text
stringlengths 24
5.93k
|
|---|
Video game design. Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the pre-production stage[1] and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdisciplines are world design, level design, system design, content design, and user interface design. Within the video game industry, video game design is usually just referred to as game design, which is a more general term elsewhere. The video game designer is like the director of a film; the designer is the visionary of the game and controls the artistic and technical elements of the game in fulfillment of their vision.[2] However, with complex games, such as MMORPGs or a big budget action or sports title, designers may number in the dozens. In these cases, there are generally one or two principal designers and multiple junior designers who specify subsets or subsystems of the game. As the industry has aged and embraced alternative production methodologies such as agile, the role of a principal game designer has begun to separate - some studios emphasizing the auteur model while others emphasizing a more team oriented model. In larger companies like Electronic Arts, each aspect of the game (control, level design) may have a separate producer, lead designer and several general designers. Video game design requires artistic and technical competence as well as sometimes including writing skills.[3] Historically, video game programmers have sometimes comprised the entire design team. This is the case of such noted designers as Sid Meier, John Romero, Chris Sawyer and Will Wright. A notable exception to this policy was Coleco, which from its very start separated the function of design and programming. As video games became more complex, computers and consoles became more powerful, the job of the game designer became separate from the lead programmer. Soon, game complexity demanded team members focused on game design. A number of early veterans chose the game design path eschewing programming and delegating those tasks to others. Video game design starts with an idea,[4][5][6][7] often a variation or modification on an existing concept.[4][8] The game idea will fall within one or several genres and designers will often experiment with mixing genres.[9][10] The game designer usually produces an initial game proposal document containing the concept, gameplay, feature list, setting and story, target audience, requirements and schedule, staff and budget estimates.[11] Multiple design decisions are made during the course of a games development; it is the responsibility of the designer to decide which elements should be implemented. For example, consistency with the games vision, budget or hardware limitations.[12] Design changes will have a significant impact on required resources.[13]
|
Woodblock printing. Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD. Woodblock printing existed in Tang China by the 7th century AD and remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best-known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block books produced mainly in the 15th century. According to the Book of Southern Qi, in the 480s, a man named Gong Xuanyi (龔玄宜) styled himself Gong the Sage and said that a supernatural being had given him a jade seal jade block writing, which did not require a brush: one blew on the paper and characters formed.[1] He then used his powers to mystify a local governor. Eventually he was dealt with by the governors successor, who presumably executed Gong.[2] Timothy Hugh Barrett postulates that Gongs magical jade block was actually a printing device, and Gong was one of the first, if not the first printer. The semi-mythical record of him therefore describes his usage of the printing process to deliberately bewilder onlookers and create an image of mysticism around himself.[3] However, woodblock print flower patterns applied to silk in three colours have been found dated from the Han dynasty (before AD 220).[4] Inscribed seals made of metal or stone, especially jade, and inscribed stone tablets probably provided inspiration for the invention of printing. Copies of classical texts on tablets were erected in a public place in Luoyang during the Han dynasty for scholars and students to copy. The Suishu jingjizhi, the bibliography of the official history of the Sui dynasty, includes several ink-squeeze rubbings, believed to have led to the early duplication of texts that inspired printing. A stone inscription cut in reverse dating from the first half of the 6th century implies that it may have been a large printing block.[5]
|
Theology. Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity and the history behind religion. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries.[1] It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also deals with religious epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and to reveal themselves to humankind. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (experiential, philosophical, ethnographic, historical, and others) to help understand, explain, test, critique, defend or promote any myriad of religious topics. As in philosophy of ethics and case law, arguments often assume the existence of previously resolved questions, and develop by making analogies from them to draw new inferences in new situations. The study of theology may help a theologian more deeply understand their own religious tradition,[2] another religious tradition,[3] or it may enable them to explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition. Theology may be used to propagate,[4] reform,[5] or justify a religious tradition; or it may be used to compare,[6] challenge (e.g. biblical criticism), or oppose (e.g. irreligion) a religious tradition or worldview. Theology might also help a theologian address some present situation or need through a religious tradition,[7] or to explore possible ways of interpreting the world.[8] Theology is often considered one of the oldest academic disciplines, rooted in early human attempts to understand the divine, moral order, and existence. In the Western tradition, theology held a central place in medieval intellectual life.[citation needed] Many of the first European universities, such as the University of Paris (established c. 1150), the University of Oxford (c. 1096), and the University of Bologna (1088), were founded primarily to educate clergy and focused initially on theological studies, with faculties in philosophy, law, and medicine developing later.[9][10] Theology was traditionally regarded as the queen of the sciences, with philosophy often described as its handmaiden, due to its guiding role in the search for ultimate truth.[11]
|
Shunga. Shunga (春画) is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e.[1] Translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring; spring is a common euphemism for sex.[1] Shunga, as a subset of ukiyo-e, was enjoyed by all social groups in the Edo period, despite being out of favor with the shogunate. The ukiyo-e movement sought to idealize contemporary urban living and appeal to the new chōnin class. Shunga followed the aesthetics of everyday life and widely varied in its depictions of sexuality. Most ukiyo-e artists made shunga at some point in their careers. Shunga was heavily influenced by illustrations in Chinese medicine manuals beginning in the Muromachi era (1336 to 1573). Zhou Fang, a notable Tang-dynasty Chinese painter, is also thought to have been influential. He, like many artists of his time, tended to draw genital organs in an oversized manner, similar to a common shunga topos. Besides shunga literally meaning a picture of spring (sex), the word is also a contraction of shunkyū-higi-ga (春宮秘戯画), the Japanese pronunciation for a Chinese set of twelve scrolls depicting the twelve sexual acts that the crown prince would perform as an expression of yin yang.[1] The Japanese influences of shunga date back to the Heian period (794 to 1185).[2] At this point, it was found among the courtier class. Through the medium of narrative handscrolls, sexual scandals from the imperial court or the monasteries were depicted, and the characters tended to be limited to courtiers and monks.[1]
|
Dominici (crater). Dominici is a crater on Mercury. It was named by the IAU in 2010.[1] Dominicis bright rays indicate that it is relatively young, and the young rays appear light blue in enhanced-color images. Dominici also has bright material on its floor and is surrounded by crater ejecta and material that appears orange in enhanced color. These color differences, as in nearby Titian crater, suggest that the impact crater excavated material from beneath Mercurys surface that differs in composition from the surrounding surface. Dominici lies within a much larger impact structure, the Homer basin.[2] Bright areas in and around Dominici are hollows. This article about geology, geography or other features of the planet Mercury is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Renoir (crater). Renoir is a crater on the planet Mercury. Its name, after the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1976.[1] Renoir is a peak ring basin, one of 110 on Mercury,[2] including Raditladi and Rachmaninoff. Though these basins are relatively young geologic features, Renoir is one of the oldest of its type. Because of its greater age, Renoir displays more of the effects of tectonics and later impact events than the other peak ring impact basins.[3] It is thought to have formed at the end of the period with the highest meteor impact rates in Mercurys history. It is located in the Kuiper quadrangle.[4] Renoir also has an area of high reflectance, classified as a plain, resulting from previous volcanic activity on the planet.[5][6] Like Rachmaninoff, it is a basin with a high-reflectance plain located entirely within the central peak ring.[7] Renoir has a concentric ring structure, meaning that it is also called a concentric ring basin.[8] Its interior rim is distinct, however, similar basins usually have a more distinct outer rim than inner rim. Basins like Renoir are known for having deep valleys in and around them. Mercurys lower radius and mass compared to other bodies like Mars mean that its basins - including Renoir and Rodin - have a greater diameter; consequently, the multi-ring basins on bodies like the Moon, including basins like Hertzsprung and Mare Orientale, are even larger than those on Mercury.[8]
|
Sihtu Planitia. Sihtu Planitia is a large plain on Mercury, approximately 565 km across. It was named in 2017 by the IAU.[1] The crater Calvino lies at the center of the Planitia, and Rūdaki is on the east side. This article about geology, geography or other features of the planet Mercury is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Takizawa Bakin. Takizawa Bakin (滝沢 馬琴; Japanese pronunciation: [ta.kʲi.(d)za.wa (|) ba.kʲiɴ][1]), born Takizawa Okikuni (滝沢 興邦; 4 July 1767 – 1 December 1848), was a Japanese novelist of the Edo period, who wrote under the pen name Kyokutei Bakin (曲亭 馬琴). Later in life he took the pen name Toku (解). Modern scholarship generally refers to him as Kyokutei Bakin, or just as Bakin. He is regarded as one of, if not the, leading author of early 19th century Japanese literature.[2] He was the third surviving son of a samurai family of low rank. After numerous deaths in his family, he relinquished his samurai status, married a merchants widow, and became an Edo townsperson. He was able to support his family with his prolific writing of gesaku,[3] primarily didactic historical romances, though he always wanted to restore his family to the samurai social class.[4] Some of his best known works are Nansō satomi hakkenden (The Chronicles of the Eight Dog Heroes of the Satomi Clan of Nansō) consisting of 106 books[5] and Chinsetsu yumiharizuki [ja] (Strange Tales of the Crescent Moon). Bakin published more than 200 works in his life, including literary critiques, diaries, and historical novels. Born in Edo (present-day Tokyo) on 4 July 1767, Bakin was the fifth son of Bunkurō Omon and Takizawa Okiyoshi. Two of his elder brothers died in infancy. Bakins father, Okiyoshi, was a samurai in the service of one of the Shōguns retainers, Matsudaira Nobutsuna until 1751 when he left his lord and gained service with Matsuzawa Bunkurō. While serving under Bunkurō, Okiyoshi was adopted into the family and wed Bunkurōs adopted daughter, Omon. Okiyoshi returned to serve the Matsudaira family in 1760 after Okiyoshis successor was dismissed for embezzlement. Though a heavy drinker, he was devoted to scholarship of classical Chinese works, especially those focused on military matters. He was a diligent samurai, but contracted gout in 1773 and died in 1775. His death forced the Matsudaira clan to reduce the Takizawa stipend by half, starting the steady decline of Bakins family. Omon, Bakins mother, is characterized as being a good mother and loyal wife and the family had the privilege of living in the Matsudaira mansion until their piecemeal departure from Matsudaira Nobunaris service that reached its completion in 1780. Her eldest son, Rabun (1759-1798) was the only child not born on the Matsudaira estate and served the family until becoming a rōnin in 1776. His departure led to Omon and her remaining children including Bakin and his two younger sisters, Ohisa (1771-?) and Okiku (1774-?), being forced into a much smaller dwelling. Bakins older brother, Keichū (1765–1786), was adopted out to lessen the financial burden and Bakin was declared the head of the family at age nine.[4] When Rabun found service with a new family in 1778, Omon pretended to be ill to move in with him. While living there, Omon grew ill due to malnutrition and died 1 August 1785.[4] Bakin served the Matsudaira lords grandson until 1780 when he declared himself rōnin at age 14 leaving the following haiku:
|
Homer (crater). Homer is a crater on Mercury. It is one of 110 peak ring basins on Mercury.[1] It is Tolstojan in age.[2] Deposits of material in and around this crater suggest the possibility of explosive volcanic eruptions at some point in the planets history.[3] An unnamed crater in northwestern Homer (about 18 km diameter) contains hollows and has dark ejecta. The crater name was approved by the IAU in 1976.[4] The naming of Stark Y crater on the Moon, located northwest of Stark, as Homer, was not approved by the IAU.[5] The small but fresh crater Dominici lies along the northern margin of Homer. The crater Handel is to the northeast, and Titian is to the southwest.
|
Hydrocycle. A hydrocycle is a bicycle-like watercraft. The concept was known in the 1870s as a water velocipede[1] and the name was in use by the late 1890s.[2] Power is collected from the rider via a crank with pedals, as on a bicycle, and delivered to the water or the air via a propeller.[3] Seating may be upright or recumbent, and multiple riders may be accommodated in tandem or side-by-side.[4] Buoyancy is provided by two or more pontoons or a single surfboard,[citation needed] and some have hydrofoils that can lift the flotation devices out of the water.[5][6][7] Brands include Seacycle, Hydrobike, Water Bike, Seahorse (Cross Trek)[8] and itBike. Kits exist to temporarily convert an existing bicycle into a hydrocycle.[9]
|
Legendary creature. A legendary creature is a type of extraordinary or supernatural being that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), and may be featured in historical accounts before modernity, but has not been scientifically shown to exist yet. In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops and the Minotaur appear in heroic tales for the protagonist to destroy. Other creatures, such as the unicorn, were claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity.[1][2][3] Some legendary creatures are hybrid beasts or Chimeras. Some legendary creatures originated in traditional mythology and were believed to be real creatures—for example, dragons, griffins and unicorns. Others are based on real encounters or garbled accounts of travellers tales, such as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a sheeplike animal which supposedly grew tethered to the earth.[4] A variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the classical era. For example, in the Odyssey, monstrous creatures include the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis for the hero Odysseus to confront. Other tales include Medusa to be defeated by Perseus, the (human/bull) Minotaur to be destroyed by Theseus, and the Hydra to be killed by Heracles, while Aeneas battles with the harpies. These monsters thus have the basic function of emphasizing the greatness of the heroes involved.[5][6][7]
|
Parthenon. The Parthenon (/ˈpɑːrθəˌnɒn, -nən/; Ancient Greek: Παρθενών, romanized: Parthenōn [par.tʰe.nɔ̌ːn]; Greek: Παρθενώνας, romanized: Parthenónas [parθeˈnonas]) is a former temple[6][7] on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Greek art, and the Parthenon is considered an enduring symbol of ancient Greece, democracy, and Western civilization.[8][9] The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars.[10] Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury.[11][12] Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC; work on the artwork and decorations continued until 432 BC. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman conquest in the mid-15th century, it became a mosque. In the Morean War, a Venetian bomb landed on the Parthenon, which the Ottomans had used as a munitions dump, during the 1687 siege of the Acropolis. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon. From 1800 to 1803,[13] the 7th Earl of Elgin controversially removed many of the surviving sculptures and subsequently shipped them to England where they are now known as the Elgin Marbles or Parthenon marbles.[14] Since 1975, numerous large-scale restoration projects have been undertaken to preserve remaining artefacts and ensure its structural integrity.[15][16] The origin of the word Parthenon comes from the Greek word parthénos (παρθένος), meaning maiden, girl as well as virgin, unmarried woman. The Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon states that it may have referred to the unmarried womens apartments in a house, but that in the Parthenon it seems to have been used for a particular room of the temple.[17] There is some debate as to which room that was. The lexicon states that this room was the western cella of the Parthenon. This has also been suggested by J.B. Bury.[10] One theory is that the Parthenon was the room where the arrephoroi, a group of four young girls chosen to serve Athena each year, wove a peplos that was presented to Athena during Panathenaic Festivals.[18] Christopher Pelling asserts that the name Parthenon means the temple of the virgin goddess, referring to the cult of Athena Parthenos that was associated with the temple.[19] It has also been suggested that the name of the temple alludes to the maidens (parthénoi), whose supreme sacrifice guaranteed the safety of the city.[20] In that case, the room originally known as the Parthenon could have been a part of the temple known today as the Erechtheion.[21]
|
Evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to the combined processes which move water from the Earths surface (open water and ice surfaces, bare soil and vegetation) into the atmosphere.[2] It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transpiration (evaporation that occurs through the stomata, or openings, in plant leaves). Evapotranspiration is an important part of the local water cycle and climate, and measurement of it plays a key role in water resource management and agricultural irrigation.[3] Evapotranspiration is defined as: The combined processes through which water is transferred to the atmosphere from open water and ice surfaces, bare soil and vegetation that make up the Earths surface.[2] Evapotranspiration is a combination of evaporation and transpiration, measured in order to better understand crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling,[4] and watershed management.[5] The two key components of evapotranspiration are: Evapotranspiration is typically measured in millimeters of water (i.e. volume of water moved per unit area of the Earths surface) in a set unit of time.[8] Globally, it is estimated that on average between three-fifths and three-quarters of land precipitation is returned to the atmosphere via evapotranspiration.[9][10][11]
|
Athena Parthenos. The statue of Athena Parthenos[N 1] (Ancient Greek: Παρθένος Ἀθηνᾶ, lit. Athena the Virgin) was a monumental chryselephantine sculpture of the goddess Athena. Attributed to Phidias and dated to the mid-fifth century BCE, it was an offering from the city of Athens to Athena, its tutelary deity. The naos of the Parthenon on the acropolis of Athens was designed exclusively to accommodate it. Many artists and craftsmen worked on the realization of the sculpture, which was probably built around a core of cypress wood, and then paneled with gold and ivory plates. At about 13 meters high, the statue reflected the established aesthetic canon of the severe style (clothing) while adopting the innovations of the high classical (leg position). She was helmeted and held a large round shield and spear, placed on the ground to her left, next to her sacred snake. Clothes, jewellery, accessories, and even the statue base were decorated, mainly with the snake and gorgon motif. The statue was lost at an unknown date sometime in the first millennium. Several replicas and works were inspired by the original. In 480 BCE, the Persians ransacked the Acropolis of Athens, including the pre-Parthenon, which was under construction at the time.[1] After their victories in Salamis and Plataea, the Athenians had sworn not to complete the destroyed temples but to leave them as they were, in memory of the Persian barbarism.[2] In the succeeding years, however, Athens grew to control much of the region through its domination of the Delian League, a confederation of Greek states originally designed to protect themselves against the Persians. Within 30 years, the league had evolved into an Athenian powerhouse. By 454 BCE, the Delian treasury had been relocated to Athens, where the money was funnelled into an ambitious plan to rebuild the city and its destroyed temples, including the Parthenon.[3][4]
|
Utagawa Kunisada III. Utagawa Kunisada III (歌川国貞) (1848–1920) was an ukiyo-e printmaker of the Utagawa school, specializing in yakusha-e (pictures of kabuki actors). He began studying under Utagawa Kunisada I at the age of 10, and continued under Kunisada II after their masters death. He originally signed his prints Kunimasa or Baidō Kunimasa. About 1889, he began signing his prints Kunisada, Baidō Kunisada or Kōchōrō Kunisada. By 1892, he was using Hōsai, Kōchōrō Hōsai, Baidō Hōsai, and Utagawa Hōsai.[1] This Japanese artist–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article about an etcher or maker of prints in other media (excluding engravers) is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (shinjitai: 南総里見八犬伝; kyūjitai: 南總里見八犬傳), commonly known as Satomi Hakkenden (Japanese: 里見八犬伝) or simply Hakkenden (Japanese: 八犬伝), is a Japanese epic novel (yomihon) by Kyokutei Bakin, originally published over the course of twenty-eight years (1814–42). Set in the Muromachi period, the story follows the adventures and mishaps of eight fictional warriors born across the Kantō region, who gradually discover their shared origin as spirit-children of a Satomi princess and unite in Nansō as loyal defenders of her clan. The novel, consisting of 98 chapters printed in a total of 106 booklets, is considered the largest novel in the history of Japanese Literature.[1] Bakin, in his 70s by the time the work was completed, had gone blind before finishing the tale, and dictated the final parts to his daughter-in-law Michi Tokimura. Along with Ueda Akinaris Ugetsu Monogatari, it is considered a masterpiece of gesaku literature, and one of the classics of Japanese historical fiction.[1] The title Hakkenden has been translated as The Eight Dog Chronicles,[2] Tale of Eight Dogs,[3] or Biographies of Eight Dogs.[4] Hakkenden is a long, dense work told from multiple perspectives - described by translator Glynne Walley as huge and unwieldy, almost comically so.[5] However, it can be divided into three main arcs - a prologue leading up to the Dog Warriors birth, the stories of the individual Dogs as they encounter one another, and a final war between the Satomi and their assembled foes. The latter segment is often excluded from modern abridged editions of the novel.[1][5]
|
Classical Greece. Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,[1] marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture (such as Ionia and Macedonia) gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II. Much of the early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought (architecture, sculpture), theatre, literature, philosophy, and politics of Western civilization derives from this period of Greek history, which had a powerful influence on the later Roman Empire. Part of the broader era of classical antiquity, the classical Greek era ended after Philip IIs unification of most of the Greek world against the common enemy of the Persian Empire, which was conquered within 13 years during the wars of Alexander the Great, Philips son. In the context of the art, architecture, and culture of ancient Greece, the Classical period corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (the most common dates being the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC). The Classical period in this sense follows the Greek Dark Ages and Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period. This century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than any of the other ancient Greek states. From the perspective of Athenian culture in classical Greece, the period generally referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into the 6th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this century occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant and Cleisthenes reforms. However, a broader view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC, the event that provoked the Persian invasion of 492 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC. A second Persian attempt, in 481–479 BC, failed as well, despite having overrun much of modern-day Greece (north of the Isthmus of Corinth) at a crucial point during the war following the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium.[2][3] The Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens instrument. Athens successes caused several revolts among the allied cities, all of which were put down by force, but Athenian dynamism finally awoke Sparta and brought about the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC. After both sides were exhausted, a brief peace followed; then the war resumed in Spartas favor. Athens was decisively defeated in 404 BC, and internal unrest marked the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy. This meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty. According to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War.
|
Gravity. In physics, gravity (from Latin gravitas weight[1]), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction,[2] is a fundamental interaction, which may be described as the effect of a field that is generated by a gravitational source such as mass. The gravitational attraction between clouds of primordial hydrogen and clumps of dark matter in the early universe caused the hydrogen gas to coalesce, eventually condensing and fusing to form stars. At larger scales this resulted in galaxies and clusters, so gravity is a primary driver for the large-scale structures in the universe. Gravity has an infinite range, although its effects become weaker as objects get farther away. Gravity is described by the general theory of relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, which describes gravity in terms of the curvature of spacetime, caused by the uneven distribution of mass. The most extreme example of this curvature of spacetime is a black hole, from which nothing—not even light—can escape once past the black holes event horizon.[3] However, for most applications, gravity is sufficiently well approximated by Newtons law of universal gravitation, which describes gravity as an attractive force between any two bodies that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Scientists are looking for a theory that describes gravity in the framework of quantum mechanics (quantum gravity),[4] which would unify gravity and the other known fundamental interactions of physics in a single mathematical framework (a theory of everything).[5]
|
Woodblock printing. Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD. Woodblock printing existed in Tang China by the 7th century AD and remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best-known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block books produced mainly in the 15th century. According to the Book of Southern Qi, in the 480s, a man named Gong Xuanyi (龔玄宜) styled himself Gong the Sage and said that a supernatural being had given him a jade seal jade block writing, which did not require a brush: one blew on the paper and characters formed.[1] He then used his powers to mystify a local governor. Eventually he was dealt with by the governors successor, who presumably executed Gong.[2] Timothy Hugh Barrett postulates that Gongs magical jade block was actually a printing device, and Gong was one of the first, if not the first printer. The semi-mythical record of him therefore describes his usage of the printing process to deliberately bewilder onlookers and create an image of mysticism around himself.[3] However, woodblock print flower patterns applied to silk in three colours have been found dated from the Han dynasty (before AD 220).[4] Inscribed seals made of metal or stone, especially jade, and inscribed stone tablets probably provided inspiration for the invention of printing. Copies of classical texts on tablets were erected in a public place in Luoyang during the Han dynasty for scholars and students to copy. The Suishu jingjizhi, the bibliography of the official history of the Sui dynasty, includes several ink-squeeze rubbings, believed to have led to the early duplication of texts that inspired printing. A stone inscription cut in reverse dating from the first half of the 6th century implies that it may have been a large printing block.[5]
|
Geography of Greenland. Greenland is located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada and northwest of Iceland. The territory comprises the island of Greenland—the largest island in the world—and more than a hundred other smaller islands (see alphabetic list). Greenland has a 1.2-kilometre-long (0.75 mi) border with Canada on Hans Island.[1] A sparse population is confined to small settlements along certain sectors of the coast. Greenland possesses the worlds second-largest ice sheet. Greenland sits atop the Greenland plate, a subplate of the North American Plate.[2][3] The Greenland craton is made up of some of the oldest rocks on the face of the earth. The Isua greenstone belt in southwestern Greenland contains some of the oldest dated rocks on Earth, dated at 3.7–3.8 billion years old.[4] The vegetation is generally sparse, with the only patch of forested land being found in Nanortalik Municipality in the extreme south near Cape Farewell.
|
Meiji era. The Meiji era (明治時代, Meiji jidai[a]) was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912.[2] The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization by Western powers to the new paradigm of a modern, industrialized nation state and emergent great power, influenced by Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. As a result of such wholesale adoption of radically different ideas, the changes to Japan were profound, and affected its social structure, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji. It was preceded by the Keiō era and was succeeded by the Taishō era, upon the accession of Emperor Taishō. The rapid modernization during the Meiji era was not without its opponents, as the rapid changes to society caused many disaffected traditionalists from the former samurai class to rebel against the Meiji government during the 1870s, most famously Saigō Takamori, who led the Satsuma Rebellion. However, there were also former samurai who remained loyal while serving in the Meiji government, such as Itō Hirobumi and Itagaki Taisuke. On February 3, 1867, the 14-year-old Prince Mutsuhito succeeded his father, Emperor Kōmei, to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the 122nd emperor. This coincided with pressure on the ruling shogunate to modernize Japan, combining modern advances with traditional values. Mutsuhito was sympathetic to these ideas, leading to a call for the restoration of the governing power to the emperor. On November 9, 1867, then-shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu tendered his resignation to the Emperor, and put his prerogatives at the Emperor’s disposal, formally stepping down ten days later.[3] Imperial restoration occurred the next year on January 3, 1868, with the formation of the new government. The fall of Edo in the summer of 1868 marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, and a new era, Meiji, was proclaimed.
|
Greenland (disambiguation). Greenland is the worlds largest island and an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland or Greenlands may also refer to:
|
Flag of Greenland. The flag of Greenland (Greenlandic: Erfalasorput[2] or Kalaallit erfalasuat, Danish: Grønlands flag) was designed by Greenland native Thue Christiansen.[3] It features two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red (bottom) with a counter-changed red-and-white disk slightly to the hoist side of centre. The entire flag measures 18 by 12 parts; each stripe measures 6 parts; the disk is 8 parts in diameter, horizontally offset by 7 parts from the hoist to the centre of the circle, and vertically centered. Its local name in the Greenlandic language is Erfalasorput, which means our flag. The term Aappalaartoq (meaning the red) is also used for both the Greenlandic flag and the flag of Denmark (Dannebrog). Today, Greenlanders display both the Erfalasorput and the Dannebrog[4]—often side by side. The flag of Greenland is the only national flag of a Nordic country or territory without a Nordic cross, but is similar to the cultural Sámi flag, which also features a circular design and counterchanging of field and charge. Greenland first entertained the idea of a flag of its own in 1973 when five Greenlanders proposed a green, white and blue flag. The following year, a newspaper solicited eleven design proposals (all but one of which was a Nordic cross) and polled the people to determine the most popular.[5] The deciding committee came to no consensus, so more proposals were solicited. Finally, the present red-and-white design by Thue Christiansen narrowly won over a green-and-white Nordic cross by a vote of fourteen to eleven.[6] Christiansens red-and-white flag was officially adopted on 21 June 1985.[3]
|
Biogeochemical cycle. A biogeochemical cycle, or more generally a cycle of matter,[1] is the movement and transformation of chemical elements and compounds between living organisms, the atmosphere, and the Earths crust. Major biogeochemical cycles include the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle. In each cycle, the chemical element or molecule is transformed and cycled by living organisms and through various geological forms and reservoirs, including the atmosphere, the soil and the oceans. It can be thought of as the pathway by which a chemical substance cycles (is turned over or moves through) the biotic compartment and the abiotic compartments of Earth. The biotic compartment is the biosphere and the abiotic compartments are the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere. For example, in the carbon cycle, atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants through photosynthesis, which converts it into organic compounds that are used by organisms for energy and growth. Carbon is then released back into the atmosphere through respiration and decomposition. Additionally, carbon is stored in fossil fuels and is released into the atmosphere through human activities such as burning fossil fuels. In the nitrogen cycle, atmospheric nitrogen gas is converted by plants into usable forms such as ammonia and nitrates through the process of nitrogen fixation. These compounds can be used by other organisms, and nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere through denitrification and other processes. In the water cycle, the universal solvent water evaporates from land and oceans to form clouds in the atmosphere, and then precipitates back to different parts of the planet. Precipitation can seep into the ground and become part of groundwater systems used by plants and other organisms, or can runoff the surface to form lakes and rivers. Subterranean water can then seep into the ocean along with river discharges, rich with dissolved and particulate organic matter and other nutrients. There are biogeochemical cycles for many other elements, such as for oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, calcium, iron, sulfur, mercury and selenium. There are also cycles for molecules, such as water and silica. In addition there are macroscopic cycles such as the rock cycle, and human-induced cycles for synthetic compounds such as for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In some cycles there are geological reservoirs where substances can remain or be sequestered for long periods of time. Biogeochemical cycles involve the interaction of biological, geological, and chemical processes. Biological processes include the influence of microorganisms, which are critical drivers of biogeochemical cycling. Microorganisms have the ability to carry out wide ranges of metabolic processes essential for the cycling of nutrients (macronutrients and micronutrients) and chemicals throughout global ecosystems. Without microorganisms many of these processes would not occur, with significant impact on the functioning of land and ocean ecosystems and the planets biogeochemical cycles as a whole. Changes to cycles can impact human health. The cycles are interconnected and play important roles regulating climate, supporting the growth of plants, phytoplankton and other organisms, and maintaining the health of ecosystems generally. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels and using large amounts of fertilizer can disrupt cycles, contributing to climate change, pollution, and other environmental problems. Energy flows directionally through ecosystems, entering as sunlight (or inorganic molecules for chemoautotrophs) and leaving as heat during the many transfers between trophic levels. However, the matter that makes up living organisms is conserved and recycled. The six most common elements associated with organic molecules — carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur — take a variety of chemical forms and may exist for long periods in the atmosphere, on land, in water, or beneath the Earths surface. Geologic processes, such as weathering, erosion, water drainage, and the subduction of the continental plates, all play a role in this recycling of materials. Because geology and chemistry have major roles in the study of this process, the recycling of inorganic matter between living organisms and their environment is called a biogeochemical cycle.[3]
|
Samurai. Samurai (侍) were members of the warrior class who served as retainers to lords in Japan prior to the Meiji era. Samurai existed from the late 12th century until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era.[1] They were originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century.[2][3] In 1853, the United States forced Japan to open its borders to foreign trade under the threat of military action. Fearing an eventual invasion, the Japanese abandoned feudalism for capitalism so that they could industrialize and build a modern army. The adoption of modern firearms rendered the traditional weapons of the samurai obsolete, and as firearms are easy enough for peasant conscripts to learn, Japan had no more need for a specialized warrior caste. By 1876 the special rights and privileges of the samurai had all been abolished. The proper Japanese term for a warrior is bushi (武士)[4] and the word buke (武家) meant warrior family.[5] Bushi was not applied to just any kind of fighter. For those who called themselves bushi, war was their way of life and often a family tradition, as opposed to conscripts or militia. It was also a term for elite warriors, particularly those who fought on horseback as cavalry was the backbone of Japanese armies. During the early Edo period, a warrior was only considered a member of the bushi class if he was a public servant, which among other things entitled him to a stipend.[6]
|
Fumihito, Crown Prince of Japan. The EmperorThe Empress The Emperor EmeritusThe Empress Emerita Fumihito, Crown Prince Akishino[1] (秋篠宮皇嗣文仁親王, Akishino-no-miya Kōshi Fumihito Shinnō; born 30 November 1965, Japanese: [ɸɯmiꜜçi̥to]) is the heir presumptive to the Japanese throne. He is the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, and the younger son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Since his marriage in June 1990, he has had the title Prince Akishino (秋篠宮, Akishino-no-miya) and has headed the Akishino branch of the Imperial House.[2] Fumihito has a bachelors degree in political science from Gakushuin University and a PhD in ornithology from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies. In 1990, he married Kiko Kawashima, with whom he has three children: Mako, Kako, and Hisahito. In November 2020, Fumihito was officially declared the heir presumptive to the throne, during the Ceremony for Proclamation of Crown Prince (Rikkōshi-Senmei-no-gi) in Tokyo.[3] Preceding his investiture as Crown Prince, the ongoing Japanese imperial succession debate had resulted in some politicians holding a favorable view on rescinding agnatic primogeniture, which was implemented in 1889 and reinforced on the constitution of Japan by the Allies after World War II. However, once Fumihito and Kiko had their son Hisahito in September 2006, he became next in the line of succession following his father. Fumihitos niece and Emperor Naruhitos only child, Princess Aiko, remains at present legally ineligible to inherit the throne, while debate about the possibility of having future empresses regnant continues.
|
Mediterranean Sea. For other countries, click here. The Mediterranean Sea (/ˌmɛdɪtəˈreɪniən/ MED-ih-tə-RAY-nee-ən) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the west almost by the Morocco–Spain border. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi),[2] representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only 14 km (9 mi) wide. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between the peoples of the region. The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. The Roman Empire maintained nautical hegemony over the sea for centuries and is the only state to have ever controlled all of its coast.
|
Mercury Messenger (concept car). The Mercury Messenger is a concept car manufactured by Mercury in collaboration with coachbuilder Stola. It was revealed at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. The vehicle was named after Mercury, the Roman messenger god from whom Mercury gets its name. Designed by Gerry McGovern, the Messenger was meant to signal the new design DNA of future Mercury models. Journalists pointed out similarities to past Ford and Mercury models, such as the Ford Cougar II concept and the Mercury Cougar.[1] The Messenger was intended to be powered by a 4.6 liter Modular DOHC V8 mated to a 6-speed automatic sequential transmission. It features independent rear suspension and 4-piston Brembo brake discs with anti-lock braking. The wheels feature a turbine design and measure 20 inches (510 mm) in diameter and 305 millimetres (12.0 in) wide in the rear, and 19 inches (480 mm) in diameter and 275 millimetres (10.8 in) wide in the front.[2] In 2010, the Messenger was sold at an RM Sothebys auction, with a final price of $52,250.[3] At the time of its sale, it had no engine or transmission, as they had reportedly never been installed by Mercury.[4] As of 2023, it was owned by the Bortz Auto Collection and has been displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum.[5]
|
Greenlandic language. Greenlandic,[b] also known by its endonym Kalaallisut (kalaallisut, [kalaːɬːisʉt]), is an Inuit language belonging to the Eskimoan branch of the Eskaleut language family. It is primarily spoken by the Greenlandic people native to Greenland; and has about 57,000 native speakers as of 2025.[1] Written in the Latin script, it is the sole official language of Greenland; and a recognized minority language in Denmark. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada such as Inuktitut. It is the most widely spoken Eskaleut language. In June 2009, the government of Greenland, the Naalakkersuisut, made Greenlandic the sole official language of the autonomous territory, to strengthen it in the face of competition from the colonial language, Danish. The main variety is Kalaallisut, or West Greenlandic. The second variety is Tunumiit oraasiat, or East Greenlandic. The language of the Inughuit (Thule Inuit) of Greenland, Inuktun or Polar Inuit, is a recent arrival and a dialect of Inuktitut. Greenlandic is a polysynthetic language that allows the creation of long words by stringing together roots and suffixes. The languages morphosyntactic alignment is ergative, treating both the argument (subject) of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb in one way, but the subject of a transitive verb in another. For example, he plays the guitar would be in the ergative case as a transitive agent, whereas I bought a guitar and as the guitar plays (the latter being the intransitive sense of the same verb to play) would both be in the absolutive case. Nouns are inflected by one of eight cases and for possession. Verbs are inflected for one of eight moods and for the number and person of its subject and object. Both nouns and verbs have complex derivational morphology. The basic word order in transitive clauses is subject–object–verb. The subordination of clauses uses special subordinate moods. A so-called fourth-person category enables switch-reference between main clauses and subordinate clauses with different subjects. Greenlandic is notable for its lack of grammatical tense; temporal relations are expressed normally by context but also by the use of temporal particles such as yesterday or now or sometimes by the use of derivational suffixes or the combination of affixes with aspectual meanings with the semantic lexical aspect of different verbs. However, some linguists have suggested that Greenlandic always marks future tense. Another question is whether the language has noun incorporation or whether the processes that create complex predicates that include nominal roots are derivational in nature. When adopting new concepts or technologies, Greenlandic usually constructs new words made from Greenlandic roots, but modern Greenlandic has also taken many loans from Danish and English. The language has been written in Latin script since Danish colonization began in the 1700s. Greenlandics first orthography was developed by Samuel Kleinschmidt in 1851, but within 100 years, it already differed substantially from the spoken language because of a number of sound changes. An extensive orthographic reform was undertaken in 1973 and made the script much easier to learn. This resulted in a boost in Greenlandic literacy, which is now among the highest in the world.[note 1][5]
|
Japanese mythology. Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology.[1] The history of thousands of years of contact with Chinese and various Indian myths (such as Buddhist and Hindu mythology) are also key influences in Japanese religious belief.[1][2][3] Japanese myths are tied to the topography of the archipelago as well as agriculturally-based folk religion, and the Shinto pantheon holds uncountable kami (god(s) or spirits).[1] Two important sources for Japanese myths, as they are recognized today, are the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.[4][5] The Kojiki, or Record of Ancient Matters, is the oldest surviving account of Japans myths, legends, and history.[6] Additionally, the Shintōshū describes the origins of Japanese deities from a Buddhist perspective.[7] One notable feature of Japanese mythology is its explanation of the origin of the Imperial Family, which has been used historically to deify to the imperial line.[4] Japanese is not transliterated consistently across all sources (see spelling of proper nouns).
|
Emperor Tenmu. Emperor Tenmu (also romanized Temmu, c. 630 – 686) was 40th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. He was born Prince Ōama around 630, the son of Emperor Jomei and his consort Princess Takara. Ruling from 673 to 686, during the Asuka period, his life is mainly documented by the chronicles Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, as well as the poetry collection Manyōshū. Little is known of Ōamas early life. During the rule of his elder brother Tenji, Ōama was ambiguously favored as his successor, but was gradually bypassed in favor of Tenjis son Prince Ōtomo. Tenji allegedly offered Ōama the throne during an illness in 671, but fearing a conspiracy against him, Ōama declined and left to serve as a monk at Yoshino Palace. Tenji died soon after. The following year, Ōama received word that Ōtomo, now ruler, was planning to kill him. He fled Yoshino with a group of followers, beginning the Jinshin War. Along with a group of retainers and the governor of Ise Province, Ōama was able to block off the mountain passes to the northern and eastern provinces, where he raised an army against his nephew. Ōtomo was defeated and forced to commit suicide. Ōama took the throne under the name Tenmu. Tenmu made a number of political reforms, modeling his government after the centralized state of Tang China. He was likely the first Japanese ruler to use the title of tennō (emperor) and the first to be described as a divine being (kami) in his lifetime. He redistributed political titles among his family and political supporters and created four new ranks at the top of the kabane noble title system. He selected a site for a new capital around 683, on which (after his death) was likely built Fujiwara-kyō. He was an enthusiastic supporter of both Buddhism and the goddess Amaterasu, making various reforms to Buddhist clerical governance and elevating Amaterasus Ise Shrine to preeminence in Japan. Tenmus health began to decline in 685. In attempt to gain divine favor, the imperial court sponsored large-scale Buddhist rituals, but he died in 686. This began a mourning period and interregnum almost twice the length as usual, during which both of his crown princes died: Prince Ōtsu was executed later the same year, likely on the orders of Tenmus consort Uno-no-sarara, while Prince Kusakabe died of ill health in 689. Uno-no-sarara ascended to the throne in 689 as Empress Jitō.
|
Messenger. Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to:
|
Prussian blue. Sodium ferrocyanide Prussian blue (also known as Berlin blue, Brandenburg blue, Parisian and Paris blue) is a dark blue pigment produced by oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts. It has the chemical formula Fe4[Fe(CN)6]3. It consists of Fe3+ cations, where iron is in the oxidation state of +3, and [Fe(CN)6]4− anions, where iron is in the oxidation state of +2, so, the other name of this salt is iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II). Turnbulls blue is essentially identical chemically, excepting that it has different impurities and particle sizes—because it is made from different reagents—and thus it has a slightly different color. Prussian blue was created in the early 18th century and is the first modern synthetic pigment. It is prepared as a very fine colloidal dispersion, because the compound is not soluble in water. It contains variable amounts[2] of other ions and its appearance depends sensitively on the size of the colloidal particles. The pigment is used in paints, it became prominent in 19th-century aizuri-e (藍摺り絵) Japanese woodblock prints, and it is the traditional blue in technical blueprints. In medicine, orally administered Prussian blue is used as an antidote for certain kinds of heavy metal poisoning, e.g., by thallium(I) and radioactive isotopes of caesium. The therapy exploits Prussian blues ion-exchange properties and high affinity for certain soft metal cations. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.[3] Prussian blue lent its name to prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) derived from it. In German, hydrogen cyanide is called Blausäure (blue acid).
|
Emperor Bidatsu. Emperor Bidatsu (敏達天皇, Bidatsu-tennō; 538 – 14 September 585) was the 30th emperor of Japan,[1] according to the traditional order of succession.[2] The years of reign of Bidatsu start in 572 and end in 585; however, there are no certain dates for this emperors life or reign.[3] The names and sequence of the early emperors were not confirmed as traditional until the reign of Emperor Kanmu, who was the 50th monarch of the imperial dynasty.[4] Historians consider details about the life of Emperor Bidatsu to be possibly legendary, but probable.[5] The name Bidatsu-tennō was created for him posthumously by later generations. In the Nihon Shoki, he is called Nunakura no Futotamashiki (渟中倉太珠敷).
|
The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō. The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (木曾街道六十九次, Kisokaidō Rokujūkyū-tsugi) or Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Road, is a series of ukiyo-e works created by Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen. There are 71 total prints in the series (one for each of the 69 post stations and Nihonbashi; Nakatsugawa-juku has two prints). The common name for the Kisokaidō is Nakasendō so the series is sometimes referred to as the Sixty-nine Stations of the Nakasendō. It is a follow-up to Hiroshiges The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and he produced 47 of the prints, with Eisen being responsible for the rest.[1] The series was published by Iseya Rihei (Kinjudō) from c. 1834-1842.[2] The Nakasendō was one of the Five Routes constructed under Tokugawa Ieyasu, a series of roads linking the historical capital of Edo with the rest of Japan. The Nakasendō connected Edo with the then-capital of Kyoto. It was an alternate route to the Tōkaidō and travelled through the central part of Honshū, thus giving rise to its name, which means Central Mountain Road. Along this road, there were sixty-nine different post stations, which provided stables, food, and lodging for travelers. Eisen produced the first 11 prints of the series, from Nihonbashi to Honjō-shuku, stretching from Tokyo to Saitama Prefecture. His prints from Gunma Prefecture include Kuragano-shuku, Itahana-shuku and Sakamoto-shuku. Representing Nagano Prefecture, he made prints of Kutsukake-shuku, Oiwake-shuku, Iwamurada-shuku, Shiojiri-shuku, Narai-juku, Yabuhara-juku, Nojiri-juku and Magome-juku. His last two prints, Unuma-juku and Gōdo-juku represent Gifu Prefecture. After that, Hiroshige took over production of the series.
|
Corcyra (mythology). In Greek mythology and religion, Corcyra (/kɔːrˈsaɪərə/) or Korkyra (/kɔːrˈkaɪərə/; Ancient Greek: Κόρκυρα, romanized: Kórkura) is the naiad daughter of the river-god Asopos[1] and the nymph Metope, herself the daughter of the river-god Ladon.[2] She is the personification and tutelary goddess of the ancient Greek city and island of Korkyra, now better known as Corfu. Korykra was the sister of Pelasgus (Pelagon[3]), Ismenus, Chalcis, Cleone, Salamis, Sinope, Aegina, Peirene, Thebe, Tanagra, Thespia, Asopis, Ornea,[4] Harpina,[5] Antiope,[6] Nemea[7] and Plataea[8] (Oeroe[9]). According to myth, Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, kidnapped her and brought her to a hitherto unnamed island (Scheria[10]) and offered her name to the place: Korkyra or the now-modern Kerkyra (known in English as Corfu, a name that is unrelated by origin). Next after them they came to Corcyra, where Poseidon settled the daughter of Asopus, fair-haired Corcyra, far from the land of Phlious, whence he had carried her off through love; and sailors beholding it from the sea, all black with its sombre woods, call it Corcyra the Black.[11] Together they had a child Phaeax after whom the inhabitants of the island, Phaiakes, were named; their name was later transliterated in Latinate orthography to Phaeacians.[12]
|
Post-Impressionism. Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement which developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionists concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and colour. Its broad emphasis on abstract qualities or symbolic content means Post-Impressionism encompasses Les Nabis, Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cloisonnism, the Pont-Aven School, and Synthetism, along with some later Impressionists work. The movements principal artists were Paul Cézanne (known as the father of Post-Impressionism), Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat.[1] The term Post-Impressionism was first used by art critic Roger Fry in 1906.[2][3] Critic Frank Rutter in a review of the Salon dAutomne published in Art News, 15 October 1910, described Othon Friesz as a post-impressionist leader; there was also an advert for the show The Post-Impressionists of France.[4] Three weeks later, Roger Fry used the term again when he organised the 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists, defining it as the development of French art since Édouard Manet. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, sometimes using impasto (thick application of paint) and painting from life, but were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort form for expressive effect, and use unnatural or modified colour. The Post-Impressionists were dissatisfied with what they felt was the triviality of subject matter and the loss of structure in Impressionist paintings, though they did not agree on the way forward. Georges Seurat and his followers concerned themselves with pointillism, the systematic use of tiny dots of colour. Paul Cézanne set out to restore a sense of order and structure to painting, to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of the museums.[5] He achieved this by reducing objects to their basic shapes while retaining the saturated colours of Impressionism. The Impressionist Camille Pissarro experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas between the mid-1880s and the early 1890s. Discontented with what he referred to as romantic Impressionism, he investigated pointillism, which he called scientific Impressionism, before returning to a purer Impressionism in the last decade of his life.[6] Vincent van Gogh often used vibrant colour and conspicuous brushstrokes to convey his feelings and his state of mind. Although they often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement. Yet, the abstract concerns of harmony and structural arrangement, in the work of all these artists, took precedence over naturalism. Artists such as Seurat adopted a meticulously scientific approach to colour and composition.[7]
|
Toyohiro. Utagawa Toyohiro (歌川豊広, 歌川豐廣), birth name Okajima Tōjiro (1773–1828), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist and painter. He was a member of the Utagawa school and studied under Utagawa Toyoharu, the schools founder. His works include a number of ukiyo-e landscape series, as well as many depictions of the daily activities in the Yoshiwara entertainment quarter; many of his stylistic features paved the way for Hokusai and Hiroshige (the latter a prodigy who studied under Toyohiro, becoming one of the very finest of all landscape artists), as well as producing an important series of ukiyo-e triptychs in collaboration with Toyokuni, and numerous book and e-hon illustrations, which occupied him in his later years. The ukiyo-e series he produced include the following: This Japanese artist–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article about an etcher or maker of prints in other media (excluding engravers) is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Emperor Senka. Emperor Senka (宣化天皇, Senka-tennō) (466 — 15 March 539) was the 28th legendary emperor of Japan,[1] according to the traditional order of succession.[2] No firm dates can be assigned to this emperors life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 25 January 536 to 15 March 539,[3] the end of the Kofun period, which was followed by the Asuka period. Senka is considered to have ruled the country during the early-6th century, but there is a paucity of information about him. There is insufficient material available for further verification and study. When Emperor Ankan died, he had no offspring; and succession passed to his youngest brother Prince Hinokuma no Takata (檜隈高田皇子), who will come to be known as Emperor Senka. Emperor Senka was elderly at the time of his enthronement; and his reign is said to have endured for only three years. Senkas contemporary title would not have been tennō, as most historians believe this title was not introduced until the reigns of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. Rather, it was presumably Sumeramikoto or Amenoshita Shiroshimesu Ōkimi (治天下大王), meaning the great king who rules all under heaven. Alternatively, Senka might have been referred to as ヤマト大王/大君 or the Great King of Yamato.
|
Corcyre. Corcyre (French: [kɔʁ.kiʁ]; archaic French for Corfu; Greek: Κέρκυρα, romanized: Kerkyra) was one of three short-lived French departments of Greece. It came into existence after Napoleons conquest in 1797 of the Republic of Venice, when Venetian Greek possessions such as the Ionian islands fell to the French Directory. It consisted of the islands of Kerkyra (Corfu) and Paxoi, as well as the cities of Butrint and Parga on the adjacent mainland. Its prefecture was in the City of Corfu. The island was lost to Russia after the Siege of Corfu (1798–1799) and the department was officially disbanded in 1802. Also, Butrint was captured in 1798 by Ali Pasha, ruler of the Pashalik of Yanina. During the renewed French control in 1807–1814, the department was not re-established, the constitutional form of the former Septinsular Republic being kept. The Commissioner of the Directory was the highest state representative in the department.
|
Princess Ishi-hime. Princess Ishi-hime (? – after 572) was Empress of Japan as the consort of Emperor Kinmei.[1] Ishi-hime was Emperor Senkas daughter. Unless otherwise noted (as BC), years are in CE / AD 1 individuals that were given the title of empress posthumously 2 individuals elevated to the rank of empress due to their position as honorary mother of the emperor 3 Shōshi served briefly as honorary empress for her younger brother Emperor Go-Daigo Unless otherwise noted (as BC), years are in CE / AD 1 individuals that were given the title of empress dowager posthumously 2 title removed in 896 due to a suspected affair with head priest of the Toko-ji Temple; title posthumously restored in 943 3 was made High Empress or de jure empress dowager during her husbands reign
|
List of cities in ancient Acarnania. Acarnania is a region of western Greece. Below is a list of the cities that existed in Acarnania in ancient times.[1]
|
Shoku Nihongi. The Shoku Nihongi (続日本紀) is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the Six National Histories, coming directly after the Nihon Shoki and followed by Nihon Kōki. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as the primary editors. It is one of the most important primary historical sources for information about Japans Nara period. The work covers the 95-year period from the beginning of Emperor Monmus reign in 697 until the 10th year of Emperor Kanmus reign in 791, spanning nine imperial reigns. It was completed in 797 AD.[1] The text is forty volumes in length. It is primarily written in kanbun, a Japanese form of Classical Chinese, as was normal for formal Japanese texts at the time.[2] However, a number of senmyō (宣命) or imperial edicts contained within the text are written in a script known as senmyō-gaki, which preserves particles and verb endings phonographically.[3] This article about a non-fiction book on Japanese history is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Corcyra (polis). Corcyra (also Korkyra /kɔːrˈsaɪ.rə/;[1] Ancient Greek: Κόρκυρα) was an ancient Greek city on the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea adjacent to Epirus.[2] It was a colony of Corinth founded in the Archaic period. Corcyra was acting as a port of call on the sailing routes, especially to reach the Italian coast or to venture farther north. According to Thucydides, the earliest recorded naval battle took place between Corcyra and Corinth in the mid-7th century BC, roughly 260 years before he was writing.[3] He also writes that Corcyra was one of the three great naval powers in 5th-century BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth.[4] The antagonism between Corcyra and its mother city, Corinth, appears to have been an old one. Quite apart from the naval battle that Thucydides mentions, Herodotus records a myth involving the tyrant of Corinth, Periander. Periander was estranged from his younger son, Lycophron, who believed that his father had killed his mother, Milissa. After failing to reconcile with Lycophron, he sent him to Corcyra, which was within Corinths governance. In his old age, Periander sent for his son to come and rule over Corinth and suggested that they would trade places and he would rule Corcyra while his son came to rule Corinth. To prevent that, the Corcyraeans killed Lycophron. In punishment, Periander captured 300 young men of Corcyra with the intention of castrating them.[5] That is more likely to be a myth explaining the animosity between Corinth and Corcyra and justifying the use of the word tyrant for Perianders rule than an actual historical event.[6] During the Persian War of 480 BC, Greek envoys were sent to Corcyra requesting aid. Corcyra enthusiastically promised ships and fitted out 60 of them, but they failed to arrive in time for the Battle of Salamis. Herodotus ascribes the delay as a strategic choice for the Corcyraeans to remain neutral. The excuse given for failing to join the battle was unfavourable winds, but Herodotus says that had the Persians been victorious, the Corcyraeans would have claimed to have deliberately avoided the battle to gain favour from the invading Persians.[7] Writing between 431 and 395 BC, Thucydides credited Corcyras conflict with Corinth over their joint city Epidamnus as a significant cause of the Peloponnesian War. Corcyra, otherwise neutral as far as the two major powers (the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League) were concerned, appealed to Athens, the head of the Delian League, for assistance against Corinth, which belonged to the Peloponnesian League.[8] In 427 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, there was a revolution and civil war in Corcyra between the democrats, who wished to remain in an alliance with Athens, and the aristocrats, who claimed that they were being enslaved to Athens and wished to form an alliance with Corinth and Lacedaemon. After a period of violent skirmishes, the democrats won with assistance from the Athenian navy and subsequently slaughtered those they suspected of being an enemy, while the rest of their foes fled to the Greek mainland.[9]
|
Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa[note 1] (黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明, Kurosawa Akira; March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. With a bold and dynamic style strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as a hands-on filmmaker, he was heavily involved with all aspects of production as a director, writer, producer, and editor. Following a brief stint as a painter, Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and screenwriter, he made his directorial debut during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943), released when he was 33 years old. Following the war, he cemented his reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan with the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which he cast the then-unknown actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role; the two men would then collaborate on 15 more films. Rashomon (1950) premiered in Tokyo and became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. The commercial and critical success of the film opened up Western film markets to Japanese films for the first time, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded and often adapted films, including Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), High and Low (1963), and Red Beard (1965). He became much less prolific after the 1960s, though his later work—including two of his final films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to receive critical acclaim. In 1990, Kurosawa accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was posthumously named Asian of the Century in the Arts, Literature, and Culture category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, who cited him as one of the five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His career has been honored by many releases in many consumer media in addition to retrospectives, critical studies, and biographies in both print and video.
|
Nihon-shiki. Nihon-shiki (Japanese: 日本式ローマ字, romanized: Nihon-shiki rōmaji, lit. Japan-style Roman letters) is a romanization system for transliterating the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. Among the major romanization systems for Japanese, it is the most regular one and has an almost one-to-one relation to the kana writing system. It was invented by physicist Aikitsu Tanakadate (田中館 愛橘) in 1885,[1] with the intention to replace the Hepburn system of romanization.[2] Tanakadates intention was to replace the traditional kanji and kana system of writing Japanese completely by a romanized system, which he felt would make it easier for Japan to compete with Western countries. Since the system was intended for Japanese people to use to write their own language, it is much more regular than Hepburn romanization, and unlike Hepburns system, it makes no effort to make itself easier to pronounce for English-speakers.[citation needed] Nihon-shiki was followed by Kunrei-shiki, which was adopted in 1937, after a political debate over whether Nihon-shiki or Hepburn-shiki should be used by the Japanese government.[1] Kunrei-shiki is nearly identical to Nihon-shiki, but it merges syllable pairs di/zi ぢ/じ, du/zu づ/ず, dya/zya ぢゃ/じゃ, dyu/zyu ぢゅ/じゅ, dyo/zyo ぢょ/じょ, wi/i ゐ/い, we/e ゑ/え, kwa/ka くゎ/か, and gwa/ga ぐゎ/が, whose pronunciations in Modern Standard Japanese are now identical. For example, the word かなづかい, rendered kanadukai in Nihon-shiki, is pronounced as kanazukai in modern Japanese, and is romanized as such in Kunrei. The International Organization for Standardization has standardized Kunrei-shiki, under ISO 3602. The JSL system, which is intended for use instructing foreign students of Japanese, is also based on Nihon-shiki. However, some Japanese-speakers still distinguish di from zi and du from zu and so Nihon-shiki spelling is not entirely obsolete. Nihon-shiki is considered the most regular of the romanization systems for the Japanese language because it maintains a strict one kana, two letters form. Because it has unique forms corresponding to each of the respective pairs of kana homophones listed above, it is the only formal system of romanization that can allow (almost) lossless (round trip) mapping, but the standard does not mandate the precise spellings needed to distinguish ô 王/おう, ou 追う/おう and oo 大/おお.
|
Korčula. Korčula (Croatian: [kɔ̂ːrtʃula] ⓘ) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea. It has an area of 279 km2 (108 sq mi), is 46.8 km (29.1 mi) long and on average 7.8 km (4.8 mi) wide,[2] and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 15,522 inhabitants (2011) make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk.[3] The population are almost entirely ethnic Croats (95.74%).[4] The island is twinned with Rothesay in Scotland. It is known for Grk, a white wine that is only produced on the island and not exported due to limited production.[5] The island of Korčula belongs to the central Dalmatian archipelago, separated from the Pelješac peninsula by a narrow Strait of Pelješac, between 900 and 3,000 metres (3,000 and 9,800 feet) wide. It stretches in the east–west direction, in length of 47 kilometres (29 miles); on average, it is 8 km (5.0 miles) wide. With an area of 279 square kilometres (108 sq mi), it is the sixth largest Adriatic island. The highest peaks are Klupca, 568 metres (1,864 ft) and Kom, 510 metres (1,670 ft) high. Main settlements on the island are towns of Korčula, Blato and Vela Luka. Villages along the coast are Brna, Račišće, Lumbarda and Prižba; Žrnovo, Pupnat, Smokvica and Čara are located inland. The island is divided into municipalities of Korčula, Smokvica, Blato and Lumbarda. The climate is Mediterranean; an average air temperature in January is 9.8 °C (49.6 °F) and in July 26.9 °C (80.4 °F); the average annual rainfall is 1,100 mm (43.3 in). The island is largely covered with Mediterranean flora including extensive pine forests. The main road runs along the spine of the island connecting all settlements from Lumbarda on the eastern to Vela Luka on the western end, with the exception of Račišće, which is served by a separate road running along the northern coast.[citation needed] Ferries connect the town of Korčula with Orebić on the Pelješac peninsula. Another line connects Vela Luka with Split and the island of Lastovo. Fast passenger catamarans connect those two ports with Split, Dubrovnik and the islands of Hvar, Lastovo and Mljet.
|
AD (disambiguation). AD (Anno Domini) is a designation used to label years following 1 BC in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Ad (advertisement) is a form of marketing communication. AD, A.D. or Ad may also refer to:
|
Heian period. The Heian period (平安時代, Heian jidai) is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185.[1] It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). Heian (平安) means peace in Japanese. It is a period in Japanese history when the Chinese influences were in decline and the national culture matured. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court, noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Two syllabaries unique to Japan, katakana and hiragana, emerged during this time. This gave rise to Japans famous vernacular literature, with many of its texts written by court ladies who were not as educated in Chinese as their male counterparts. Although the Imperial House of Japan had power on the surface, the real power was in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful aristocratic family who had intermarried with the imperial family; most Emperors of the Heian era had mothers from the Fujiwara family.[2] The economy mostly existed through barter and trade due to the lack of a national currency, while the shōen system encouraged the growth of aristocratic estates that began gradually asserting their independence from Imperial control. Despite a lack of serious warfare or domestic strife during the Heian era, crime and banditry were widespread as the Emperors failed to police the country effectively. The Heian period was preceded by the Nara period and began in 794 AD after the movement of the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto), by the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu.[3] Kammu first tried to move the capital to Nagaoka-kyō, but a series of disasters befell the city, prompting the emperor to relocate the capital a second time, to Heian. A rebellion occurred in China toward the end of the 9th century, making the political situation unstable. The Japanese missions to Tang China were suspended and the influx of Chinese exports halted, a fact which facilitated the independent growth of Japanese culture called kokufu bunka [ja]. Therefore, the Heian period is considered a high point in Japanese culture, one that later generations both admired and sought to emulate. The period is also noted for the emergence of the samurai class, the result of feudal lords training their own warriors to police and enforce order as they gained land and resources through Imperial benefices. Nominally, sovereignty lay in the emperor but in fact, power was wielded by the Fujiwara nobility. To protect their interests in the provinces, nobles financed the training and arming of soldiers who in turn swore them allegiance rather than the Imperial court. These soldiers, the first samurai, later gained land and wealth of their own as an incentive to remain loyal.[2] As early as 939, the warlord Taira no Masakado threatened the authority of the central government, leading an uprising in the eastern province of Hitachi, and almost simultaneously, Fujiwara no Sumitomo rebelled in the west; samurai played a crucial role in suppressing both disturbances on behalf of the Emperor. In the rebellious north, the latter half of the 11th century saw the Former Nine Years War and the Latter Three Years War between the central government and the Abe and Kiyohara clan respectively. Still, a true military takeover of the Japanese government was centuries away, when much of the strength of the government would lie within the private armies of the shogunate. By the 12th century, court authority weakened as the decentralized land allocation system managed by aristocratic vassals, preferring life at court over regional administration, made the system increasingly ineffective.[4] The entry of the warrior class into court influence was a result of the 1156 Hōgen Rebellion. At this time Taira no Kiyomori revived the Fujiwara practices by placing his grandson on the throne to rule Japan by regency. Their clan, the Taira, would not be overthrown until after the Genpei War, which marked the start of the Kamakura shogunate. The Kamakura period began in 1185 when the family of Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the emperors and established the shogunate in their ancestral home, Kamakura.
|
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (in Japanese: 名所江戸百景, romanized: Meisho Edo Hyakkei) is a series of 119 ukiyo-e prints begun and largely completed by the Japanese artist Hiroshige (1797–1858). The prints were first published in serialized form in 1856–59, with Hiroshige II completing the series after Hiroshiges death. It was tremendously popular and much reprinted. Hiroshige produced designs in the style of the Utagawa school, a 19th-century popular style in woodblock prints, much favoured during his lifetime. Increasingly large series of prints were produced. This trend can be seen in Hiroshige’s work, such as The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō. Many publishing houses arose and grew, publishing both books and individual prints. A publishers ownership of the physical woodblocks used to print a given text or image constituted the closest equivalent to a concept of copyright that existed at this time. Woodblock prints such as these were produced in large numbers in 18th- and 19th-century Japan, created by artists, block cutters and printers working independently to the instructions of specialist publishers. Prints such as these were called ukiyo-e, which means pictures of the floating world. This world was one of transient delights and changing fashions centred on the licensed pleasure districts and popular theatres found in the major cities of Japan. In the years 1829–36, a seven volume illustrated guidebook Pictures of famous places of Edo (江戸名所図会, Edo meishō zue) was published. It was begun by Saitō Yukio (1737–1799) in 1790 and illustrated very accurately by Hasegawa Settan (1778–1848). The pictures and text describe the important temples and shrines, but also the famous stores, restaurants, tea-houses etc. of Edo as well as the Sumida river and its channels and surrounding landscape.
|
Impressionism. Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, unusual visual angles, and inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical 1874 review of the First Impressionist Exhibition published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari.[1] The development of Impressionism in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as Impressionist music and Impressionist literature. Radicals in their time, the early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting. They constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted realistic scenes of everyday life in natural settings, often outdoors, attempting to capture a moment as experienced. Previously, paintings were accomplished in studio, whether landscape art, still life or portrait, with an emphasis on verisimilitude.[a] The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting outdoors or en plein air. They portrayed overall visual effects instead of details, and used short broken brush strokes of mixed and pure unmixed colour—not blended smoothly or shaded, as was customary—to achieve an effect of intense colour vibration.[2]
|
NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United Statess civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the American space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of Americas space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo program missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the lunar Artemis program. NASAs science division is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorates Heliophysics Research Program; exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons and planetary rovers such as Perseverance; and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the James Webb Space Telescope, the four Great Observatories, and associated programs. The Launch Services Program oversees launch operations for its uncrewed launches. NASA traces its roots to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Despite Dayton, Ohio being the birth place of aviation, by 1914 the United States recognized that it was far behind Europe in aviation capability. Determined to regain American leadership in aviation, the United States Congress created the Aviation Section of the US Army Signal Corps in 1914 and established NACA in 1915 to foster aeronautical research and development. Over the next forty years, NACA would conduct aeronautical research in support of the US Air Force, US Army, US Navy, and the civil aviation sector. After the end of World War II, NACA became interested in the possibilities of guided missiles and supersonic aircraft, developing and testing the Bell X-1 in a joint program with the US Air Force. NACAs interest in space grew out of its rocketry program at the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division.[5] The Soviet Unions launch of Sputnik 1 ushered in the Space Age and kicked off the Space Race. Despite NACAs early rocketry program, the responsibility for launching the first American satellite fell to the Naval Research Laboratorys Project Vanguard, whose operational issues ensured the Army Ballistic Missile Agency would launch Explorer 1, Americas first satellite, on February 1, 1958.
|
Christian era (disambiguation). Christian era may refer to
|
Klagenfurt Cathedral. Klagenfurt Cathedral (German: Klagenfurter Dom; Dom- und Stadtpfarrkirche Hll. Petrus und Paulus) is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt and also the main parish church of Klagenfurt. It was built by Protestants and dedicated to the Holy Trinity in 1581, and was the largest Protestant church in Austria at that time. Klagenfurt Cathedral was commissioned by Christoph Windisch, Klagenfurts first mayor.[1] In 1600, during the Counter-Reformation, it was given to the Jesuits and rededicated to Saints Peter and Paul. The church was razed to the ground by a fire and had to be rebuilt in 1724. Bishop Franz Xaver von Salm-Reifferscheid made it the cathedral of the Diocese of Gurk in 1787.
|
Decentralized Administration of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian. The Decentralized Administration of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian (Greek: Αποκεντρωμένη Διοίκηση Πελοποννήσου, Δυτικής Ελλάδας και Ιονίου, romanized: Apokentroméni Dioíkisi Peloponnísou, Dytikís Elládas kai Ioníou) is one of the seven decentralized administrations of Greece, consisting of the regions of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian Islands. Its seat is in Patras, Western Greece, and it is currently headed by Acting Secretary-General Dionysios Panagiotopoulos. Decentralized Administrations were created in January 2011 as part of a far-reaching reform of the countrys administrative structure, the Kallikratis reform (Law 3852/2010).[3] They enjoy both administrative and financial autonomy[1] and exercise devolved state powers in urban planning, environmental and energy policy, forestry, migration and citizenship.[4] Beyond that, they are tasked with supervising the first and second-level self-governing bodies: the municipalities and regions, in this case the 52 municipalities of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian Islands, and the three regions themselves. Covering an area of 28,847 km2 (11,138 sq mi)[1] with an overall population of 1,465,554[2] Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian is the third largest of the seven decentralized administrations both in area and population, and it is the only one that covers three Regions. In the revised European NUTS nomenclature, the regions of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian together with the two regions of the Decentralized Administration of Thessaly and Central Greece form the first level NUTS region EL6 (Kentriki Ellada).
|
Animism. Animism (from Latin: anima meaning breath, spirit, life)[1][2] is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence.[3][4][5][6] Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in some cases words—as being animated, having agency and free will.[7] Animism is used in anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous peoples[8] in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions.[9] Animism is a metaphysical belief which focuses on the supernatural universe: specifically, on the concept of the immaterial soul.[10] Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples spiritual or supernatural perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to animism (or even religion).[11] The term animism is an anthropological construct. Largely due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinions differ on whether animism refers to an ancestral mode of experience common to indigenous peoples around the world or to a full-fledged religion in its own right. The currently accepted definition of animism was developed only in the late 19th century (1871) by Edward Tylor. It is one of anthropologys earliest concepts, if not the first.[12] Animism encompasses beliefs that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no categorical distinction between the spiritual and physical world, and that soul, spirit, or sentience exists not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features (such as mountains and rivers), and other entities of the natural environment. Examples include water sprites, vegetation deities, and tree spirits, among others. Animism may further attribute a life force to abstract concepts such as words, true names, or metaphors in mythology. Some members of the non-tribal world also consider themselves animists, such as author Daniel Quinn, sculptor Lawson Oyekan, and many contemporary Pagans.[13] English anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor initially wanted to describe the phenomenon as spiritualism, but he realized that it would cause confusion with the modern religion of spiritualism, which was then prevalent across Western nations.[14] He adopted the term animism from the writings of German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl,[15] who had developed the term animismus in 1708 as a biological theory that souls formed the vital principle, and that the normal phenomena of life and the abnormal phenomena of disease could be traced to spiritual causes.[16]
|
Hokusai quadrangle. The Hokusai quadrangle (H-5) is one of fifteen quadrangles on the planet Mercury. It runs from 360 to 270° longitude and 20 to 70° latitude. Named after the Hokusai crater, it was mapped in detail for the first time after MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury in 2011. It had not been mapped prior to that point because it was one of the six quadrangles that was not illuminated when Mariner 10 made its flybys in 1974 and 1975. These six quadrangles continued to be known by their albedo feature names, with this one known as the Apollonia quadrangle.[1][2] Prominent features within Hokusai quadrangle, other than Hokusai itself, include the large peak ring crater Rachmaninoff and the somewhat smaller crater Rustaveli. Two faculae, or bright areas, are north of Rachmaninoff. One is the prominent Nathair Facula and the other is the subdued Neidr Facula. These are thought to be volcanic vents.[3] A similar (unnamed) feature without bright coloration is northeast of the crater Hodgkins, informally named the butterfly vent.[4] Much of the quadrangle is covered by the smooth plains of the Borealis Planitia. The Borealis quadrangle is north of Hokusai quadrangle. To the west is Victoria quadrangle, and to the east is Raditladi quadrangle. To the south is Derain quadrangle, and to the southeast is Eminescu quadrangle.
|
Shield volcano. A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava erupted from a stratovolcano. Repeated eruptions result in the steady accumulation of broad sheets of lava, building up the shield volcanos distinctive form. Shield volcanoes are found wherever fluid, low-silica lava reaches the surface of a rocky planet. However, they are most characteristic of ocean island volcanism associated with hot spots or with continental rift volcanism.[1] They include the largest active volcanoes on Earth, such as Mauna Loa. Giant shield volcanoes are found on other planets of the Solar System, including Olympus Mons on Mars[2] and Sapas Mons on Venus.[3] The term shield volcano is taken from the German term Schildvulkan, coined by the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess in 1888 and which had been calqued into English by 1910.[4][5] Shield volcanoes are distinguished from the three other major volcanic types—stratovolcanoes, lava domes, and cinder cones—by their structural form, a consequence of their particular magmatic composition. Of these four forms, shield volcanoes erupt the least viscous lavas. Whereas stratovolcanoes and lava domes are the product of highly viscous flows, and cinder cones are constructed of explosively eruptive tephra, shield volcanoes are the product of gentle effusive eruptions of highly fluid lavas that produce, over time, a broad, gently sloped eponymous shield.[6][7] Although the term is generally applied to basaltic shields, it has also at times been applied to rarer scutiform volcanoes of differing magmatic composition—principally pyroclastic shields, formed by the accumulation of fragmentary material from particularly powerful explosive eruptions, and rarer felsic lava shields formed by unusually fluid felsic magmas. Examples of pyroclastic shields include Billy Mitchell volcano in Papua New Guinea and the Purico complex in Chile;[8][9] an example of a felsic shield is the Ilgachuz Range in British Columbia, Canada.[10] Shield volcanoes are similar in origin to vast lava plateaus and flood basalts present in various parts of the world. These are eruptive features which occur along linear fissure vents and are distinguished from shield volcanoes by the lack of an identifiable primary eruptive center.[6] Active shield volcanoes experience near-continuous eruptive activity over extremely long periods of time, resulting in the gradual build-up of edifices that can reach extremely large dimensions.[7] With the exclusion of flood basalts, mature shields are the largest volcanic features on Earth.[11] The summit of the largest subaerial volcano in the world, Mauna Loa, lies 4,169 m (13,678 ft) above sea level, and the volcano, over 60 mi (100 km) wide at its base, is estimated to contain about 80,000 km3 (19,000 cu mi) of basalt.[12][7] The mass of the volcano is so great that it has slumped the crust beneath it a further 8 km (5 mi).[13] Accounting for this subsidence and for the height of the volcano above the sea floor, the true height of Mauna Loa from the start of its eruptive history is about 17,170 m (56,000 ft).[14] Mount Everest, by comparison, is 8,848 m (29,029 ft) in height.[15] In 2013, a team led by the University of Houstons William Sager announced the discovery of Tamu Massif, an enormous extinct submarine volcano, approximately 450 by 650 km (280 by 400 mi) in area, which dwarfs all previously known volcanoes on Earth. However, the extents of the volcano have not been confirmed.[16] Although Tamu Massif was initially believed to be a shield volcano, Sanger and his colleagues acknowledged in 2019 that Tamu Massif is not a shield volcano.[17]
|
Radar. Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (ranging), direction (azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method[1] used to detect and track aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for radio detection and ranging.[2][3][4][5][6] The term radar has since entered English and other languages as an anacronym, a common noun, losing all capitalization. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwave domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna (often the same antenna is used for transmitting and receiving) and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the objects. Radio waves (pulsed or continuous) from the transmitter reflect off the objects and return to the receiver, giving information about the objects locations and speeds. This device was developed secretly for military use by several countries in the period before and during World War II. A key development was the cavity magnetron in the United Kingdom, which allowed the creation of relatively small systems with sub-meter resolution. The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including air and terrestrial traffic control, radar astronomy, air-defense systems, anti-missile systems, marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships, aircraft anti-collision systems, ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems, meteorological precipitation monitoring, radar remote sensing, altimetry and flight control systems, guided missile target locating systems, self-driving cars, and ground-penetrating radar for geological observations. Modern high tech radar systems use digital signal processing and machine learning and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels. Other systems which are similar to radar make use of other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. One example is lidar, which uses predominantly infrared light from lasers rather than radio waves. With the emergence of driverless vehicles, radar is expected to assist the automated platform to monitor its environment, thus preventing unwanted incidents.[7]
|
Provinces of Japan. Provinces of Japan (令制国, Ryōseikoku) were first-level administrative divisions of Japan from the 600s to 1868. Provinces were established in Japan in the late 7th century under the Ritsuryō law system that formed the first central government. Each province was divided into districts (郡, gun) and grouped into one of the geographic regions or circuits known as the Gokishichidō (Five Home Provinces and Seven Circuits). Provincial borders often changed until the end of the Nara period (710 to 794), but remained unchanged from the Heian period (794 to 1185) until the Edo period (1603 to 1868). The provinces coexisted with the han (domain) system, the personal estates of feudal lords and warriors, and became secondary to the domains in the late Muromachi period (1336 to 1573). The Provinces of Japan were replaced with the current prefecture system in the Fuhanken sanchisei during the Meiji Restoration from 1868 to 1871, except for Hokkaido, which was divided into provinces from 1869 to 1882. No order has ever been issued explicitly abolishing the provinces, but they are considered obsolete as administrative units. The provinces are still used in general conversation, especially in navigation and transportation, and referenced in products and geographical features of the prefectures covering their former territories. The provinces were originally established by the Ritsuryō reforms as both administrative units and geographic regions. From the late Muromachi period, however, they were gradually supplanted by the domains of the sengoku daimyō. Under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi during Azuchi–Momoyama period, the provinces were supplemented as primary local administrative units. The local daimyōs fiefs were developed.[clarification needed][1] In the Edo period, the fiefs became known as han. Imperial provinces and shogunal domains made up complementary systems. For example, when the shōgun ordered a daimyō to make a census or to make maps, the work was organized in terms of the boundaries of the provincial kuni.[2]
|
Corfu (regional unit). Corfu (Greek: Περιφερειακή ενότητα Κερκύρας) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of the Ionian Islands. The capital of the regional unit is the town of Corfu. The regional unit consists of the islands of Corfu, Paxoi, Othonoi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki and several smaller islands, all in the Ionian Sea. Since 2019, the regional unit Corfu is subdivided into 4 municipalities:[2][3] As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Corfu was created out of the former prefecture Corfu (Greek: Νομός Κερκύρας).[4] The prefecture, created in 1864, had the same territory as the present regional unit. The provinces were:
|
Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC), commonly called the Goldstone Observatory, is a satellite ground station located in Fort Irwin[1] in the U.S. state of California. Operated by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), its main purpose is to track and communicate with interplanetary space missions. It is named after Goldstone, California, a nearby gold-mining ghost town.[4] The station is one of three[5] satellite communication stations in the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program’s Deep Space Network (DSN), whose mission is to provide the vital two-way communications link that tracks and controls interplanetary spacecraft and receives the images and scientific information they collect. The others are the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia. These three stations are located at separations of approximately 120° longitude so that as the Earth rotates a spacecraft will always be in sight of at least one station.[6] The complex includes the Pioneer Deep Space Station (aka DSS 11), which is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Five large parabolic (dish) antennas are located at the Goldstone site to handle the workload, since at any given time the DSN is responsible for maintaining communication with up to 30 spacecraft. The antennas function similarly to a home satellite dish. However, since the spacecraft they communicate with are much farther away than the communication satellites which home satellite dishes use, the signals received are much weaker, requiring a larger aperture antenna to gather enough radio energy to make them intelligible. The largest, a 70-meter (230 ft) Cassegrain antenna, is used for communication with space missions to the outer planets, such as the Voyager spacecraft, which, at 21.5 billion kilometers, is the most distant manmade object from Earth. The radio frequencies used for spacecraft communication are in the microwave part of the radio spectrum; S band (2.29–2.30 GHz), X band (8.40–8.50 GHz) and Ka band (31.8–32.3 GHz). In addition to receiving radio signals from the spacecraft (downlink signals), the antennas also transmit commands to the spacecraft (uplink signals) with high power radio transmitters (80 kW)[7] powered by klystron tubes.
|
Musashi Province. Musashi Province (武蔵国, Musashi no Kuni; Japanese pronunciation: [mɯꜜ.sa.ɕi (no kɯ.ɲi)][1]) was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture.[2] It was sometimes called Bushū (武州). The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, Shimōsa, and Shimotsuke Provinces. Musashi was the largest province in the Kantō region. Musashi had its ancient capital in modern Fuchū, Tokyo, and its provincial temple in what is now Kokubunji, Tokyo. By the Sengoku period, the main city was Edo, which became the dominant city of eastern Japan. Edo Castle was the headquarters of Tokugawa Ieyasu[3] before the Battle of Sekigahara and became the dominant city of Japan during the Edo period, being renamed Tokyo during the Meiji Restoration. Hikawa-jinja was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) of the province; [4] and there are many branch shrines.[5] The former province gave its name to the battleship Musashi of the Second World War.
|
Hokusai. Katsushika Hokusai[a] (葛飾 北斎; c. 31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849), known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker.[2] His woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji includes the iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai was instrumental in developing ukiyo-e from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals. His works had a significant influence on Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet during the wave of Japonisme that spread across Europe in the late 19th century. Hokusai created the monumental Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji as a response to a domestic travel boom in Japan and as part of a personal interest in Mount Fuji.[3] It was this series, specifically, The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured his fame both in Japan and overseas.[4] Hokusai was best known for his woodblock ukiyo-e prints, but he worked in a variety of mediums including painting and book illustration. Starting as a young child, he continued working and improving his style until his death, aged 88. In a long and successful career, Hokusai produced over 30,000 paintings, sketches, woodblock prints, and images for picture books. Innovative in his compositions and exceptional in his drawing technique, Hokusai is considered one of the greatest masters in the history of art. Hokusais date of birth is unclear, but is often stated as the 23rd day of the 9th month of the 10th year of the Hōreki era (in the old calendar, or 31 October 1760) to an artisan family, in the Katsushika[ja] district of Edo, the capital of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate (currently Katsushika-ku, Tokyo).[5] His childhood name was Tokitarō.[6] It is believed his father was Nakajima Ise, a mirror-maker for the shōgun.[6] His father never made Hokusai an heir, so it is possible that his mother was a concubine.[5] Hokusai began painting around the age of six, perhaps learning from his father, whose work included the painting of designs around mirrors.[5]
|
Shinto. Shinto (神道, Shintō; Japanese pronunciation: [ɕiꜜn.toː][2]), also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japans indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners Shintoists, although adherents rarely use that term themselves. With no central authority in control of Shinto, there is much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners. A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the kami (神). The kami are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations. The kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as kannushi, who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific kami enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and kami and to solicit the latters blessing. Other common rituals include the kagura dances, rites of passage, and kami festivals. Public shrines facilitate forms of divination and supply religious objects, such as amulets, to the religions adherents. Shinto places a major conceptual focus on ensuring purity, largely by cleaning practices such as ritual washing and bathing, especially before worship. Little emphasis is placed on specific moral codes or particular afterlife beliefs, although the dead are deemed capable of becoming kami. The religion has no single creator or specific doctrine, and instead exists in a diverse range of local and regional forms. Although historians debate at what point it is suitable to refer to Shinto as a distinct religion, kami veneration has been traced back to Japans Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD). Buddhism entered Japan at the end of the Kofun period (300 to 538 AD) and spread rapidly. Religious syncretization made kami worship and Buddhism functionally inseparable, a process called shinbutsu-shūgō. The kami came to be viewed as part of Buddhist cosmology and were increasingly depicted anthropomorphically. The earliest written tradition regarding kami worship was recorded in the 8th-century Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. In ensuing centuries, shinbutsu-shūgō was adopted by Japans Imperial household. During the Meiji era (1868 to 1912), Japans nationalist leadership expelled Buddhist influence from kami worship and formed State Shinto, which some historians regard as the origin of Shinto as a distinct religion. Shrines came under growing government influence, and citizens were encouraged to worship the emperor as a kami. With the formation of the Empire of Japan in the early 20th century, Shinto was exported to other areas of East Asia. Following Japans defeat in World War II, Shinto was formally separated from the state. Shinto is primarily found in Japan, where there are around 100,000 public shrines, although practitioners are also found abroad. Numerically, it is Japans largest religion, the second being Buddhism. Most of the countrys population takes part in both Shinto and Buddhist activities, especially festivals, reflecting a common view in Japanese culture that the beliefs and practices of different religions need not be exclusive. Aspects of Shinto have been incorporated into various Japanese new religious movements.
|
Corfu (city). Corfu (/kɔːrˈf(j)uː/, also US: /ˈkɔːrf(j)uː/) or Kerkyra (Greek: Κέρκυρα, romanized: Kérkyra, pronounced [ˈcercira] ⓘ; Ancient Greek: Κόρκυρα, romanized: Kórkyra, pronounced [kórkyra]; Medieval Greek: Κορυφώ, romanized: Koryfó; Italian: Corfù; Latin: Corcyra) is a city and a former municipality on the island of Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2019 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Central Corfu and Diapontian Islands.[2] It is the capital of the municipality and of the Corfu regional unit. The city also serves as a capital for the region of the Ionian Islands. The city (population in 2021: 40,047 residents and the whole island about 100,000) is a major tourist attraction and Greek regional centre and has played an important role in Greek history since antiquity. The ancient city of Corfu, known as Korkyra, took part in the Battle of Sybota which was a catalyst for the Peloponnesian War, and, according to Thucydides, the largest naval battle between Greek city states until that time. Thucydides also reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth-century-BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth.[3] Medieval castles punctuating strategic locations across the city are a legacy of struggles in the Middle Ages against invasions by pirates and the Ottomans. The city has become known since the Middle Ages as Kastropolis (Castle City) because of its two castles.[4] From 1386 to 1797, Corfu was ruled by Venetian nobility; much of the city reflects this era when the island belonged to the Republic of Venice, with multi-storied buildings on narrow lanes. The Old Town of Corfu has clear Venetian influence.[5] The city was subjected to four notable sieges in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716, in which the strength of the city defenses asserted itself time after time, mainly because of the effectiveness of the powerful Venetian fortifications. Writer Will Durant claimed that Corfu owed to the Republic of Venice the fact that it was the only part of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans.[6] In 2007, the old town of the city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.[7][8][9] The municipal unit of Corfu city has a land area of 41.905 km2 (16.180 sq mi)[10] and a total population of 40,047 inhabitants. Besides the city of Corfu/Kérkyra, its largest other towns are Kanáli (population 4,786), Potamós (3,840), Kontókali (1,660), Alepoú (3,149), and Gouviá (838). In the city of Corfu, the ruins of the ancient city of Korkyra, also known as Palaiopolis, include ancient temples which were excavated at the location of the palace of Mon Repos, which was built on the ruins of the Palaiopolis. The temples are: Kardaki Temple, Temple of Artemis, and the Temple of Hera. Heras temple is situated at the western limits of Mon Repos, close to Kardaki Temple and to the northwest.[11] It is approximately 700 m. to the southeast of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu.[11] Heras Temple was built at the top of Analipsis Hill, and, because of its prominent location, it was highly visible to ships passing close to the waterfront of ancient Korkyra.[11]
|
De facto. De facto (/deɪ ˈfæktoʊ, di -, də -/, day FAK-toh, dee -, də -;[1] Latin: [deː ˈfaktoː] ⓘ; lit. from fact) describes practices that exist in reality, regardless of whether they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms.[2][3] It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with de jure (from law). This distinction is highly significant in fields like law and governance. The term de facto is used to describe concepts that have, or could have, both a declared official form as well as an unofficial functioning form. For example, a de facto government holds power without legal recognition, while a de jure government may have formal legal authority but lack any real power. In jurisprudence, a de facto law (also known as a de facto regulation) is a law or regulation that is followed but is not specifically enumerated by a law.[4] By definition, de facto contrasts de jure which means as defined by law or as a matter of law.[5][6] For example, if a particular law exists in one jurisdiction, but is followed in another where it has no legal effect (such as in another country), then the law could be considered a de facto regulation (a de facto regulation is not an officially prescribed legal classification for a type of law in a particular jurisdiction, rather, it is a concept about law(s).[7][8][5] A de facto regulation may be followed by an organization as a result of the market size of the jurisdiction imposing the regulation as a proportion of the overall market; wherein the market share is so large that it results in the organization choosing to comply by implementing one standard of business with respect to the given de facto law instead of altering standards between different jurisdictions and markets (e.g. data protection, manufacturing, etc.).[9][10][11][12] The decision to voluntarily comply may be the result of: a desire to simplify manufacturing processes & cost-effectiveness (such as adopting a one size fits all approach), consumer demand & expectation, or other factors known only to the complier.[example needed]
|
Austria. Austria,[e] formally the Republic of Austria,[f] is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps.[15] It is a federation of nine states, of which the capital Vienna is the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of around 9 million.[10] The area of todays Austria has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic period. Around 400 BC, it was inhabited by the Celts and then annexed by the Romans in the late 1st century BC. Christianization in the region began in the 4th and 5th centuries, during the late Roman period, followed by the arrival of numerous Germanic tribes during the Migration Period.[16] Austria, as a unified state, emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium, first as a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, it then developed into a Duchy in 1156, and was made an Archduchy in 1453. Being the heartland of the Habsburg monarchy since the late 13th century, Austria was a major imperial power in Central Europe for centuries and from the 16th century, Vienna also served as the Holy Roman Empires administrative capital.[17] Before the dissolution of the empire two years later, in 1804, Austria established its own empire, which became a great power and one of the largest states in Europe. The empires defeat in wars and the loss of territories in the 1860s paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867.[18] After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia, which rapidly escalated into World War I. The empires defeat and subsequent collapse led to the proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and the First Austrian Republic in 1919. During the interwar period, anti-parliamentarian sentiments culminated in the formation of an Austrofascist dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. A year before the outbreak of World War II, Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler, and it became a sub-national division. After its liberation in 1945 and a decade of Allied occupation, the country regained its sovereignty and declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955.
|
Geographical renaming. Geographical renaming is the changing of the name of a geographical feature or area, which ranges from the change of a street name to a change to the name of a country. Places are also sometimes assigned dual names for various reasons. A change might see a completely different name being adopted or may only be a slight change in spelling. Some names are changed locally but the new names are not recognised by other countries, especially when there is a difference in language. Other names may not be officially recognised but remain in common use. Many places have different names in different languages, and a change of language in official or general use has often resulted in what is arguably a change of name. There are many reasons to undertake renaming, with political motivation being the primary cause; for example many places in the former Soviet Union and its satellites were renamed to honour Stalin. Sometimes a place reverts to its former name (see, for example, de-Stalinization).[citation needed] One of the most common reasons for a country changing its name is newly acquired national independence. When borders are changed, sometimes due to a country splitting or two countries joining, the names of the relevant areas can change. This, however, is more the creation of a different entity than an act of geographical renaming.[citation needed] Place names may revert to an earlier name; for instance in Australia, pre-colonial names established thousands of years ago by Aboriginal peoples have been reclaimed as official names. Examples include Kgari (formerly Fraser Island and various other names since settlement), and Uluru / Ayers Rock, where a dual naming strategy was adopted but it is now commonly known as Uluru.[1] Other more unusual reasons for renaming have included getting rid of an inappropriate or embarrassing name, or as part of a sponsorship deal or publicity stunt.[2]
|
Feudalism. Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944),[1] describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility and revolved around the key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs.[1] A broader definition, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry, all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a feudal society. Although it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief),[2] which was used during the medieval period, the term feudalism and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people who lived during the Middle Ages.[3] Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Browns The Tyranny of a Construct (1974) and Susan Reynoldss Fiefs and Vassals (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society.[10] The adjective feudal was in use by at least 1405, and the noun feudalism was in use by the end of the 18th century,[4] paralleling the French féodalité.
|
Calque. In linguistics, a calque (/kælk/) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, to calque means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components, so as to create a new word or phrase (lexeme) in the target language. For instance, the English word skyscraper has been calqued in dozens of other languages,[1] combining words for sky and scrape in each language, as for example skyskrapa in Swedish, Wolkenkratzer in German, arranha-céu in Portuguese, wolkenkrabber in Dutch, rascacielos in Spanish, grattacielo in Italian, gökdelen in Turkish, небоскреб in Russian, and matenrō (摩天楼) in Japanese. Calques, like direct borrowings, often function as linguistic gap-fillers, emerging when a language lacks existing vocabulary to express new ideas, technologies, or objects. This phenomenon is widespread and is often attributed to the shared conceptual frameworks across human languages. Speakers of different languages tend to perceive the world through common categories such as time, space, and quantity, making the translation of concepts across languages both possible and natural.[2] Calquing is distinct from phono-semantic matching: while calquing includes semantic translation, it does not consist of phonetic matching—i.e., of retaining the approximate sound of the borrowed word by matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existing word or morpheme in the target language.[3] Proving that a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than does an untranslated loanword because, in some cases, a similar phrase might have arisen in both languages independently. This is less likely to be the case when the grammar of the proposed calque is quite different from that of the borrowing language, or when the calque contains less obvious imagery. One system classifies calques into five groups. This terminology is not universal:[4]
|
Regional units of Greece. The 74 regional units of Greece (Greek: περιφερειακές ενότητες, sing. περιφερειακή ενότητα, romanized: perifereiakés enótites, sing. perifereiakí enótita) are the countrys third-level administrative units (counting decentralized administrations as first-level). They are subdivisions of the countrys 13 regions, and are further divided into municipalities. They were introduced as part of the Kallikratis administrative reform on 1 January 2011 and are comparable in area and, on the mainland, coterminous with the pre-Kallikratis prefectures of Greece.[1]
|
Ionia. Ionia (/aɪˈoʊniə/ eye-OH-nee-ə)[1] was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements.[citation needed] Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who had settled in the region before the archaic period.[citation needed] Ionia proper comprised a narrow coastal strip from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus (now the Gediz), to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and included the islands of Chios and Samos. It was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. The cities within the region figured significantly in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks. Ionian cities were identified by mythic traditions of kinship and by their use of the Ionic dialect, but there was a core group of twelve Ionian cities that formed the Ionian League and had a shared sanctuary and festival at Panionion. These twelve cities were (from south to north): Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Erythrae, Clazomenae and Phocaea, together with the islands of Samos and Chios.[2] Smyrna, originally an Aeolic colony, was afterwards occupied by Ionians from Colophon, and became an Ionian city.[3][4] The Ionian school of philosophy, centered on 6th century BC Miletus, was characterized by a focus on non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and a search for rational explanations of the universe, thereby laying the foundation for scientific inquiry and rational thought in Western philosophy.
|
Legal translation. Legal translation is the translation of language used in legal settings and for legal purposes. Legal translation may also imply that it is a specific type of translation only used in law, which is not always the case. As law is a culture-dependent subject field, legal translation is not necessarily linguistically transparent. Intransparency in translation can be avoided somewhat by use of Latin legal terminology, where possible, but in non-western languages debates are centered on the origins and precedents of specific terms, such as in the use of particular Chinese characters in Japanese legal discussions.[1] Intransparency can lead to expensive misunderstandings in terms of a contract, for example, resulting in avoidable lawsuits. Legal translation is thus usually done by specialized law translators. Conflicts over the legal impact of a translation can be avoided by indicating that the text is authentic i.e. legally operative on its own terms or instead is merely a convenience translation, which itself is not legally operative. Courts only apply authentic texts and do not rely on convenience translations in adjudicating rights and duties of litigants. Most legal writing is exact and technical, seeking to precisely define legally binding rights and duties. Thus, precise correspondence of these rights and duties in the source text and in the translation is essential. As well as understanding and precisely translating the legal rights and duties established in the translated text, legal translators must also bear in mind the legal system of the source text (ST) and the legal system of the target text (TT) which may differ greatly from each other.[2] This is a challenge because it requires that the translator have substantial legal knowledge as well as the multiple legal systems that can exist in one language.[2] Examples of different legal systems include Anglo-American common law, Islamic law, or customary tribal law for examples. Apart from terminological lacunae (lexical gaps), textual conventions in the source language are often culture-dependent and may not correspond to conventions in the target culture (see e.g. Nielsen 2010). Linguistic structures that are often found in the source language may have no direct equivalent structures in the target language. The translator therefore has to be guided by certain standards of linguistic, social and cultural equivalence between the language used in the source text (ST) to produce a text (TT) in the target language. Those standards correspond to a variety of different principles defined as different approaches to translation in translation theory. Each of the standards sets a certain priority among the elements of ST to be preserved in TT. For example, following the functional approach, translators try to find target language structures with the same functions as those in the source language thus value the functionality of a text fragment in ST more than, say, the meanings of specific words in ST and the order in which they appear there.
|
Mare Orientale. Mare Orientale /ɔːriɛnˈteɪliː/ (Latin orientāle, the eastern sea) is a lunar mare. It is located on the western border of the near side and far side of the Moon,[2] and is difficult to see from an Earthbound perspective. Images from spacecraft have revealed it to be one of the most striking large scale lunar features, resembling a target ring bullseye. During the 1960s, rectified images of Mare Orientale by Gerard Kuiper at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory gave rise to the notion of it being an impact crater.[3][4] The structure, with the flat plain of the mare in the center, is about 900 kilometres (560 mi) across and was formed by the impact of an asteroid-sized object,[5][6] possibly 64 km (40 mi) in diameter and travelling at 15 km/s (9.3 mi/s).[7][8] Compared with most other lunar basins, Mare Orientale is less flooded by mare basalts, so that much of the basin structure is visible. The basalt in the central portion of the Orientale basin is probably less than 1 km (0.62 mi) in thickness which is much less than mare basins on the Earth-facing side of the Moon.[5] The collision caused ripples in the lunar crust, resulting in the three concentric circular features. The innermost rings of this vast, multi-ringed crater are the inner and outer Montes Rook, and the outermost ring are the Montes Cordillera, 930 km (580 mi) in diameter. Outward from here, ejecta extend some 500 km (310 mi) from the foot of the mountains and form a rough surface with hummocks and with features radially aligned towards the center.[5] The Apollo program did not sample rocks from Mare Orientale so its precise age is not known. However, it is the Moons most recent impact basin, probably younger than the Imbrium Basin, which is about 3.85 billion years old,[5] with an estimated age of around 3.7-3.8 billion years.[9] The surrounding basin material is of the Lower Imbrian epoch with the mare material being of the Upper Imbrian epoch.[10][11] Global seismic shaking following the impact that created the basin has been credited with the levelling of almost all slopes steeper than 35° in layers of Imbrian age and older on the Moon.[12] Located at the antipode of Mare Orientale is Mare Marginis.
|
Translation. Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text.[1] The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between translating (a written text) and interpreting (oral or signed communication between users of different languages); under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community. A translator always risks inadvertently introducing source-language words, grammar, or syntax into the target-language rendering. On the other hand, such spill-overs have sometimes imported useful source-language calques and loanwords that have enriched target languages. Translators, including early translators of sacred texts, have helped shape the very languages into which they have translated.[2] Because of the laboriousness of the translation process, since the 1940s efforts have been made, with varying degrees of success, to automate translation or to mechanically aid the human translator.[3] More recently, the rise of the Internet has fostered a world-wide market for translation services and has facilitated language localisation.[4] The word for the concept of translation, in English and some other European languages, stems from the Latin noun translatio,[6] formed from the adverb trans, across, and -latio, derived from latus, the past participle of the verb ferre, to carry or bring. Thus, the Latin noun translatio and its cognate modern derivatives mean the bringing across (i.e., the transferring) of a text from one language to another.[7] In some other European languages, the word for the concept of translation stems from another Latin noun, trāductiō, derived from the verb trādūcō, bring across, formed from the adverb trans, across, and dūcō, to lead or bring.[7]
|
Engelier. Engelier is a 310-mile (500-kilometers) large crater on Saturns moon Iapetus in Saragossa Terra.[4][5] It partially obscures the slightly smaller crater Gerin. This article about an impact crater on a moon of Saturn is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Meteor Crater. Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is an impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite, after the adjacent Canyon Diablo.[2] Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of 5,640 ft (1,719 m) above sea level.[3] It is about 3,900 ft (1,200 m) in diameter, some 560 ft (170 m) deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 148 ft (45 m) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 690–790 ft (210–240 m) of rubble lying above crater bedrock.[1] One of the features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site.[4] Despite an attempt to make the crater a public landmark,[5] the crater remains privately owned by the Barringer family to the present day through their Barringer Crater Company. The Lunar and Planetary Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, and other science institutes proclaim it to be the best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth.[6][7][8] It was designated a National Natural Landmark in November 1967.[9] The crater was created about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch, when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper.[10][11] The area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by mammoths and giant ground sloths.[12][13]
|
Iapetus (moon). Iapetus (/aɪˈæpətəs/) is the outermost of Saturns large moons. With an estimated diameter of 1,469 km (913 mi), it is the third-largest moon of Saturn and the eleventh-largest in the Solar System.[b] Named after the Titan Iapetus, the moon was discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. A relatively low-density body made up mostly of ice, Iapetus is home to several distinctive and unusual features, such as a striking difference in coloration between its leading hemisphere, which is dark, and its trailing hemisphere, which is bright, as well as a massive equatorial ridge running three-quarters of the way around the moon. Iapetus was discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, an Italian-born French astronomer, in October 1671. This is the first moon that Cassini discovered; the second moon of Saturn to be discovered after Christiaan Huygens spotted Titan 16 years prior in 1655; and the sixth extraterrestrial moon to be discovered in human history. Cassini discovered Iapetus when the moon was on the western side of Saturn, but when he tried viewing it on the eastern side some months later, he was unsuccessful. This was also the case the following year, when he was again able to observe it on the western side, but not the eastern side. Cassini finally observed Iapetus on the eastern side in 1705 with the help of an improved telescope, finding it two magnitudes dimmer on that side.[10][11] Cassini correctly surmised that Iapetus has a bright hemisphere and a dark hemisphere, and that it is tidally locked, always keeping the same face towards Saturn. This means that the bright hemisphere is visible from Earth when Iapetus is on the western side of Saturn, and that the dark hemisphere is visible when Iapetus is on the eastern side.[12]
|
Corfu (constituency). The Corfu electoral constituency (Greek: Εκλογική περιφέρεια Κέρκυρας) is a parliamentary constituency of Greece.[1] It elects three MPs to the Hellenic Parliament.[2] This article about politics in Greece is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This Greece-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Regions of Greece (disambiguation). Regions of Greece are the 13 current administrative regions of Greece. Regions of Greece may also refer to:
|
List of adjectivals and demonyms of astronomical bodies. The adjectival forms of the names of astronomical bodies are not always easily predictable. Attested adjectival forms of the larger bodies are listed below, along with the two small Martian moons; in some cases they are accompanied by their demonymic equivalents, which denote hypothetical inhabitants of these bodies. For Classical (Greco-Roman) names, the adjectival and demonym forms normally derive from the oblique stem, which may differ from the nominative form used in English for the noun form. For instance, for a large portion of names ending in -s, the oblique stem and therefore the English adjective changes the -s to a -d, -t, or -r, as in Mars–Martian, Pallas–Palladian and Ceres–Cererian;[note 1] occasionally an -n has been lost historically from the nominative form, and reappears in the oblique and therefore in the English adjective, as in Pluto–Plutonian and Atlas–Atlantean. Many of the more recent or more obscure names are only attested in mythological or literary contexts, rather than in specifically astronomical contexts. Forms ending in -ish or -ine, such as Puckish, are not included below if a derivation in -an is also attested. Rare forms, or forms only attested with spellings not in keeping with the IAU-approved spelling (such as c for k), are shown in italics. The suffix -ian is always unstressed: that is, /iən/. The related ending -ean, from an e in the root plus a suffix -an, has traditionally been stressed (that is, /ˈiːən/) if the e is long ē in Latin (or is from ⟨η⟩ ē in Greek); but if the e is short in Latin, the suffix is pronounced the same as -ian. In practice forms ending in -ean may be pronounced as if they were spelled -ian even if the e is long in Latin. This dichotomy should be familiar from the dual pronunciations of Caribbean as /ˌkærɪˈbiːən/ KARR-ə-BEE-ən and /kəˈrɪbiən/ kə-RIB-i-ən.
|
Epoch (astronomy). In astronomy, an epoch or reference epoch is a moment in time used as a reference point for some time-varying astronomical quantity. It is useful for the celestial coordinates or orbital elements of a celestial body, as they are subject to perturbations and vary with time.[1] These time-varying astronomical quantities might include, for example, the mean longitude or mean anomaly of a body, the node of its orbit relative to a reference plane, the direction of the apogee or aphelion of its orbit, or the size of the major axis of its orbit. The main use of astronomical quantities specified in this way is to calculate other relevant parameters of motion, in order to predict future positions and velocities. The applied tools of the disciplines of celestial mechanics or its subfield orbital mechanics (for predicting orbital paths and positions for bodies in motion under the gravitational effects of other bodies) can be used to generate an ephemeris, a table of values giving the positions and velocities of astronomical objects in the sky at a given time or times. Astronomical quantities can be specified in any of several ways, for example, as a polynomial function of the time interval, with an epoch as a temporal point of origin (this is a common current way of using an epoch). Alternatively, the time-varying astronomical quantity can be expressed as a constant, equal to the measure that it had at the epoch, leaving its variation over time to be specified in some other way—for example, by a table, as was common during the 17th and 18th centuries. The word epoch was often used in a different way in older astronomical literature, e.g. during the 18th century, in connection with astronomical tables. At that time, it was customary to denote as epochs, not the standard date and time of origin for time-varying astronomical quantities, but rather the values at that date and time of those time-varying quantities themselves.[2] In accordance with that alternative historical usage, an expression such as correcting the epochs would refer to the adjustment, usually by a small amount, of the values of the tabulated astronomical quantities applicable to a fixed standard date and time of reference (and not, as might be expected from current usage, to a change from one date and time of reference to a different date and time).
|
Osculating orbit. In astronomy, and in particular in astrodynamics, the osculating orbit of an object in space at a given moment in time is the gravitational Kepler orbit (i.e. an elliptic or other conic one) that it would have around its central body if perturbations were absent.[1] That is, it is the orbit that coincides with the current orbital state vectors (position and velocity). The word osculate is Latin for kiss. In mathematics, two curves osculate when they just touch, without (necessarily) crossing, at a point, where both have the same position and slope, i.e. the two curves kiss. An osculating orbit and the objects position upon it can be fully described by the six standard Kepler orbital elements (osculating elements), which are easy to calculate as long as one knows the objects position and velocity relative to the central body. The osculating elements would remain constant in the absence of perturbations. Real astronomical orbits experience perturbations that cause the osculating elements to evolve, sometimes very quickly. In cases where general celestial mechanical analyses of the motion have been carried out (as they have been for the major planets, the Moon, and other planetary satellites), the orbit can be described by a set of mean elements with secular and periodic terms. In the case of minor planets, a system of proper orbital elements has been devised to enable representation of the most important aspects of their orbits. Perturbations that cause an objects osculating orbit to change can arise from: An objects orbital parameters will be different if they are expressed with respect to a non-inertial reference frame (for example, a frame co-precessing with the primarys equator), than if it is expressed with respect to a (non-rotating) inertial reference frame.
|
Corfu (regional unit). Corfu (Greek: Περιφερειακή ενότητα Κερκύρας) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of the Ionian Islands. The capital of the regional unit is the town of Corfu. The regional unit consists of the islands of Corfu, Paxoi, Othonoi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki and several smaller islands, all in the Ionian Sea. Since 2019, the regional unit Corfu is subdivided into 4 municipalities:[2][3] As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Corfu was created out of the former prefecture Corfu (Greek: Νομός Κερκύρας).[4] The prefecture, created in 1864, had the same territory as the present regional unit. The provinces were:
|
False color. False colors and pseudo colors respectively refers to a group of color rendering methods used to display images in colors which were recorded in the visible or non-visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. A false-color image is an image that depicts an object in colors that differ from those a photograph (a true-color image) would show. In this image, colors have been assigned to three different wavelengths that human eyes cannot normally see. In addition, variants of false colors such as pseudocolors, density slicing, and choropleths are used for information visualization of either data gathered by a single grayscale channel or data not depicting parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. elevation in relief maps or tissue types in magnetic resonance imaging). The concept behind true color can help in understanding false color. An image is called a true-color image when it offers a natural color rendition, or when it comes close to it. This means that the colors of an object in an image appear to a human observer the same way as if this same observer were to directly view the object: A green tree appears green in the image, a red apple red, a blue sky blue, and so on.[1] Absolute true-color rendering is impossible.[3] There are three major sources of color error (metameric failure):
|
Attica (region). Attica (/ˈætɪkə/ AT-ih-kə; Greek: Περιφέρεια Αττικής, romanized: Periféria Attikís, [periˈferi.a atiˈcis]) is an administrative region of Greece that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, the core city of which is the countrys capital and largest city, Athens. The region is coextensive with the former Attica Prefecture of Central Greece and covers a greater area than the historical region of Attica. Located on the eastern edge of Central Greece, Attica covers about 3,808 square kilometres. In addition to Athens, it contains within its area the cities of Elefsina, Megara, Laurium, and Marathon, as well as a small part of the Peloponnese peninsula and the islands of Salamis, Aegina, Angistri, Poros, Hydra, Spetses, Kythira, and Antikythera. About 3,790,000 people live in the region, of whom more than 95% are inhabitants of the Athens metropolitan area. In 2019, Attica had the HDI of 0.912, the highest in Greece.[citation needed] The region was established in the 1987 administrative reform, and until 2010 it comprised the 4 prefectures of Athens, East Attica, Piraeus and West Attica. With the 2010 Kallikratis plan, the regions powers and authority were completely redefined and extended. Since 1 January 2011, the region represents the second-level local administration. While being supervised by the Decentralized Administration of Attica, it is now an independent self-governing body with powers and a budget comparable to the former prefectures. The region is subdivided into eight subordinate regional units:[4]
|
Translation. Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text.[1] The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between translating (a written text) and interpreting (oral or signed communication between users of different languages); under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community. A translator always risks inadvertently introducing source-language words, grammar, or syntax into the target-language rendering. On the other hand, such spill-overs have sometimes imported useful source-language calques and loanwords that have enriched target languages. Translators, including early translators of sacred texts, have helped shape the very languages into which they have translated.[2] Because of the laboriousness of the translation process, since the 1940s efforts have been made, with varying degrees of success, to automate translation or to mechanically aid the human translator.[3] More recently, the rise of the Internet has fostered a world-wide market for translation services and has facilitated language localisation.[4] The word for the concept of translation, in English and some other European languages, stems from the Latin noun translatio,[6] formed from the adverb trans, across, and -latio, derived from latus, the past participle of the verb ferre, to carry or bring. Thus, the Latin noun translatio and its cognate modern derivatives mean the bringing across (i.e., the transferring) of a text from one language to another.[7] In some other European languages, the word for the concept of translation stems from another Latin noun, trāductiō, derived from the verb trādūcō, bring across, formed from the adverb trans, across, and dūcō, to lead or bring.[7]
|
Central Macedonia. Central Macedonia (/ˌmæsəˈdoʊniə/ MASS-ə-DOH-nee-ə; Greek: Κεντρική Μακεδονία, romanized: Kentrikí Makedonía, IPA: [ce(n)driˈci maceðoˈni.a]) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, consisting the central part of the geographical and historical region of Macedonia. With a population of almost 1.8 million, it is the second most populous region in Greece after Attica. The region of Central Macedonia is situated in Northern Greece, bordering the regions of Western Macedonia (west), Thessaly (south), Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (east), and bounded to the north at the international borders of Greece by the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria. The southern part is coastal and is bathed by the Thermaic, Toroneos, Singitic and Strymonic gulfs. The largest city and capital of the region is Thessaloniki. Serres is the second most populous city, followed by Katerini, Veria and Giannitsa. Central Macedonia is basically lowland and, with many rivers, is highly developed, both in the primary and the secondary sectors. The largest plain in Greece is situated in Central Macedonia. Thessaloniki, the metropolis of Macedonia, is Greeces second largest city. The highest mountains of the region of Central Macedonia are Mount Olympus (2,918 m.), Voras Mountains (2,524 m.), Pierian Mountains (2,193 m.), Vermio Mountains (2,065 m.) and Mount Athos (2,033 m.). The largest rivers are the Haliacmon, the Axios, the Loudias and the Gallikos (Echedoros), which all flow into the Thermaic Gulf, creating the Axios-Loudias-Aliakmonas National Park.[4] Koroneia, Volvi, Doiran and Kerkini lakes are situated in Central Macedonia. The coasts are continuous, smooth, sandy and suitable for swimming (except the estuaries and the shores of the urban complex of Thessaloniki). The region was established in the 1987 administrative reform as the Central Macedonia Region (Greek: Περιφέρεια Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, romanized: Periféria Kentrikís Makedonías). With the 2010 Kallikratis plan, its powers and authority were redefined and extended. Along with Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, it is supervised by the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace, based in Thessaloniki. The region is based at its capital city of Thessaloniki and is divided into seven regional units (pre-Kallikratis prefectures), Chalkidiki, Imathia, Kilkis, Pella, Pieria, Serres and Thessaloniki. These are further subdivided into 38 municipalities. Although geographically part of Central Macedonia, Mount Athos is not administratively part of the region, but an autonomous self-governing state under the sovereignty of Greece. The region has shrunk by 90,039 people between 2011 and 2021, experiencing a population loss of 4.8%.[1][5]
|
The Great Wave (book). Business cycles -- History. The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History is a scholarly work by historian David Hackett Fischer, published in 1996 by Oxford University Press. Hackett Fischer identified three complete monetary waves in European history, each consisting of a price revolution, featuring high inflation, followed by a war crisis, followed by a new equilibrium.[1]p4 A fourth wave began, says Fischer, with the persistent monetary inflation of the 20th century.p182 Fischer says this began with the medieval price revolution, 1180-1350. There followed crisis in the 14th and 15th centuries, featuring the Black Death and Hundred Years War. Then equilibrium during the early Renaissance, 1400-1470.p36-60
|
Planetary symbols. Planetary symbols are used in astrology and traditionally in astronomy to represent a classical planet (which includes the Sun and the Moon) or one of the modern planets. The classical symbols were also used in alchemy for the seven metals known to the ancients, which were associated with the planets, and in calendars for the seven days of the week associated with the seven planets. The original symbols date to Greco-Roman astronomy; their modern forms developed in the 16th century, and additional symbols would be created later for newly discovered planets. The seven classical planets, their symbols, days and most commonly associated planetary metals are: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) discourages the use of these symbols in modern journal articles, and their style manual proposes one- and two-letter abbreviations for the names of the planets for cases where planetary symbols might be used, such as in the headings of tables.[1] The modern planets with their traditional symbols and IAU abbreviations are: The symbols of Venus and Mars are also used to represent female and male in biology following a convention introduced by Carl Linnaeus in the 1750s. The origins of the planetary symbols can be found in the attributes given to classical deities. The Roman planisphere of Bianchini (2nd century, currently in the Louvre, inv. Ma 540)[2] shows the seven planets represented by portraits of the seven corresponding gods, each a bust with a halo and an iconic object or dress, as follows: Mercury has a caduceus and a winged cap; Venus has a necklace and a shining mirror; Mars has a war-helmet and a spear; Jupiter has a laurel crown and a staff; Saturn has a conical headdress and a scythe; the Sun has rays emanating from his head; and the Moon has a crescent atop her head.
|
Politics of Greece. Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament. Between the restoration of democracy in 1974 and the Greek government-debt crisis, the party system was dominated by the liberal-conservative New Democracy and the social-democratic PASOK. Since 2012, the anti-austerity, democratic socialist party Syriza has taken the place of PASOK as the largest left wing party, with their first election victory in January 2015. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Constitution of Greece, which describes Greece as a presidential parliamentary republic, includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in a president elected by parliament. The Greek governmental structure is similar to that found in many other Western democracies, and has been described as a compromise between the French and German models. The prime minister and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the president performs some executive and legislative functions in addition to ceremonial duties. Voting in Greece is officially compulsory, but this is not enforced.[1]
|
Nishimura Yohachi. Nishimuraya Yohachi (dates unknown)[1] was one of the leading publishers of woodblock prints in late 18th-century Japan.[2] He founded the Nishimuraya Yohachi publishing house, also known as Nishiyo (西与),[3] which operated in Nihonbashis Bakurochō Nichōme under the shop name Eijudō. The firms exact dates are unclear, but many art historians date its activity to between c. 1751 and 1860.[4][5] According to Andreas Marks, Nishimuraya is one of the most important publishers in the history of prints and may be the publisher with the biggest output over time, attributing his success to engaging the best artists and providing a broad range of prints to satisfy the publics interest.[6] One of the press most significant products was Hokusais famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which appeared between c. 1830 and 1833[7] and the first two volumes of his exquisite 100 Views of Mount Fuji ehon in 1834 and 1835.[8] Nishimuraya Yohachi also published prints by Eishi, Kuniyasu, Toyokuni I and Kunisada.[9] Nishimuraya is immortalized in the 1787 print Eijudō Hibino at Seventy-one by Utagawa Toyokuni I.[10] He is known to have been a member of the Fuji-kō, an Edo period cult centred around Mount Fuji.[11] Founded by an ascetic named Hasegawa Kakugyō (1541–1646),[12] the cult venerated the mountain as a female deity, and encouraged its members to climb it.[13] In doing so they would be reborn, purified and... able to find happiness.[14] The cult waned in the Meiji period and although it persists to this day it has been subsumed into Shintō sects.[15] The publishers association with the Fuji-kō gives clues not only to imagery in his portrait by Utagawa, but also to his eagerness to participate in the production of Hokusais various works celebrating Mount Fuji.
|
Skipping Girl Vinegar. Skipping Girl Vinegar are a Melbourne-based indie rock band, named after the Audrey the Skipping Girl Vinegar sign, located in Abbotsford, Victoria. Forming in 2004 the quartet wrote and rehearsed solidly before debuting live in 2006.[1] Once playing they soon secured support slots opening for larger acts such as Bob Evans, Shout Out Louds, The Lemonheads and Something For Kate before releasing the single One Chance and its filmclip later in the year.[2] The single received high rotation on Triple J radio,[3] and drew the attention of several major record labels which the band negotiated with before choosing to take their own business Secret Fox to the smaller, independent label Popboomerang with distribution through MGM Records.[4] Skipping Girl Vinegar recorded their debut album Sift the Noise over a 14-month period in living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and studios across Melbourne, as well as a beach shack in Aireys Inlet.[2] Sift the Noise was produced and recorded by Greg Arnold, Brisbane-based producer Caleb James and Mark Lang. The album is notable for its intricate library-book-style packaging. Upon release the album garnered positive reviews.[5][6] Rip It Up magazine in Adelaide and Rave Magazine in Brisbane both made the Sift The Noise single their respective Single of the Week.[7]
|
Monastic community of Mount Athos. The monastic community of Mount Athos is an Eastern Orthodox community of monks living on the Mount Athos peninsula in Northern Greece. The monastic community enjoys autonomous self-government within the borders of the Athos peninsula. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs manages relations between Athos and the Government of Greece. The community includes 20 monasteries and dependent settlements. The monasteries house around 2,000 Eastern Orthodox monks from Greece and many other countries, including Eastern Orthodox countries such as Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Ukraine and Russia, who claim to live an ascetic life at Athos, isolated from the rest of the world. The Athonite monasteries feature a rich collection of well-preserved artifacts, rare books, ancient documents, and artworks of immense historical value, and Mount Athos has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1988.[4] Women are banned from Mount Athos by religious tradition.[5] According to the constitution of Greece, the territory of the monastic community which is [t]he Athos peninsula extending beyond Megali Vigla and constituting the region of Aghion Oros is, following ancient privilege, a self-governed part of the Greek State, whose sovereignty thereon shall remain intact. The constitution also states that [a]ll persons leading a monastic life thereon acquire Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission as novices or monks. The constitution states [h]eterodox or schismatic persons are forbidden to stay on the territory. The community consists of 20 main monasteries which constitute the Holy Community.[6] Karyes is home to a civil administrator as the representative of the Greek state. The governor is an executive appointee. Although Mount Athos is legally part of the European Union like the rest of Greece, the monastic community institutions have a special jurisdiction, which was reaffirmed during the admission of Greece to the European Community (precursor to the European Union).[7] This empowers the monastic communitys authorities to restrict the free movement of people and goods in its territory; in particular, only men are allowed to enter.[8]
|
Great Wave Software. Great Wave Software was an educational computer software company founded in 1984 by Dr. Chad Mitchell and Stacy Mitchell and was located in Scotts Valley, California. It was a division of Instructional Fair Group, which was based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was a Tribune Education company. Products produced by Great Wave included: McGraw-Hill Childrens Publishing (now part of School Specialty Publishing) bought Great Wave Software, and the company no longer exists.[5] All of Great Wave Softwares products are out of print.[6] School Specialty Publishing was later bought by Carson Dellosa publishing, and does not sell any apps for download. There have been no plans to reissue Great Wave Softwares products as apps or to release any educational apps for download.[7] This article about an IT-related or software-related company or corporation is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
|
Canglang Pavilion. The Canglang Pavilion (traditional Chinese: 滄浪亭; simplified Chinese: 沧浪亭; pinyin: Cāng Làng Tíng; Suzhou Wu: Tshaon laon din, Wu Chinese pronunciation: [tsʰɑ̃ lɑ̃ din]), variously translated as the Great Wave Pavilion, Surging Wave Pavilion, or Blue Wave Pavilion, is one of the Classical Gardens of Suzhou that are jointly recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is located at 3 Canglangting Street in Suzhou, Jiangsu China. The Canglang Pavilion was built in 1044 CE by the Song dynasty poet Su Shunqin (1008–1048), on the site of a pre-existing imperial flower garden c 960 CE. It is the oldest of the UNESCO gardens in Suzhou, keeping its original Song dynasty layout.[1] The name is derived from a verse in the poem Fishermen by Qu Yuan (ca. 340 BCE-278 BCE), a poet from the southern state of Chu during the Warring States period, in his book Songs of the South, If the Canglang River is dirty I wash my muddy feet; If the Canglang River is clean I wash my ribbon.[2] This verse alludes to an honest official who removes himself from politics rather than act in a corrupt manner. Su Shunqing choose this to express his feelings after his removal from office. After his death the garden passed through many owners and fell into disuse until 1696 CE when it was restored by Song Luo, the governor of Jiangsu Province. In 1827 ownership was transferred to governor Tao Zhu and again in 1873 ownership was transferred to governor Zhang Shusheng.[2] In 1955 the garden was opened to the public and in 2000 it was added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Monuments. The 1.6 ha garden is divided into two main sections.[1] The garden is sited on a branch of the Fengxi Stream which forms a lotus pond. The garden has 108 windows each one with a unique design.[2] Named after a line by Su Shunqing, Autumn darkens the reddish woods, the sunlight goes through he bamboo elegantly.[2] This irregular building was used as a painting studio.
|
Scotland (disambiguation). Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom that forms the northern third of the island of Great Britain in North-West Europe. Scotland may also refer to:
|
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (disambiguation). Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is a series of woodblock prints by Hokusai. Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji may also refer to:
|
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Japanese: 竹取物語, Hepburn: Taketori Monogatari) is a monogatari (fictional prose narrative) containing elements of Japanese folklore. Written by an unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period, it is considered the oldest surviving work in the monogatari form. The story details the life of Kaguya-hime, a princess from the Moon who is discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. After she grows, her beauty attracts five suitors seeking her hand in marriage, whom she turns away by challenging them each with an impossible task; she later attracts the affection of the Emperor of Japan. At the tales end, Kaguya-hime reveals her celestial origins and returns to the Moon. The story is also known as The Tale of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari), after its protagonist.[1] The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest surviving monogatari, though its exact date of composition is unknown.[2] The oldest surviving manuscript is dated to 1592.[2] A poem in the Yamato Monogatari, a 10th-century work that describes life in the imperial court, invokes the tale in slight reference to a Moon-viewing party held at the palace in 909. A mention of smoke rising from Mount Fuji in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter suggests that the volcano was still active at the time of its composition; the Kokin Wakashū indicates that the mountain had stopped emitting smoke by 905. Other sources suggest the tale was written between 871 and 881.[3] The author of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is also unknown, and scholars have variously attributed the work to Minamoto no Shitagō (911–983), to the Abbot Henjō, to a member of the Inbe clan, to a member of a political faction opposed to Emperor Tenmu, and to the kanshi poet Ki no Haseo (842–912). It is also debated whether the tale was written by one person or a group of people, and whether it was written in kanbun, Japanese kana, or even Chinese.[3]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.