -ga- particle, Cole notes: In typical Tswana dialects, possessives formed from singular personal nouns of class 1a require the insertion of the element -ga- between the possessive concord and the stem. However, this -ga- is omitted by many speakers, particularly in the eastern dialects. [Ibid., p. 161, section 9.4] The term 'Bamangwato' seems to have been used, in the 19th and early 20th century, for the morafe as a whole, including Tswana of other totems and non-Tswana. It is unclear what usage was before this; the core group may possibly originally have been known as BaPhuti. Some writers have used the terms Bamangwato and Ngwato to make a distinction: Without its prefix, 'Ngwato' implies a stricter ethnic distinction - the nuclear group which can trace its descent back to its founder called Ngwato. The term 'Bamangwato', on the other hand, is used by groups of other descent to identify themselves as nationals of the Ngwato state.  We are faced with the paradox that only one-fifth of the 'BamaNgwato' are in fact 'Ngwato'. [Q. N. Parsons, "Khama III, the Bamangwato, and the British, with Special Reference to 1895-1923", (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1973), Note on spelling and abbreviations.] By this usage, the term Bamangwato was used for the people as a whole. Hence the "Bamangwato tribe" was the kingdom ruled by Sekgoma I and Khama III. The term "Bamangwato" is no longer current, having been replaced by the shorter "BaNgwato", and younger Batswana often do not even understand it. Some have the impression that it was an inaccurate colonial form like "Gaberones". (However, the form GammaNgwato has survived as a term for the Ngwato state or territory.) "BaNgwato" has the effect of replacing MmaNgwato with Ngwato as the eponym. BaNgwato is now the only current form. Many of the people who would in the old days have been "Bamangwato", however, do not identify as BaNgwato, but as Kalanga (etc.) who live in the Central District (the local government district which replaced the old Bamangwato Reserve). The probable cause of this development is that, after Independence, the chiefs lost most (though not all) of their former direct authority and the concept of a polity subject to a chief is no longer applicable. Instead, BaNgwato