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History of the Jews in New York (state). As of 2020, the Jewish population in New York State was 1,598,000, accounting for 21% of all Jews in the United States.[3] In New York City alone, there are approximately 960,000 Jews, establishing it as the largest Jewish community in the world, surpassing the combined totals of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.[4] Nearly half of the citys Jews live in Brooklyn.[2][1] The first recorded Jewish settler was Jacob Barsimson, who arrived in August 1654 on a passport from the Dutch West India Company.[5] In 2012, the largest Jewish denominations were Orthodox (both Haredi and Modern Orthodox) and Conservative Judaism.[6] Reform Jewish communities are prevalent through the area. Congregation Emanu-El of New York in Manhattan is the largest Reform synagogue in the world. Jews have settled in New York State since the 17th century. In August 1654, the first known Jewish settler, Jacob Barsimson, came to New Amsterdam. The Dutch colonial port city was the seat of the government for the New Netherland territory and became New York City in 1664. The first significant group of Jewish settlers came in September 1654 as refugees from Recife, Brazil to New Amsterdam. Portugal had just conquered Brazil from the Dutch Republic, and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews there promptly fled to New Amsterdam, the precursor to present-day New York City. A group of 23 Jewish immigrants in New Amsterdam was greeted by director general Peter Stuyvesant who was at first unwilling to accept them. The Jewish population in New York City grew from about 80,000 in 1880 to 1.6 million in 1920. By 1910, it became the worlds largest Jewish city, as more than 1 million Jews accounted for 25 percent of the citys population.[7] As of 2023, about 960,000 residents of New York City, or about 10% of its residents, were Jewish.[8] As of 2011, New York state had about 1.75 million Jews, constituting approximately 11 percent of the states total population.[9] Due in large part to the rise in the Hasidic Jewish population, New York Citys Jewish population is once again increasing rapidly. Long Island and the Hudson Valley represent the two largest suburban concentrations of Jews in New York.
Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit. Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit (Japanese: 山下白雨, Hepburn: Sanka hakuu), also known as Rainstorm Beneath the Summit, or sometimes Black Fuji (黒富士 Kurofuji) is a woodcut print by the Japanese ukiyo-e master Hokusai (1760–1849). It is one of the most famous prints from his celebrated Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, published c. 1830–1832.[1][2] The composition is very similar to that of Fine Wind, Clear Morning (or Red Fuji) from the same series, but the atmosphere is markedly different. Here, instead of a hazy and serene view, Mount Fuji is rendered ominously in strong heavy tones. The contours of the mountainside are more textured and defined. The snowy cap rises sharply over a darkly menacing base which has been split by a bolt of lightning rendered with powerful, almost abstract, zigzag lines. As with Fine Wind, Clear Morning, a thin line of Prussian blue is used in the upper portion of the sky, but here the clouds have a smoke-like quality and appear to cling to the mountain.[3] The three peaks at the summit suggest that this view is of the back of Fuji (i.e. seen from the West), another contrast with the Red Fuji print.[4] Soon after publication the blocks were slightly damaged with the loss of one of the brown dots below the summit and the end of the hitsu (brush of) character from Hokusais signature. Impressions made before this have continuous blue down the sky, wiped lighter across the middle, so making clear the entire shapes of the cumulonimbus clouds - rather than leaving a wide band of un-inked sky across the centre and thereby losing their tops.[4] In a later impression the publisher introduced some significant changes. The sky is now rendered in purplish greyish with a band of yellow at the top. The flash of the lightning bolt vividly silhouettes a group of pine trees at the foot of the mountain, cut from a new block, making them appear close to the viewer.[3][4]
Kajikazawa in Kai Province. Kajikazawa in Kai Province (Japanese: 甲州石班澤, Hepburn: Kōshū Kajikazawa) is a woodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It was produced as one of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series which was published from c. 1830 to 1832 in the late Edo period. The image is considered one of the masterpieces of the series, particularly in its early blue impression (aizuri-e).[1] Standing precariously upon a rocky outcrop, a man casts his fishing lines tied to cormorants into the violent Fuji River at Kajikazawa.[2] Man and nature appear fused into one: The picture is full of movement, his tensed body mimics the motion of the waves below, and this curved shape is reflected in the rock on which he stands. The triangular shape made by the fishing lines also echoes that of Mount Fuji which is seen rising above.[1] The first impression employs the aizuri technique while later versions add different colours. The fisherman and son gain a red jacket, while the rocks are coloured with a gradated (bokashi) green-to-yellow wash. Some impressions add a streak of pink to the sky.[1] This article related to art or architecture in Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Circle symbol. Circle symbol may refer to: Unicode provides various circle symbols:
Jinshin War. The Jinshin War (壬申の乱, jinshin no ran) was a war of succession that took place in the Yamato state near the end of Asuka period. It broke out in 672 following the death of Emperor Tenji. The name refers to the jinshin (Ch. renshen 壬申) or ninth year of the sexagenary cycle, corresponding to the Gregorian year 672.[1] It was one of the largest conflicts in classical Japanese history. Tenji had originally designated his brother, Prince Ōama, as his successor, but later changed his mind in favor of his son, Prince Ōtomo. In the course of the violence that erupted as a result of factional rivalries, Ōtomo, having taken the throne as emperor, killed himself after reigning for less than a year. His uncle Ōama then succeeded to the throne as Emperor Tenmu. Tenmu was the first monarch of Japan contemporaneously documented as using the title Tennō (emperor). After the defeat of Baekje and their Yamato allies by Silla and Tang China in the Battle of Baekgang, Emperor Tenji, in defiance of opposition from his retainers, moved his capital to Ōmi-Ōtsu (present day Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture), and prepared to respond to the growing threat from East Asia.[2] He attempted to build a stronger centralized state, mimicking the Tang Dynastys bureaucracy, importing the Tangs political systems and legal codes, consequently affecting Japanese culture as a whole. Emperor Tenji is credited with compiling the Ōmi Code, the first collection of Ritsuryō laws, considered as the first legal codes in classical Japan. Japan was under a process of political unification by the Yamato clan, seeking to dissolve the powerful hegemony of local prestigious clans in the Uji clan system.[3][4] The next task Tenji needed to address was that of securing his successor. His empress consort was Yamato-hime, but there were no children from this union. He had to find the right man from the sons of non-imperial wives. Prince Takeru was the first son, but he was born mute, and had died when he was seven years old. Prince Ōtomo was the next prince; he was a hard worker, and was very clever and intellectual. He had enough ability to be the next emperor. Although Ōtomo was almost perfect he was not born from the Imperial Household. His mother was of low birth from a rural landlords family. This was a great disadvantage in considering Ōtomo to ascend to the throne.
Asuka period. The Asuka period (飛鳥時代, Asuka jidai; Japanese pronunciation: [a.sɯ̥.ka ((d)ʑiꜜ.dai)][1]) was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the Asuka region, about 25 km (16 mi) south of the modern city of Nara. The Asuka period is characterized by its significant artistic, social, and political transformations, having their origins in the late Kofun period. The introduction of Buddhism marked a change in Japanese society. The Asuka period is also distinguished by the change in the name of the country from Wa (倭) to Nippon (日本). The term Asuka period was first used to describe a period in the history of Japanese fine-arts and architecture. It was proposed by fine-arts scholars Sekino Tadasu (関野貞) and Okakura Kakuzō around 1900. Sekino dated the Asuka period as ending with the Taika Reform of 646. Okakura, however, saw it as ending with the transfer of the capital to the Heijō Palace of Nara. Although historians generally use Okakuras dating, many historians of art and architecture prefer Sekinos dating and use the term Hakuhō period (白鳳時代) to refer to the successive period. From the Asuka period in the 6th century, as a sub-division of the Yamato period (大和時代, Yamato-jidai), is the first time in Japanese history when the Emperor of Japan ruled relatively uncontested from modern-day Nara Prefecture, then known as Yamato Province. The second half of the Kofun period, exercised power over clans in Kyūshū and Honshū, bestowing titles, some hereditary, on clan chieftains. The Yamato name became synonymous with all of Japan as the Yamato rulers suppressed other clans and acquired agricultural lands. Based on Chinese models (including the adoption of the Chinese written language), they developed a central administration and an imperial court attended by subordinate clan chieftains but with no permanent capital. By the mid-seventh century, the agricultural lands had grown to a substantial public domain, subject to central policy. The basic administrative unit of the Gokishichidō (五畿七道; five cities, seven roads) system was the county, and society was organized into occupation groups. Most people were farmers; others were fishers, weavers, potters, artisans, armorers, and ritual specialists.[2]
Flag of Scotland. The flag of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: bratach na h-Alba;[2] Scots: Banner o Scotland, also known as St Andrews Cross or the Saltire)[3] is the national flag of Scotland, which consists of a white saltire over a blue field. The Saltire, rather than the Royal Standard of Scotland, is the correct flag for all private individuals and corporate bodies to fly.[4] It is also, where possible, flown from Scottish Government buildings every day from 8:00 am until sunset, with certain exceptions.[5] Use of the flag is first recorded with the illustration of a heraldic flag in Sir David Lyndsay of the Mounts Register of Scottish Arms, c. 1542.[6] It is possible that this is based on a precedent of the late 15th century, the use of a white saltire in the canton of a blue flag reputedly made by Queen Margaret, wife of James III (1451–1488).[7] It is considered to be the oldest flag in Europe.[8] The heraldic term for an X-shaped cross is a saltire, from the old French word saultoir or salteur (itself derived from the Latin saltatorium), a word for both a type of stile constructed from two cross pieces and a type of cross-shaped stirrup-cord.[9] In heraldic language, the Scottish flag may be blazoned azure, a saltire argent. The tincture of the Saltire can appear as either silver (argent) or white. However, the term azure does not refer to a particular shade of blue.[10]
Moon. The Moon is Earths only natural satellite. It orbits around Earth at an average distance of 384,399 kilometres (238,854 mi),[f] about 30 times Earths diameter, and completes an orbit (lunar month) every 29.5 days. This is the same length it takes the Moon to complete a rotation (lunar day). The rotation period is synchronized with the orbital period by Earths gravity forcing the Moon to face Earth always with the same side, making it tidally locked. The Moons gravity causes tidal forces on Earth, which are the main driver of Earths tides. In geophysical terms, the Moon is a planetary-mass object or satellite planet. Its mass is 1.2% that of the Earth, and its diameter is 3,474 km (2,159 mi), roughly one-quarter of Earths (about as wide as the contiguous United States). Within the Solar System, it is larger and more massive than any known dwarf planet, and the fifth-largest and fifth-most massive moon, as well as the largest and most massive in relation to its parent planet.[18] Its surface gravity is about one-sixth of Earths, about half that of Mars, and the second-highest among all moons in the Solar System after Jupiters moon Io. The body of the Moon is differentiated and terrestrial, with only a minuscule hydrosphere, atmosphere, and magnetic field. The lunar surface is covered in regolith dust, which mainly consists of the fine material ejected from the lunar crust by impact events. The lunar crust is marked by impact craters, with some younger ones featuring bright ray-like streaks. The Moon was volcanically active until 1.2 billion years ago, surfacing lava mostly on the thinner near side of the Moon, filling ancient craters, which through cooling formed the today prominently visible dark plains of basalt called maria (seas). The Moon formed out of material from Earth, ejected by a giant impact into Earth of a hypothesized Mars-sized body named Theia 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earths formation. From a distance, the day and night phases of the lunar day are visible as the lunar phases, and when the Moon passes through Earths shadow a lunar eclipse is observable. The Moons apparent size in Earths sky is about the same as that of the Sun, which causes it to cover the Sun completely during a total solar eclipse. The Moon is the brightest celestial object in Earths night sky because of its large apparent size, while the reflectance (albedo) of its surface is comparable to that of asphalt. About 59% of the surface of the Moon is visible from Earth owing to the different angles at which the Moon can appear in Earths sky (libration), making parts of the far side of the Moon visible.
Taika Reform. The Taika Reforms (大化の改新, Taika no Kaishin; Reformation of Taika) were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 Kōtoku tennō) in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 Soga no uji), uniting Japan. The reforms also artistically marked the end of the Asuka period and the beginning of the Hakuhō period.[1][2] Crown Prince Naka no Ōe (the future Emperor Tenji), Nakatomi no Kamatari, and Emperor Kōtoku jointly embarked on the details of the Reforms. Emperor Kōtoku then announced the era of Taika (大化), or Great Reform. The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from Tang China, but the true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn seemingly everything from the Chinese writing system, literature, religion, and architecture, to even dietary habits at this time. Even today, the impact of the reforms can still be seen in contemporary Japanese cultural life. After the regency of Shōtoku Taishi ended, the Soga clan, from which Shōtokus ancestry was derived, took hegemony of the Yamato court. The clan was opposed to Shōtokus son Yamashiro Ōe and killed him in 643. Under the reign of Empress Kōgyoku the Soga clan head, Soga no Iruka, was virtually an almighty leader of the court. Those who were against Sogas dictatorship included the emperors brother Karu, the emperors son, Prince Naka no Ōe, along with his friend Nakatomi no Kamatari, and his son-in-law Soga no Ishikawamaro (Irukas cousin). They ended Irukas regime by a coup détat in 645 (Isshi Incident). As Kōgyoku renounced her throne, Karu ascended to be Emperor Kōtoku. The new emperor, together with the Imperial Prince Naka no Ōe, issued a series of reform measures that culminated in the Taika Reform Edicts in 646. At this time, two scholars, Takamuko no Kuromaro and priest Min (who had both accompanied Ono no Imoko in travels to Sui China, where they stayed for more than a decade), were assigned to the position of Kuni no Hakase (国博士; National doctorate). They were likely to take a major part in compiling these edicts which in essence founded the Japanese imperial system and government.
Battle of Baekgang. Intermission, 648–658 Second campaign, 658–662 Baekje Campaign & Japanese intervention Third campaign, 666–668
Coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The coat of arms of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the royal arms, are the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently Charles III.[1] They are used by the Government of the United Kingdom and by other Crown institutions,[2] including courts in the United Kingdom and in some parts of the Commonwealth. Differenced versions of the arms are used by members of the British royal family. The monarchs official flag, the royal standard, is the coat of arms in flag form. There are two versions of the coat of arms. One is used in Scotland, and includes elements derived from the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Scotland, and the other is used elsewhere and includes elements derived from the coat of arms of the Kingdom of England. The shields of both versions of the arms quarter the arms of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, which united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, and the Kingdom of Ireland, which united with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom in 1801. The Irish quarter was unaltered following the division of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1922. The present arms do not include a representation of the United Kingdoms fourth constituent country, Wales.[3] It is instead represented heraldically by two royal badges, which use the Welsh dragon and the coat of arms of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth respectively.
Flag. A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed on such pieces of fabric. The study of flags is known as vexillology from the Latin vexillum, meaning flag or banner. Flags enjoy a variety of purposes, being used as symbols, signalling devices, or for decoration. The national flag is a common patriotic symbol of a country, and many national or other flags may be assigned to flag families based off similarities in their structure that demonstrate a shared history, culture, or influence.[1] In environments where communication is challenging, flags are used as a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification. The origin of the flag is unknown[2] and it remains unclear when the first flag was raised.[3] Ships with vexilloids were represented on predynastic Egyptian pottery c. 3500 BC.[3] In antiquity, field signs that can be categorised as vexilloid or flag-like were used in warfare, originating in ancient Egypt or Assyria.[4] Examples include the Sassanid battle standard Derafsh Kaviani, and the standards of the Roman legions such as the eagle of Augustus Caesars Xth legion and the dragon standard of the Sarmatians; the latter was allowed to fly freely in the wind, carried by a horseman, but depictions suggest that it bore more similarity to an elongated dragon kite than to a simple flag. While the origin of the flag remains a mystery, the oldest flag discovered is made of bronze: a Derafsh or flag-like Shahdad, which was found in Shahdad, Iran, and dates back to c. 2400 BC. It features a seated man and a kneeling woman facing each other, with a star in between. This iconography was found in other Iranian Bronze Age pieces of art.[5][6][7][8]
Scots language. Scots[note 1] is a West Germanic language variety descended from Early Middle English. As a result, Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English.[4][5][6] Scots is classified as an official language of Scotland,[2] a regional or minority language of Europe,[7][8] and a vulnerable language by UNESCO.[9][10] In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland (of its total population of 5.4 million people) reported being able to speak Scots.[1] Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles of Scotland, and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots), it is sometimes called Lowland Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, and Galloway after the sixteenth century;[11] or Broad Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English. Many Scottish peoples speech exists on a dialect continuum ranging between Broad Scots and Standard English.[12] Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about whether Scots is a dialect of English or a separate language.[13] Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or broad Scots in English)[14] or use a dialect name such as the Doric[15] or the Buchan Claik.[16] The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan,[17] occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster.[18][19] The term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz],[20] is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form.[21] Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots (Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or Ullans, a recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans.[22]
Vexillology. Vexillology (/ˌvɛksɪˈlɒlədʒi/ VEK-sih-LOL-ə-jee) is the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags or, by extension, any interest in flags in general.[1] A person who studies flags is a vexillologist, one who designs flags is a vexillographer, and the art of designing flags is called vexillography. A hobbyist or general admirer of flags is a vexillophile. The word vexillology is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum (a kind of square flag which was carried by Roman cavalry)[2] and the Greek suffix -logia (study).[3] American scholar Whitney Smith is acknowledged for conceiving vexillology in 1957. He wrote, While the use of flags goes back to the earliest days of human civilization, the study of that usage in a serious fashion is so recent that the term for it did not appear in print until 1959.[4][5] Before this time, the study of flags was generally considered a part of heraldry, the study of armorial bearings.[6]
DualShock. The DualShock (originally Dual Shock, trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK, with the PlayStation 5 version as DualSense) is a line of gamepads developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation family of video game consoles. It is named for vibration-feedback and analog controls.[1] Introduced in November 1997, it was initially marketed as a secondary peripheral for the first PlayStation console. The consoles bundle was updated to include DualShock, and phase out the original PlayStation controller and the Dual Analog Controller. The DualShock is the best-selling gamepad of all time by units sold, excluding bundled controllers.[2] Introduced in late 1997, the DualShock Analog Controller (SCPH-1200) can provide vibration feedback based on game activity, as well as input through two analog sticks. Its name derives from its dual vibration motors. These motors are housed within the handles, with the left one being larger and more powerful than the one on the right, so to allow for varying levels of vibration. In comparison, the Nintendo 64s Rumble Pak has only one motor and is powered by a battery, while the DualShock has two motors and all corded varieties of the DualShock are powered directly by the PlayStation. The rumble feature of the DualShock is similar to that of the Japanese version of the Dual Analog Controller released a few months earlier, which was removed shortly after that controller was released in its home market. The Dual Analog, DualShock and all of its subsequent controllers have a standard set of controls that were first introduced in the original PlayStation controller in addition to the two analog sticks: a directional pad, Start and Select buttons, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons. The face buttons in particular use simple geometric shapes instead of letters or numbers, which includes a green triangle, a red circle, a blue cross, and a pink square (, , , ). These shapes established a trademark that was heavily incorporated into the PlayStation brand. The designer of the original PlayStation controller, Teiyu Goto, explained the meaning behind the symbols: the circle and cross were made to represent yes and no respectively (as common in Japanese culture, and thus were typically used for confirm and cancel in most PlayStation games in Japan respectively, placed in the same way as the A and B buttons on the Super NES controller with similar functions), while the triangle symbolizes a point of view and the square is equated to a sheet of paper there to be used to access menus. In Western releases, the circle and cross functions are often switched (circle to cancel, cross to confirm) or reassigned to a different button (cross to confirm, triangle to cancel).[6] The DualShock, like its predecessor the Dual Analog controller, has two analog sticks with 8-bit precision.[citation needed] To compensate for control issues with certain games while the controller is in analog mode, a dedicated button known as the Analog button is included which allows the controller to function either in analog or digital mode, the latter of which turns off the analog sticks and allows the controller to act as an original PlayStation controller using only the digital buttons. Analog functionality is denoted by a red indicator light, which is turned off if the controller is in digital mode. Unlike the Dual Analog controller, the DualShocks analog sticks feature textured rubber grips with convex domed caps rather than the smooth plastic tips with recessed (concave) grooves found on the Dual Analog controller. Other visible differences between the Dual Analog and the DualShock include the longer grips and handles of the former and slightly larger L2/R2 buttons on the latter. The Dual Analog controller also has an additional mode accessible by pressing the Analog button a third time that provides compatibility with the PlayStation Analog Joystick, indicated by a green light on the analog indicator light rather than red; this feature was not carried over to the DualShock. The Analog button is also slightly recessed on the DualShock to prevent accidental switching between analog and digital modes in certain games.
De jure. In law and government, de jure (/deɪ ˈdʒʊəri, di -, - ˈjʊər-/; Latin: [deː ˈjuːre]; lit. from law) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with de facto (from fact), which describes situations that exist in reality, even if not formally recognized.[1] De jure is a Latin expression composed of the words de (from, of) and jure (law, adjectival form of jus). Thus, it is descriptive of a structural argument or position derived from law.[2][3] In U.S. law, particularly after Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the difference between de facto segregation (that existed because of voluntary associations and neighborhoods) and de jure segregation (that existed because of local laws) became important distinctions for court-mandated remedial purposes.[4][clarification needed]
Whitney Smith. Whitney Smith Jr. (February 26, 1940 – November 17, 2016) was an American vexillologist. He coined the term vexillology, which refers to the scholarly analysis of all aspects of flags.[2] He was a founder of several vexillology organizations. Smith was a Laureate and a Fellow of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations. Whitney Smith Jr. was born on February 26, 1940, to Mildred and Whitney Smith.[1] As a youth, he lived in Lexington[3] and Winchester, Massachusetts.[1] Smith credited his interest in flags to his memories of Massachusetts Patriots Day celebrations and a gift of The Golden Encyclopedia when he was about 6 years old.[3] At Harvard, he studied political science and received a bachelors degree in the field in 1961. During his time at Harvard, Smith designed the flag of Guyana after corresponding with Guyanese premier Cheddi Jagan via mail.[4] He received his doctorate in political science at Boston University in 1968;[1] political symbolism was the subject of his dissertation.[1] Smith had his first article published at age 18. By 1960, he was consulting with the Encyclopædia Britannica.[3] In 1961, Smith and colleague Gerhard Grahl co-founded The Flag Bulletin[5] (ISSN 0015-3370), the worlds first journal about flags. The following year, Smith established The Flag Research Center at his home and was its director.[3]
International Federation of Vexillological Associations. International Federation of Vexillological Associations; IFoVA (French: Fédération internationale des associations vexillologiques; FIAV) is an international federation[4] of 53 regional, national, and multinational associations and institutions across the globe that study vexillology, which FIAV defines in its constitution as the creation and development of a body of knowledge about flags of all types, their forms and functions, and of scientific theories and principles based on that knowledge.[5] The study of flags, or vexillology, was formalised by Whitney Smith in 1957.[6] He then moved to organize various flag organisations and meetings including the first International Congress of Vexillology[6] in 1965[7] and International Federation of Vexillological Associations.[6] The FIAV was provisionally organized on 3 September 1967, at the Second International Congress of Vexillology held in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, and officially created on 7 September 1969, at the Third International Congress of Vexillology held in Boston, Massachusetts, US. The vexillological symbols were created by vexillologist Whitney Smith and then adopted by the FIAV in the early 1970s.[8] FIAV has a three-person Board consisting of a President, Secretary-General, and Secretary-General for Congresses.[1] The Board manages the current affairs of FIAV and convenes the biennial sessions of the General Assembly,[1] which are held during each International Congress of Vexillology.[9] The FIAV General Assembly is composed of a delegate from each of FIAVs members. The General Assembly elects the Board and is responsible for setting policy.[1] The current members of the FIAV Board are:
Physiology. Physiology (/ˌfɪziˈɒlədʒi/; from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis) nature, origin and -λογία (-logía) study of)[1] is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system.[2][3] As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and physical functions in a living system.[4] According to the classes of organisms, the field can be divided into medical physiology, animal physiology, plant physiology, cell physiology, and comparative physiology.[4] Central to physiological functioning are biophysical and biochemical processes, homeostatic control mechanisms, and communication between cells.[5] Physiological state is the condition of normal function. In contrast, pathological state refers to abnormal conditions, including human diseases. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for exceptional scientific achievements in physiology related to the field of medicine. Because physiology focuses on the functions and mechanisms of living organisms at all levels, from the molecular and cellular level to the level of whole organisms and populations, its foundations span a range of key disciplines:
Compartment (pharmacokinetics). In pharmacokinetics, a compartment is a defined volume of body fluids, typically of the human body, but also those of other animals with multiple organ systems. The meaning in this area of study is different from the concept of anatomic compartments, which are bounded by fasciae, the sheath of fibrous tissue that enclose mammalian organs. Instead, the concept focuses on broad types of fluidic systems. This analysis is used in attempts to mathematically describe distribution of small molecules throughout organisms with multiple compartments. Various multi-compartment models can be used in the areas of pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, in the support of efforts in drug discovery, and in environmental science. In humans and related organisms, there are five major body compartments: the blood plasma, interstitial fluids, fat tissues, intracellular fluids, and transcellular fluids, the latter of which includes fluids in the pleural (peritoneal) cavity.[1][verification needed] The relative percents of body mass of these are included in the pie chart above.
PlayStation 5. The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea, and was released worldwide a week later. The PS5 is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, along with Microsofts Xbox Series X/S consoles, which were released in the same month. The base model includes an optical disc drive compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. The Digital Edition lacks this drive, as a lower-cost model for buying games only through download. The two variants were launched simultaneously. Slimmer hardware revisions of both models replaced the original models on sale in November 2023. A PlayStation 5 Pro model was released on November 7, 2024, featuring a faster GPU, improved ray tracing, and introducing an AI-driven upscaling technology. The PlayStation 5s main hardware features include a solid-state drive customized for high-speed data streaming to enable significant improvements in storage performance, an AMD GPU capable of 4K resolution display at up to 120 frames per second, hardware-accelerated ray tracing for realistic lighting and reflections, and the Tempest Engine for hardware-accelerated 3D audio effects. Other features include the DualSense controller with haptic feedback, backward compatibility with the majority of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games, and the PlayStation VR2 headset. The lead architect of the PlayStation console line, Mark Cerny, implemented a two-year feedback cycle after the launch of the PlayStation 4. This entailed regularly visiting Sonys first-party developers at two-year intervals to find out what concerns they had about Sonys hardware and how it could be improved in console refreshes or for the next generation. This feedback directly influenced the priorities of the development team. During the development of the PlayStation 5, a central challenge revolved around addressing the length of loading times for games.[10] Cerny said several developers, including Epic Games Tim Sweeney, told him that standard I/O speed of a hard disk drive was now a limiting factor in pushing game development.[11] Slow data rates placed limits on the size of data being loaded into the game, the physical location of data on the storage medium, and the duplication of data across the medium in order to reduce load times. An important goal was to find ways to reduce loading time, particularly in games that stream or dynamically load new game areas as the player moves through the game world.[10]
Body of water. A body of water or waterbody[1] is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rarely, puddles. A body of water does not have to be still or contained; rivers, streams, canals, and other geographical features where water moves from one place to another are also considered bodies of water.[2] Most are naturally occurring and massive geographical features, but some are artificial. There are types that can be either. For example, most reservoirs are created by engineering dams, but some natural lakes are used as reservoirs. Similarly, most harbors are naturally occurring bays, but some harbors have been created through construction. Bodies of water that are navigable are known as waterways. Some bodies of water collect and move water, such as rivers and streams, and others primarily hold water, such as lakes and oceans. Bodies of water are affected by gravity, which is what creates the tidal effects.[3] The impact of climate change on water is likely to intensify as observed through the rising sea levels, water acidification and flooding. This means that climate change has pressure on water bodies.[4] Climate change significantly affects bodies of water through rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and sea-level rise. Warmer temperatures lead to the melting of glaciers and polar ice, contributing to rising sea levels and affecting coastal ecosystems. Freshwater bodies, such as rivers and lakes, are experiencing more frequent droughts, affecting water availability for communities and biodiversity. Moreover, ocean acidification, caused by increased carbon dioxide absorption, threatens marine ecosystems like coral reefs.[5] Collaborative global efforts are needed to mitigate these impacts through sustainable water management practices.[6]
PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on October 26, in Europe on November 24, in Australia on November 30, and other regions thereafter. It is the successor to the original PlayStation, as well as the second installment in the PlayStation brand of consoles. As a sixth-generation console, it competed with Nintendos GameCube, Segas Dreamcast, and Microsofts Xbox. Announced in 1999, Sony began developing the console after the immense success of its predecessor. In addition to serving as a game console, it features a built-in DVD drive and was priced lower than standalone DVD players of the time, enhancing its value. Full backward compatibility with original PlayStation games and accessories gave it access to a vast launch library, far surpassing those of its competitors. The consoles hardware was also notable for its custom-built Emotion Engine processor, co-developed with Toshiba, which was promoted as being more powerful than most personal computers of the era. The PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling video game console of all time, having sold 160.63 million units worldwide, nearly triple the combined sales of competing sixth-generation consoles. It received widespread critical acclaim and amassed a global library of 10,987 game titles, with 1.54 billion copies sold. In 2004, Sony revised the console with a smaller, lighter body officially known as the Slimline. Even after the release of its successor, the PlayStation 3, in 2006, it remained in production and continued to receive new game releases for several years with the last game for the system Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 being released in Europe in November 2013. Manufacturing officially ended in early 2013, giving the console one of the longest lifespans in video game history. Released in 1994, the original PlayStation proved to be a phenomenal worldwide success and signalled Sonys rise to power in the video game industry.[20][21] Its launch elicited critical acclaim and strong sales; it eventually became the first computer entertainment platform to ship over 100 million units.[22] The PlayStation enjoyed particular success outside Japan in part due to Sonys refined development kits, large-scale advertising campaigns, and strong third-party developer support.[23] By the late 1990s Sony had dethroned established rivals Sega and Nintendo in the global video game market.[24][25] Sega, spurred on by their declining market share and significant financial losses,[26] launched the Dreamcast in 1998 as a last-ditch attempt to stay in the industry.[27] Fuelled by a large marketing campaign, it sold over 500,000 units within two weeks.[28][29]
User interface. In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine from the human end, while the machine simultaneously feeds back information that aids the operators decision-making process. Examples of this broad concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls and process controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to, or involve such disciplines as, ergonomics and psychology. Generally, the goal of user interface design is to produce a user interface that makes it easy, efficient, and enjoyable (user-friendly) to operate a machine in the way which produces the desired result (i.e. maximum usability). This generally means that the operator needs to provide minimal input to achieve the desired output, and also that the machine minimizes undesired outputs to the user. User interfaces are composed of one or more layers, including a human–machine interface (HMI) that typically interfaces machines with physical input hardware (such as keyboards, mice, or game pads) and output hardware (such as computer monitors, speakers, and printers). A device that implements an HMI is called a human interface device (HID). User interfaces that dispense with the physical movement of body parts as an intermediary step between the brain and the machine use no input or output devices except electrodes alone; they are called brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) or brain–machine interfaces (BMIs). Other terms for human–machine interfaces are man–machine interface (MMI) and, when the machine in question is a computer, human–computer interface. Additional UI layers may interact with one or more human senses, including: tactile UI (touch), visual UI (sight), auditory UI (sound), olfactory UI (smell), equilibria UI (balance), and gustatory UI (taste).
Body of Water (2011 film). Body of Water (Finnish: Syvälle salattu, lit. Deep encrypted) is a 2011 Finnish drama film directed by Joona Tena.[1] This article related to Finnish film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Body of Water (2020 film). Body of Water is a 2020 British drama film directed and written by Lucy Brydon. The film follows a woman with an eating disorder who tries to balance her relationship with her mother and her teenage daughter. The film premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival on 27 February 2020, and was released in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2020. A woman with an eating disorder tries to balance her relationship with her mother and her teenage daughter. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 14 critics reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10.[2] The film premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival on 27 February 2020.[3] The film was released in cinemas and on digital platforms on 16 October 2020.[4]
Human body. The human body is the entire structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organs and then organ systems. The external human body consists of a head, hair, neck, torso (which includes the thorax and abdomen), genitals, arms, hands, legs, and feet. The internal human body includes organs, teeth, bones, muscle, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and blood, lymphatic vessels and lymph. The study of the human body includes anatomy, physiology, histology and embryology. The body varies anatomically in known ways. Physiology focuses on the systems and organs of the human body and their functions. Many systems and mechanisms interact in order to maintain homeostasis, with safe levels of substances such as sugar, iron, and oxygen in the blood. The body is studied by health professionals, physiologists, anatomists, and artists to assist them in their work.
Bodies of Water. Bodies of Water is a band from the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, signed to independent record label Secretly Canadian. The core group consists of married couple David and Meredith Metcalf. However, the band often plays LA shows with five or more additional musicians, such as horn players, an additional drummer, and strings. All members of the band sing, including players added for local shows. Bodies of Waters first EP and album were reviewed favorably by music critics such as Pitchfork Media[1] and Rolling Stone magazines New Music blog.[2] Critics often compare their music to that of Ennio Morricone, Arcade Fire, The Mamas & the Papas, and label-mate Danielson. In interviews, the band lists gospel groups and Tropicalia musicians among its influences.[3] Bodies of Waters first full-length album Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink was originally released on Bodies of Waters own Thousand Tongues label, and was only available in a few stores, at live shows, or directly from the band via their website. After Secretly Canadian signed Bodies of Water, the label re-released the album nationally on January 22, 2008. The bands second album, titled A Certain Feeling, was released July 22, 2008 to generally favorable reviews.
Animal. Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms comprising the biological kingdom Animalia (/ˌænɪˈmeɪliə/[4]). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Animals form a clade, meaning that they arose from a single common ancestor. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described, of which around 1.05 million are insects, over 85,000 are molluscs, and around 65,000 are vertebrates. It has been estimated there are as many as 7.77 million animal species on Earth. Animal body lengths range from 8.5 μm (0.00033 in) to 33.6 m (110 ft). They have complex ecologies and interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology, and the study of animal behaviour is known as ethology. The animal kingdom is divided into five major clades, namely Porifera, Ctenophora, Placozoa, Cnidaria and Bilateria. Most living animal species belong to the clade Bilateria, a highly proliferative clade whose members have a bilaterally symmetric and significantly cephalised body plan, and the vast majority of bilaterians belong to two large clades: the protostomes, which includes organisms such as arthropods, molluscs, flatworms, annelids and nematodes; and the deuterostomes, which include echinoderms, hemichordates and chordates, the latter of which contains the vertebrates. The much smaller basal phylum Xenacoelomorpha have an uncertain position within Bilateria. Animals first appeared in the fossil record in the late Cryogenian period and diversified in the subsequent Ediacaran period in what is known as the Avalon explosion. Earlier evidence of animals is still controversial; the sponge-like organism Otavia has been dated back to the Tonian period at the start of the Neoproterozoic, but its identity as an animal is heavily contested.[5] Nearly all modern animal phyla first appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, which began around 539 million years ago (Mya), and most classes during the Ordovician radiation 485.4 Mya. Common to all living animals, 6,331 groups of genes have been identified that may have arisen from a single common ancestor that lived about 650 Mya during the Cryogenian period. Historically, Aristotle divided animals into those with blood and those without. Carl Linnaeus created the first hierarchical biological classification for animals in 1758 with his Systema Naturae, which Jean-Baptiste Lamarck expanded into 14 phyla by 1809. In 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into the multicellular Metazoa (now synonymous with Animalia) and the Protozoa, single-celled organisms no longer considered animals. In modern times, the biological classification of animals relies on advanced techniques, such as molecular phylogenetics, which are effective at demonstrating the evolutionary relationships between taxa.
Body of Water (musical). Body of Water is a indie-rock musical created by Tony Kienitz and Tanna Herr with music by Jim Walker.[1] It entails the life of fourteen teens left behind in a civil war crisis, awaiting further signals from their parents while hiding in a secluded mountain cabin. The show was the inaugural production of A Theatre Near U, a theatre and film academy for teenagers in the San Francisco Bay Area.[2] A group of teenagers meet at a secluded cabin in the woods; their parents, who are now missing had instructed them to go there to hide from ideological extremists.[1] The teens decide they will wait for the adults to arrive, but as times goes on they slowly realize that their parents may never arrive.[3] The show was adapted from music written by Jim Walker, and the cast album of the show was digitally released on October 12, 2014. The music for the show was nominated for Best Original Music by the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Excellence in Theatre Awards.[5][6]
RMS Empress of Japan (1890). RMS Empress of Japan, also known as the Queen of the Pacific, was an ocean liner built in 1890–1891[1] by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP).[2] This ship – the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan[3] – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922.[4] During the First World War she served as armed merchant cruiser, becoming HMS Empress of Japan for the period that she was a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy. Over the course of her career, Empress of Japan traversed 4 million kilometres (2.5 million miles).[5] She made 315 Pacific crossings.[4] In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners. Each of these three vessels was given an Imperial name.[6] Empress of Japan and her two running mates – RMS Empress of China and the RMS Empress of India – created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century.[4]
States of Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign states.[a] Of the 16 states, 13 are so-called area-states (Flächenländer); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a division into local authorities (counties and county-level cities) that have their own administration. Two states, Berlin and Hamburg, are city-states, in which there is no separation between state government and local administration. The state of Bremen is a special case: the state consists of the cities of Bremen, for which the state government also serves as the municipal administration, and Bremerhaven, which has its own local administration separate from the state government. It is therefore a mixture of a city-state and an area-state. Three states, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia, use the appellation Freistaat (free state); this title is merely stylistic and carries no legal or political significance (similar to the US states that call themselves a commonwealth). The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was created in 1949 through the unification of the three western zones previously under American, British, and French administration in the aftermath of World War II. Initially, the states of the Federal Republic were Baden (until 1952), Bavaria (in German: Bayern), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (Hessen), Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden (until 1952), and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (until 1952). West Berlin, while still under occupation by the Western Allies, viewed itself as part of the Federal Republic and was largely integrated and considered a de facto state. In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merged into Baden-Württemberg. In 1957, the Saar Protectorate joined the Federal Republic as the state of Saarland. The next major change occurred with German reunification in 1990, in which the territory of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) became part of the Federal Republic, by accession of the re-established eastern states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Saxony (Sachsen), Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt), and Thuringia (Thüringen), and the reunification of West and East Berlin into a city state. A referendum in 1996 to merge Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg failed to reach the necessary majority vote in Brandenburg, while a majority of Berliners voted in favour. It was the states that formed the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. This was in contrast to the post-war development in Austria, where the national Bund (federation) was constituted first, and then the individual states were carved out as units of that federal nation.
Civilian. In wars, civilians are people who are not members of any armed force to the conflict.[1] It is a war crime under the law of armed conflict to deliberately target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations to minimize civilian casualties during times of war. Civilians engaging in hostilities are considered unlawful combatants, and lose their protection from attack. It is slightly different from a non-combatant, because some non-combatants are not civilians (for example, people who are not in a military but support war effort or military operations, military chaplains, or military personnel who are serving with a neutral country). Civilians in the territories of a party to an armed conflict are entitled to certain privileges under the customary laws of war and international treaties such as the Fourth Geneva Convention. The privileges that they enjoy under international law depends on whether the conflict is a civil war or an international one. More broadly, the term can refer to any people in the general public who are outside of a particular group. For example, when reporting on incidents, members of first responder services (such as firefighters and law enforcement) may colloquially refer to members of the public as civilians.[2] The word civilian goes back to the late 14th century and is from Old French civilien. Civilian is believed to have been used to refer to non-combatants as early as 1829. The term non-combatant now refers to people in general who are not taking part of hostilities in time of war, rather than just civilians.[3] The International Committee of the Red Cross 1958 Commentary on 1949 Geneva Convention IV Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states: Every person in enemy hands must have some status under international law: he is either a prisoner of war and, as such, covered by the Third Convention, a civilian covered by the Fourth Convention, or again, a member of the medical personnel of the armed forces who is covered by the First Convention. There is no intermediate status; nobody in enemy hands can be outside the law. We feel that this is a satisfactory solution – not only satisfying to the mind, but also, and above all, satisfactory from the humanitarian point of view.[4] The ICRC has expressed the opinion that If civilians directly engage in hostilities, they are considered unlawful or unprivileged combatants or belligerents (the treaties of humanitarian law do not expressly contain these terms). They may be prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action.[5][6][7][8][9]
North Rhine-Westphalia. North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia,[a] commonly shortened to NRW,[b] is a state (Bundesland) in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state in Germany. Apart from the city-states (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen), it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of 34,084 km2 (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size. North Rhine-Westphalia features 30 of the 81 German municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne (over 1 million), the state capital Düsseldorf (630,000), Dortmund and Essen (about 590,000 inhabitants each) and other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the largest urban area in Germany and the fourth-largest on the European continent. The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the European Blue Banana makes it well connected to other major European cities and metropolitan areas like the Randstad, the Flemish Diamond and the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Region. North Rhine-Westphalia was established in 1946 after World War II from the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and the northern part of Rhine Province (North Rhine), and the Free State of Lippe by the British military administration in Allied-occupied Germany and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. The city of Bonn served as the federal capital until the reunification of Germany in 1990 and as the seat of government until 1999. Culturally, North Rhine-Westphalia is not a uniform area; there are significant differences, especially in traditional customs, between the Rhineland region on the one hand and the regions of Westphalia and Lippe on the other. Its economy is the largest among German states by GRDP but is below the national average in GRDP per capita.
Coat of arms of Poland. The coat of arms of Poland[a] is the heraldic symbol representing Poland. The current version was adopted in 1990. It is a white, crowned eagle with a golden beak and talons, on a red background. In Poland, the coat of arms as a whole is referred to as godło both in official documents and colloquial speech,[1] despite the fact that other coats of arms are usually called a herb (e.g. the Nałęcz herb or the coat of arms of Finland). This stems from the fact that in Polish heraldry, the word godło (plural: godła) means only a heraldic charge (in this particular case a white crowned eagle) and not an entire coat of arms, but it is also an archaic word for a national symbol of any sort.[2] In later legislation only the herb retained this designation; it is unknown why. The coat of arms of the Republic of Poland is described in two legal documents: the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997[3] and the Coat of Arms, Colors and Anthem of the Republic of Poland, and State Seals Act (Ustawa o godle, barwach i hymnie Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej oraz o pieczęciach państwowych) of 1980 with subsequent amendments[1] (henceforth referred to as the Coat of Arms Act). The Crown was restored on December 31, 1989 by the Act of December 29, 1989 amending the Constitution of the Polish Peoples Republic (Article 1, point 19).[4] However, the new emblem design was introduced only on February 22, 1990, by the Act of February 9, 1990 amending the provisions on the coat of arms, colors and anthem of the Republic of Poland.[5]
RMS Empress of Japan (1929). RMS Empress of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1929–1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship was the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan[1] – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1942. In 1942, she was renamed RMS Empress of Scotland – the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Scotland.[2] In 1957, the Hamburg Atlantic Line purchased the ship and re-named her TS Hanseatic.[3] By the 1920s the Canadian Pacific conglomerate had established a sea/rail connection between Europe and the Far East. The companys steamships would carry passengers from Great Britain to Canada, the same companys railroad carried passengers across the North American continent to Vancouver, where passengers boarded another Canadian Pacific ship that would carry them across the Pacific to Asia. This was at the time the fastest way to reach the Far East from Europe. In the late 1920s Canadian Pacific decided to modernize their Pacific and Atlantic fleets, with the aim of reducing the journey time between Europe and the Far East by two days.[4] The new liner intended for the transpacific service was envisioned at approximately 25,000 gross register tons, 203.05 m (666 ft 2 in) in length and capable of carrying 1173 passengers in four classes.[3] Construction of the vessel was awarded to Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan near Glasgow in Scotland.[5] She was launched on 17 December 1929 and named Empress of Japan. Originally Canadian Pacific had planned on constructing a sister ship for her for the Pacific service, but due to the Great Depression the second ship was left unrealized. Instead, the company decided to concentrate their resources on Empress of Britain, a larger version of Empress of Japan under construction for their trans-Atlantic service. Empress of Britain was approximately 16,000 GRT larger than Empress of Japan.[6]
Flag of Poland. The national flag of Poland (flaga Polski [ˈfla.ɡa ˈpɔl.ski]) consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red. The two colours are defined in the Polish constitution as the national colours. A variant of the flag with the national coat of arms in the middle of the white fess is legally reserved for official use abroad and at sea. A similar flag with the addition of a white eagle is used as the naval ensign of Poland. White and red were officially adopted as national colours in 1831, although these were associated with Poland since the Middle Ages and were emphasized on royal banners. They are of heraldic origin and derive from the tinctures (colours) of the coats of arms of the two constituent nations of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (i.e., the White Eagle of Poland, and the Pursuer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a white knight riding a white horse), both on a red shield. Until 1831, Polish soldiers wore cockades of various colour combinations. The national flag was officially adopted in 1919. Since 2004, Polish Flag Day has been celebrated on 2 May. The flag is flown continuously on the buildings of the highest national authorities, such as the parliament and the presidential palace. Other institutions and many Polish people fly the national flag on national holidays and other special occasions of national significance. Current Polish law does not restrict the use of the national flag without the coat of arms, as long as the flag is not disrespected.
Orography. Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains,[1] and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a regions elevated terrain.[2] Orography (also known as oreography, orology, or oreology) falls within the broader discipline of geomorphology.[3] The term orography comes from the Greek: όρος, hill, γράφω, to write. Mountain ranges and elevated land masses have a major impact on global climate. For instance, the elevated areas of East Africa substantially determine the strength of the Indian monsoon.[4] In scientific models, such as general circulation models, orography defines the lower boundary of the model over land.[citation needed] When a rivers tributaries or settlements by the river are listed in orographic sequence, they are in order from the highest (nearest the source of the river) to the lowest or mainstem (nearest the mouth).[citation needed] This method of listing tributaries is similar to the Strahler Stream Order, where the headwater tributaries are listed as category 1. Orographic precipitation, also known as relief precipitation, is precipitation generated by a forced upward movement of air upon encountering a physiographic upland (see anabatic wind). This lifting can be caused by:
Charge (heraldry). In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon (shield). That may be a geometric design (sometimes called an ordinary) or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object, building, or other device. In French blazon, the ordinaries are called pièces, and other charges are called meubles ([the] mobile [ones]). The term charge can also be used as a verb; for example, if an escutcheon depicts three lions, it is said to be charged with three lions; similarly, a crest or even a charge itself may be charged, such as a pair of eagle wings charged with trefoils (as on the coat of arms of Brandenburg). It is important to distinguish between the ordinaries and divisions of the field, as they typically follow similar patterns, such as a shield divided per chevron, as distinct from being charged with a chevron. While thousands of objects found in religion, nature, mythology, or technology have appeared in armory, there are several charges (such as the cross, the eagle, and the lion) that have contributed to the distinctive flavour of heraldic design. Only these and a few other notable charges (crowns, stars, keys, etc.) are discussed in this article. In addition to being shown in the regular way, charges may be blazoned as umbrated (shadowed), detailed,[a] (rather incorrectly) outlined,[2] highly unusually shaded[3] and rather irregularly in silhouette or, more ambiguously, confusingly, and unhelpfully, futuristic,[4] stylized or simplified.[5] There are also several units in the United States Air Force with charges blazoned as mythical,[6] or beasts as chimerical,[7] but those conceptions are meaningless and irrelevant[original research?] to the conception of heraldry, and it does not affect the appearance of those charges[citation needed]. Unlike mobile charges, the ordinary charges[8] reach to the edge of the field. Some heraldic writers[b] distinguish, albeit arbitrarily, between (honourable) ordinaries and sub-ordinaries. While some authors hold that only nine charges are honourable ordinaries, exactly which ones fit into this category is a subject of constant disagreement. The remainder are often termed sub-ordinaries, and narrower or smaller versions of the ordinaries are called diminutives. While the term ordinaries is generally recognised, so much dispute may be found among sources regarding which are honourable and which are relegated to the category of sub-ordinaries that indeed one of the leading authors in the field, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies (1871–1928), wrote at length on what he calls the utter absurdity of the necessity for any [such] classification at all, stating that the ordinaries and sub-ordinaries are, in his mind, no more than first charges.[9] Apparently ceding the point for the moment, Fox-Davies lists the generally agreed-upon honourable ordinaries as the bend, fess, pale, pile, chevron, cross, saltire, and chief.[9] Woodcock sheds some light on the matter, stating that earlier writers such as Leigh, Holme and Guillim proposed that honourable ordinaries should occupy one-third of the field, while later writers such as Edmondson favoured one-fifth, on the grounds that a bend, pale, or chevron occupying one-third of the field makes the coat look clumsy and disagreeable.[10] Woodcock goes so far as to enumerate the ordinaries thus: The first Honourable Ordinary is the cross, the second is the chief, the third is the pale, the fourth is the bend, the fifth is the fess, the sixth is the inescutcheon, the seventh is the chevron, the eighth is the saltire, and the ninth is the bar, while stating that some writers prefer the bordure as the ninth ordinary.[11] Volborth, having decidedly less to say on the matter, agrees that the classifications are arbitrary and the subject of disagreement, and lists the definite ordinaries as the chief, pale, bend, fess, chevron, cross and saltire.[12] Boutell lists the chief, pale, bend, bend sinister, fess, bar, cross, saltire and chevron as the honourable ordinaries.[13] Thus, the chief, bend, pale, fess, chevron, cross and saltire appear to be the undisputed ordinaries, while authors disagree over the status of the pile, bar, inescutcheon, bordure and others.
Non-governmental organization. A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an entity that is not part of the government. This can include non-profit and for-profit entities. An NGO may get a significant percentage or even all of its funding from government sources. An NGO typically is thought to be a nonprofit organization that operates partially independent of government control. Nonprofit NGOs often focus on humanitarian or social issues but can also include clubs and associations offering services to members. Some nonprofit NGOs, like the World Economic Forum, may also act as lobby groups for corporations. Unlike international organizations (IOs), which directly interact with sovereign states and governments, NGOs are independent from them. The term as it is used today was first introduced in Article 71 of the newly formed United Nations Charter in 1945.[1] While there is no fixed or formal definition for what NGOs are, they are generally defined as nonprofit entities that are independent of government management or direction—although they may receive government funding.[1] According to the UN Department of Global Communications, an NGO is a not-for profit, voluntary citizens group that is organized on a local, national or international level to address issues in support of the public good.[2] The term NGO is used inconsistently, and is sometimes used synonymously with civil society organization (CSO), which is any association founded by citizens.[3] In some countries, NGOs are known as nonprofit organizations while political parties and trade unions are sometimes considered NGOs as well.[4] NGOs are classified by (1) orientation- entailing the type of activities an NGO undertakes, such as activities involving human rights, consumer protection, environmentalism, health, or development; and (2) level of operation, which indicates the scale at which an organization works: local, regional, national, or international.[4]
National flag. A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colors and symbols, which may also be used separately from the flag as a symbol of the nation. The design of a national flag is sometimes altered after the occurrence of important historical events. Historically, flags originated as military standards, used as field signs. Throughout history, various examples of such proto-flags exist: the white cloth banners of the Zhou dynastys armies in the 11th century BC, the vexillum standards flown by the armies of the Roman Empire, the Black Standard famously carried by Muhammad which later became the flag of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the various Raven banners flown by Viking chieftains. Angelino Dulcert published a series of comprehensive Portolan charts in the 14th century AD, which famously showcased the flags of several polities depicted – although these are not uniformly national flags, as some were likely the personal standards of the respective nations rulers. The practice of flying flags indicating the country of origin outside of the context of warfare became common with the maritime flag. During the 13th century, the republics of Genoa and Venice both used maritime flags; William Gordon Perrin wrote that the republic of Genoa was one of the earliest states to adopt a national flag.[1] The current design of the flag of the Netherlands originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag (Princes Flag), that was used in the Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648), evolving in the early 17th century as the red-white-blue Statenvlag (States Flag), the naval flag of the States-General of the Dutch Republic, making the Dutch flag perhaps the oldest tricolour flag in continuous use, although standardisation of the exact colours is of a much later date.[2][3]
Bay. A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay.[1][2][3] A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A fjord is an elongated bay formed by glacial action.[4] The term embayment is also used for related features, such as extinct bays or freshwater environments. A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary of the Susquehanna River.[2] Bays may also be nested within each other; for example, James Bay is an arm of Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada. Some bays are large enough to have varied marine geology, such as the Bay of Bengal (2,600,000 km2 or 1,000,000 sq mi) and Hudson Bay (1,230,000 km2 or 470,000 sq mi). The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of winds and blocks waves. Bays may have as wide a variety of shoreline characteristics as other shorelines. In some cases, bays have beaches, which are usually characterized by a steep upper foreshore with a broad, flat fronting terrace.[5] Bays were significant in the history of human settlement because they provided easy access to marine resources like fisheries.[6] Later they were important in the development of sea trade as the safe anchorage they provide encouraged their selection as ports.[7] The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines a bay as a well-marked indentation in the coastline, whose penetration is in such proportion to the width of its mouth as to contain land-locked waters and constitute more than a mere curvature of the coast. An indentation, however, shall not be regarded as a bay unless its area is as large as (or larger than) that of the semi-circle whose diameter is a line drawn across the mouth of that indentation[8][a] – otherwise, it would be referred to as a bight. A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass,[13] larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay.[14] The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of salt water that are enclosed by the coastline.[13] Many gulfs are major shipping areas, such as the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Finland, and Gulf of Aden.[14]
Flag of Serbia. The flag of Serbia (Serbian: застава Србије, romanized: zastava Srbije), also known as the Tricolour (Serbian: тробојка, romanized: trobojka), is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands, red on the top, blue in the middle, and white on the bottom (on civil flag), with the lesser coat of arms left of center (on state flag). The same tricolour, in altering variations, has been used since the 19th century as the flag of the state of Serbia and the Serb people. The current form of the flag was adopted in 2004 and slightly redesigned in 2010.[1] The son of King Stefan Vladislav (reigned 1233–1243), župan Desa, sent delegates from Kotor to Dubrovnik to bring back part of the kings treasury held at Ragusa, which they did on 3 July 1281; the inventory list included, among other things, a flag of red and blue color.[2] It is described as vexillum unum de zendato rubeo et blavo—a flag of fabric red and blue; zendato (Serbian: čenda) being a type of light, silky fabric.[3] This is the oldest known attestation of colours of a Serbian flag; the oldest known Serbian flag was red and blue.[2] But already in 1271 the flag colors of župan Desa were red and white.[4] Although the color order is not known, the version with horizontal red and blue is sometimes used in medieval-themed events in modern Serbia.[5] Hungarian King Bela IV mentioned in his charter dated 8 April 1268, that his army had defeated King Stefan Uroš I (reigned 1243–1276), and that when he hosted some foreign rulers, his magnates brought captured Serbs and in the sign of triumph, the flag of King Uroš before the court of Bela IV, and erected it there.[2] In 1326, king Stefan Dečanski sent a delegate to the Mamluk Sultanate in Alexandria and sought a flag in yellow colour, to be used as a war flag.[6] The Byzantines mention that there were several war flags hoisted by the Serbs at the Battle of Velbazhd (1330), and the yellow one was likely one of those.[2]
CP Ships. CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canadas largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships from Europe to Canada. In 1914 the sinking of the Canadian Pacific steamship RMS Empress of Ireland just before World War I became the largest maritime disaster in Canadian history. The company provided Canadian Merchant Navy vessels in World Wars I and II. Twelve vessels were lost due to enemy action in World War II, including the RMS Empress of Britain, which was the largest ship ever sunk by a German U-boat. The company moved to a model of container shipping from passenger, freight and mail service in the 1960s due to competitive pressure from the airline industry. The company was a part of the Canadian Pacific Ltd. conglomerate. It was spun out as a separate company in 2001. In 2005, it was purchased by TUI AG and is now part of the companys Hapag-Lloyd division. The Atlantic and Pacific passenger liners of Canadian Pacific were always British-flagged and largely British-manned and were not part of the Canadian Merchant Marine, ownership being with the British-registered Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. subsidiary. In the early 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) negotiated with the Government of the United Kingdom to establish trans-Pacific steamship routes between Vancouver, British Columbia and the Far East.[1] The trans-Pacific services of Canadian Pacific were begun by Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, the Canadian-American builder of the railroad network in 1887. In that year, Sir William chartered three vessels from Cunard Line; SS Abyssinia, SS Parthia, and SS Batavia—as a beginning of the CP fleet.[2] The agency for chartering and managing the ships was secured by Adamson, Bell and Company for the first three years.[3] When the new shipping line had shown to be profitable, Canadian Pacific decided not to renew the contract with Adamson, Bell and Company and to run the line itself.[4]
Ria. A ria (/ˈriːə/;[1] Galician: ría, feminine noun derived from río, river) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches. This pattern is inherited from the dendritic drainage pattern of the flooded river valley. The drowning of river valleys along a stretch of coast and formation of rias results in an extremely irregular and indented coastline. Often, there are naturally occurring islands, which are summits of partly submerged, pre-existing hill peaks. (Islands may also be artificial, such as those constructed for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.) A ria coast is a coastline having several parallel rias separated by prominent ridges, extending a distance inland.[2][3][4] The sea level change that caused the submergence of a river valley may be either eustatic (where global sea levels rise), or isostatic (where the local land sinks). The result is often a very large estuary at the mouth of a relatively insignificant river (or else sediments would quickly fill the ria). The Kingsbridge Estuary in Devon, England, is an extreme example of a ria forming an estuary disproportionate to the size of its river; no significant river flows into it at all, only a number of small streams.[4] The word ria comes from Galician ría which comes from río (river). Rias are present all along the Galician coast in Spain. As originally defined, the term was restricted to drowned river valleys cut parallel to the structure of the country rock that was at right angles to the coastline. However the definition of ria was later expanded to other flooded river valleys regardless of the structure of the country rock.[citation needed]
Scandinavia. Nordic territories that are not part of Scandinavia: Chronological history Scandinavia is a subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. Scandinavia most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer to the Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes a part of northern Finland). In English usage, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for Nordic countries.[6] Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes included in Scandinavia for their ethnolinguistic relations with Sweden, Norway and Denmark. While Finland differs from other Nordic countries in this respect, some authors call it Scandinavian due to its economic and cultural similarities.[4][5] The geography of the region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to the low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population in the region live in the more temperate southern regions, with the northern parts having long, cold winters.
Nordic cross flag. A Nordic cross flag is a flag bearing the design of the Nordic or Scandinavian cross, a cross symbol in a rectangular field, with the centre of the cross shifted towards the hoist. All independent Nordic countries have adopted such flags in the modern period, and while the Nordic cross is named for its use in the national flags of the Nordic nations, the term is used universally by vexillologists, in reference not only to the flags of the Nordic countries but to other flags with similar designs.[1] The cross design represents Christianity,[2][3][4] and was first seen in the Dannebrog, the national flag of Denmark in the first half of the 13th century. The same design, but with a red Nordic cross on a yellow background, was used as union flag during the Kalmar union (1397 to 1523), and when that union fell apart in 1523 the same design, but with a yellow cross on a blue background (derived from the Swedish coat of arms adopted in 1442), was adopted as national flag of Sweden, while Norway adopted their flag in 1821. After gaining independence the other Nordic countries adopted national flags of the same design, Iceland in 1915 and Finland in 1918. The Norwegian flag was the first Nordic cross flag with three colours. All Nordic flags may be flown as gonfalons as well. Some of these flags are historical. Also, flag proportions may vary between the different flags and sometimes even between different versions of the same flag. The Flag of Greenland is the only national flag of a Nordic country or territory without a Nordic Cross. When Greenland was granted home rule, the present flag — with a graphic design unique to Greenland — was adopted in June 1985, supported by fourteen votes against eleven who supported a proposed green-and-white Nordic cross.[5]
Kure, Hiroshima. Kure (呉市, Kure-shi; Japanese pronunciation: [kɯꜜ.ɾe, kɯ.ɾeꜜ.ɕi], locally [kɯ.ɾeꜜ][1]) is a city in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. As of 30 April 2023[update], the city had an estimated population of 208,024 in 106,616 households and a population density of 590 persons per km2.[2] The total area of the city is 352.80 square kilometres (136.22 sq mi). With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force. The area of Kure is part of ancient Aki Province, and the port of Kure was an important seaport for Hiroshima Domain in the Edo period. The Kure Naval District was first established in 1889, leading to the construction of the Kure Naval Arsenal and the rapid growth of steel production and shipbuilding in the city. Kure was formally incorporated on October 1, 1902. From 1889 until the end of the Pacific War, the city served as the headquarters of the Kure Naval District. Kure dockyards recorded a number of significant engineering firsts including the launching of the first major domestically built capital ship, the battlecruiser Tsukuba (1905)[3] and the launching of the largest battleship ever built, the Yamato (1940).[4] During the Pacific War, Kure acted as the Imperial Japanese Navys single-largest naval base and arsenal. Most of the citys industry and workforce were employed in the service of the naval installations, munitions factories and associated support functions. In the later stages of the conflict Kure came under sustained aerial bombardment culminating in the bombing of Kure in June and July 1945.
Japanese cruiser Itsukushima. Itsukushima (厳島) was the lead ship in the Matsushima class of protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Like her sister ships, (Matsushima and Hashidate) the name Itsukushima comes from one of the traditional Three Views of Japan, in this case, the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea, home to a famous Shinto-Buddhist shrine dedicated to the Buddhist goddess Benzaiten. Forming the backbone of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Matsushima-class cruisers were based on the principles of Jeune Ecole, as promoted by French military advisor and naval architect Louis-Émile Bertin.[1] The Japanese government did not have the resources or budget to build a battleship navy to counter the various foreign powers active in Asia; instead, Japan adopted the radical theory of using smaller, faster warships, with light armor and small caliber long-range guns, coupled with a massive single 320 mm (12.6 in) Canet gun. The design eventually proved impractical, as the recoil from the huge cannon was too much for a vessel of such small displacement, and its reloading time was impractically long; however, the Matsushima-class cruisers served their purpose well against the poorly equipped and poorly led Imperial Chinese Beiyang Fleet. Itsukushima was built by the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée naval shipyards at La Seyne-sur-Mer, in France, and was launched on 18 June 1889.[2] She underwent trials by the builder in September and October, and achieved an average maximum speed of 16.78 knots on 15 October 1890. Itsukushima differed from her sister ship Hashidate primarily in that her windows were square instead of rectangular, and in that Hashidate had a stronger engine.
Honorific speech in Japanese. The Japanese language has a system of honorific speech, referred to as keigo (Japanese: 敬語; literally respectful language), parts of speech one function of which is to show that the speaker wants to convey respect for either the listener or someone mentioned in the utterance. Their use is widely seen in a variety of business or formal social situations. Honorifics in Japanese can also be used to show unfamiliarity (social distance), or they can be used to show that the speaker is cultured and sophisticated enough to have mastered the ins and outs of the system.[1] Japanese honorific titles, often simply called honorifics, consist of suffixes and prefixes when referring to others in a conversation. The system is very extensive, having its own special vocabulary and grammatical forms to express various levels of respectful, humble, and polite speech. It closely resembles other honorifics systems found in the East Asian cultural sphere, such as honorifics in Korean. Japanese uses honorific constructions to show or emphasize social rank, social intimacy or similarity in rank. The choice of pronoun used, for example, will express the social relationship between the person speaking and the person being referred to, and Japanese often avoids pronouns entirely in favor of more explicit titles or kinship terms.[2] Honorific speech is often longer, and sometimes much longer, than more direct speech. Some extreme, but not uncommon, examples include the following: When asking a question: the first is casually between friends, the second is a junior person asking a superior in a formal meeting:
Cold Food Festival. The Cold Food or Hanshi Festival (寒食节) is a traditional Chinese holiday which developed from the local commemoration of the death of the Jin nobleman Jie Zitui in the 7th century BC under the Zhou dynasty, into an occasion across East Asia for the commemoration and veneration of ancestors by the 7th-century Tang dynasty. Its name derives from the tradition of avoiding the lighting of any kind of fire, even for the preparation of food. This practice originally occurred at midwinter for as long as a month, but the hardship this involved led to repeated attempts to ban its observance out of concern for its practitioners. By the end of the Three Kingdoms period (3rd century), it was limited to three days in the spring around the Qingming solar term. Under the Tang, ancestral observance was limited to the single day which is now the Tomb-Sweeping Festival. The Tomb-Sweeping Festival is an official holiday in several countries, and the Cold Food Festival which stretches either side of it continues to see some observance in China, South Korea, and Vietnam. The usual story for the origin of the Cold Food and Tomb-Sweeping Festivals concerns the 7th-century-BC Jin nobleman Jie Zhitui,[1] a model of self-sacrificing loyalty.[2] During the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, the Zhou Kingdom began to break up into its constituent parts and their lords gained more and more freedom from central control. One of these states was Jin, around modern Shanxi. As was common among wealthy Chinese at the time, its duke had many wives. One of them, Li Ji, was of lower status and came from the Rong tribes who lived to Chinas west, but successfully schemed to become a full wife and to establish her son as the dukes successor. Her older stepson Ji Chonger was framed for revolting against the duke in 655 BC, forcing the prince to flee for his life to his mothers family among the Di tribes north of China. Only 15 of his men followed him into exile. These included Jie Zhitui, who entertained the prince with his poems and music. He was so considerate of his lord that once, when their supplies were stolen while traveling through Wey, he used meat from his own thigh to make soup to relieve the princes hunger.[3] In 636 BC, the duke of Qin finally invaded Jin on Chongers behalf and installed him as its duke. (Posthumously, he became known as the Wen or Civilized Duke of Jin.) In 635 BC,[4] the new duke was generous to those who had helped him in adversity but overlooked Jie, who sadly withdrew into poor obscurity in the forests near Mt Mian.[1] The duke sent repeated envoys to lure Jie back to court, but he felt no ambition for political power. Too loyal to directly criticize his master but too principled to accept a place in a corrupt administration,[5] he opted to simply remain in seclusion. Annoyed, the duke ordered a forest fire to be started around three sides of the mountain to smoke Jie and his mother out of hiding.[6] Instead of coming out, they were burnt alive.[1] Jies charred corpse was found still standing, embracing[6] or tightly bound[5] to a tree. In his remorse, the duke renamed the mountain Mt. Jie, established the town still known as Jiexiu (Jies Rest),[citation needed] and inaugurated the Cold Food Festival as a memorial period for Jie.[1] In addition to the festival, the story also occasioned the Chinese proverb that, while some can burn off an entire mountain, others are kept from even lighting up to eat their rice.[citation needed]
Prefix. A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word.[1] Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either inflectional, creating a new form of a word with the same basic meaning and same lexical category, or derivational, creating a new word with a new semantic meaning and sometimes also a different lexical category.[2] Prefixes, like all affixes, are usually bound morphemes.[1] English has no inflectional prefixes, using only suffixes for that purpose. Adding a prefix to the beginning of an English word changes it to a different word. For example, when the prefix un- is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy. The word prefix is itself made up of the stem fix (meaning attach, in this case), and the prefix pre- (meaning before), both of which are derived from Latin roots. This is a fairly comprehensive, although not exhaustive, list of derivational prefixes in English. Depending on precisely how one defines a derivational prefix, some of the neoclassical combining forms may or may not qualify for inclusion in such a list. This list takes the broad view that acro- and auto- count as English derivational prefixes because they function the same way like that of prefixes such as over- and self- do.
Germany. Germany,[d] officially the Federal Republic of Germany,[e] is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 82 million, making it the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany borders Denmark to the north; Poland and the Czech Republic to the east; Austria and Switzerland to the south; and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nations capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic, with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts, with Germanic tribes inhabiting the north. Romans named the area Germania. In 962, the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. Following the Napoleonic Wars and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the German Confederation was formed in 1815. Unification of Germany into the modern nation-state, led by Prussia, established the German Empire in 1871. After World War I and a revolution, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic. The Nazi rise to power in 1933 led to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust. In 1949, after the war and Allied occupation, Germany was organised into two separate polities with limited sovereignty: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), or West Germany, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany. The FRG was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1951, while the GDR was a communist Eastern Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the fall of the communist led-government in East Germany, German reunification saw the former East German states join the FRG on 3 October 1990. Germany is a developed country with a strong economy; it has the largest economy in Europe by nominal GDP. As a major force in several industrial, scientific and technological sectors, Germany is both the worlds third-largest exporter and third-largest importer. Widely considered a great power, Germany is part of multiple international organisations and forums. It has the third-highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites: 55, of which 52 are cultural.
Greece (disambiguation). Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in south-east Europe.
Hellenic Republic (disambiguation). Hellenic Republic is the current official name of Greece. The term is also used for: This was also the official name of the Greek junta from 1 July 1973 until 24 July 1974.
William Russell (English actor). William Russell Enoch (19 November 1924 – 3 June 2024) was an English actor who performed as both Russell Enoch and William Russell. His career on stage and screen spanned over seven decades and he first achieved prominence in the title role of the television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956–1957). In 1963, he was in the original lead cast of BBC1s Doctor Who, playing the role of schoolteacher Ian Chesterton from the shows first episode until 1965. Russells film roles include parts in The Man Who Never Was (1956), The Great Escape (1963) and Superman (1978). On television, he appeared as Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street in 1992. In his later years, he continued his association with Doctor Who and returned as Ian for a 2022 cameo in The Power of the Doctor, 57 years after the character left, which won him a Guinness World Record for the longest gap between TV appearances. William Russell Enoch was born on 19 November 1924 in Sunderland, County Durham,[1] to Eva Compston (née Pile) and Alfred James Enoch. He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and Oxford University and became interested in acting at an early age.[2] He was involved in organising entertainment during his national service in the Royal Air Force and then, after university, went into repertory theatre. In 1963, Russell was cast in Doctor Who as science teacher Ian Chesterton, the Doctors first male companion, appearing in all episodes of the first two seasons of the programme except the last four.
Japanese minelayer Itsukushima. Itsukushima (厳島) was a medium-sized minelayer of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was in service during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. She was named after Itsukushima, a sacred island in Hiroshima Prefecture of Japan. She was the first warship in the Imperial Japanese Navy with all-diesel engine propulsion.[2] Under the fiscal 1923 budget, the Imperial Japanese Navy authorized a minelayer to supplement its aging minelayers, the former cruisers Aso, and Tokiwa. The new vessel was designed to carry 500 Type 5 naval mines, and to incorporate design features developed through operational experience gained in World War I. Initial plans to procure a 3,000-ton vessel were scaled back to 2,000 tons due to budget limitations.[3] Itsukushima was launched by the Uraga Dock Company on 22 May 1929, and was commissioned into service on 26 December 1929.[4] After commissioning, Itsukushima was assigned to the Yokosuka Naval District as a reserve and training vessel, making occasional cruises to the South Seas Mandate and Bonin Islands. She was commanded by Captain (Prince) Teruhisa Komatsu from December 1930 to November 1931. During the Combined Fleet Maneuvers of 1935, she was attached to the IJN 4th Fleet and suffered damage due to a typhoon in what was termed the Fourth Fleet Incident. The damage required several months of extensive repairs, resulting in an almost complete rebuild by May 1936. She was commanded by Captain (Prince) Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi from November 1935 to December 1936. Itsukushima was assigned to the IJN 3rd Fleet from 20 October 1936, but is reassigned directly to the Combined Fleet after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. After patrols off the Chinese coast until October 1937, Itsukushima was reassigned back to the IJN 3rd Fleet and stationed at Ryojun Guard District. From December 1937 to 20 March 1938, Itsukushima was assigned to the IJN 4th Fleet, and then back to Yokosuka Naval District, but based at Sasebo. From August 1938, under the command of the IJN 3rd Fleet,[4] Itsukushima began patrols of the Yangzi River in China. However, at the end of 1938, she was removed from active duty and placed on reserve status and returned to Yokosuka. Istukushima was reactivated on 15 November 1940 under the Combined Fleet and resumed patrols of the China coast to April 1941, when she was reassigned back to the IJN 3rd Fleet and deployed to Palau in December 1941. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Itsukushima was assigned to the Southern Philippines Striking Force of the IJN 3rd Fleet under the overall command of Admiral Ibō Takahashi, and tasked with mining the San Bernardino Strait.[4]
Rudolph Cartier. Rudolph Cartier (born Rudolph Kacser, renamed himself in Germany to Rudolph Katscher;[1] 17 April 1904 – 7 June 1994) was an Austrian television director, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television, exclusively for the BBC. He is best known for his 1950s collaborations with screenwriter Nigel Kneale, most notably the Quatermass serials and their 1954 adaptation of George Orwells dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. After studying architecture and then drama, Cartier began his career as a screenwriter and then film director in Berlin, working for UFA Studios. After a brief spell in the United States he moved to the United Kingdom in 1935. Initially failing to gain a foothold in the British film industry, he did some scripting work for BBC Television in 1939 before the service was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War. After the war, he occasionally worked for British films before he was again hired by the BBC in 1952. He soon became one of the public service broadcasters leading directors and went on to produce and direct over 120 productions in the next 24 years, ending his television career with the play Loyalties in 1976. Active in both dramatic programming and opera, Cartier won the equivalent of a BAFTA in 1957 for his work in the former, and one of his operatic productions was given an award at the 1962 Salzburg Festival. The British Film Institutes Screenonline website describes him as a true pioneer of television,[2] while the critic Peter Black once wrote that: Nobody was within a mile of Rudolph Cartier in the trick of making a picture on a TV screen seem as wide and as deep as CinemaScope.[3] Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), Cartier initially studied to become an architect, before changing career paths and enrolling to study drama at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[1][3] There he was taught by Max Reinhardt, who proved a major influence on Cartier.[1] Reinhardt thought of a script as being similar to a musical score, which should be interpreted by a director in the same way as a musician interpreting a piece of music—an approach with which Cartier agreed.[3] Cartier became involved in the film industry in 1929, when he successfully submitted a script to a company based in Berlin, Germany.[1] He then became a staff scriptwriter for UFA Studios, the primary German film company of the era, for which he worked on crime films and thrillers.[4] While at UFA, he worked with noted writers, directors and producers including Ewald André Dupont and Erich Pommer.[3] In 1933 he became a film director, overseeing the thriller Invisible Opponent for producer Sam Spiegel.[2]
Historical drama. A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction such as creative dialogue or scenes which compress separate events. The biographical film is a type of historical drama which generally focuses on a single individual or well-defined group. Historical dramas can include romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers. Historical drama can be differentiated from historical fiction, which generally present fictional characters and events against a backdrop of historical events. A period piece may be set in a vague or general era such as the Middle Ages, or a specific period such as the Roaring Twenties, or the recent past. In different eras different subgenres have risen to popularity, such as the westerns and sword and sandal films that dominated North American cinema in the 1950s. The costume drama is often separated as a genre of historical dramas. Early critics defined them as films focusing on romance and relationships in sumptuous surroundings, contrasting them with other historical dramas believed to have more serious themes. Other critics have defended costume dramas, and argued that they are disparaged because they are a genre directed towards women.[1] Historical dramas have also been described as a conservative genre, glorifying an imagined past that never existed.[2] Historical drama may include mostly fictionalized narratives based on actual people or historical events, such as the history plays of Shakespeare,[3] Apollo 13, The Tudors, Braveheart, Pocahontas, Chernobyl, Enemy at the Gates, Les Misérables, and Titanic.[4] Works may include references to real-life people or events from the relevant time period or contain factually accurate representations of the time period. Works that focus on accurately portraying specific historical events or persons are instead known as docudrama, such as The Report. Where a persons life is central to the story, such a work is known as biographical drama, with notable examples being films such as Alexander,[5] Frida, House of Saddam, Lincoln, Lust for Life, Raging Bull, Stalin, and Oppenheimer.
Aiko, Princess Toshi. The EmperorThe Empress The Emperor EmeritusThe Empress Emerita Aiko, Princess Toshi (敬宮愛子内親王, Toshi-no-miya Aiko Naishinnō; born 1 December 2001) is a member of the Imperial House of Japan. She is the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.[1] Following her birth, the ongoing Japanese imperial succession debate had resulted in some politicians holding a favorable view on rescinding agnatic primogeniture (male-only imperial succession) originally implemented in 1889 and retained by the Allies of World War II on the Constitution of Japan.[2] However, once her uncle Crown Prince Fumihito had his son, Hisahito in September 2006, Hisahito became second in the line of succession following his father. Aiko remains at present legally ineligible to inherit the throne and she cannot succeed her father, while debate about the possibility of having future empresses regnant continues.
Fjord (disambiguation). A fjord (or fiord) a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjord may also refer to:
Hisashi Owada. Hisashi Owada (小和田恆, Owada Hisashi; born 18 September 1932) is a Japanese former jurist, diplomat and law professor. He served as a judge on the International Court of Justice from 6 February 2003 until 7 June 2018, and was president of the court from 2009 to 2012.[1] He is the father of Empress Masako and the father-in-law of the reigning Emperor of Japan, Naruhito. Owada was born in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan,[2] the third of seven children.[3] Owadas father Takeo is descended from the Owada clan, whose head Shinroku—Masakos 4th-great-grandfather[4]—was called to Murakami in 1787 to serve the Naito clan which the Tokugawa shōgun had installed as the citys rulers sixty-seven years earlier.[4] After the fall of the shogunate, the Owadas participated in a salmon-fishing cooperative,[3] the proceeds of which provided schooling for many local children, including Takeo.[3] Takeo became principal of a prefectural high school in modern-day Joetsu city and head of its board of education.[3] Takeo and his wife would have seven children, all of whom survived infancy to graduate from university or teaching college.[3] His five sons all graduated from the University of Tokyo[5]—Akira, who would become assistant professor at the University of London and professor at Senshu University;[6] Takashi, who would become a lawyer; Hisashi; Osamu, who would become head of the Japan National Tourist Organization; and Makoto, who would become an inspector at the Ministry of Transportations Ports and Harbors Bureau.[5] His two daughters Yasuko and Toshiko would marry highly, the former to managing director of Krosaki-Harima Tadashi Katada and the latter to one-time managing director of the Industrial Bank of Japan (IBJ) Kazuhide Kashiwabara.[3] After earning a B.A. from the University of Tokyo in 1955, Owada passed the civil service examinations to join the Diplomatic and Consular Service, now known as the Foreign Service.[7]
Honorifics (linguistics). In linguistics, an honorific (abbreviated HON) is a grammatical or morphosyntactic form that encodes the relative social status of the participants of the conversation. Distinct from honorific titles, linguistic honorifics convey formality FORM, social distance, politeness POL, humility HBL, deference, or respect through the choice of an alternate form such as an affix, clitic, grammatical case, change in person or number, or an entirely different lexical item. A key feature of an honorific system is that one can convey the same message in both honorific and familiar forms—i.e., it is possible to say something like (as in an oft-cited example from Brown and Levinson) The soup is hot in a way that confers honor or deference on one of the participants of the conversation. Honorific speech is a type of social deixis, as an understanding of the context—in this case, the social status of the speaker relative to the other participants or bystanders—is crucial to its use. There are three main types of honorifics, categorized according to the individual whose status is being expressed:[1] Addressee honorifics express the social status of the person being spoken to (the hearer), regardless of what is being talked about. For example, Javanese has three different words for house depending on the status level of the person spoken to. Referent honorifics express the status of the person being spoken about. In this type of honorific, both the referent (the person being spoken about) and the target (the person whose status is being expressed) of the honorific expression are the same. This is exemplified by the T–V distinction present in many Indo-European languages, in which a different second-person pronoun (such as tu or vous in French) is chosen based on the relative social status of the speaker and the hearer (the hearer, in this case, also being the referent).[2] Bystander honorifics express the status of someone who is nearby, but not a participant in the conversation (the overhearer). These are the least common, and are found primarily in avoidance speech such as the mother-in-law languages of aboriginal Australia, where one changes ones speech in the presence of an in-law or other tabooed relative. A fourth type, the Speaker/Situation honorific, does not concern the status of any participant or bystander, but the circumstances and environment in which the conversation is occurring. The classic example of this is diglossia, in which an elevated or high form of a language is used in situations where more formality is called for, and a vernacular or low form of a language is used in more casual situations.
Coat of arms of Greece. The coat of arms of Greece (Greek: Εθνόσημο, lit. national emblem, [eθˈnosimo] ⓘ) or national seal of Greece comprises a white Greek cross on a blue escutcheon, surrounded by two laurel branches. It has been in use in its current form since 1975. Prior to the adoption of the current coat of arms, Greece used a number of different designs, some of which were not heraldic; the first heraldic design was introduced in 1832 and its main element, the blue shield with the white cross, has been the base for all other national coats of arms since then. The design is a heraldic representation of the Greek national flag adopted in 1822, which featured a white cross on a blue field. The proper heraldic description of the coat of arms is: Azure, a cross Argent. The Law regulating the coat of arms does not specify a tincture for the laurel branches, implying proper (or vert, i.e. green). Official usage portrays the laurel branches as monochrome blue, while a version with the branches in gold is used by the military and on the presidential standard. Since standardisation in 2010, the Government of Greece has used a stylised version of the coat of arms as a government logo, again in monochrome. In periods of monarchy, the shield was topped by a royal crown and surrounded by elaborate ornamentation expressive of royal authority, including male figures as supporters, the Order of the Redeemer, a mantle and pavilion, and the royal motto. The shield was also sometimes charged with the dynastic arms of House of Wittelsbach under Otto of Greece, and by those of the House of Glücksburg after his exile. Other designs adopted prior to 1832 made heavy use of ancient Greek imagery, such as Athena and her owl, as well as other popular revolutionary symbols such as the Phoenix rising from its ashes, symbolising the rebirth of Greece as an independent state. The political thinker and revolutionary Rigas Feraios was the first to propose a national emblem for Greece,[1] including a hand-drawing rendition of it in his hand-written New Political Constitution of 1797.[2] Rigas proposal was composed of a club of Heracles, with the words Liberty – Equality – Fraternity superimposed on it, and three crosses topping it.[1] In his Map of Greece of 1796–1797, Rigas explains that the club stands for the power of Greece, but its use was not limited to ethnic Greeks and could also be used by any of the other Balkan peoples he envisaged would make up his multi-ethnic Hellenic Republic.[1] In his selection of this device, however, he was directly influenced by the Jacobin radicalism of the French Revolution, which utilised the device of the club of Heracles as a symbol of democratic power.[1] The national colours he proposed were red, white, and black, symbolising self-determination, purity, and sacrifice respectively.[2] The club, sewn onto a white cockade, would be the identifying mark by which free democrats and equal brothers would recognise each other.[2] This design was never officially adopted.
Eleftheria i thanatos. Eleftheria i thanatos (Greek: Ελευθερία ή θάνατος, IPA: [elefθeˈri.a i ˈθanatos]; Freedom or Death) is the motto of Greece.[1][2] It originated in the Greek songs of resistance that were powerful motivating factors for independence. It was adopted in 1814 by the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization formed specifically for the overthrow of Ottoman rule. The motto arose during the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s, where it was a war cry for the Greeks who rebelled against Ottoman rule.[3] It was adopted after the Greek War of Independence and is still in use today. One explanation for the 9 stripes on the Greek flag is that they represent the nine syllables of the motto, five blue stripes for the syllables Eleftheria and four white stripes for i thanatos.[4][5] The motto symbolized and still symbolizes the resolve of the people of Greece against tyranny and oppression. Part of the emblem of the Filiki Eteria were two flags with the letters ΗΕΑ and ΗΘΣ; These represent Ή ΕλευθερίΑ Ή ΘάνατοΣ, Either Freedom, or Death.[6][7] This is also the motto of the 4th Infantry Division of the Greek Army.[8] Nikos Kazantzakis novel Captain Michalis was subtitled Freedom or Death, which became its title in the United States, Germany, France, and other countries.
Sean Connery. Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond in motion pictures, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.[1][2][3] Connery originated the role in Dr. No (1962) and continued starring as Bond in the Eon Productions films From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Connery made his final appearance in the franchise in Never Say Never Again (1983), a non-Eon-produced Bond film. Connery is also known for his work with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and John Huston. Their films in which Connery appeared included Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965), The Offence (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). He also acted in Robin and Marian (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Time Bandits (1981), Highlander, The Name of the Rose (both 1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart, The Rock (both 1996) and Finding Forrester (2000). His final on-screen role was as Allan Quatermain in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). Connery received numerous accolades. For his role in The Untouchables (1987), he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (making him the first Scottish actor to win a major Oscar)[4] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture; and in the same year he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his role in The Name of the Rose–. He also received honorary awards such as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1987, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1998[5] and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1999. Connery was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France and a knight by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama in the 2000 New Year Honours.[6] Thomas Sean Connery was born at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1930; he was named after his paternal grandfather.[7][8] Connery was of half-Irish and half-Scottish descent. He was brought up at No. 176 Fountainbridge, a block which has since been demolished.[9] His mother, Euphemia McBain Effie McLean, was a cleaning woman. The daughter of Neil McLean and Helen Forbes Ross, she was named after her fathers mother, Euphemia McBain, wife of John McLean and daughter of William McBain from Ceres in Fife.[10][11] Connerys father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver.[12]
Flag of Greece. The national flag of Greece, popularly referred to as the Blue-and-White (Γαλανόλευκη, Galanólefki) or the Cyan-and-White (Κυανόλευκη, Kyanólefki), is officially recognised by Greece as one of its national symbols and has 5 equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white. There is a blue canton in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross; the cross symbolises Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The blazon of the flag is azure, four bars argent; on a canton of the field a Greek cross throughout of the second. The official flag ratio is 144:23.[1] The shade of blue used in the flag has varied throughout its history, from light blue to dark blue, the latter being increasingly used since the late 1960s. It was officially adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus on 13 January 1822. While the nine stripes do not have any official meaning, the most popular interpretation says that they represent the syllables of the phrase Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος (Freedom or Death): the five blue stripes for the syllables in Ελευθερία, the four white for those of ή Θάνατος. White and blue symbolize the colours of the Greek sky and sea.[2] It has been suggested by historians that the current flag derived from an older design, the virtually identical flag of the powerful Cretan Kallergis family. This flag was based on their coat of arms, whose pattern is supposed to be derived from the standards of their claimed ancestor, Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas (963–969 AD). This pattern (according to not easily verifiable descriptions) included nine stripes of alternating blue and white, as well as a cross, assumed to be placed on the upper left.[3] Although the use of alternating blue and white – or silver – stripes on (several centuries-old) Kallergis coats of arms is well documented, no depiction of the above described pattern (with the nine stripes and the cross) survives.[4] The Byzantines, like the Romans before them, used a variety of flags and banners, primarily to denote different military units. These were generally square or rectangular, with a number of streamers attached.[5] Most prominent among the early Byzantine flags was the labarum. In the surviving pictorial sources of the middle and later Empire, primarily the illustrated Skylitzes Chronicle, the predominating colours are red and blue in horizontal stripes, with a cross often placed in the centre of the flag. Other common symbols, prominently featuring on seals, were depictions of Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints, but these represent personal rather than family or state symbols. Western European-style heraldry was largely unknown until the last centuries of the Empire.[6]
Ensign (flag). An ensign is a maritime flag that is used for the national identification of a ship.[1] It is the largest flag and is generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. Depending on the ships origin, it may sometimes be identical with a jack on the bow of the ship when in a port. Jacks are more common on warships than on merchant ships. The Middle English ensign is derived from the Latin word insignia. Vexillologists distinguish between three varieties of ensigns: Some countries like the United States and France use just one flag as an ensign and also as a jack, while lacking special cantons and transparent identification. All ships of the seagoing services of the United States Government except for the United States Coast Guard fly the national flag as their ensign, although the ships of some agencies also fly an agency flag as a distinctive mark. Countries like Ukraine, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan use different ensigns. These are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, a ship under contract to carry mail, or a yacht, for example.
BBC One. BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporations oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, primetime drama and entertainment, and live BBC Sport events. The channel was launched on 2 November 1936 under the name BBC Television Service, which was the worlds first regular television service with a high level of image resolution.[b] It was renamed BBC TV in 1960 and used this name until the launch of the second BBC channel, BBC Two, in 1964. The main channel then became known as BBC1. The channel adopted the current spelling of BBC One in 1997. The channels annual budget for 2012–2013 was £1.14 billion.[1] It is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBCs other domestic television stations and shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. The television channel had the highest reach share of any broadcaster in the United Kingdom as at 2019,[2] ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership ITV.[3] In 2013, a study conducted across 14 countries by the polling organisation Populus found BBC One to be the station most favourably viewed by its country, with BBC Two coming in third place.[4] BBC One is available via most major television providers in the United Kingdom.
Inlet. An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh,[1] that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. In marine geography, the term inlet usually refers to either the actual channel between an enclosed bay and the open ocean and is often called an entrance, or a significant recession in the shore of a sea, lake or large river. A certain kind of inlet created by past glaciation is a fjord, typically but not always in mountainous coastlines and also in montane lakes. Multi-arm complexes of large inlets or fjords may be called sounds, e.g., Puget Sound, Howe Sound, Karmsund (sund is Scandinavian for sound). Some fjord-type inlets are called canals, e.g., Portland Canal, Lynn Canal, Hood Canal, and some are channels, e.g., Dean Channel and Douglas Channel. Tidal amplitude, wave intensity, and wave direction are all factors that influence sediment flux in inlets.[2] On low slope sandy coastlines, inlets often separate barrier islands and can form as the result of storm events.[3] Alongshore sediment transport can cause inlets to close if the action of tidal currents flowing through an inlet do not flush accumulated sediment out of the inlet.[4]
Ensign (flag). An ensign is a maritime flag that is used for the national identification of a ship.[1] It is the largest flag and is generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. Depending on the ships origin, it may sometimes be identical with a jack on the bow of the ship when in a port. Jacks are more common on warships than on merchant ships. The Middle English ensign is derived from the Latin word insignia. Vexillologists distinguish between three varieties of ensigns: Some countries like the United States and France use just one flag as an ensign and also as a jack, while lacking special cantons and transparent identification. All ships of the seagoing services of the United States Government except for the United States Coast Guard fly the national flag as their ensign, although the ships of some agencies also fly an agency flag as a distinctive mark. Countries like Ukraine, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan use different ensigns. These are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, a ship under contract to carry mail, or a yacht, for example.
Red Ensign. The Red Ensign or Red Duster is the civil ensign of the United Kingdom. It is one of the British ensigns, and it is used either plain or defaced with either a badge or a charge, mostly in the right half. It is the flag flown by British merchant or passenger ships since 1707. Prior to 1707, an English red ensign and a Scottish red ensign were flown by the English Royal Navy and the Royal Scots Navy, respectively. The precise date of the first appearance of these earlier red ensigns is not known, but surviving payment receipts indicate that the English navy was paying to have such flags sewn in the 1620s. Prior to the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864, the plain red ensign had been the ensign of one of three squadrons of the Royal Navy, the Red Squadron, as early as 1558. By 1620, the plain red ensign started to appear with the Cross of St George in the upper-left canton. The Colony of Massachusetts used the red ensign from its founding; after a sermon by Roger Williams in 1636, equating crosses with the papacy, Governor Endicott ordered the St George cross removed from the flag. The Great and General Court of the colony found that Endicott had exceeded the lymits of his calling, and yet left the flag without its cross for a number of decades afterward.[1]
Geirangerfjord. Geirangerfjorden (Norwegian)[1] or Geiranger Fjord (English)[2][3][4] is a fjord in the Sunnmøre region of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located entirely in Stranda Municipality. It is a 15-kilometre-long (9+1⁄2 mi) branch off the Sunnylvsfjorden, which itself is a branch off the Storfjorden (lit. Great Fjord). The small village of Geiranger is located at the end of the fjord where the Geirangelva river empties into it. The fjord is one of Norways most visited tourist sites. In 2005, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, jointly with the Nærøyfjorden as the West Norwegian Fjords site. This status was challenged by the disputed plans to build power lines across the fjord.[5][needs update] The Geiranger - Hellesylt Ferry, a car ferry which doubles as a sightseeing trip, is operated by Fjord1 Nordvestlandske. It runs lengthwise along the fjord between the small towns of Geiranger and Hellesylt. The fjord is scheduled to require zero-emissions ships in 2026.[6] Along the fjords sides there lie a number of now-abandoned farms. Some restoration has been made by the Storfjordens venner association. The most commonly visited among these are Skageflå, Knivsflå, and Blomberg. Skageflå may also be reached on foot from Geiranger, while the others require a boat excursion. The fjord is also host to several waterfalls such as Seven Sisters Falls. Magdalene Thoresen, Henrik Ibsens mother-in-law, said of the area:
List of mountain types. Mountains and hills can be characterized in several ways. Some mountains are volcanoes and can be characterized by the type of lava and eruptive history. Other mountains are shaped by glacial processes and can be characterized by their shape. Finally, many mountains can be characterized by the type of rock that make up their composition.
Glacier. A glacier (US: /ˈɡleɪʃər/; UK: /ˈɡlæsiə/ or /ˈɡleɪsiə/) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock,[2] that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs, as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land[3][4][5] and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water. On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as continental glaciers) in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent other than the Australian mainland, including Oceanias high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand. Between latitudes 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in the Himalayas, Andes, and a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard-Kuh in Iran.[6] With more than 7,000 known glaciers, Pakistan has more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions.[7][1] Glaciers cover about 10% of Earths land surface. Continental glaciers cover nearly 13 million km2 (5 million sq mi) or about 98% of Antarcticas 13.2 million km2 (5.1 million sq mi), with an average thickness of ice 2,100 m (7,000 ft). Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers.[8] The volume of glaciers, not including the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, has been estimated at 170,000 km3.[9] Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, holding with ice sheets about 69 percent of the worlds freshwater.[10][11] Many glaciers from temperate, alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause the glacier to melt, creating a water source that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources may be scant. However, within high-altitude and Antarctic environments, the seasonal temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g., precipitation, mean temperature, and cloud cover, glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level.
Mount Misen (Ayabe). Mount Misen (弥仙山, Misen-zan) is a mountain in Oyogi-cho (於与岐町), Ayabe, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan that is considered to be sacred by the Oomoto religion.[2][3] Osei Jinja (於成神社) on Mount Misen is where the religions founder, Nao Deguchi, secluded herself in October 19, 1901 (lunar calendar date: September 8, 1901)[4] and received divine revelations (as described in Chapter 10 of Volume 38 in the Reikai Monogatari[5]). Nao Deguchi would perform daily ablutions at a nearby waterfall called Fudo Waterfall, which is also known today as Ōmoto kaiso shūgyō no taki (大本開祖修業の滝).[6] Osei Jinja and the waterfall are situated near each other, and both of them are located about midway up the mountain. On May 24, 1903 (lunar calendar date: April 28, 1903),[4] Nao Deguchi ascended the mountain again with Onisaburo Deguchi and her daughter Sumiko Deguchi to honor the mountains deities at Kinpū Jinja (金峰神社) on the summit of Mount Misen.[7] According to Michi no Shiori,[8] The mountain Misen in Oyogi 於与岐 (in the district of Tango 丹後) is the holy mountain where are honoured the god Konohanasakuya-hime and the god Hikohohodemi. These two gods govern the holy function of mediation between the gods.
Normal route. A normal route or normal way (French: voie normale; German: Normalweg) is the most frequently used climbing route for ascending and descending a given mountain peak; it is usually the easiest — although not necessarily easy (see image) — and often the most straightforward route (e.g. such as the Goûter Route on Mont Blanc).[2][3] Other generic names include the tourist route or trade route, and some climbing routes have specific normal route names such as the Yak Route on Mount Everest.[4] This climbing-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Torii (disambiguation). A torii (鳥居) is a traditional Shinto shrine gate. Torii may refer to:
World Heritage Site. World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.[1] To be selected, a World Heritage Site is nominated by its host country and determined by the UNESCOs World Heritage Committee to be a unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable, having a special cultural or physical significance, and to be under a sufficient system of legal protection. World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities,[a] deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas, and others.[4][5] A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humankind and serve as evidence of humanitys intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of great natural beauty.[6] As of July 2025, a total of 1,248 World Heritage Sites exist across 170 countries.[7] The sites are intended for practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise would be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, unmonitored, uncontrolled or unrestricted access, or threat from local administrative negligence. Sites are demarcated by UNESCO as protected zones.[1] The World Heritage Sites list is maintained by the international World Heritage Program administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 states parties that are elected by the United Nations General Assembly, and advised by reviews of international panels of experts in natural or cultural history, and education.[8]
Hatsukaichi. Hatsukaichi (廿日市市, Hatsukaichi-shi) is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 May 2023[update], the city had an estimated population of 116,087 in 53,320 households and a population density of 240 persons per km2.[1] The total area of the city is 489.48 square kilometres (188.99 sq mi). Hatsukaichi is located in far southwestern Hiroshima Prefecture. In the north, the spine of the Chūgoku Mountains borders Shimane and Yamaguchi prefectures, and in the south is the coastline of the Seto Inland Sea (Hiroshima Bay). While the coastal areas are becoming more urbanized, the inland rural areas are undergoing marked depopulation. Hiroshima Prefecture Shimane Prefecture Yamaguchi Prefecture
Igneous rock. Igneous rock (igneous from Latin igneus fiery), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial melts of existing rocks in a terrestrial planets mantle or crust. Typically, the melting is caused by one or more of three processes: an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition. Solidification into rock occurs either below the surface as intrusive rocks or on the surface as extrusive rocks. Igneous rock may form with crystallization to form granular, crystalline rocks, or without crystallization to form natural glasses. Igneous rocks occur in a wide range of geological settings: shields, platforms, orogens, basins, large igneous provinces, extended crust and oceanic crust. Igneous and metamorphic rocks make up 90–95% of the top 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) of the Earths crust by volume.[1] Igneous rocks form about 15% of the Earths current land surface.[note 1] Most of the Earths oceanic crust is made of igneous rock.
Kami. Kami (Japanese: 神; [kaꜜmi]) are the deities, divinities, spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. Kami can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, beings and the qualities that these beings express, and/or the spirits of venerated dead people. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans (some ancestors became kami upon their death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of kami in life). Traditionally, great leaders like the Emperor could be or became kami.[1] In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of musubi (結び),[2] the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. Kami are believed to be hidden from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own: shinkai (神界; the world of the kami).[3]: 22 To be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi (随神の道 or 惟神の道; the way of the kami).[2] Kami is the Japanese word for a deity, divinity, or spirit.[4] It has been used to describe mind, God, Supreme Being, one of the Shinto deities, an effigy, a principle, and anything that is worshipped.[5][6] Although deity is the common interpretation of kami, some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term.[7][page needed] Some etymological suggestions are:
World Heritage Site. World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.[1] To be selected, a World Heritage Site is nominated by its host country and determined by the UNESCOs World Heritage Committee to be a unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable, having a special cultural or physical significance, and to be under a sufficient system of legal protection. World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities,[a] deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas, and others.[4][5] A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humankind and serve as evidence of humanitys intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of great natural beauty.[6] As of July 2025, a total of 1,248 World Heritage Sites exist across 170 countries.[7] The sites are intended for practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise would be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, unmonitored, uncontrolled or unrestricted access, or threat from local administrative negligence. Sites are demarcated by UNESCO as protected zones.[1] The World Heritage Sites list is maintained by the international World Heritage Program administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 states parties that are elected by the United Nations General Assembly, and advised by reviews of international panels of experts in natural or cultural history, and education.[8]
List of minor planets: 7001–8000. The following is a partial list of minor planets, running from minor-planet number 7001 through 8000, inclusive. The primary data for this and other partial lists is based on JPLs Small-Body Orbital Elements[1] and data available from the Minor Planet Center.[2][3] Critical list information is also provided by the MPC,[2][3] unless otherwise specified from Lowell Observatory.[4] A detailed description of the tables columns and additional sources are given on the main page including a complete list of every page in this series, and a statistical break-up on the dynamical classification of minor planets. Also see the summary list of all named bodies in numerical and alphabetical order, and the corresponding naming citations for the number range of this particular list. New namings may only be added to this list after official publication, as the preannouncement of names is condemned by the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union.
World Heritage Sites by country. As of July 2025, there are a total of 1,223 World Heritage Sites located across 168 countries, of which 952 are cultural, 231 are natural, and 40 are mixed properties.[1] The countries have been divided by the World Heritage Committee into five geographical regions: Africa; the Arab States; Asia and the Pacific; Europe and North America; and Latin America and the Caribbean. With 61 selected areas, Italy is the country with the most sites, followed by China with 60 and Germany with 55, and France with 54.[2] Of the 196 states party to the World Heritage Convention, 28 have no properties inscribed on the World Heritage List: The Bahamas, Bhutan, Brunei, Burundi, the Comoros, the Cook Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Grenada, Guyana, Kuwait, Liberia, Maldives, Monaco, Nauru, Niue, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, South Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tuvalu. Only one UN member state, Liechtenstein, has not ratified the World Heritage Convention. This overview lists the 23 countries with 15 or more World Heritage Sites:
Sashimono. Sashimono (指物, 差物, 挿物) were small banners historically worn by soldiers in feudal Japan, for identification during battles.[1][2] Sashimono poles were attached to the backs of the dō cuirass by special fittings. Sashimono were worn both by foot soldiers, including the common soldiers known as ashigaru,[3] as well as by the elite samurai and members of the shogunate,[4] and in special holders on the horses of some cavalry.[citation needed] The banners, resembling small flags and bearing clan symbols, were most prominent during the Sengoku period, a long period of civil war in Japan from the middle 15th to early 17th century.[citation needed] Given the great variety in Japanese armour, sashimono were used to provide a kind of uniform to armies. Sashimono typically came in either square or short rectangular forms, although many variations existed. A variation that is often bigger and coloured is the uma-jirushi, which were large, personalized, sashimono-like flags worn by commanders. Similar to this were the very large and narrow nobori banners, which commonly took two or three men to hold erect and were used to control the direction of fighting during large battles. (Uma-jirushi and nobori are still used today at sports events, as Japanese versions of the banners common among Western sports audiences.)[citation needed] The banner hung from an L-shaped frame, which was attached to the chest armour dō or dou by a socket machi-uke or uketsubo near the waistline and hinged at shoulder level with a ring gattari or sashimono-gane. While this arrangement was perhaps one of the most common, there were other variations. Silk and leather were the most common materials used.
World Heritage Committee. The World Heritage Committee is a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties.[1] It comprises representatives from 21 state parties[2][1] that are elected by the General Assembly of States Parties for a four-year term.[3] These parties vote on decisions and proposals related to the World Heritage Convention and World Heritage List. According to the World Heritage Convention, a committee members term of office is six years. However many States Parties choose to voluntarily limit their term to four years, in order to give other States Parties an opportunity to serve.[3] All members elected at the 15th General Assembly (2005) voluntarily chose to reduce their term of office from six to four years.[3] Deliberations of the World Heritage Committee are aided by three advisory bodies, the IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM.[4][5] The World Heritage Committee meets once a year for an ordinary session to discuss the management of existing World Heritage Sites, and accept nominations by countries.[3] Extraordinary meetings can be convened at the request of two-thirds of the state members.[6] Meetings are held within the territory of state members of the World Heritage Committee at their invitation. Rotation between regions and cultures is a consideration for selection and the location for the next session is chosen by the committee at the end of each session.[6]
Uma-jirushi. Uma-jirushi (馬印; horse insignia) were massive flags used in feudal Japan to identify a daimyō or equally important military commander on the field of battle. They came into prominence during the Sengoku period. While many were simply large flags, not very different from sashimono or hata-jirushi, most were three-dimensional figures, more like kites, and in the shape of bells, gongs, umbrellas, or streamers. While these standards took many forms, they all fall into two broad categories: the ō-uma-jirushi and the ko-uma-jirushi, the great standard and the lesser standard respectively. Poorer daimyo had just one, the lesser standard, while wealthier daimyo had both. In 1645, the Tokugawa shogunate formalized this, allowing daimyo with an income above 1300 koku to have a ko-uma-jirushi, and daimyo earning more than 6000 koku to have an ō-uma-jirushi as well. The ō-uma-jirushi was the nucleus of action on the battlefield, and while it aided the organization and morale of friendly troops, it also attracted the attention of enemy warriors. The carrier of the uma-jirushi, therefore, was arguably the most dangerous position to be in on the field. The ō-uma-jirushi was sometimes held in a leather bucket attached to the carriers belt; the especially large ones would often be securely strapped into a carrying frame on the warriors back. The carrier was provided with ropes to steady the standard in the wind, or while running. In the mid-1600s, a monk called Kyūan completed a text called O Uma Jirushi, a comprehensive illustrated survey of the heraldry of his time. This text describes the heraldry of most, if not all, of the major samurai families of the battles of the Sengoku period. The text still survives today, and remains one of the chief sources of heraldic information available today on this period in Japan.
Daimyo. Daimyo (大名, daimyō; English: /ˈdaɪm.joʊ/,[1] Japanese: [dai.mʲoꜜː] ⓘ[2]) were powerful Japanese magnates,[3] feudal lords[4] who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the kuge (an aristocratic class). In the term, dai (大) means large, and myō stands for myōden (名田), meaning private land.[5] From the shugo of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku period to the daimyo of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of daimyo also varied considerably; while some daimyo clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the kuge, other daimyo were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. Daimyo often hired samurai to guard their land, and paid them in land or food, as relatively few could afford to pay them in money. The daimyo era ended soon after the Meiji Restoration, with the adoption of the prefecture system in 1871. The shugo daimyō (守護大名) were the first group of men to hold the title daimyō. They arose from among the shugo during the Muromachi period (approximately 1336–1573). The shugo-daimyo held not only military and police powers, but also economic power within a province. They accumulated these powers throughout the first decades of the Muromachi period. Major shugo-daimyō came from the Shiba, Hatakeyama, and Hosokawa clans, as well as the tozama clans of Yamana, Ōuchi, Takeda and Akamatsu. The greatest ruled multiple provinces.
Culture of Japan. Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the countrys prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world.[1] Since the Jomon period, ancestral groups like the Yayoi and Kofun, who arrived to Japan from Korea and China, respectively, have shaped Japanese culture. Rice cultivation and centralized leadership were introduced by these groups, shaping Japanese culture. Chinese dynasties, particularly the Tang dynasty, have influenced Japanese culture throughout history and brought it into the Sinosphere. After 220 years of isolation, the Meiji era opened Japan to Western influences, enriching and diversifying Japanese culture. Popular culture shows how much contemporary Japanese culture influences the world.[2] There are two competing hypotheses that try to explain the lineage of the Japanese people.[3][4]
Act on National Flag and Anthem. The Act on National Flag and Anthem (国旗及び国歌に関する法律, Kokki Oyobi Kokka ni Kansuru Hōritsu), abbreviated as 国旗国歌法,[2] is a law that formally established Japans national flag and anthem. Before its ratification on August 13, 1999, there was no official flag or anthem for Japan. The nisshōki (日章旗) flag, commonly referred to as the hinomaru (日の丸),[3] had represented Japan unofficially since 1870; Kimigayo (君が代) had been used as Japans de facto anthem since 1880. After Japans defeat in World War II, there were suggestions to legislate the hinomaru and Kimigayo as the official symbols of Japan. However, a law to establish the hinomaru and Kimigayo as official in 1974 failed in the National Diet, due to the opposition of the Japan Teachers Union that insists they have a connection with Japanese militarism. It was suggested that both the hinomaru and Kimigayo should be made official after a school principal in Hiroshima committed suicide over a dispute regarding the use of the flag and anthem in a school ceremony. After a vote in both houses of the National Diet, the law was passed on August 9, 1999. Promulgated and enforced on August 13, 1999, it was considered one of the most controversial laws passed by the National Diet in the 1990s. The debate surrounding the law also revealed a split in the leadership of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the unity of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partners. The passage of the law was met with mixed reactions. Although some Japanese hailed the passage, others felt that it was a shift toward restoring nationalistic feelings and culture: It was passed in time for the tenth anniversary of the Emperor Akihitos reign. In the countries that Japan had occupied during World War II, some felt that the laws passage, along with debates on laws related to military affairs and Yasukuni Shrine, marked a shift in Japan toward the political right. Regulations and government orders issued in the wake of this law, especially those issued by the Tokyo Board of Education, were also challenged in court by some Japanese due to conflicts with the Japanese constitution.[4][5]
Allan Warren. Michael Allan Warren (born 26 October 1948) is an English portrait photographer and actor, primarily known for his portraits of British nobility, politicians, and celebrities. His subjects include Charles III, Constantine II, Cary Grant, Enoch Powell, Alec Douglas-Home, Sophia Loren, Louis Mountbatten and Laurence Olivier. After growing up in post-war London with his mother, Warren attended Terrys Juveniles, a stage school based in the Drury Lane Theatre. It was during this period that he attended auditions through which he received several assignments. One such piece of work was as a child presenter in The Five Oclock Club, which afforded him the opportunity to associate with individuals such as Marc Bolan (then performing as Toby Tyler), who would later employ Warren as his first manager.[2][3] Warren started his photographic career at the age of 20, when he was acting in Alan Bennetts play Forty Years On with John Gielgud in the West End at the Apollo Theatre.[1] Around this time, Warren bought his first second-hand camera and began to take photographs of his fellow actors. His first major assignment was in 1969 when his friend Mickey Deans asked him to cover his wedding to Judy Garland, which marked the beginning of Warrens work as a professional photographer.[4] After this decisive event, Warren embarked on his photography career, throughout which he took portraits of personalities including many actors, writers, musicians, politicians and members of the British royal family.[5][6] In the early 1980s Warren embarked on a quest to photograph all 30 British dukes.[7] Together with Angus Montagu, 12th Duke of Manchester he set up the Dukes Trust, a charity for children in need.[8][9][10] Warren has uploaded many pictures from his archive to Wikimedia Commons, and many of those images have been used on Wikipedia pages, including the page on Warren himself.[11]
Shinto shrine. A Shinto shrine (神社, jinja; archaic: shinsha, meaning: kami shrine)[1] is a structure whose main purpose is to house (enshrine) one or more kami, the deities of the Shinto religion.[2] The main hall (本殿, honden)[note 1] is where a shrines patron kami is or are enshrined.[2][3] The honden may be absent in cases where a shrine stands on or near a sacred mountain, tree, or other object which can be worshipped directly or in cases where a shrine possesses either an altar-like structure, called a himorogi, or an object believed to be capable of attracting spirits, called a yorishiro, which can also serve as direct bonds to a kami.[4] There may be a hall of worship (拝殿, haiden) and other structures as well. Although only one word (shrine) is used in English, in Japanese, Shinto shrines may carry any one of many different, non-equivalent names like gongen, -gū, jinja, jingū, mori, myōjin, -sha, taisha, ubusuna, or yashiro. Miniature shrines (hokora) can occasionally be found on roadsides. Large shrines sometimes have on their precincts miniature shrines, sessha (摂社) or massha (末社).[note 2] Mikoshi, the palanquins which are carried on poles during festivals (matsuri), also enshrine kami and are therefore considered shrines. In 927 CE, the Engi-shiki (延喜式; lit. Procedures of the Engi Era) was promulgated. This work listed all of the 2,861 Shinto shrines existing at the time, and the 3,131 official-recognized and enshrined kami.[5] In 1972, the Agency for Cultural Affairs placed the number of shrines at 79,467, mostly affiliated with the Association of Shinto Shrines (神社本庁).[6] Some shrines, such as the Yasukuni Shrine, are totally independent of any outside authority.[7] The number of Shinto shrines in Japan is estimated to be around 100,000.[8] Since ancient times, the Shake (社家) families dominated Shinto shrines through hereditary positions, and at some shrines the hereditary succession continues to present day.
South Kensington. South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton.[1] Its name was supplanted with the advent of the railways in the late 19th century and the opening (and shutting) and naming of local tube stations.[2] The area has many museums and cultural landmarks with a high number of visitors, such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Adjacent affluent centres such as Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington, have been considered as some of the most exclusive real estate in the world. Following the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, an 87-acre (35 ha) area, west of what is now Exhibition Road, was purchased by the commissioners of the exhibition, in order to create a base for institutions dedicated to the arts and sciences, leading to the foundation of the Royal Albert Hall, three museums, the Royal School of Mines later a world renowned technological university, the Royal College of Music and the Royal College of Organists there. The market gardens of the rural area began to make way for a series of hospitals, such as the Brompton Hospital and the New Cancer Hospital along nearby Fulham Road.[3] Adjacent landowners began to develop the land in the 1860s as a result of the transport hub and the general urbanisation boom west of London, and led to the eventual absorption of Brompton and its station into Kensington. It was sealed by the arrival of the Metropolitan and District Railways at Brompton, but for public relations reasons, it was re-named South Kensington in 1868. To facilitate public access to the museums, the railway company built a pedestrian tunnel directly from the station concourse to an exit halfway up Exhibition Road, next to the now defunct Royal Mail sorting office, to avoid crowds having to cross the Cromwell Road. In 1906 the new Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway company opened the Brompton Road tube station in the vicinity, thus adding a link directly to the political, commercial and financial heart of the capital in Westminster, the West End and the City of London, but owing to under use, it was shut in 1934. During the Second World War it was used by the 26th (London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade.[4] Since the First World War it has become a cosmopolitan area attracting Belgian and French refugees, but also Poles during the Second World War and after, as well as latterly Spanish, Italian, and American expatriates. Some residents also have a Middle Eastern origin. The French presence is emphasised by the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, the French Institute, housing a theatre now used as the Ciné Lumière with nearby the Alliance française, as well as the Consulate General of France, not far from the French Embassy in Knightsbridge.[5] With a French bookshop and many international cafés in the area, it has been called Pariss 21st arrondissement.[6]
Rivulets. Rivulets is the stage name of minimalist singer-songwriter Nathan Leavitt Amundson.[1][2] Rivulets was the first artist signed to Lows Chairkickers Union record label in 2001.[3] He then released his first, self-titled album in 2002 and DEBRIDEMENT in 2003.[4] Rivulets was subsequently signed by Blast First,[5] recording the album you are my home for Blast First Petite.[6] you are my home was eventually licensed by Important Records and released in 2006,[7] followed by Were Fucked in 2010, also on Important Records.[8] This was followed by the critically acclaimed I Remember Everything on Jellyfant Records in 2014.[9] Rivulets then signed with France-based label Talitres, releasing the sixth Rivulets album in Our Circle in 2018.[10][11][12] Musicians who have performed as part of Rivulets include: Alan Sparhawk (Low), Mimi Parker (Low), Bob Weston (Shellac).,[13] LD Beghtol (The Magnetic Fields), Chris Brokaw (Codeine), Christian Frederickson (Rachels), Jarboe (Swans), Haley Bonar, Jessica Bailiff, Jon DeRosa (Aarktica), Fred Lonberg-Holm, Nathan Vollmar (Jandek), and Francesco Candura (Jennifer Gentle). Outside of his work as Rivulets, Amundson has also seen success as songwriter for hire, having penned songs for Berlin-based pop artist Clara Hill among others.[14]
Hamilton, Bermuda. Hamilton is the capital city of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, and the main settlement of Pembroke Parish. A port city, Hamilton is Bermudas financial and commercial centre, and a popular tourist destination. Its population of 854 (2016)[2] and its small land area make it one of the smallest capital cities in the world. The history of Hamilton as a British city began in 1790 when the government of Bermuda set aside 145 acres (59 ha) for its future seat, officially incorporated in 1793 by an Act of Parliament, and named for Governor Henry Hamilton. The colonys capital relocated to Hamilton from St Georges in 1815. The city has been at the political and military heart of Bermuda ever since. Government buildings include the parliament building, the Government House to the north, the former Admiralty House of the Royal Navy to the west (both in Pembroke), and the British Army garrison headquarters at Prospect Camp to its east. The Town of Hamilton became a city in 1897, ahead of the consecration in 1911 of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity (Church of England), which was under construction at the time. A Catholic cathedral, St. Theresas, was later constructed. In 1940, the Royal Navy commissioned a former US Navy destroyer as HMS Hamilton. The 2 November 1940, issue of The Royal Gazette, a newspaper published in the City of Hamilton, reported this in an article titled NEW DESTROYER HAS NAME OF HAMILTON: Mayor Here Receives Letter From Her Commander,[3] and began:
Stream (disambiguation). A stream is a body of moving water. Stream or streaming may also refer to:
Order of the British Empire. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities.[2] It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or a dame if female.[3] There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with the order, but are not members of it. The order was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V, who created the order to recognise such persons, male or female, as may have rendered or shall hereafter render important services to Our Empire.[3] Equal recognition was to be given for services rendered in the UK and overseas.[4] Today, the majority of recipients are UK citizens, though a number of Commonwealth realms outside the UK continue to make appointments to the order.[5] Honorary awards may be made to citizens of other nations of which the orders sovereign is not the head of state. The five classes of appointment to the Order are, from highest grade to lowest grade: The senior two ranks of Knight or Dame Grand Cross and Knight or Dame Commander entitle their members to use the titles Sir for men and Dame for women before their forenames, except with honorary awards.[6]
Google Maps. Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bike, air (in beta) and public transportation. As of 2020[update], Google Maps was being used by over one billion people every month around the world.[1] Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen, Stephen Ma and Noel Gordon in Australia at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google, which converted it into a web application. After additional acquisitions of a geospatial data visualization company and a real-time traffic analyzer, Google Maps was launched in February 2005.[2] The services front end utilizes JavaScript, XML, and Ajax. Google Maps offers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites,[3] and offers a locator for businesses and other organizations in numerous countries around the world. Google Map Maker allowed users to collaboratively expand and update the services mapping worldwide but was discontinued from March 2017. However, crowdsourced contributions to Google Maps were not discontinued as the company announced those features would be transferred to the Google Local Guides program,[4] although users that are not Local Guides can still contribute. Google Maps satellite view is a top-down or birds-eye view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 to 1,500 feet (240 to 460 m), while most other imagery is from satellites.[5] Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular basis, according to a 2011 report.[6] Google Maps previously used a variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore could not accurately show areas around the poles.[7] In August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to show a 3D globe. It is still possible to switch back to the 2D map in the settings. Google Maps for mobile devices was first released in 2006; the latest versions feature GPS turn-by-turn navigation along with dedicated parking assistance features. By 2013, it was found to be the worlds most popular smartphone app, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it.[8] In 2017, the app was reported to have two billion users on Android, along with several other Google services including YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Search, and Google Play.
Zheng (surname). Zheng (simplified Chinese: 郑; traditional Chinese: 鄭; pinyin: Zhèng; Wade–Giles: Cheng4, [ʈʂə́ŋ] ⓘ) is a Chinese surname. It is the 7th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem. In 2006, Zheng ranked 21st in Chinas list of top 100 most common surnames. Zheng belongs to the second major group of ten surnames which makes up more than 10% of the Chinese population.[1][2][3] Zheng was a major surname of the rich and powerful during Chinas Tang dynasty.[4] In Republic of China (Taiwan) and Hong Kong, the name is normally romanized as Cheng or Tcheng (occasionally romanized as Chang in Hong Kong although that variant is more commonly used for another Chinese name, Zhang). In Malaysia, Cheng is commonly romanized as Cheng, Cheang, Chang, Tay, Tee and Teh. It is spelled as Tay in Singapore, The in Indonesia, and Ty in Philippines,[5] from the Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew pronunciation of the character. It is also romanized as Dang from Hokchew. The surname also has taken form outside of Chinese societies: in Korean, the name is written 정 and transliterated as Jeong, Jung, or Chung. It is the fifth most common Korean surname (after Kim, Lee, Park, and Choi), with about 4.85% of the South Korean population (2,230,611 people) having this name.[citation needed] The Zheng surname originated in Henan. In 806 BC, King Xuan, the penultimate king of the Western Zhou dynasty, enfeoffed his younger brother Prince You, who became posthumously known as Duke Huan of Zheng, at Zheng (present-day Hua County, Shaanxi). Duke Huan was killed along with King You of Zhou when the Quanrong tribes sacked the Zhou capital Haojing in 771 BC. Duke Huan was succeeded by his son Duke Wu, who helped King Ping of Zhou establish the Eastern Zhou dynasty in Luoyang, and his feudal state of Zheng was also moved east to present-day Henan. His descendants and many people of the state later adopted Zheng as their surname.[6][7][8] The city of Xingyang is considered as the origin place of the people whose surname is Zheng. Today, Xingyang is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou (鄭州) which translates to Settlement of Zheng. Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan province and is located within the boundaries of the ancient state of Zheng (state). There is also another city called Xinzheng (New Zheng), also under the administration of Zhengzhou.

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