Pálinka is a traditional fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) with origins in the Carpathian Mountains, more exactly  known under several names, and invented in the Middle Ages. Protected as a geographical indication of the European Union, only fruit spirits mashed, distilled, matured and bottled in Hungary and similar apricot spirits from four provinces of Austria can be called "pálinka", while "Tótpálinka" refers to wheat-derived beverages. Törkölypálinka, a different product in the legal sense, is a similarly protected pomace spirit that is commonly included with pálinka. While pálinka may be made of any locally grown fruit, the most common ones are plums, apricots, apples, pears, and cherries.

A similar product exists in the Czech Republic and Slovakia where it is known as pálenka, and in Romania (Transylvania), Italy, and Greece under the name palincă. In Turkey it is known as Boğma.

Etymology

The words pálinka (in Hungarian), pálenka (Czech and Slovak), and palincă (Romanian) derive from the Slavonic stem paliti, "to burn, to distill". In Hungarian, the word Tótpálinka (literally 'Slavic pálinka') was used to refer to alcoholic drinks derived from wheat.

The Hungarian name  derives from German .

Legal definitions
The production of Hungarian pálinka is regulated by local law LXXIII of 2008, often referred to as "pálinka law", which is based on the regulation of generic fruit spirits of the European Union. An alcoholic beverage may be called pálinka if:

 it is fermented exclusively from fruit (excluding concentrates and dried fruits) grown in Hungary, and free of additional ingredients;
 it is grown, distilled and bottled in Hungary; and
 it is not rectified higher than 86% and is bottled with at least 37.5% ABV.

While pálinka is traditionally made from a mash of ripe fruit, the law does not control the addition of non-concentrated fruit juice, and explicitly allows the use of fruit pulp. Dried fruits are excluded from the mash only, and may be used in the aging process.

As a consequence of this regulation, a whole family of popular Hungarian products were rebranded as szeszes ital (spirit drinks). Traditional pálinkas mixed with honey were also rebranded as szeszes ital (or liqueur if the sugar content exceeded the required limit), even if there were no unorthodox steps in the process of distillation. Most of the brands re-categorized as spirit drinks, however, are cheap mixtures of flavorings, water, and rectified spirit.

In 2004, the European Union accepted pálinka as a Hungarian speciality, and hence its production is limited to Hungary and four provinces of Austria for pálinka made from apricots). This caused some confusion in neighbouring countries, as some claimed that producers of fruit spirits would have to pay a royalty to Hungary. This is, however, not the case. It is the brand "pálinka" that is protected by Hungarian and EU law, hence producers outside of Hungary are not allowed to use the brand "pálinka" for their products, but they are free to produce fruit spirits and sell them under different names. This is in spite of the drink being historically distilled in most of the former Kingdom of Hungary, much of which falls outside present-day Hungary.

In Austria, four provinces are allowed to label local apricot spirits as Barack Palinka (transliteration of Hungarian barackpálinka): Burgenland, Lower Austria, Styria, and Vienna. Unlike Hungarian pálinka, its Austrian counterpart may not be made with column stills, and in order to achieve a full character, careful slow distillation is required by law.

Geographical protection
Pálinka as a geographical indication (in other terms, a product with protected designation of origin or PDO) has been officially registered in the European Union since 2004.

While pálinka has PDO on its own, some regions of Hungary are especially suitable for the production of certain fruits, and pálinka of excellent quality has been produced in those regions for centuries. These local variations are protected as separate geographical indications and have their own well-detailed regulations. In order to use these protected names on the label, strict geographical and technical requirements must be met. A product not meeting the special requirements of gönci barackpálinka (apricot pálinka of Gönc) for example, cannot be labeled as such, not even if it is otherwise a legitimate apricot pálinka from Gönc. In Hungary, only these local variations are referred to as pálinka with protected designations of origin.

The eight palinkas with local PDO
Pálinkas with PDO include szatmári szilvapálinka (plum pálinka of Szatmár), kecskeméti barackpálinka (apricot pálinka of Kecskemét), szabolcsi almapálinka (apple pálinka of Szabolcs), békési szilvapálinka (plum pálinka of Békés), gönci barackpálinka (apricot pálinka of Gönc), újfehértói meggypálinka (sour cherry pálinka of Újfehértó), göcseji körtepálinka (pear pálinka of Göcsej), and pannonhalmi törkölypálinka (pomace pálinka of Pannonhalma).

History

The first records of the Hungarian spirit date back to the fourteenth century (1332); called Aqua vitae reginae Hungariae. This spirit was probably a spirit blended with rosemary, and had its use in medicine, as both the king and the queen suffered from arthritis.

In the 19th century, breweries and pálinka distilleries operated in tandem. Comenius described the equipment used to make pálinka in Orbis sensualium pictus ("The World in Pictures"), his famous book written for children in the Hungarian town of Sárospatak. Distilling itself was the right of landowners, and laws were introduced to prevent peasants from making pálinka at home. The use of wheat was banned, and distillation was forbidden on religious holidays. Despite this, the church still oversaw alcohol production. Records show that Cistercian monks in Heves County were brewing beer and distilling pálinka in 1715. The role of Jewish lenders and businessmen also grew with the production of alcohol, and Saint Michael was designated patron saint of distilling. Textbooks and publications also began to appear on the subject around this time.

The larger-scale production of distillates, pálinka and liqueurs from 1799 resulted in guidelines being drawn up for distillation, and the priority rights granted to landowners were made law. It was not long before a pálinka tax was introduced, and by 1850 distillation was a state monopoly. In 1920, there were 260 pálinka distilleries in Hungary, a figure that grew to 1,070 in 1970 before falling back down to 815 in 1982. In the meantime, various laws were introduced to restrict production, including prohibition during the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and the splitting of production 50-50 with the state from 1952 to 1970.

Illegal home distilling became popular in the 18th century when peasant breweries were shut down. The practice was fuelled by the desire to make use of fruit that had fallen from the tree and could not be eaten, coupled with the knowledge that making pálinka at home was much less expensive. Because the end product was often inferior, it was reserved for personal use and only offered to friends and guests.

The word pálinka became widespread in Hungary in the 17th century, but it still referred to distillates made from grain. The meaning was later transferred to fruit spirits while wheat distillates were referred to as crematura. Distillation became a privilege of the landlords, which led to the proliferation of home stills. Law forbade the use of bread-stuffs for distillation, hence the use of fruits. Private distilleries and factories started to appear towards the end of the eighteenth century, which led to legislation and to the introduction of a pálinka tax.

Varieties
A popular saying in Hungary says: what can be used to prepare jam can also be used to produce pálinka. For a fruit to be suitable for jam production it has to contain some sugar. This saying suggests that pálinka can be made from a variety of fruit, and indeed it is made from most of the fruits available in Hungary.

The most common pálinkas are made from apricots, pears, and plums. Other fruits that are often used are sour cherries, apples, mulberries, and quince. Pálinka made from chestnuts or walnuts is also available.

 Kisüsti (literally 'small pot, cauldron') is a double-distilled pálinka made in a copper pot not exceeding a volume of 1000 litres.
 Érlelt ('aged') is a pálinka aged for at least three months in a wooden cask smaller than 1000 litres, or for at least six months in a wooden cask of 1000 litres or above.
 Ó ('old') is a pálinka aged for at least 12 months in a wooden cask smaller than 1000 litres, or for at least 24 months in a wooden cask of 1000 litres or above.
 Ágyas ('bedded') is a pálinka aged for at least three months together with fruit. The fruit can be of the same sort used to obtain the distillate or of another sort. To 100 liters of pálinka at least 10 kg of ripe or 5 kg of dried fruit must be added.
 Törköly (Pomace pálinka, also Törkölypálinka) is a pálinka made from grape pomace. One of the oldest types of pálinka, it helps digestion and is usually consumed in small quantities after meals. Very popular, typically drunk in wine-producing regions.
 Barack (pronounced "baratsk") is a type of pálinka made of apricots. The word barack is a collective term for both apricot (in Hungarian sárgabarack, lit. "yellow-peach") and peach (in Hungarian őszibarack, lit. "autumn-peach").

Consumption

Pálinka should be served at  because it is at this temperature that the fine smell and taste of the fruit can be best enjoyed. If served too cold, the smell and the taste will be difficult to appreciate.

The form of the glass used to drink pálinka affects the drinking experience. The ideal glass is wide at the bottom and narrow at the rim, that is, tulip-shaped. The relatively narrow neck of the glass concentrates the "nose" released from the larger surface at the bottom of the glass, magnifying the smell of the drink.

Production

Modern production
Modern commercial production occurs in Hungary and parts of Austria. It is commonly made from the fermentation of plums, but other fruits used include apricots, apples, pears, peaches, and cherries. The traditional double distillation process results in a strong alcohol content of 40 to 70 percent ABV.

Commercial production
Commercially available pálinka is always distilled in one of the registered distilleries.

The quality of pálinka is largely influenced by the quality of the fruit used, hence the distiller has to choose good quality fruit with a rich taste.

The first step in the production process is the preparation of the fruit mash. The stony seed is removed from the fruits that have such (e.g., cherry, apricot, plum) in order to prevent the cyanide contained in these seeds from ending up in the distillate. Some fruits (e.g., apple, pear, quince) are ground in order to make the mash soft.

The second step in the production process is fermentation. Some fruits, like quince, require an additive to start the fermentation process (e.g., citric acid). The fermentation is carried out in an anaerobic environment. The ideal temperature for the fermentation process is between , and the process takes between 10 and 15 days.

The third step in the production process is distillation. There are two types of distillation processes used: in a pot still or in a column still. Distillation in a pot still is considered to be the traditional way of distillation (kisüsti pálinka refers to a pálinka distilled in a pot still no bigger than 1000 litres). Pálinka distilled in a pot still is always double distilled. In the first step, the alcohol is extracted from the fermented mash; the result is called alszesz (low alcohol). In the second step, the taste of the fruit is extracted from the fermented mash. The second distillation has the biggest influence on the quality of the pálinka and thus requires special skills. During the second distillation one distinguishes between előpárlat (foreshots), középpárlat (middle cut) and utópárlat (feints). The előpárlat is not used, even though much of the taste is contained in this cut. The középpárlat is the one that gives the body of the distillate.

Distillation in a column still involves a single distillation. The process is faster and cheaper than distillation in a pot still, and hence the resulting pálinka is cheaper.

The last step in the process is aging. Pálinka can be aged in wooden casks (made of, e.g., mulberry wood) or in tanks made of metal. Not all varieties of pálinka can be aged in wooden casks because the wood can cancel the fruity taste of the drink.

Non-commercial production
In Hungary, one can ferment a batch of fruit mash at home, then take the fermented mash to a distiller, who can then legally distill the mash to the desired strength. Legislation legalized small home distillers in 2010.

The most alcoholic pálinkas are (informally) referred to as kerítésszaggató in Hungarian, which literally means "fence-ripper" (referring to a drunkard's loss of balance) or "guggolós" ("squatter"), referring to the action required while walking near the windows of the houses of non-professional distillers to avoid getting invited (again) to taste their home-made pálinka. These potent, homemade, házi (home-made) pálinkas are commercially available in small portions and are very common in the countryside.

Similar products
 Rakia, a spirit made throughout Southeastern Europe
 Slivovitz, plum spirit
 Țuică, a similar drink in Romania

See also
 National symbols of Hungary

References

Further reading
 Farnadi, Éva (ed.): Hagyományok, ízek, régiók, Alföldi Nyomda, 2000 ()

External links
 The History of Pálinka A site dedicated for the beverage (in English)
 palinka.lap.hu A site with a collection of links about Pálinka
 A description of the palinka with protected designation of origin (in Hungarian)

Fruit brandies
Hungarian spirits

Pálinka


Kickboxing is a descriptive term for martial arts that, while similar to boxing, use the feet just like the hands to hit. Kickboxing can be practiced for general health, or as the fight sport. The word kickboxing represents a set of disciplines or sports of combat that use the feet and the fists. Especially, kickboxing is one of the disciplines of Boxe pieds-poings which was developed at first by the Japaneses and afterwards by the North Americans. There are different kinds of kick boxing, most popular form is one where kicks are allowed towards head & torso only.

In the middle of the years 1960, the Japanese Kurosaki, who trained in Kyokushinkai Karate, travelled to Thailand discovering Thai boxing. In his returning to the Japan decided to combine his techniques of karate with that of Thai boxing, removing elbow strikes (the Americans also removed knee strikes), so a new sport called "kickboxing" was born.

Among the non-Japaneses that gained more successes, a special consideration should be given to Frenchman Christian Guillaume who in 1969 gained four victories and two draws; and American Benny "The Jet" Urquidez who in 1977 defeated Tatsuyuki Suzuki in four rounds.

In 1973 Urquidez and Howard Hanson created the W.K.A. (World Karate Association), changing years after the "K" de karate for that of Kick-Boxing.

The more known champions are Rob Kaman, Benny Urquidez, Dennis Alexio, Ernesto Hoost, and Marek Piotrowski.

Rules
The punches and kicks are permitted for above the waist, the sweepings and the low kicks (kicks to the thigh) also are permitted.

The "amateur" combats take place in three rounds, and the professional ones last five rounds; 10 in championships of Europe and 12 in the championships of the world, with a one-minute half-time (break) between rounds.

The kicks to the thigh (low kick) usually decide about the difference in the combats.

Equipment
Pants (long or short), boxing gloves and protectors for the teeth and for the genitals; in the female combats, women should also wear protector of chest and boots (not required in the professional combats).

Other websites
 World association of all styles Kickboxing Organizations (W.A.S.K.O.)
 The World Kickboxing & Karate Association (W.K.A.)- Prof & Amateur Kickboxing
 International Sports Kickboxing Association (I.S.K.A)- Prof & Amateur Kickboxing
 International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) - Prof & Amateur Kickboxing
 International Kickboaxing Board of Control (IKBC)
 World Kickboxing Network (W.K.N.)
 World Kickboxing Union (W.K.U.)
 World Kickboxing Federation (W.K.F.)
 World Federation of Kickboxing (WFK)
 World International kickboxing league (I.K.L.)
 Professional Kickboxing Association (P.K.A)
 Muay Thai Kickboxing (M.T.K)
 Kickboxing Guide (Premier)

Kickboxing


Griffith's Experiment was an experiment done in 1928 by Frederick Griffith. It was one of the first experiments showing that bacteria can get DNA through a process.

Griffith used two strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae. He then uses the bacteria to infect the mice, which have many similar characteristics to humans. He used a type III-S (smooth) and type II-R (rough) strain. The III-S strain covers itself with a polysaccharide capsule that protects it from the host's immune system. This means that the host will die. The II-R strain does not have that protective shield around it and is killed by the host's immune system.

In this experiment, bacteria from the III-S strain were killed by heat, and their remains were added to II-R strain bacteria. While neither harmed the mice on their own, the blend of the two was able to kill mice.

Griffith was also able to get both live II-R and live III-S strains of S. pneumoniae from the blood of these dead mice. He concluded that the type II-R had been "transformed" into the lethal III-S strain by a "transforming principle" that was somehow part of the dead III-S strain bacteria.

Today, we know that the "transforming principle" Griffith saw was the DNA of the III-S strain bacteria. While the bacteria had been killed, the DNA had survived the heating process and was taken up by the II-R strain bacteria. The III-S strain DNA contains the genes that form the shielding polysaccharide part from attack. Armed with this gene, the former II-R strain bacteria were now protected from the host's immune system and could kill the host.

The exact nature of the transforming principle was confirmed in one of many experiments done by Avery, McLeod and McCarty, as well as Hershey and Chase.

Related pages
Genetics
Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment
Hershey–Chase experiment

References

Hartl, Daniel and Jones, Elizabeth 2005. Genetics: analysis of genes and genomes. 6th ed, Jones & Bartlett.
The original experiment by Griffith. Original article and 35th anniversary reprint available.

1928
Genetics experiments
Bacteria
Molecular biology

Griffith's experiment


Monotremes are a group of mammals that form the order Monotremata. Monotremes are the only mammals that lay eggs, but they also feed their babies with milk.

The word 'monotreme' refers to their common rear opening, the cloaca. In amphibia, reptiles, birds and probably all early tetrapods, there is a common opening for urine, reproduction and faeces.

Evolution
Monotremes are derived from earlier mammals than the marsupials and eutherians, but their fossil record is poor.

The time at which the monotreme line diverged from other mammalian lines is uncertain, but one survey of genetic studies gives an estimate of about 220 million years ago. This is in the Upper Triassic. Fossils of a jaw fragment 110 million years old were found at Lightning Ridge, New South Wales. This means they originated up to 100 million years before the Metatheria or Eutheria, so they are definitely 'living fossils'.

Mosaic features
The egg-laying and the cloaca are primitive ('basal') features inherited from earlier synapsid tetrapods.

But the monotremes also have other features such as the production of milk, caring for their young in burrows, homeothermy and a neocortex in their brains. These are advanced ('derived') features which they share with placentals and marsupials. This mixture of basal and derived features is characteristic of the way different body parts often evolve at different rates. This is called mosaic evolution.

In mammals, a monophyletic group, there were a number of different lines living at the same time through the Upper Triassic to the Upper Cretaceous. Each of these lines had a mixture of basal and derived features until, at last, the placental mammals developed the whole suite of derived characters. This gave them a great advantage over the other groups wherever open competition occurred. However, because of their long seclusion in southern continents, some of the monotremes and marsupials have survived.

Survivors
There are two surviving families of monotremes, with five living species. They all live in Australia and New Guinea. People commonly know them as platypus and echidnas. There is only one platypus that exists now, the duck-billed platypus. The four others echidnas.

Types of monotreme
 Order Monotremata
 Family Ornithorhynchidae
 Genus Ornithorhynchus
 Platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus
 Family Tachyglossidae: Echidnas
 Genus Tachyglossus
 Short-beaked Echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus
 Genus Zaglossus: Long-beaked Echidnas
 Western Long-beaked Echidna, Zaglossus bruijni
 Sir David's Long-beaked Echidna, Zaglossus attenboroughi
 Eastern Long-beaked Echidna, Zaglossus bartoni

References

Living fossils

Monotreme


Bone marrow is a type of tissue that can be found in hollow bones of many animals including humans. In adults, the bone marrow in large bones makes new blood cells. Bone marrow makes up about 4% of an adult human's weight (about 2.6 kilograms).

Marrow types

There are two types of bone marrow. Red marrow is made mostly of myeloid tissue (which makes new blood cells).  Red blood cells, platelets, and most white blood cells are created by red marrow. Yellow marrow is made mainly of fat cells. Both types of bone marrow contain many blood vessels and capillaries.

When a person is born, all of their bone marrow is red. As the person ages, more and more of the bone marrow changes to the yellow type. By adulthood, about half of a person's bone marrow is red.

Red marrow is found mainly in the flat bones - like the hip bone, breast bone, skull, ribs, vertebra (the bones that make up the spinal column), and shoulder blades - and in the cancellous ("spongy") material at the ends of the long bones like the femur (thigh bone) and humerus (upper forearm bone). Yellow marrow is found inside the hollow middle section, or medullary cavity of the long bones.

In cases of severe blood loss, the body can change yellow marrow back to red marrow so that more blood cells are made to replace the lost blood.

Bones

Bone marrow


A  or succah (;  ; plural,    or sukkos or sukkoth, often translated as "booth") is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated with autumnal, harvest or Judaic themes.  The book of Vayikra (Leviticus) describes it as a symbolic wilderness shelter, commemorating the time God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness they inhabited after they were freed from slavery in Egypt.  It is common for Jews to eat, sleep and otherwise spend time in the sukkah. In Judaism, Sukkot is considered a joyous occasion and is referred to in Hebrew as Z'man Simchateinu (the time of our rejoicing), and the sukkah itself symbolizes the fragility and transience of life and one's dependence on God.

Associated activities

The halakha requires eating and traditionally sleeping in the sukkah. However, Jews are not expected to remain in the sukkah if they would be very uncomfortable there. For this reason, Jews living at northern latitudes will generally not sleep in the sukkah due to the low temperatures of autumn nights. Some Jews in these locales will spend some time in the sukkah eating and relaxing but go indoors to sleep.

When rain falls on the sukkah, one is not required to stay inside. The Mishna in Sukkah 28b compares rain falling on a sukkah to a master who receives a drink from his servant and then throws it back in the servant's face. The analogy is that through the rainfall, God is showing displeasure with the performance of the mitzvah by not allowing the Jews to fulfill their obligation of sitting in the sukkah.

In Israel and other temperate climates (such as Florida, Australia, Texas, and Southern California), observant Jews will often conduct all their eating, studying, and sleeping activities in the sukkah. Many Jews will not eat or drink anything outside the sukkah. Others will drink or eat fruit outside the sukkah.

In Israel, it is a common practice for hotels, restaurants, snack shops, and outdoor tourist attractions (such as zoos) to provide a Kosher sukkah for customers to dine in.

All Lubavitcher Hasidim and some Belzer Hasidim (especially outside Israel) do not sleep in the sukkah due to its intrinsic holiness. Though the halakha doesn't obligate one to eat or sleep in the sukkah if it is raining, Lubavitcher Hasidim will still eat there.

A popular social activity which involves people visiting each other's Sukkot has become known as "Sukkah hopping". Food is laid out so that participants will be able to recite the various required blessings.

Structure

According to halakha, a sukkah is a structure consisting of a roof made of organic material which has been disconnected from the ground for the purpose of the commandment (the s'chach). A sukkah must have three walls. It should be at least three feet tall, and be positioned so that all or part of its roof is open to the sky. (Only the part which is under the sky is kosher.) Most authorities require its floor area to be at least 16 square cubits.

In practice, the walls of a sukkah can be constructed from any material that will withstand a normally anticipated terrestrial wind. If the material is not rigid and therefore will sway in the wind, the sukkah is not kosher (Talmud, Sukkah 24b). Accordingly, there is a discussion among contemporary halakhic authorities whether canvas may be used for walls: Some, such as R. Ovadiah Yosef (Shu"t Yechaveh Da'at 3:46) hold that even the slightest degree of swaying in the wind will disqualify the sukkah walls, and thus canvas cannot realistically be employed. Others, such as the Chazon Ish, permit motion to and fro of less than three handbreadths, thereby facilitating the usage of canvas walls which are anchored at all sides. The specific details of what constitutes a wall, the minimum and maximum wall heights, whether there can be spaces between the walls and the roof, and the exact material required for the s'chach (roofing) can be found in various exegetical texts.

A sukkah can be built on the ground or on an open porch or balcony. Indeed, many observant Jews who design their home's porch or deck will do so in a fashion that aligns with their sukkah-building needs. Portable sukkot made of a collapsible metal frame and cloth walls have recently become available for those who have little space, or for those who are traveling (in order to have a place to eat one's meals).

Roof covering
The roof covering, known as s'chach (סכך in Hebrew), must consist of something that grew from the earth but is currently disconnected from it. Palm leaves, bamboo sticks, pine branches, wood and the like can all be used for s'chach, unless they were processed previously for a different use.

There must be enough s'chach that inside the sukkah there should be more shade than sun. However, there should ideally be sufficient gaps between the pieces of s'chach so that one can see the sun or stars.

Decorations
Many people hang decorations such as streamers, shiny ornaments, and pictures from the interior walls and ceiling beams of a sukkah. Fresh, dried or plastic fruit—including etrogs and the seven species for which Israel is praised (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates; see Deuteronomy 8:8)—are popular decorations.

Some families also line the interior walls with white sheeting, in order to recall the "Clouds of Glory" that surrounded the Jewish nation during their wanderings in the desert. The Chabad custom is not to decorate the sukkah, as the sukkah itself is considered to be an object of beauty.

Associated prayers

Blessing
According to Jewish law, one must recite the following blessing when using the sukkah. The blessing is normally recited after the blessing made on food, such as on bread or cake:

Ushpizin

During the holiday, some Jews recite the ushpizin prayer which symbolizes the welcoming of seven "exalted guests" into the sukkah. These ushpizin, or guests, represent the seven shepherds of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David.  According to tradition, each night a different guest enters the sukkah followed by the other six. Each of the ushpizin parallels the spiritual focus of the day on which they visit.

In Chabad tradition, an additional set of corresponding "chasidic" ushpizin enter the sukkah, beginning with the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezeritch and continuing with the consecutive rebbes of the Chabad Hasidic dynasty.

Notable examples

Drive-through

In 2010, Bet Shira Congregation in Miami, Florida, erected a tent as a drive-through Sukkah, dubbed "McBet Shira Sukkah", in the parking lot of the synagogue.

Sukkah City
Sukkah City was a public art and architecture competition planned for New York City's Union Square Park.    The winning design was chosen as the City Sukkah, to stand, starting on September 22, 2010, for the requisite seven days of the harvest holiday.  A committee of art critics and celebrated architects selected the 12 finalists from a field of entries.

Pedi-Sukkah
Pedi-Sukkahs see the normally stationary build of a Sukkah placed on the back of a mobile vehicle, usually a 3-wheeled bicycle.  The pedi-Sukkah was introduced by Levi Duchman in 2009 and has since spread to at least 15 states and 5 countries.

Samaritan sukkahs

In Samaritanism, sukkahs are built indoors using fruit instead of wood. According to Samaritan historian Benyamim Tsedaka, Samaritans initially constructed sukkahs outside of their homes, as Jews do. However, during the Byzantine period, the Samaritans faced persecutions and began to construct them inside instead. This custom has remained ever since.

See also

 Syndicat Northcrest v. Amselem, a Canadian legal case on the building of sukkot

References

External links

 "Sukkah City"—slideshow by The New York Times
 "What on Earth Is a Sukkah?": Slideshow by NPR
 Laws of Sukkot
 sukkahsoftheworld.org: Pictures of sukkahs from Sharon to Shanghai
 Local Sukkah: Worldwide listing of sukkahs available for public use
 The Laws of the Succah by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

House types
Huts
Jewish ritual objects
Positive Mitzvoth
Sukkot
Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law
Vernacular architecture
Jewish buildings

Sukkah


The history of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 covers the dissolution of the Soviet Union. ("Dissolution" means ending or splitting up.) The dissolution of the Soviet Union describes its end as a separate country.

The Soviet Union had many regions called "republics". They all belonged to the Russian Empire before 1917. All these "republics" were part of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union was one country. After its dissolution, all of the republics became independent countries. The names of these countries are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Russia is a special case, because it still has a number of former republics inside its borders. That is why the country is called the Russian Federation. There are eight Federal Districts and 83 so-called "Federal Subjects" of the Russian Federation. Siberia, for example, has two huge federal districts.

The Soviet Union ended with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. At the time of dissolution of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev was the president of the Soviet Union. He was in this position for a little over a year but he was leader of the Soviet Union from March 11th 1985. On 25 December 1991, he quit the post of the president of the USSR. By 31 December 1991, all organizations and departments of the Soviet Union stopped working. On that date, the Soviet flag flew for the last time on the Kremlin.

Background
During 1969 and 1982, very few changes took place in the politics and economy of the Soviet Union. With the beginning of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, its relationship with the United States also deteriorated. At that time Jimmy Carter, followed by Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States. Jimmy Carter ended the policy of Détente - ending of unfriendly relationship. Some historians believe that this may be one of the reasons for the Soviet Union to change its political and economic policies.

In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the CPSU. Under him, a new group of officials and leaders started a process of changes in the politics and economy of the Soviet Union. They also tried to improve relationships with Western countries like the US.

At that time, the Soviet economy was doing okay but it was slower than its competitors' economies in the West. Also, the cost of maintaining the Soviet Union, as a superpower was huge. These costs included running a large military; running the KGB networks; and giving money to countries close to the Soviet Union. At the same time, the Soviet Union's technological development had fallen behind. For example: many of its factories used out-of-date technologies and it had fallen behind in the use of information technology.

In view of these and other reasons, Gorbachev and his team started three important policies:
 Glasnost – meaning political openness.
 Perestroika – meaning economic changes and restructuring.
 Uskoreniye – meaning speeding up of the economic development.

Changes

Since the time of Vladimir Lenin in 1920s, the people of the Soviet Union did not have any right to own personal property and business. The government owned almost everything. In 1988, the government permitted the people to own some types of businesses in the service sector, manufacturing, and foreign trade. A system of cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers came into existence.

Glasnost gave a greater freedom of speech to the citizens and allowed them to criticise the government - something they had never been allowed to do. The government reduced censorship and control on publication. The government set free many political prisoners. In January 1987, Gorbachev started a process of democratization of Soviet politics. In June 1988, Gorbachev started a process to reduce the control of the CPSU on the different parts of the government.

In December 1988, the Supreme Soviet had approved the establishment of a Congress of People's Deputies, the Soviet Union's new legislative body. In March and April 1989, elections to the Congress of People's Deputies took place. The members on 15th March 1990 elected Gorbachev as the first executive President of the Soviet Union.

The outcome
Many steps taken by Gorbachev gave results different than the intended results. Thus the perestroika and glasnost intended to make the Soviet economy stronger resulted into something very different. Many factors and events combined and finally they resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Under the policy of glasnost (political openness), the Soviet government and the Communist Party lost control over the media. A free media brought to notice of the public many bad aspects of the society and the economy of the Soviet Union. These bad aspects included poor housing, alcoholism, drug abuse, pollution, out-of-date technologies in many factories, and corruption. People also learnt of many crimes committed by Stalin. For example, they learnt about prisoners at Gulags, agreement with Adolf Hitler, and large massacres of Stalin opponents. Further, people also learnt details about such events as the ongoing Soviet war in Afghanistan and bad management of nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl (the Soviet Union didn't publicly admit to the meltdown until three days after it happened). In short, people learnt about the negative aspects of the Soviet life. People began to lose faith in their Soviet system and ideology of Communism.

By 1989, the Soviet government found it to be too difficult for the Soviet Union to keep its control over its Eastern European bloc and decided to let them choose their own futures. After the end of the Second World War, with the support of the Soviet Union, communist governments were ruling all these countries. The change in the policy of the Soviet Union resulted into fall of the communist governments in many such countries by 1990: in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

Seeing all these developments, many "republics" of the Soviet Union wanted to become independent. The Glasnost policy also released long wanted nationalism in the "republics" that the Soviet government had suppressed and covered up. Some republics tried to become independent.

The leaders had thought that the policy of perestroika was a bold step to improve the economy. But, the steps were not very strong to improve the bad economic conditions of 1980s. Despite many changes, Gorbachev and his team had left many aspects of the Soviet economy unchanged. For example, price control, inconvertibility of the ruble, and government control over most means of production continued. By 1990 the economic situation had become worse. The examples include:
 Government expenditure had increased.
 Tax revenues had come down as the republics had stopped paying taxes.
 Income from sale of vodka came down as many people had stopped drinking.
 The government had to give money to support unprofitable farms and industries.
 The government had removed many controls but did not bring forth other changes for smooth transition from state control to a free economy. This resulted into many problems including low production.

The dissolution
On 7th February 1990, the Central Committee of the CPSU was forced to loosen its control over power. At around the same time, different "republics" of the Soviet Union started to claim their right to become independent. They stopped following the laws of the central government of the Soviet Union. They also stopped paying taxes to the central authorities (of Moscow) of the Soviet Union. These weakened the Soviet authority and economy.

During a 1990 visit of Gorbachev to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, about 250,000 persons protested in a public meeting. On 11th March 1990, leaders of Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet central-government demanded Lithuania to give up its independence and sent the Soviet Army continued to keep many troops in Lithuania. The government said that it would have to follow the Soviet constitution if it wanted to leave. The Soviet Union also did economic blockade of Lithuania. Estonia and Latvia were also illegally taken by the Soviet Union in 1940. On 30th March 1990, the leaders of Estonia declared that the control of their country by the Soviet Union from 1940 was illegal. They also declared independence. The leaders of Latvia also started process of independence on 4th May 1990.

On 17th March 1991, people of the Soviet Union voted to keep the existing Soviet Union in a slightly changed form. The Baltic States (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia), Armenia, Georgia and Moldova boycotted the voting. In each of the other nine "republics" of the Soviet Union, a majority of the voters supported the retention of the Soviet Union. In June 1991 an election took place in the Russian Republic of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin got 57% of the vote. He was a critic of Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev's preferred candidate, former Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov, got only 16% of the vote.

The Coup
The "republics" of the Soviet Union had agreed to sign on 20th August 1991, an agreement making them almost independent republics but part of a federation, with a common president, foreign policy and military. However, many persons disagreed, and they wanted a fast transition to market economy even if it meant dissolution of the Soviet Union. There were many others in the CPSU and the military of the Soviet Union who supported continuation of the Soviet Union.

On 19th August 1991, some senior leaders of the Soviet Union formed a "State Committee on the State Emergency." They prevented signing of the above-mentioned agreement on 20th August 1991. These leaders included Gorbachev's vice president Gennadi Yanayev, prime minister Valentin Pavlov, defense minister Dmitriy Yazov, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, and many other senior officials. At that time Gorbachev was holidaying in Crimea). These officials put him under house arrest. They also issued orders banning all political activities and banned most newspapers.

This was like a coup. The organizers had expected popular support for their action. But, the people did not support them. Instead, they supported "White House" (Yeltsin's office), then the symbolic seat of Russian sovereignty. The organizers of the coup tried but failed to arrest Boris Yeltsin. After three days, on August 21, the coup failed. The authorities detained the organizers. Gorbachev returned as president of the Soviet Union. However, Gorbachev's real powers had reduced.

Through the autumn of 1991, the Russian government took over the union government, ministry by ministry. In November 1991, Yeltsin issued an order banning the CPSU throughout the Russian republic. As a result, many former CPSU personnel left CPSU to join the new positions in the new Russian government.

After the failure of the coup, the republics of the Soviet Union increased their efforts to become independent. On 6th September 1991, the Soviet Union recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. On 1st December 1991, Ukraine declared its independence, after 90% of the voters opted for an independent Ukraine; this really destroyed any hopes of keeping the Soviet Union together since Ukraine was the second most powerful "republic" after Russia. One by one, the remaining eleven "republics" of the Soviet Union also declared themselves as sovereign and independent states.

The CIS
As noted above, on 6th September 1991, the Soviet Union had recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It may be note that twelve out of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union had signed an international agreement (European Energy Charter) in the Hague on 17th December 1991. The signing had indicated that these republics had practically become independent and sovereign countries.

Leaving apart already independent Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the remaining 12 republics, all (except Georgia) joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In December 1993, Georgia also joined the CIS. On 26th August 2006 Turkmenistan left the permanent membership, and became an associate member.

Many persons believed that with the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Soviet Union ceased to exist. They believed that it was the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Many others think that with CIS, the Russia continues to have some control over the former republics of the Soviet Union.

On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR. By December 31, 1991 all official Soviet institutions had stopped to function in different "republics" of the Soviet Union. The individual governments of these republics started functioning. The Soviet flag flew last time over the Kremlin.

Summary
The four principles had governed the Soviet Union: a chain of soviets; ethnic federation; state socialism; and supremacy of the Communist party. Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost created a situation which weakened all the above four principles. He repeatedly tried to form a circle of leaders to support his policies. He tried to do all these as he and his team saw that the Soviet Union was moving toward a long-term stagnation.

Gorbachev's policies made it possible for leaders of various Soviet republics to gain confidence and influence. At the same time, he faced opposition from many including the nationalist forces and the traditional communists. Some people accepted the reforms; some wanted the old system to continue; and some desired complete independence from the Soviet Union and central control. In the end, Gorbachev was unable to ensure any common view among these forces. Ultimately, this led to the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union.

After the dissolution

Immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin took many steps to change the economy of the Soviet Union from a socialist economy to a capitalist economy. For example: he cut the payment of grants to money-losing farms and industries; he also removed control over prices; he took steps for convertibility of the Russian rouble. He also allowed many people close to his circle, and other business people, to take possession of the businesses and industries earlier owned by the government, and to run them as private enterprises. The planners and economists had thought that these changes would lead to a faster economic development. However, nothing of this sort happened.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia is facing many problems, including the following:
 About 25% of the population of Russia is now very poor and live below the poverty line.
 The life expectancy has come down. This means people die at an early age.
 The Gross Domestic Product had become about 50% of the earlier times.

Many Russians of older generation believe that the earlier system was better. During 1990s, Russia faced many crises in political, social and economic matters. Many persons still believe that the situation still continues to be worse compared to earlier times.

Related pages
 Commonwealth of Independent States

Other websites
 Reform, Coup and Collapse: The End of the Soviet State by Professor Archie Brown.
 The Soviet Union Disintegrates by Frank E. Smitha

Further reading
 Helene Carrere D'Encausse, The end of the Soviet Empire: the triumph of the nations, Basic Books, 1992,
 Ronald Grigor Suny, The revenge of the past: nationalism, revolution, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stanford University Press, 1993,

1980s in the Soviet Union
1990s in the Soviet Union

History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)


Geometry (from Ancient Greek: Γεωμετρία (romanized: Geometria (English: "Land measurement") derived from Γη (romanized: Ge; English: "Earth" or "land") and also derived from Μέτρον) (romanized: Métron; English: "A measure")) is a branch of mathematics that studies the size, shapes, positions and dimensions of things. We can only see shapes that are flat (2D) or solid (3D), but mathematicians (people who study math) are able to study shapes that are 4D, 5D, 6D, and so on.

Squares, circles and triangles are some of the simplest shapes in flat geometry. Cubes, cylinders, cones and spheres are simple shapes in solid geometry.

Uses
Plane geometry can be used to measure the area and perimeter of a flat shape. Solid geometry can measure a solid shape's volume and surface area.

Geometry can be used to calculate the size and shape of many things. For example, geometry can help people find:
 the surface area of a house, so they can buy the right amount of paint
 the volume of a box, to see if it is big enough to hold a liter of food
 the area of a farm, so it can be divided into equal parts
 the distance around the edge of a pond, to know how much fencing to buy.

Origins
Geometry is one of the oldest branches of mathematics. Geometry began as the art of surveying of land so that it could be shared fairly between people. The word "geometry" is from a Greek word that means "to measure the land". It has grown from this to become one of the most important parts of mathematics. The Greek mathematician Euclid wrote the first book about geometry, a book called The Elements.

Non-Euclidean geometry
Plane and solid geometry, as described by Euclid in his textbook Elements, is called "Euclidean Geometry". This was simply called "geometry" for centuries. In the 19th century, mathematicians created several new kinds of geometry that changed the rules of Euclidean geometry. These and earlier kinds were called "non-Euclidean" (not created by Euclid). For example, hyperbolic geometry and elliptic geometry come from changing Euclid's parallel postulate.

Non-Euclidean geometry is more complicated than Euclidean geometry but has many uses. Spherical geometry for example is used in astronomy and cartography.

Examples
Geometry starts with a few simple ideas that are thought to be true, called axioms. Such as:
 A point is shown on paper by touching it with a pencil or pen, without making any sideways movement. We know where the point is, but it has no size.
 A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. For example, Sophie pulls a piece of string from one point to another point. A straight line between the two points will follow the path of the tight string.
 A plane is a flat surface that does not stop in any direction. For example, imagine a wall that extends in all directions infinitely.

Related pages
 Topology

References

Geometry


Genesis (Greek: ἡ γένεσις "origin, birth") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible. It means creation. It begins with the creation of the Universe. It ends with the death of Joseph. The Hebrew name for the book is transliterated Bre'shiyth, which means "in the beginning".

Summary

God created the universe and everything in it in six days. God rested on the seventh day (Sabbath) and declared it a holy day of rest. God provided the Garden of Eden to the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve. There was only one thing that they were not allowed to do. God told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A snake tricked Eve, and she ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. She then gave Adam some of the fruit, and he ate as well. Because they did not obey him, God made them leave the garden, so all people had to work for their food.

Adam and Eve's first two children were sons, Cain and Abel. Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer. Cain fell into sin and killed his brother Abel out of jealousy, making him the first person to commit murder. (Genesis 4:1–16)

Later, when the world was full of people who were evil, God chose to kill them and save only the animals and the most morally righteous person alive. He told a man, named Noah, to build a huge boat and gather two of every bird, mammal and reptile onto it.  He was instructed to take 14, or a pair of 7, of clean animals. Only 2 of each could be unclean. Noah built and filled the boat as he was told, and a flood covered the whole world. After 40 days and nights, the rains stopped.  Once the water had receded the boat landed on the mountain of Ararat. God promised never to send another such flood, and he used the rainbow as a sign of that promise.

The people of the world attempted to build a high tower (Tower of Babel) to show the power of mankind and to reach God. God felt insulted and gave people different languages to prevent the tower from ever being finished.

God chose Abram to be "the father of many nations." Abram changed his name to Abraham, and God promised him the land of Canaan (Israel) forever. As a sign of this promise, the sons of Abraham are circumcised. God tested Abraham's loyalty by asking him to kill his son Isaac. Abraham was ready to do it, but God sent an angel to stop him. God told him there would be no more human sacrifice.

God destroyed the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, saving only Abraham's nephew Lot and his daughters.

Isaac and his wife Rebecca had two twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob traded food to Esau for Esau's right to carry the family name. Rebekah helped trick Isaac, who was old and blind, into giving his final blessing to Jacob by dressing him in fur (Isaac felt Jacob's furs and thought he was his hairy twin, Esau). Esau later got a blessing of his own.

Jacob left to find a wife. He found Rachel and worked for her father, Lavan, for seven years to marry her, but was tricked into marrying her sister Leah. He worked for another seven years to marry Rachel. He went back to his home, then moved to Bethel, where God told him to change his name to Israel. Jacob later also marries the servants of Leah and Rachel, whose names are Bilah and Zilpah.

Jacob had twelve sons named Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issaschar, Zebulun, Gad, Dan, Asher, Naftali, Joseph, and Benjamin. His wife Rachel died after she gave birth to Benjamin.

Jacob gave his son Joseph a coat of many colors. Joseph's brothers were jealous, so they sold him into slavery in Egypt. They covered his coat in blood and told their father he had died. Joseph became a great leader in Egypt by predicting a long famine by explaining the pharaoh's dreams. During the famine, his brothers came to Egypt to buy food. They did not know that Joseph was the leader. Joseph first tricked the brothers, but then gave them food and let them stay in Goshen in Egypt.

Jacob blessed his sons and then died.

Notes

Further reading
 Umberto Cassuto, From Noah to Abraham. Eisenbrauns, 1984. ISBN (A scholarly Jewish commentary.)
 Isaac M. Kikawada & Arthur Quinn, Before Abraham was – The Unity of Genesis 1-11. Nashville, Tenn., 1985. (A challenge to the Documentary Hypothesis.)
 Nehama Leibowitz, New Studies in Bereshit, Genesis. Jerusalem: Hemed Press, 1995. (A scholarly Jewish commentary employing traditional sources.)
 Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. Baker Books, 1981. ISBN (A creationist Christian commentary.)
 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), In the Beginning. Edinburgh, 1995. (A Catholic understanding of the story of Creation and Fall.)
 Jean-Marc Rouvière, Brèves méditations sur la création du monde. L'Harmattan Paris, 2006.
 Nahum M. Sarna, Understanding Genesis. New York: Schocken Press, 1966. (A scholarly Jewish treatment, strong on historical perspective.)
 Nahum M. Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. (A mainstream Jewish commentary.)
 E. A. Speiser, Genesis, The Anchor Bible. Volume 1. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1964. (A translation with scholarly commentary and philological notes by a noted Semitic scholar. The series is written for laypeople and specialists alike.)
 Bruce Vawter, On Genesis: A New Reading. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1977. (An introduction to Genesis by a fine Catholic scholar. Genesis was Vawter's hobby.)
 Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections of Genesis. New York: Doubleday, 1995. (A scholarly Jewish commentary employing traditional sources.)

Other websites

Online texts and translations of Genesis
 Bible Gateway
 Bereshit with commentary in Hebrew
 בראשית Bereishit - Genesis (Hebrew - English at Mechon-Mamre.org)
 Hebrew Audiobook of Genesis from Librivox
 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
 New International Version (NIV)
 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
 Westminster-Leningrad codex
 Aleppo Codex

Old Testament books
Creation myths
Books of the Hebrew Bible
6th-century BC books

Book of Genesis


A spectral line is the way scientists can tell one element from another by looking at color.

The colors of the rainbow

In order to understand spectral lines, color has to be understood. In a rainbow, the colors of light go from purple to red. Several hundred years ago, the famous scientist Isaac Newton did an experiment where he showed that even white light from the Sun was made up of all the colors of the rainbow. When other scientists following him looked at this rainbow very closely, they noticed that there were dark lines breaking up the rainbow, where certain shades of colors should be. These lines were very small, but could be seen when the rainbow got stretched out very far. They investigated this further, and discovered that certain chemical elements, like the hydrogen and helium that make up the Sun, absorbed certain frequencies of light where those colors should be, like a sponge absorbs water, but does not absorb chalk.

Elemental fingerprints

Soon, scientists discovered that when they heated other chemical elements, like calcium and oxygen, so hot that they shined with a white light, they found similar lines, but in different places. No two chemical elements had these lines in exactly the same places along the rainbow, and they also soon discovered that could be used to be able to tell what stars were made up of in the Universe. The lines that a particular element produces are called the emission spectrum of that element.

The reason the chemical elements can do this is because of the number and places of electrons orbiting around the center of each atom of each chemical element. These electrons, when light hits them, absorb a specific wavelength, or color of light, and what color they absorb depend on their position around the atom. Since each chemical element has a certain number of electrons, each chemical element has this unique set of spectral lines.

Red shift

Since each set of spectral lines was unique, scientists could also be able to use this in a technique called red shift. Red shift is a method astronomers use, after they know what a star is made of, to tell how fast an object far away in the Universe is moving. It also tells them how far away it is, .

Chemistry
Astrophysics

Spectral line


The lentil or daal or pulse (Lens culinaris) is a bushy annual plant of the legume family. It is a kind of vegetable, grown for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 15 inches tall and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each.

Background
The plant originated in the Middle East and was one of the first crops domesticated in the world. Humans started eating lentils before they invented ceramics.

Consisting of 26% protein, lentils have the highest level of protein of any plant after soybeans and hemp. Because of this fact, and due to their high iron content, lentils are a very important part of the diet in many parts of the world, especially in India, which has a large vegetarian population.

Different kinds of lentils exist, including a variety of large and small lentils. Lentils come in colors that range from yellow to red-orange to green, brown and black.

Lentils are sold in many forms, with or without the skins, whole or split. Red, white and yellow lentils are decorticated, i.e., they have their skins removed.

One variety of yellow "lentils", Chana, is in fact not a lentil, but are actually made from the kernels of chickpeas. Split Pigeon peas (either green or yellow) - that are actually considered pulses, which include peas and beans - are also sometimes erroneously referred to and sold as lentils. The urad bean is also referred to as a "black lentil".

Types

 Brown/Spanish Pardina
 French Green/Puy (Dark speckled blue-green)
 Green (Most common variety)
 Black/Beluga
 Yellow/Tan Lentils (Red inside)
 Red Chief (Decorticated yellow lentils)
 Eston Green (Small green)
 Richlea (Medium green)
 Laird (Large green)
 Petite Golden (Decorticated lentils)
 Masoor (Brown-skinned lentils which are red inside)
 Pigeon Peas
 Channa Dal
 Mung Lentils
 Petite Crimson/Red (Decorticated masoor lentils)
 Chana (Kernel of chickpeas)
 Urad (A type of bean)
 White/Ivory (Peeled Urad beans)
 Macachiados (Big Mexican yellow lentils)

Preparation
The seeds only need very little cooking. This time is especially short for kinds of lentils with their husk removed, such as the common red lentil. Lentils have a distinctive earthy flavor. They  can be used to prepare an inexpensive and nutritious soup all over Europe and North and South America. Sometimes they are combined with some form of chicken or pork.  They are frequently combined with rice, which has a similar cooking time. In the Middle East such a dish of lentils and rice is called mujaddara or mejadra. Rice and lentils are also cooked together in khichdi, a popular Indian dish. Lentils are used throughout India, the Mediterranean regions and the Middle East. In rare cases the lentils are mixed with dairy cheese.

Many people in  India are vegetarian and lentils have long been part of the indigenous diet as a common source of protein. Usually, lentils are boiled to a stew-like consistency with vegetables and then seasoned with a mixture of spices to make many side dishes such as sambar, rasam and dal, which are usually served over rice and roti.

When lentils are prepared, they are first inspected for damaged lentils, stones and other foreign matter. Then they are rinsed until the water runs through and comes out clear. Some prefer to soak the lentils for a longer time and discard the water. This removes substances that may cause indigestion. The lentils are then boiled in water or broth. They may be cooked on the stovetop, or in a slow cooker. Pressure cookers are not recommended, since the small lentils may clog the pressure relief valve, and their quick cooking time means there is little benefit from pressure cooking. Cooked lentils often require thinning: adding more hot water or broth to the cooked legumes until the desired final consistency is reached.

Lentils can be sprouted as can some beans and some other edible seeds (seeds people can eat).  Seeds being sprouted are watered and rinsed repeatedly till they start to germinate (grow small roots and shoots).  Sprouted lentils can be eaten raw on their own or in salads, they can also be cooked.

Nutritional value

Apart from a high level of proteins, lentils also contain dietary fiber, vitamin B1, and minerals. Red (or pink) lentils contain a lower concentration of fiber than green lentils (11% rather than 31%). Health magazine has selected lentils as one of the five healthiest foods. Lentils are often mixed with grains, such as rice, which results in a complete protein dish.

Iron content
In addition to providing slow-burning complex carbohydrates, lentils are one of the best vegetable sources of iron. This makes them an important part of a vegetarian diet, and useful for preventing iron deficiency. Iron is particularly important for adolescents, and menstruating or pregnant women, whose requirements for it are increased.

Production
Lentils are relatively tolerant to drought and are grown throughout the world. About half of the worldwide production of lentils is from India, most of which is consumed in the domestic market. Canada is the largest export producer of lentils in the world and Saskatchewan is the most important producing region in Canada.  The Palouse Region of Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle, with its commercial center at Moscow, Idaho, constitutes the most important producing region in the United States. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that world production of lentils totalled 3.2 million metric tons (MT) in 2003. Canada produced 520,000 MT and, according to the market analysis company STAT Communications, will likely export 400,000 MT during the 2003-04 marketing year, which runs from August to July. The FAO estimates world trade in lentils totalled 1.2 million MT in 2002, with Canada exporting 382,000 MT during the calendar year.

Lentils in Culture
Lentils are mentioned many times in the Old Testament. In Jewish tradition they are considered as food for mourners, together with boiled eggs. The reason is that their round shape symbolizes the life cycle from birth to death.

Related pages
Pea
Bean

References

Further reading
 S S Yadav et al. Lentil: An Ancient Crop for Modern Times. (2007). Springer Verlag. ISBN 9781402063121.
 Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food.

Other websites
 Extrusion method developed for tasty lentil snacks
 All types of lentils & uses
 Information on Cooking Lentils
 Lentils - Country Production, Consumption, Exports, and Imports Statistics
 Alternative Field Crops Manual: Lentil

Faboideae
Vegetables

Lentil


La Palma is another island of the Canary Islands

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the biggest city of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. The city, with a population of 383,308 in 2010, is the eighth-largest in Spain.

Together with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it is the capital of the Comunidad Autónoma de
Canarias (Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands). It is also the capital of the island of Gran Canaria and of the province of Las Palmas. The islands of this province are Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

The city was founded in 1478. The town has a beautiful old area. This area (Vegueta) has a lot of houses from the 16th to the 19th Centuries. There is still a house where Christopher Columbus stayed in 1492. He stayed there before he went to the Americas. The interesting cathedral was begun in the year 1500.

Its port is one of the busiest in Spain and the biggest between Europe and Cape Town, in South Africa.

Las Palmas (for short) is famous for its very nice and dry weather all year round. It is also famous for its Las Canteras Beach. This beach is more than 3 kilometers long. The beach brings a lot of tourists to the city.

Main industries: trade, tourism, canned food, fishing, shipbuilding.

Places to visit: Vegueta (old area); Triana (traditional commercial area); Playa de Las Canteras (Las Canteras Beach); cathedral; Casa de Colón (Columbus House); Museo Canario (archaeology museum); CAAM - Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (Modern Art Centre); Museo Élder de la Ciencia (science museum); Museo Néstor (museum with paintings); Teatro Pérez Galdós (theatre); Auditorio Alfredo Kraus (concert hall); Jardín Canario (Canary Garden, mostly with plants from the Canary Islands); Doramas Park.

Capital cities in Spain

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria


The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a Micronesian island nation in the western Pacific Ocean. As of 2018, about 58,000 people live there. The capital of Marshall Islands is Majuro. The official languages are Marshallese and English.

Roughly 10% of the population of the Marshall Islands can now be found in northwest Arkansas, U.S. Most live and work in the city of Springdale, a community of roughly 50,000. Each year, the Marshallese host a homecoming event so friends and relatives can get together to celebrate, stay in touch with politics at home, and spread their island culture. They meet at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale and have dancing, feasting, volleyball, and basketball. As a population, they are devoted to family and church and bring island dance and song to this corner of Arkansas.

References

Other websites

Marshall Islands


A sign language is a way of communicating by using the hands and other parts of the body. It should not be confused with body language. Sign languages are an important way for deaf people to communicate. Deaf people often use them instead of spoken languages. Spoken languages use sounds from the mouth and are understood with the ears. Sign languages use hands and are understood with the eyes. Deaf people can use sign languages more easily than spoken languages.

Language learning and use
Deaf people sometimes learn a sign language from their family, especially if their parents are deaf. But, most deaf children have hearing parents, so they learn a sign language from other deaf people. They may meet other deaf people at school or in the streets. Hearing people may learn to sign directly from deaf people. Or, they may learn a sign language by going to signing classes or by studying a sign language workbook, which can come with an interactive DVD.

Sometimes deaf people do use a spoken language, especially when talking with hearing people. Sometimes hearing people use a sign language with each other, rather than speaking. But, deaf people tend to use sign languages, and hearing people tend to use spoken languages.

Some deaf people can also understand spoken words by looking at a speaker's lips. This is known as lip-reading. It is hard to learn, and few people do it well. Sometimes signing and lip-reading are combined, especially when deaf and hearing people are talking to each other.

History
Sign languages have always existed in deaf communities. In ancient texts we see authors commenting about deaf people and sign language. In the western world, the first studies dedicated to sign languages date from the 17th century. In 1620, in Spain, the priest Juan Pablo Bonnet published a text about teaching deaf people to speak, using gestures as a tool. The language of signs created by Bonet was used by Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, to create a fingerspelling alphabet in the 18th century. This alphabet has changed very little since then, and is used with sign languages in many countries.

The sign alphabet created by Charles-Michel de l'Épée, however, is not the origin of French Sign Language, the sign language that has influenced many other sign languages around the world. Even before Charles-Michel de l'Épée started teaching deaf people, they already used Old French Sign Language, and could read and write in French. This was a great advance, because it proved that deaf people could be educated and didn't needed speech to think and learn.

Different sign languages
Sign languages are not universal. That means there is not one single sign language for all deaf people around the world. There are many different sign languages. Each deaf community can develop its own sign language. Usually there is a different sign language in each country. Linguists have identified at least 137 different sign languages.

Here are some well-known sign languages:

This list could use more variety. It doesn't need to list every language. However, you can help Wikipedia by adding languages that aren't related to the ones already here.
 American Sign Language (ASL)
 Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
 Austrian Sign Language
 British Sign Language (BSL)
 Indo-Pakistani Sign Language
  (JSL or NS)
 Mexican Sign Language (Spanish: Lengua de señas mexicana or LSM)
 Nicaraguan sign language
 New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)
 Quebec Sign Language (French: Langue des signes québécoise, or LSQ)
 Turkish Sign Language (TSL)

However, sign languages are not totally independent from each other. Sign languages can develop from the same source. For example, ASL, LSM, and LSQ all developed from Old French Sign Language. They are part of the same language family. Sign languages can be similar to each other. BSL, Auslan, and NZSL are very much alike. Linguists sometimes talk about them as if they are one language. They call it "BANZSL" (an acronym for "British Australian New Zealand Sign Language"). Sign languages can influence each other. They sometimes copy signs from other sign languages, the same way spoken languages copy loanwords.

Grammar of sign languages
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, signing is "a language that uses a system of manual, facial, and other body movements as the means of communication, especially among deaf people." Sign languages have their own grammar rules: syntax, morphology, phonology and semantics. Sign languages are not simply mime. They are not gestures strung together without any rules. Sign languages are real languages.

(People sometimes also use the term "sign language" to talk about a "method of communication, as between speakers of different languages, that uses hand movements and other gestures." This article is about the first use of the term "sign language". It is talking about a real language that must be learned, not just a set of simple gestures that anyone can dream up to communicate.)

A sign language is not a copy of a spoken language. For example, American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are not copies of English. They are different from each other, even though they are both used in countries that speak English. Sometimes sign languages may copy a few elements from a spoken language, but usually they are very different. For example, sign languages often use different locations in space around the signer to represent people or objects that are being talked about. These locations are used like pronouns in spoken languages.

The main difference between sign languages and spoken languages is that sign languages use hand and body movements to form signs while spoken languages use sounds to form words. Really, each sign in a sign language is like a word in a spoken language. Both types of languages use grammar rules to combine words/signs into sentences. That's what makes them languages, and why both types of languages are different from mime or simple gestures.

Spoken words are made up of smaller pieces: individual sounds like "p" or "o". In the same way, signs are made up of smaller pieces: handshapes, movements and locations of the hands, facial expressions and other body movements. These pieces are used in different combinations to make the signs in the language Some signs are made with only one hand, and others are made with both hands. Some signs include movements of the mouth or other parts of the body; without those other movements, the sign is not correct. Other body movements are also important in the grammar. For example, in many sign languages, raised eyebrows indicate a question that has a "yes" or "no" answer.

The grammar rules of different sign languages are similar to each other, but they aren't the same. There is not a universal grammar for sign languages; each sign language has its own grammar. For example, sign languages use different handshapes to form signs; each sign language has its own set of handshapes.

Sometimes a sign looks like the object or action it represents, but this is not always true. For many signs, a person just has to learn the meaning, like words in a spoken language. It's not easy to guess the meaning from what the sign looks like. This is another thing that makes sign languages different from mime; in mime, the meaning of a gesture is obvious, it doesn't have to be learned. However, signs aren't totally arbitrary either. Once a person knows the meaning of a sign, the form of the sign can often help remember the meaning.

Fingerspelling

Besides normal signs, many sign languages use fingerspelling. Fingerspelling is also known as a "hand alphabet" or "dactylology". In fingerspelling, each letter in the alphabet of a spoken language has its own sign. Fingerspelling is a tool. People use it to spell names, acronyms and other words from spoken languages. Sometimes people do this when there is not a sign yet. Sometimes people use a fingerspelled word even when there is a normal sign for the same meaning. For example, when talking about a person, a signer might spell their name using fingerspelling. Or, they may use a "name-sign"—a special sign for that person.

Fingerspelling is not universal. It is different in different sign languages. Two sign languages may have a similar fingerspelling system. Or, their fingerspelling systems may be very different. Some fingerspelling systems use only one hand. ASL uses a one-handed system. Other sign languages use both hands for fingerspelling. The BANZSL languages use a two-handed system. There are different fingerspelling systems for different writing systems. Japanese is written with different letters than English. This means fingerspelling in Japanese Sign Language is different from fingerspelling in ASL or BANZSL. ASL uses a lot of fingerspelling. Most sign languages use less fingerspelling than ASL. Some sign languages don't use fingerspelling at all.

Writing sign languages
There is not any official way of writing signs. Some deaf and hearing people think there should be. Some have invented different ways of writing sign languages. Here are some of them.
 Stokoe notation was invented by William Stokoe. He did it for his 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language. People have used it for a few other languages too. Few people use it now.
 The Hamburg Notation System (HamNoSys) is a technical system. Linguists use it for research on sign languages. Most of these linguists are in Europe.
 Sign Language International Phonetic Alphabet (SLIPA) is another technical system. It is intended for research.
 SignWriting was developed by Valerie Sutton starting in 1974. People can use it for ordinary day-to-day use. It works for many different sign languages.
 si5s is also intended for ordinary day-to-day use. It is a system for ASL.
 ASL-phabet is a system designed by Sam Supalla for ASL. He has used it in deaf schools.

Other users of sign language don't think writing signs is something useful. Usually, deaf people just write the spoken language in their country. They don't try to write the sign language.

Sign languages in deaf culture
Deaf people have their own culture. It is similar to the culture of hearing people around them, but there are important differences. Deaf people have different experiences from hearing people. This makes their culture different.

Sign language is the most important part of deaf culture. Through a sign language deaf people can create a social and cultural identity for themselves. They can communicate naturally with each other. The shared sign language helps hold their deaf community together. Hearing people use spoken languages to do the same things.

Some children are born deaf. Others lose their hearing because of illness when they are very young. These children often learn how to sign and become a part of the deaf community and deaf culture.

However, some people who are physically deaf do not participate in deaf community and deaf culture. Some people lose their hearing later in life. These people usually continue to interact with hearing people using a spoken language. They do not learn to sign. They do not make friends with deaf people who sign. They depend on hearing aids, lip-reading, or writing notes to communicate with their hearing friends.

Some deaf children learn to speak and lip-read a spoken language. This is a difficult skill, but some children succeed. Also, some may have surgery to get a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant helps some deaf children hear better. It is not the same as normal hearing, but it can help them learn to speak. These deaf people can interact with hearing people using a spoken language.

The term "deaf culture" usually refers only to the culture of deaf people who sign.

Related pages
 American Sign Language (ASL)
 VRS Video Relay Service
 Deaf

Notes

Other websites

 ASL browser(See lots of signs in American Sign Language)
 British Sign Language Learn more about British Sign Language.
 British Sign Online Online British Sign Language course.
 ASLPro.com Home

Disability

Language-related lists

Sign language


Giuseppe Verdi (born Roncole near Busseto, 9 or 10 October 1813; died Milan 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer of operas.

Verdi and Richard Wagner were the greatest composers of opera in the 19th century although they were completely different from one another. When Verdi was a young man the most famous opera composers in Italy were Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini who wrote in the bel canto tradition. This meant that their operas had beautiful tunes which were written for singers to show off their voices, even if what they sang did not suit the story. During his long life, Verdi changed opera so that it did not have to obey old-fashioned rules.

Early years

The small village where Verdi was born lies in the valley of the Po River in the north of Italy. It was a poor district. His father was an innkeeper who had a small farm. The young boy must have been very talented. He was given a small harpsichord which he kept all his life. At the age of 9 he often played the organ for church services in the village when the organist was away.

A few years later he composed music for the amateur orchestra in Busseto. A man called Antonio Barezzi knew many important people and he helped Verdi a lot. Later Verdi married a daughter of a friend. Barezzi sent him to Milan so that he could study, but Verdi had not been taught the piano properly and he did not get a place in the music conservatory. He had some private lessons and learned a lot about opera as well as about literature and politics. In 1839 he composed an opera: Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, which was performed in La Scala, the world-famous opera house in Milan. It is not one of his greatest operas, but it helped him to become well-known and he was asked to write three more operas for La Scala. When his next opera was produced it was not a success: the audience did not like it and they hissed and booed. There was also tragedy in his personal life at this time: his two children and his wife all died.

Early fame

Verdi managed to overcome his unhappiness in 1842 when he produced his opera Nabucco. This was a great success and made him world-famous. He started to work very hard, composing two operas a year. He not only had to write the music but organize all the people to perform it. It was a huge workload. His opera Ernani (1844) was one of the best from this period. In 1847 he had another big success with Macbeth. This opera, based on Shakespeare's famous play, is still one of the best-loved of all operas. He was becoming a success.

For centuries Italy had been a collection of several countries, each with their own ruler. In the 1850s there was a lot of political unrest in the country. Verdi often wrote music for large choruses in his operas. The words of these choruses were often about fighting for freedom, and it was often thought that the songs were encouraging people to revolt. The song Va pensiero from his opera Nabucco was about the Hebrew slaves who were captive in Babylon. People chanted it in the streets with the words suitably changed. Verdi became a great national hero. Italy eventually became one country in 1861.

Giuseppina Strepponi was the soprano who sang the part of Abigaille in Nabucco. Verdi fell in love with her. She had lived with another man and had three children so she felt that she was not good enough for Verdi. They eventually married in 1859. She was a great support to him until her death in 1897 although Verdi was not an easy husband to live with. He moved back to Busseto with her. He continued to travel a lot but did not let his wife come with him, leaving her behind in Busseto where she was not happy because many people there did not like her.

Three more famous operas were written at this time: Rigoletto in 1851 and Il trovatore (The Troubadour) and La traviata, both in 1853. These operas have many tunes which became famous. They are full of exciting drama in which the characters are very skilfully described by the music. The music is not divided so clearly into recitative and aria like it had been for two centuries. Instead, the music is developing all the time, the arias run straight into the following music. He had a brilliant sense of drama, but he often had to fight hard to stop producers making changes to what he had written.

Verdi often had trouble with the censors (the officials who decide whether the opera should be allowed to be performed). His opera Rigoletto was based on a story called Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. The attempted murder of a king was not thought to be a suitable subject. Verdi had to change the king into a duke in his story and make some other changes before the opera could be performed. The story of his opera Traviata, based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, was also thought to be immoral. At the first performance the audience laughed because the heroine, who is supposed to be dying of tuberculosis, then called "consumption", was very fat. However, the opera soon became enormously popular.

Regarding the instruments that Giuseppe Verdi was using for composing, there are a few known pianos that he had in different periods of his life. The instrument that Giuseppe Verdi was playing as a kid at the Bazezzi's house, was a piano by Anton Tomaschek. Later, from the time of Rigoletto in 1851 to Aida in 1871 he was using the Viennese 6-pedal piano from Johann Fritz. This exact piano can be seen in the composer's Villa Verdi in the Italian province of Piacenza.

International fame

Verdi had become very famous by now, and was asked to compose for the Opéra in Paris. He had to write operas in the French style: operas with five acts and a ballet based on a serious story. None of the operas he wrote at this time for Paris belong to his best works. He was more inspired when writing for the Italian theatres. Simon Boccanegra has a complicated plot, but the characters are described beautifully by the music. Un ballo in maschera (The masked ball) was about the murder of King Gustav III of Sweden. Again the censors did not like it and he had to change the story to a setting in Boston which rather spoiled the story. In the 1860s his best works were La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny), written for St Petersburg, Don Carlos written for the Paris Opéra, and Aida for the new opera house in Cairo in Egypt. Aida is considered one of his most perfect works. The first performance was not without difficulties: Verdi was having a long argument with the conductor Mariani who refused to go to Cairo to conduct it. The argument was made worse by the newspapers who accused Verdi of taking Mariani's girlfriend. This caused a great scandal.

Last years
Verdi retired in the 1870s. He was a rich man who owned a lot of land. He gave a lot of money to charities, particularly to one charity for elderly musicians. Even in retirement he was persuaded by his publishers to write two more operas. He became fascinated by Shakespeare and he wrote Otello to a libretto by Arrigo Boito. This was a brilliant libretto and it helped him to write a great masterpiece in which every little detail of the story is beautifully described by the music. His very last opera, Falstaff (1893) is based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. Verdi continued to write a few religious pieces in his old age. He died of a stroke in Milan in 1901.

References

19th-century Italian composers
Romantic composers
1813 births
1901 deaths

Giuseppe Verdi


Wisdom is knowing things that help a person to live sensibly and make good decisions. Wisdom is defined differently by many cultures. Some say that wisdom is something a person learns as they grow older. Other cultures expect people to complete certain rituals in order to get wisdom.

If someone has wisdom, they are called wise. Most cultures from the past have had special people who were supposed to be wise. People asked them for advice when they had problems because they knew things that ordinary people did not know or could not know. They were often called "sages".

There are many stories in Western culture in which the owl of Athena or Minerva is supposed to be a wise bird.

Knowledge
Virtues

Wisdom


Church could mean:

Religion
Church, a building used for religious services, usually referring specifically to those for Christian worship.
Christian Church, the worldwide body of Christians.
Christian church, the body of people who share a faith or denomination within a community.
Religious denomination, an organization of churches sharing the same faith.

Places
 Church, Lancashire, a city in England

People
 Albert T. Church (born 1947), a Vice-Admiral in the United States Navy
 Alonzo Church (1905–1995), a logician, (famous for the Church-Turing thesis and lambda calculus)
 Benjamin Church (1734–1776), the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army and grandson of Captain Benjamin Church
 Captain Benjamin Church (1639–1718), a colonial officer during King Philip's War
 Bill Church, an American musician
 Brad Church
 Charlotte Church (born 1986), British soprano singer and talk show host
 Doug Church, a video-game designer
 Ellen Church
Forrester Church (born 1948), an  American minister, son of Senator Frank Church
 Francis Pharcellus Church (1839–1906), an American writer (famous for the editorial Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus)
Frank Church (1924–1984), a four-term U.S. Senator from Idaho
 Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)), a landscape painter
 George W. Church, Sr., founder of Church's Chicken, a chain of franchised fried chicken restaurants
 John A. Church, an expert on sea-level and its changes
 Judith Church (born 1953), a politician in the United Kingdom
 Louis K. Church
 Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954), an American writer and civil-rights activist
 Mike Church (born 1962), a Southern US radio commentator often considered a shock jock
 Richard Church (general) (1784–1873), a British military officer and general in the Greek army
 Richard William Church (1825–1890), an English divine, nephew of the general
 Richard Church (poet) (1893–1972), an English poet and man of letters
 Robert Reed Church (1839–1912), the first African-American millionaire
 Ryan Church (born 1978), an American baseball player
 Thomas Dolliver Church (1902–1978), an American landscape architect
 Thomas Haden Church (born 1961), an American actor in television and movies
 Thomas Langton Church (1870–1950), a Canadian politician
 Walter G. Church, Sr., member of the North Carolina General Assembly
 William Church (circa 1778 - 1863), American inventor who patented a typesetting machine in 1822

Music
The Church, an Australian rock band
Church, weekly meetings of the Hells Angels motorcycle club
"The Church", a song by Hawkwind from their 1982 album Church of Hawkwind
"Church", a song by Outkast from their 2003 album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
"Church", a song by Galactic from their 1998 album Coolin' Off
Chvrches, an electropop trio from Glasgow, Scotland

Fiction
Church (Red vs. Blue), a fictional character
Church, the family cat in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary
The Church, set up by The Order in Silent Hill

Church (disambiguation)


Precious coral, or red coral, is the common name given to a genus of marine corals, Corallium. The distinguishing characteristic of precious corals is their durable and intensely colored red or pink-orange skeleton, which is used for making jewelry.

Habitat
Red corals grow on rocky seabottom with low sedimentation, typically in dark environments—either in the depths or in dark caverns or crevices.  The original species, C. rubrum (formerly Gorgonia nobilis), is found mainly in the Mediterranean Sea.  It grows at depths from 10 to 300 meters below sea level, although the shallower of these habitats have been largely depleted by harvesting.  In the underwater caves of Alghero, Sardinia (the "Coral Riviera") it grows at depth from 4 to 35 meters.  The same species is also found at Atlantic sites near the Strait of Gibraltar, at the Cape Verde Islands and off the coast of southern Portugal. Other Corallium species are native to the western Pacific, notably around Japan and Taiwan; these occur at depths of 350 to 1500 meters below sea level in areas with strong currents.

Anatomy
In common with other Alcyonacea, red corals have the shape of small leafless bushes and grow up to a meter in height. Their valuable skeleton is composed of intermeshed spicules of hard calcium carbonate, colored in shades of red by carotenoid pigments.  In living specimens, the skeletal branches are overlaid with soft bright red integument, from which numerous retractable white polyps protrude.  The polyps exhibit octameric radial symmetry.

Species
The following are known species in the genus:

As a gemstone

The hard skeleton of red coral branches is naturally matte, but can be polished to a glassy shine.  It exhibits a range of warm reddish pink colors from pale pink to deep red; the word coral is also used to name such colors. Owing to its intense and permanent coloration and glossiness, precious coral skeletons have been harvested since antiquity for decorative use.  Coral jewellery has been found in ancient Egyptian and prehistoric European burials, and continues to be made to the present day. It was especially popular during the Victorian age.

Precious coral has hardness 3.5 on the Mohs scale. Due to its softness and opacity, coral is usually cut en cabochon, or used to make beads.

History of trade

At the beginning of the 1st millennium, there was significant trade in coral between the Mediterranean and India, where it was highly prized as a substance believed to be endowed with mysterious sacred properties. Pliny the Elder remarks that, before the great demand from India, the Gauls used it for the ornamentation of their weapons and helmets; but by this period, so great was the Eastern demand, that it was very rarely seen even in the regions which produced it. Among the Romans, branches of coral were hung around children's necks to preserve them from danger from the outside, and the substance had many medicinal virtues attributed to it. The belief in coral's potency as a charm continued throughout the Middle Ages and early in 20th century Italy it was worn as a protection from the evil eye, and by women as a cure for infertility.

From the Middle Ages onward, the securing of the right to the coral fisheries off the African coasts was the object of considerable rivalry among the Mediterranean communities of Europe.

The story of the Torre del Greco is so interwoven with that of the coral so as to constitute an inseparable pair, and is documented as early as the fifteenth century. In 1790 the Royal Society of Coral was established in the town of Torre del Greco, with the idea of working and selling coral fish. This shows that the coral fishing flourished for many years in the city.

It was also enacted December 22, 1789, by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon Code coral (prepared by the Neapolitan jurist Michael Florio), with the intent to regulate the coral fishing in those years starring, in addition to the sailors Torre del Greco, the locals and those in Trapani
This regulation did not have the expected success. From 1805, when he founded the first factory for the manufacturing of coral in Torre del Greco (by Paul Bartholomew Martin, but with French Genoese origin), the golden age for the manufacturing of coral in the city situated on the slopes of the Vesuvius started, because working together with the coral fishing was increasingly under the control of Torre del Greco fishermen. Since 1875, the Torre del Greco began working with the Sciacca coral and a school for the manufacturing of coral was built in 1878 in the city (which closed in 1885 to reopen in 1887), with which in 1933 established a museum of the coral. Then came the time of processing of Japanese coral found in the markets of Chennai and Kolkata.

Other story instead a short period the Tunisian fisheries were secured by Charles V for Spain; but the monopoly soon fell into the hands of the French, who held the right until the Revolutionary government in 1793 threw the trade open. For a short period (about 1806) the British government controlled the fisheries, but this later returned to the hands of the French authorities. Before the French Revolution much of the coral trade was centred in Marseille, but then largely moved to Italy, where the procuring of the raw material and the working of it was centring in Naples, Rome and Genoa.

In culture

The origin of coral is explained in Greek mythology by the story of Perseus. Having petrified Cetus, the sea monster threatening Andromeda, Perseus placed Medusa's head on the riverbank while he washed his hands. When he recovered her head, he saw that her blood had turned the seaweed (in some variants the reeds) into red coral. Thus, the Greek word for coral is 'Gorgeia', as Medusa was one of the three Gorgons.

Poseidon resided in a palace made of coral and gems, and Hephaestus first crafted his work from coral.

The Romans believed coral could protect children from harm, as well as cure wounds made by snakes and scorpions and diagnose diseases by changing colour.

 In Hindu astrology red coral is associated with the planet Mars or Graha-Mangala and used for pleasing Mars. It should be worn on the ring finger.
 A branch of red coral figures prominently in the civic coat of arms of the town of Alghero, Italy.
 In Islam coral is mentioned as one of the gems in paradise.
 Amongst the Yoruba and Bini peoples of West Africa, red precious coral jewellery (necklaces, wristlets and anklets most especially) are signifiers of high social rank, and are worn as a result by titled kings and chieftains.
 In traditional Dutch culture, notably in fishing communities, red coral necklaces were worn by the female population as an indispensable part of the traditional costumes.

Conservation
Intensive fishing, particularly in shallow waters, has damaged this species along the Mediterranean coastline, where colonies at depths of less than 50 metres are much diminished. Fishing and now climate change threaten their persistence. The three oldest Mediterranean marine protected areas—Banyuls, Carry-le-Rouet and Scandola, off the island of Corsica—all host substantial populations of C. rubrum. Since protection was established, colonies have grown in size and number at shallow and deeper depths.

See also
Coral Jewellery Museum
Black coral; also sometimes used as ornamental material
Amber
Pearl

References

External links

 International Colored Gemstone Association Extensive info on gemstone coral and jewelry photos
 American Gem Trade Association Information on coral as a gemstone
 Mediterranean red coral: research team International Research Team on Mediterranean red coral (Accessed 15 March 2007)
 Corallium rubrum, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Coralliidae
Organic gemstones
Habitats Directive Species

Precious coral