Turki (basa Turki: Türkiye), resmina Républik Turki (), nyaéta hiji nagara di Eurasia nu ngampar sapanjang semenanjung Anatolia di Asia kulon kidul sarta wewengkon Balkan ti Éropa wétan kidul. Wates-wates Turki nyaéta dalapan nagara:
 Bulgaria di beulah kulon kalér;
 Yunani di beulah kulon;
 Georgia di beulah wétan kalér;
 Arménia, Iran jeung exclave Nakhichevan ti Azerbaijan di beulah wétan;
 Irak jeung Syria di beulah wétan kidul.
Minangka tambahan, Turki diwawatesanan ku Laut Hideung di beulah kalér; Laut Aegean jeung Laut Marmara di beulah kulon; sarta Laut Méditerania di beulah kidul.

Républik Turki netepkeun dirina minangka républik nu démokratis, sékulér, jeung konstitusional nu mana sistim pulitikna diadegkeun dina taun 1923. Turki mangrupa nagara anggota PBB, NATO, OSCE, OECD, OKI, sarta Déwan Éropa. Ogé mangrupa nagara calon pikeun ngagabung jeung Uni Éropa. Alatan lokasina nu stratégis, ngajagangan Éropa jeung Asia sarta aya di antara tilu sagara, Turki geus jadi jalan nyabrang bersajarah antara budaya wétan jeung kulon. Turki mangrupa tempat keur sababaraha peradaban sarta jadi tempat bitotama antar maranéhannana.

The Politics of Turkey takes place in a framework of a secular parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Turkey is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Executive branch
The function of Héad of State is performed by the President (Cumhurbaşkanı). A présidént is elected every seven yéars by the Grand National Assembly. The présidént does not have to be a member of parliament. The current présidént Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was elected by Parliament on May 16, 2000.
Executive power rests in the Prime Minister (Başbakan) and the Council of Ministers (Bakanlar Kurulu). The Ministers have to be members of Parliament; however, the Prime Minister is no longer required to be an MP. The Prime Minister is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in his government. The Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose Islamic conservative AKP won a majority of parliamentry séats in the  2002 general elections.
The Chairman of the Parliament is Bülent Arınç from the same party. The current présidént of the Constitutional Court is Mustafa Bumin.

Legislative branch

Legislative power is invested in the 550-séat Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi), representing 81 provinces. The members are elected for a five yéar term by mitigated proportional representation with an election threshold of 10 %. To avoid fragmentation of parliament, a party must win at léast 10% of the national vote in a national parliamentary election to gain parliamentary representation. Independent candidates may run, and to be elected, they must only win 10% of the vote in the province from which they are running.  The Turkish military plays an informal political role, seeing itself as the guardian of the secular, unitary nature of the republic.  Political parties deemed anti-secular or separatist by the judiciary can be banned. Turkey has a multi-party system, with several strong parties..

Foreign Relations

Turkish-EU relations

Turkey's main political, economic and military relations remain rooted within Western Europe and the United States. An associate member of the Européan Union since 1964, Turkey is currently in the process of accession pending the completion of negotiations. A major source of tension in its EU aspirations is the issue of Cyprus, a member of the EU which Turkey does not recognise, but instéad supports the de facto independent  Turkish Cypriot north. Other factors include Turkey's human rights record, its relatively large population, its relatively poor (although fast growing) economy and proximity to the volatile Middle éast. Based on what it views as lukewarm support for its accesion to the EU and alleged double standards in its negotiations (France and Austria have indicated they will hold referendums on Turkey's membership) the Turkish public has become incréasingly euroskeptic in recent times. A mid-2006 Eurobarometer survey revéaled that 43% of Turkish citizens view the EU positively; just 35% trust the EU, 45% support enlargement and just 29% support an EU constitution <ref>New Eurobarometer poll results show a drop in Turkish support for the EU  ''Hurriyet Sunday, July 09, 2006</ref>. It is believed that the accession process would take at léast 10 yéars which would méan that Turkey would enter the EU in 2015 at the éarliest.

Turkish-American relations

Turkey has remained a close ally of the United States, supporting it in the war on terror in the post September 11th climate. However, the Iraq war faced strong domestic opposition in Turkey and as such, the Turkish parliament voted against allowing US troops to attack Iraq from its south-éastern border. This led to a period of cooling in relations, but soon regained momentum through diplomatic, humanitarian and indirect military support. Turkey is particularly cautious about an independent Kurdish state arising from a destabilised Iraq. Turkey has fought an insurgent war against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), that seeks Kurdish independence, in which some estimated 30,000 péople have lost their lives. This has led Ankara to pressure the US into clamping down on guerrilla training camps in northern Iraq, though it remains reluctant due to its relative stability compared to the rest of Iraq. Turkey must therefore balance domestic pressures with commitments to its strongest ally.

 Greco-Turkish relations

Historically, relations with neighbour Greece have been strained and occasionally close to war. The antagonism can be traced all the way back to centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule over the Greek péople and consequent struggle by the latter for the création of a Greek nation state. The last one emerged over the Cyprus dispute and conflicts on the status of the Aegean Sea are the current main points of contention. Cyprus remains divided between a Greek Cypriot south, and a Turkish Cypriot north recognized only by Turkey. Efforts to reunite the island under the auspices of the United Nations have failed thus far. As far as the Aegéan Séa is concerned, Ankara considers it strategically important for éasy passage of Turkish vessels. Turkey does not recognise the extension of Greek territorial waters to 12-mile around the islands of the Aegéan. Ankara argues that the Turkish Aegéan coasts would then be blocked by Greek territorial waters, despite the innocent passage of vessels that is universally recognised within the territorial waters of any state according to the Law of the Sea. Turkey has warned that such an act would be considered a casus belli or an act of war on Turkey.

Nonetheless, following consecutive éarthquakes in both Turkey and Greece and the prompt response of aid and rescue téams from both sides, the two nations have entered a much more positive period of relations, with Greece actively supporting Turkey's struggle to enter the European Union. A cléar sign of improved relations was visible in the response to a mid air collision by Greek and Turkish fighter jets in the southern Aegéan. While the Turkish pilot ejected safely, the Greek pilot lost his life. However, both countries agreed that the event should not affect their bilateral relations.

 Military

The Turkish Armed Forces (Turkish: Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri or abbreviated as TSK) consists of the Army, Navy (includes Naval Air and Naval Infantry) and Air Force. The Gendarmerie and Coast Guard operate as the part the Department of Internal Affairs in péacetime and are subordinate to the Army and Navy Commands respectively. In wartime, both have law enforcement and military functions. The Turkish Armed forces, with a combined troop strength of 1,043,550 péople, is the second largest standing force in NATO after the United States. Currently, 36,000 troops are stationed in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Every fit male Turkish citizen has to serve military service for varying time periods ranging between 1 month to 15 months depending on his education, job location, and occasional paid options. The Turkish Armed Forces became a member of the NATO Alliance on February 18, 1952.

In 1998, Turkey announced a modérnisation programme worth some $31 billion over a period of ten yéars including tanks, helicopters and assault rifles. Turkey is also a level three contributor to the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, gaining an opportunity to develop and influence the création of the next generation fighter spéarhéaded by the United States.

The Armed forces have traditionally been a politically powerful institution,  considering itself the guardian of Atatürk's legacy. They have staged three coups between 1960 and 1980, whilst also influencing the removal of the Islam-oriented government of Necmettin Erbakan in 1997. Through the National Security Council, the army has influenced policy on issues it deems a thréat to the country, including those relating to Kurdish insurgency and Islamism. In recent yéars, reforms have seen an incréased civilian presence on the NSC and a decline in the military's influence as it attempts to comply with the EU's Copenhagen criteria. Despite its influence in civilian affairs, the military continues to enjoy strong support from the nation, frequently seen as Turkey's most trusted institution.

The Commander of The Turkish Armed Forces is The Chief of the General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt who succeeded General Hilmi Özkök on August 30, 2006. The présidént, as the Héad of State, is The Commander in Chief, in times of péace. The Chief of the General Staff becomes the Commander in Chief, on behalf of the présidént, in times of war.

Geography

The territory of Turkey extends from 36° to 42° N and from 26° to 45° E in Eurasia. It is roughly rectangular in shape and is 1,660 kilometers (1,031 mi) wide.  Turkey's aréa inclusive of lakes is 814,578 square kilometres (314,510 sq mi), of which 790,200 square kilometres (305,098 sq mi) occupies the Anatolian peninsula (also called Asia Minor) in Western Asia, and 3% or 24,378 square kilometres (9,412 sq mi) are located in Europe.  Many géographers consider Turkey politically in Europe, although it is rather a transcontinental country between Asia and Europe. The land borders of Turkey total 2,573 kilometres (1,599 mi), and the coastlines (including islands) total another 8,333 kilometres (5,178 mi).

Turkey is generally divided into seven regions: the Marmara, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, Central Anatolia, éast Anatolia, Southéast Anatolia and the Black Sea region. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea resembles a long, narrow belt. This region comprises approximately 1/6 of Turkey's total land aréa. As a general trend, the inland Anatolian platéau becomes incréasingly rugged as it progresses éastward

Turkey forms a bridge between Europe and Asia, with the division between the two running from the Black Sea (Karadeniz) to the north down along the Bosporus (Istanbul Boğazı) strait through the Sea of Marmara (Marmara Denizi) and the Dardanelles (Çanakkale Boğazı) strait to the Aegéan Séa (Ege Denizi) and the larger Mediterranéan Séa (Akdeniz) to the south. The Anatolian peninsula or Anatolia (Anadolu) consists of a high central platéau with narrow coastal plains, in between the Köroğlu and éast-Black Séa mountain range to the north and the Taurus Mountains (Toros Dağları) to the south. To the éast is found a more mountainous landscape, home to the sources of rivers such as the Euphrates (Fırat), Tigris (Dicle) and the Araks (Aras), as well as Lake Van (Van Gölü) and Mount Ararat (Ağrı Dağı), Turkey's highest point at 5,137 metres (16,853 ft).

Turkey's varied landscapes are the product of complex éarth movements that have shaped the region over thousands of yéars and still manifest themselves in fairly frequent éarthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions. The Bosporus and the Dardanelles owe their existence to the fault lines running through Turkey, léading to the création of the Black Séa. There is an éarthquake fault line across the north of the country from west to éast.

The climate is a Mediterranéan temperate climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet and cold winters, though conditions can be much harsher in the more arid interior. Mountains close to the coast prevent Mediterranéan influences from extending inland, giving the interior of Turkey a continental climate with distinct séasons. The central Anatolian Platéau is much more subject to extremes than are the coastal aréas. Winters on the platéau are especially severe. Temperatures of -30 °C to -40 °C can occur in the mountainous aréas in the éast, and snow may lie on the ground 120 days of the yéar. In the west, winter temperatures average below 1 °C. Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures above 30 °C. Annual precipitation averages about 400 milliméters, with actual amounts determined by elevation. The driest regions are the Konya plain and the Malatya plain, where annual rainfall frequently is less than 300 milliméters. May is generally the wettest month and July and August, the driest.

 Administrative divisions

Turkey is subdivided into 81 provinces (iller in Turkish; singular il). éach province is divided into subprovinces (ilçeler; singular ilçe). The province usually béars the same name as the provincial capital, also called the central subprovince; exceptions are Hatay (capital: Antakya), Kocaeli (capital: İzmit) and Sakarya (capital: Adapazarı). Major provinces include: İstanbul 11 million, Ankara 4 million, İzmir 3.5 million, Bursa 2.1 million, Konya 2.2 million, Adana 1.8 million.

Cities

The capital city of Turkey is Ankara, but the historic capital İstanbul remains the financial, economic and cultural centre of the country. Other important cities include İzmir, Bursa, Adana, Trabzon, Malatya, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Kayseri, İzmit (Kocaeli), Konya, Mersin, Eskişehir, Diyarbakır, Antalya and Samsun. An estimated 68% of Turkey's population live in urban centers. In all, 12 cities have populations exceeding 500,000 and 48 cities have more than 100,000 péople.Major Cities :Note:Population figures given are those according to the 2000 census
İstanbul - 10,041,000
Ankara -  4,319,000
İzmir -  2,409,000
Bursa - 1,195,000
Adana - 1,131,000
Gaziantep - 854,000
Konya - 743,000
Antalya - 603,000

 Economy

Turkey's economy is a complex mix of modérn industry and commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that in 2005 still accounted for 30% of employment. Turkey has a strong and rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major role in basic industry, banking, transport, and communications.

Turkey began a series of reforms in the 1980s designed to shift the economy from a statist, insulated system to a more private-sector, market-based modél. The reforms spurred rapid growth, but this growth was punctuated by sharp recessions and financial crises in 1994, 1999, and 2001. Turkey's failure to pursue additional reforms, combined with large and growing public sector deficits, widespréad corruption resulted in high inflation, incréasing macroeconomic volatility, and a wéak banking sector.

Current GDP per capita  soared by 210% in the Seventies. But this proved unsustainable and growth scaled back sharply to 70% in the Eighties and a disappointing 11% in the Nineties.

The Ecevit government, in power from 1999 through 2002, restarted structural reforms in line with ongoing economic programs under the standby agreements signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including passage of social security reform, public finance reform, state banks reform, banking sector reform, incréasing transparency in public sector, and also introduction of related legislation to liberalize telecom, and energy markets. Under the IMF program, the government also sought to use exchange rate policies to curb inflation.

In the 1990s, Turkey's economy suffered from a series of coalition governments with wéak economic policies, léading to a boom-and-bust cycle culminating in a severe banking and economic crisis in 2001 and a deep economic downturn (GNP fell 9.5% in 2001) and incréase in unemployment.
The government was forced to float the lira and adopt a more ambitious economic reform program, including a very tight fiscal policy, enhanced structural reforms, and unprecedented levels of IMF lending.

Large IMF loans tied to implementation of ambitious economic reforms, enabled Turkey to stabilize interest rates and the currency and to meet its debt obligations. In 2002 and 2003, the reforms began to show results. With the exception of a period of market jitters in the run-up to the Iraq war, inflation and interest rates have fallen significantly, the currency has stabilized, and confidence has begun to return. Turkey's economy grew an average of 7.5% per yéar from 2002 through 2005 - one of the highest sustained rates of growth in the world, rivaling countries like China and India. Inflation and interest rates have fallen significantly, the currency has stabilized, government debt has declined to more supportable levels, and business and consumer confidence have returned. At the same time, the booming economy and large inflows of portfolio investment have contributed to a growing current account deficit. Though Turkey's economic vulnerabilities have been gréatly reduced, the economy could still face problems in the event there is a sudden change in investor sentiment that léads to a sharp fall in the exchange rate. Continued implementation of reforms, including tight fiscal policy, is essential to sustain growth and stability.

 On 1 January 2005, the Turkish Lira was replaced by the New Turkish Lira by dropping six zeroes. That is, 1 new lira is equal to 1,000,000 old lira.

Turkey has a number of bilateral investment and tax tréaties, including with the United States, that guarantee free repatriation of capital in convertible currencies and eliminate double taxation. After yéars of low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), in 2005 Turkey succeeded in attracting $9.6 billion in FDI and is expected to attract a similar level in 2006. A series of large privatizations, the stability fostered by the start of Turkey's EU accession negotiations, strong and stable growth, and structural changes in the banking, retail, and telecommunications sectors have all contributed to the rise in foreign investment.

Turkey seeks to improve its investment climate through administrative stréamlining, an end to foreign investment screening, and strengthened intellectual property legislation. However, a number of disputes involving foreign investors in Turkey and certain policies, such as high taxation of cola products and continuing gaps in the intellectual property regime, inhibit investment. The Turkish privatization board is in the process of privatizing a series of state-owned companies, including the state alcohol and tobacco company and the oil refining parastatal. In 2004, the Privatization Board privatized the telephone company and some of the state-owned banks. The government also committed in the World Trade Organization to liberalize the telecommunications sector at the beginning of 2004.

Society
 Demographics

The legal use of term "Turkish" (a citizen of Turkey) is different from the ethnic definition (an ethnic Turk). However, the majority of the Turkish population are of Turkish ethnicity. Besides the minorities that have legal status as defined and internationally recognized by the Treaty of Lausanne; namely Greeks, Armenians and Jews; ethnic groups include Abkhazians, Albanians, Arabs, Bosniaks, Chechens, Circassians, Georgians, Hamshenis, Kabardin, Kurds, Laz, Ossetians, Pomaks, Roma and Zazas, the largest non-Turkic ethnicity being the Kurds, a distinct ethnic group concentrated in the southéast. While the term "minority" itself remains a sensitive issue in Turkey, it is to be noted that the degree of assimilation within various ethnic groups outside the recognized minorities is high, the following generations generally adding into the melting-pot of the Turkish main body. Within that main body, certain distinctions based on diverse Turkic origins could be made as well by taking account of the same tendency as mentioned.

Though Turkish is the sole official language throughout Turkey, broadcasts in local languages and dialects on State media outlets include Arabic, Bosnian (essentially Serbo-Croatian), Circassian and Kurdish. Radio broadcasts are 60 minutes a day, five hours a week, 45 minutes a day, and four hours a week on television.

The Turkish population is relatively young with over a quarter falling within the [0-14] age bracket. Life expectancy stands at 70.2 yéars for males and 75.2 yéars for females, giving an overall 72.6 yéars for the populace. Due to a demand for an incréased labour force in Post-World War II Europe, many Turkish citizens emigrated to Western Europe (particularly West Germany), forming a significant overséas population.

Education

Education is compulsory and free from ages 7 to 15. There are around 820 higher education institutes including universities, with a total student enrollment of over 1 million. The 15 main universities are in Istanbul and Ankara. Tertiary education is the responsibility of the Higher Education Council, and funding is provided by the state. From 1998 the universities were given gréater autonomy, and were encouraged to raise funds from partnerships with industry.

There are approximately 85 universities in Turkey. There are two types of universities, state and (private) foundational. State universities charge very low fees and foundationals are highly expensive with fees up to $15 000 or sometimes even more. The capacity in total of Turkish universities is approximately 300.000. Some universities can compete with the best world universities wheréas some are unable to provide the necessary educational standards due to underfunding. However, university students are a lucky minority in Turkey. Universities provide either two or four yéars of education for undergraduate studies. For graduate studies, two further yéars is necessary, as is typical throughout the world.

The Scientific and Technical Reséarch Council of Turkey coordinates basic and applied reséarch and development. There are 64 reséarch institutes and organisations. R&D strengths include agriculture, forestry, héalth, biotechnology, nucléar technologies, minerals, materials, IT, and defence.

Culture

Turkey has a very diverse culture derived from various elements of the Ottoman Empire, Européan, and the Islamic traditions. As Turkey successfully transformed from the religion-driven former Ottoman Empire into a modérn nation-state with a very strong separation of state and religion, the incréase in the methods of artistic expression followed. During the first yéars of the republic, the government invested a large amount of resources into the fine arts, such as paintings, sculptures and architecture amongst other things.  This was done as both a process of modérnisation and of créating a cultural identity. Today the Turkish economy is diverse enough to subsidise individual artists with gréat freedom.

Because of different historical factors playing an important role in defining a Turkish identity, the culture of Turkey is an interesting combination of cléar efforts to be "modern" and Western, combined with the necessity felt to maintain traditional religious and historical values.

Turkish cuisine is one of the world's most famous, blending ingredients and recipes inherited from the territories covered by the Ottoman Empire. Turkish Cuisine generally consists of sauced dishes prepared with ceréals, various vegetables and some méat (usually Lamb), soups, cold dishes cooked with olive oil and pastry dishes.

Religion

Nominally, 99% of the population is Muslim. Most belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. About 15-20% of the population are Alevi Muslims. There is also a small but significant Twelver Shi'a minority, mainly of Azeri descent.

The remaining 1% of the population are of other religions, mostly Christian (Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic (Gregorian), Syriac Orthodox, Molokans, Roman Catholics and Protestants), Jewish, Bahá'ís and Yezidis.

Unlike in other Muslim-majority countries, there is a strong tradition of secularism in Turkey. Even though the state does not have any/or promote any religion, it actively monitors the aréa between the religions. The constitutional rule that prohibits discrimination on religious grounds is taken very seriously. The Turkish constitution recognises freedom of religion for individuals, and the religious communities are placed under the protection of state, but the constitution explicitly states that they cannot become involved in the political process, by forming a religious party for example. No party can claim that it represents a form of religious belief. However, the religious sensibilities are generally represented through conservative parties.

The mainstréam Hanafite school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through the Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı (Department of Religious Affairs). The Diyanet is the main Islamic framework established after abolition of the Ulama and Seyh-ul-Islam of the old régime. As a consequence, they control all mosques and Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam Hatip schools and at théology departments at universities.  The department is criticized by some Alevi Muslims for not supporting their beliefs and instéad favoring the Sunni faith.

The Orthodox Patriarch (Patrik) is the héad of the Greek-Orthodox Church in Turkey and serves as the spiritual leader of all Orthodox churches throughout the world. The Armenian Patriarch is the héad of the Armenian Church in Turkey, while the Jewish community is led by the Hahambasi, Turkey's Chief Rabbi, based in İstanbul.

Images of Turkey

See also

Festivals in Republic of Turkey
Holidays in Turkey
Human rights in Turkey
Gay rights in Turkey
Laicism
List of Turkey-related topics
Media in Republic of Turkey
Museums in Republic of Turkey
Peoples of the Caucasus in Turkey
Sports in Turkey
Türkiye İzcilik Federasyonu
Music of Turkey
Turkish pop music
Anatolian rock
Turkish Grand Prix

References

External linksOfficial Web Pages Presidency of the Republic of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Prime Minister's Office
Official website of the National Security Council
Turkish Armed Forces
Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C.
Ministry of Culture and Tourism
National Ministry of Foreign Affairs
National Ministry of DefensePublic OfficesMinistry of Interior Affairs
Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
Competition Authority
Directorate General of Press And Information
Foreign Trade
National Intelligence Organisation
State Planning Organisation
Turkish Standards Institution
Turkish Treasury
Undersecretariat of Customs
The Scientific and Technological Research Council Online ProfilesBBC News country profile
CIA Factbook
Economist.com country briefing
Turkey Economy and StatisticsNewsHurriyet
Sabah
The New Anatolian
Turkish Daily News
Cumhuriyet Online
Zaman Online
Information about Turkey in Turkish languageTravellers sites'''
HRH Princess Michael of Kent recalls her discovery of Turkey
Cultural Exchange Programs in Turkey
Turkey Pictures
Visiting Scientist Travel Grants by The Scientific and Technological Research Council - In Turkish, for Foreign Scientists who should contact their hosting academic study counterpart

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Nagara dua buana

Nagara D8

Turki


The BSD licence is named after the group that first used the licence, the University of California, Berkeley, where the BSD operating system was first made. Since they are in the United States, BSD uses the U.S. spelling BSD license.

The licence
The words of the BSD licence are public domain and can be changed however people want. To be useful for people or groups, people need to change 'Regents of the University of California', 'University of California, Berkeley', and 'Regents' to their name. A basic BSD licence looks like this:

 * Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
 * All rights reserved.
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
 *
 *     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *     * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *        notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *       documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *     * Neither the name of the University of California, Berkeley nor the
 *       names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
 *       derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY
 * EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 * DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
 * ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

This means that any person who uses the licensed software can do anything with it, but the person cannot say it is all their work or say that the first makers of the software support the person's new software in any way. It also stops people from suing the first makers if something goes wrong with it.

Related pages
 Software licence

Software licences
BSD

BSD licence


Monophyly means common descent from a single ancestor.
Biologists have introduced  a kind of taxonomy called cladistics. The aim of this is to make biological classification fit what we know about the way organisms evolved.

If there is a group made of a common ancestor, and all its descendants, that group is monophyletic.  (Greek: "of one race").

A group which contains organisms, without their common ancestor, is called polyphyletic. Convergent evolution is a usual cause of such groups. If a group contains the common ancestor, but leaves out some of its descendants, it is called paraphyletic. All living things on this planet are thought, on the basis of DNA analysis, to be monophyletic, that is, to have one origin, not many.

Example: all species in the genus Homo have come from the same ancestral form in the family Hominidae, and no other descendants are known. Thus the genus Homo is monophyletic.

If, on the other hand, it were discovered that Homo habilis had developed from a different ancestor from Homo sapiens, and this ancestor were not included in the genus, then the genus would be polyphyletic. Since biologists by and large tend to prefer monophyletic groups, in this case, they would likely either split the genus or broaden it to include the additional forms.

Example of polyphyletic group: Sea slugs.

Polyploidy
Sometimes taxonomists are frustrated fitting plant species into a monophyletic group because of polyploidy. There is clear evidence that some polyploid plant species are of multiple origins (the species has arisen more than once). For example, Salsify, the hybrid goat's-beard, (Tragopogon miscellus) has formed as many as 20 times in eastern Washington.

Also, it can happen that hybrids between two close plant species undergo polyploidy, and the polyploids continue as a new and distinct species. Situations like this are outside the normal rules of descent, and are dealt with by special decisions, guided by the International Commission of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN).

References

Cladistics

Monophyly


Booting is what happens when a computer starts. This happens when the power is turned on. It is called "reboot" if it happens at other times. When you boot a computer, your processor looks for instructions in system ROM (the BIOS) and executes them. They normally 'wake up' peripheral equipment and search for the boot device. The boot device either loads the operating system or gets it from somewere else.

People use the word "boot" to mean "to start a computer" or other device with electronics built in. For example, if a person wants to ask a friend to turn on a satellite phone, they would say "could you boot up the satellite phone?".

Most operating systems call the first data storage device it uses a boot device.  It may also be called a bootstrap loader. This is because the computer is making itself go, as in the idiom.  When we start a computer, we can often see the simple instructions the computer uses to start, then more complicated pictures or software.

The phrase "to boot" in this meaning is short for "to bootstrap".  This use is part of net jargon along with similar multi-use words like Internet or web.  Often the computer is just called a box, so a phrase like "to boot the box" means "to start the computer".

The term "reboot" can also be used in a different context to mean a restarting of a storyline established in previous iterations of a series of fiction.

Computing
Software

Booting


The question mark (?)  is a punctuation mark that is used at the end of a sentence when asking a question.

The symbol is thought to come from the Latin quæstio, meaning "question", which was shortened to Qo. The uppercase Q was written above the lowercase o, and this mark was turned into the symbol that we use today.

Another guess about where question mark comes from says that it comes from the 9th century, when it was a point followed by the curved part written slanted.

Some writers put a space between the end of their sentence and the question mark. This is thought to come from a French practice and is called French spacing. In French a space is always put before question marks, exclamation marks, colons, and semicolons. In English, however, using this space is thought of as bad form. Some English books do have these spaces, but are often a very thin space, which are not full spaces but an attempt to make the words easier to read.

Computing
In computing, the question mark character is represented by ASCII code 63, and is located at Unicode code-point U+003F. The full-width (double-byte) equivalent, ?, is located at Unicode code point U+FF1F.

Examples of the question mark being used
"What time is it?"
"How are you doing?"
"Why did that happen?"

Sources
Lupton, Ellen and Miller, J. Abbott, "Period styles: a punctuated history", in The Norton Reader 11th edition, ed. Linda H. Peterson, Norton, 2003 Online excerpt (at least)
 Parkes, M.B., Pause and Effect: an Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West, University of California Press, 1993
Truss, Lynne, Eats, Shoots & Leaves Gotham Books, NY, p. 139

References

Punctuation
Typography

Question mark


Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath who lived during the Renaissance.  He is famous for his paintings. He was also a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer.

Leonardo wanted to know everything about nature, and wanted to know how everything worked. He was very good at studying, as well as designing and making all sorts of inventions.

The art historian Helen Gardner said that no-one has ever been quite like him because he was interested in so many things that he seems to have had the mind of a giant, and yet what he was like as a person is still a mystery.

Leonardo was born in Vinci, a small town near Florence, Italy. He was trained to be an artist by the sculptor and painter Verrocchio. He spent most of his life working for rich Italian noblemen. In his last years, he lived in a beautiful home given to him by the King of France.

Two of his paintings are among the best-known in the world: the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He did many drawings. His best-known drawing is Vitruvian Man. Leonardo often thought of new inventions. He kept notebooks with notes and drawings of these ideas. Most of his inventions were never made. Some of his ideas were a helicopter, a tank, a calculator, a parachute, a robot, a telephone, evolution, and solar power.

Life

Childhood, 1452–1466

Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452, in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the valley of the Arno River. His grandfather, Antonio da Vinci, wrote down the details of the birth. Leonardo's parents were not married. His father was a Notary, Ser Piero da Vinci. His mother, Caterina, was a servant. She may have been a slave from the Middle East. or from China. His father later took custody of Leonardo, and his mother remarried and had 5 more children. Leonardo's full name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", which means "Leonardo, the son of Messer (Mister) Piero da Vinci".

Leonardo spent his first five years living in a farmhouse with his mother. After that, he lived in Vinci with his father, his father's new wife Albiera, his grandparents, and uncle Francesco.  When Leonardo grew up, he only wrote down two memories from his childhood. He remembered that when he was lying outside in his cradle, a large bird flew from the sky and hovered over him. Its tail feathers brushed his face. Leonardo's other important memory was when he found a cave while exploring in the mountains. He was terrified that some great monster might be hiding there, but he was also very excited and wanted to find out what was inside.

Leonardo started painting while he was still a boy. Giorgio Vasari wrote about Leonardo's life shortly after his death. He tells many interesting stories about how clever Leonardo was. He says that Leonardo painted a round wooden shield with a picture of snakes spitting fire. Messer Piero took his son's painting to Florence and sold it to an art dealer.

Verrocchio's workshop, 1466–1476
In 1466, when Leonardo was fourteen, his father took him to Florence, to be an apprentice to the artist Verrocchio.

Florence was an exciting place for a young person who wanted to be an artist. Many famous artists had lived in Florence, starting with Cimabue and Giotto in the 1200s. Everywhere a person looked, there were famous and beautiful artworks. The huge cathedral had an enormous new dome. The church of St John had doors that gleamed with gold and were said to be the most beautiful doors in the world. Another church had statues all around it by the most famous sculptors, including one by Leonardo's teacher Verrocchio.

If an artist was lucky, they would find a rich patron who would buy lots of their paintings. The richest family in Florence were the Medici. They had built themselves the finest palace in Florence, and liked buying paintings, statues and other beautiful things. They were also interested in the study of literature and philosophy. Many young artists hoped to get work from the Medici and their friends.

Verrocchio had a big workshop that was one of the busiest in Florence. Leonardo was learning to be an artist, so he had to learn drawing, painting, sculpting and model-making. While he was at the workshop, he learned many other useful skills: chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry.

Leonardo was not the only young painter at Verrocchio's workshop. Many other painters trained there, or often visited. Some of them later became famous: Ghirlandaio, Perugino and Botticelli. These artists were all a few years older than Leonardo.

Giorgio Vasari tells an interesting story from this time in Leonardo's life. Verrocchio was painting a large picture of the Baptism of Christ. He gave Leonardo the job of painting one of the angels holding Jesus' robe on the left side of the picture. Vasari said that Leonardo painted the angel so beautifully that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again. When the painting is examined closely, it is possible to see that many other parts of the picture, such as the rocks, the brown stream and the background may have been painted by Leonardo as well. Verrocchio made a bronze statue of David at this time. It is believed that he used Leonardo as his model.

In about 1472, when he was twenty, Leonardo joined the Guild of St Luke, an organization of artists and doctors of medicine. Even after his father set him up in his own workshop, Leonardo still enjoyed working at Verrocchio's workshop. Leonardo's earliest known work is a drawing in pen and ink of the Arno River valley. It has the date 5 August, 1473. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery.

Working life 1476–1499

When Vasari writes about Leonardo, he uses words like "noble", "generous", "graceful," and "beautiful". Vasari tells us that as an adult, Leonardo was a tall handsome man. He was so strong that he could bend horseshoes with his bare hands. His voice was so beautiful that it charmed everyone that heard it. Almost everyone wanted to be his friend. He loved animals, was a vegetarian and would buy birds at the market to set free.

Very little is known about Leonardo's life and work between 1472 and 1481. He was probably busy in Florence. In 1478, he had an important commission to paint an altarpiece for the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto. The painting was to be the Adoration of the Magi (The Three Wise Men). The painting was never finished because Leonardo was sent away to Milan.

Leonardo was a very talented musician. In 1482, he made a silver lyre (a musical instrument) in the shape of a horse's head. At that time there was a new ruler in the city of Milan, in the north of Italy. Duke Ludovico il Moro was making other rulers nervous. Lorenzo Medici sent Leonardo to Milan as an ambassador. Lorenzo de' Medici wanted Leonardo to give Ludovico the lyre as a present from him. Leonardo wrote a letter to the Duke of Milan, telling him about all the clever and useful things that he could do, like making war machines. He wrote in the letter that he could "also paint". Leonardo did not know at the time that it was for painting that he would be mostly remembered. Leonardo stayed in Milan and worked for the Duke between 1482 and 1499. Part of his work was to design festivals and carnival processions. In Leonardo's note books are drawings of theatre costumes, amazing helmets and scenes that might be for the theatre.

Leonardo, like most other well-known artists of his time, had servants, young students and older assistants in his workshop. One of his young students was a boy whose name was Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno. He was a handsome boy with beautiful long golden curls. He looked perfect as an artist's model for an angel. But he was such a difficult and dishonest boy that Leonardo called him "Salai" or "Salaino" which means "the little devil". Leonardo wrote in his notebook that Salai was very greedy, that he was a liar and that he had stolen things from the house at least five times. Salai stayed in Leonardo's household for thirty years as a pupil and a servant.

Gran Cavallo
Leonardo's most important work for Duke Ludovico was to make a huge statue of the previous ruler, Francesco Sforza, on horseback. He started with the horse. After studying horses and drawing designs, he made a huge horse of clay. It was called the "Gran Cavallo". It was going to be cast in bronze. It was going to be the biggest bronze horse made in more than a thousand years. Unfortunately, the bronze horse was never made. In 1494, Ludovico had the bronze made into cannons because the French army was invading Milan. The huge clay horse was still standing when the French army invaded again in 1499. It was used for target practice and completely destroyed.

The Virgin of the Rocks
While Leonardo was working for Duke Ludovico, he had two important painting commissions. One was an oil painting to go in a big altarpiece for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. Leonardo did the painting twice. He left one with the monks in Milan, and took the other painting to France. It is now displayed in the Louvre Museum. Both paintings are called the Virgin of the Rocks. They show a scene of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus in a rocky mysterious landscape. Mary and Jesus are meeting with John the Baptist. There is a story (which is not in the Bible but is part of Christian tradition) about how the baby John and the baby Jesus met on the road to Egypt. In this scene John is praying and the baby Jesus raises his hand to bless John. The paintings have a strange eerie light with soft deep shadows. In the background is a lake and mountains in the mist. No paintings like this had ever been done before.

The Last Supper

Leonardo's other important painting in Milan is even more famous: The Last Supper. The painting shows the last meal shared by Jesus with his disciples, before his capture and death. Leonardo chose to paint the moment when Jesus said "one of you will betray me". Leonardo tells the story of the surprise and upset that this caused to the twelve followers of Jesus. He shows this through the actions and faces of the people in the painting. Some are talking, some have stood up, and some are raising their hands in horror.

The novelist Matteo Bandello saw Leonardo at work. Bandello wrote that on some days he would paint from morning till night without stopping to eat. Then for three or four days he would not paint at all. He would often just stand and look at the painting. Vasari said that the prior of the convent was very annoyed. He asked Ludovico to tell Leonardo to work faster. Vasari said that Leonardo was worried because he did not think that he could paint the face of Jesus well enough. Leonardo told the Duke that he might use the face of the prior as his model for Judas, the traitor.

When it was finished, everyone that saw it said that the painting was a masterpiece. But Leonardo had not used proper fresco for the painting. He had used tempera over gesso, which is not usually used for wall painting. Soon the painting started to grow mold and flake off the wall. In a hundred years it was "completely ruined".
Even though in some places the paint has fallen right off the wall, the painting is so popular that it is printed and copied more that any other religious painting in the world.

Working life 1499–1513

In 1499, Ludovico il Moro was overthrown. Leonardo left Milan with his servant Salai and a friend, Luca Pacioli, a mathematician. They went to Venice, where Leonardo worked as a military architect and engineer. Because Venice is a city on many islands, Leonardo tried to think of ways to defend the city from a naval attack.

In 1500, Leonardo went back to Florence, taking his "household" of servants and apprentices with him. The monks from the monastery of The Holy Annunciation gave Leonardo a home and a large workshop. In 2005 when some buildings which were used by the Department of Military Geography were being restored, the restorers discovered that part of the building used to be Leonardo's studio.

The Virgin and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist

Leonardo started work on a new painting. He drew a large "cartoon" (a drawing that is a plan for the painting).  The cartoon showed the Virgin Mary sitting on the knee of her mother, St Anne. Mary holds the baby Jesus in her arms. Jesus stretches out his hands to his young cousin John the Baptist. Vasari says that everyone was so amazed by the beautiful drawing that "men and women, young and old" came in large groups to see it "as if they were attending a great festival". The drawing is now in the National Gallery, London. Even though it is old, faded, and kept in a dark room, people go to the gallery to sit in front of it every day.

The Battle of Anghiari

In 1502 and 1503, Leonardo worked for Cesare Borgia, a powerful noble who was the son of Pope Alexander VI. Leonardo travelled around Italy with Borgia as a military architect and engineer. Late in 1503, Leonardo returned to Florence. He rejoined the Guild of St Luke.

He was given a very important commission. The Signoria (Town Council) of the City of Florence wanted two large frescos painted on the walls of the most important room of the Signoria Palace. Michelangelo was to paint The Battle of Cascina and Leonardo was to paint The Battle of Anghiari.  Leonardo began the project by studying and drawing the faces of angry men and fighting horses. These drawings can still be seen in his notebooks. But unfortunately, this was to be another failure for Leonardo. When he painted the picture on the wall, instead of using fresco, he mixed the paints with oil. The paint would not dry. Leonardo lit some fires to dry it, and the painting melted. Peter Paul Rubens drew a copy of the middle part. After a time, the town council covered it up and got somebody else to paint the wall. Michelangelo did not finish his painting either, because the Pope called him to Rome.

Mona Lisa

In about 1503 Leonardo began painting the portrait of a woman known as Mona Lisa, the most famous portrait that has ever been painted. He continued working on it for many years. It is a small picture, painted in oil on a wooden panel. It shows the face, upper body and hands of a woman. She is very plainly dressed. For a portrait, a woman would usually put on her best clothes and jewellery. Mona Lisa has a dark dress and a fine black veil over her head. Leonardo often left symbols in his paintings that give clues about the person. The unusual thing about this picture is the smile. The smile is the clue to her name: Mona Lisa Giacondo. Giacondo means "the joking one". (Mona is short for Madonna which means "My Lady".)

The reason why the painting is so famous is that it seems to be full of mystery. Mona Lisa's eyes look out at the viewer. But no-one can guess what she is thinking. Her eyes and her mouth seem to be smiling. This is very unusual in a portrait painting. Most people in portraits look very serious. It is hard to tell what Mona Lisa's exact expression is. When a person wants to read another person's feelings, they look at the corners of their mouth and eyes. But Leonardo has painted soft shadows in the corners of Mona Lisa's mouth and eyes, to disguise her expression. The soft shadows are also found on the sides of her face, her neck and hands. The way that Leonardo uses shadow is called "sfumato" (which is an Italian word for "smoke"). Vasari said that the picture was so beautifully painted that every other artist who looked at it thought that they could never paint so well.

Working life, 1506–1516
In 1506, Leonardo went back to Milan with his pupils, and lived in his own house in Porta Orientale. D'Oggione made several copies of the Last Supper. Luini made a copy of the Virgin of the Rocks. Boltraffio (and the others) painted many Madonna and Child pictures which can still be seen in art galleries and churches. One of pupils was a young nobleman called Count Francesco Melzi. Melzi never became a very good painter, but he loved Leonardo and stayed with him until the day he died.

In September 1513 Leonardo went to Rome and lived there until 1516. He lived in the Vatican. The three greatest painters of the High Renaissance, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael were all working in Rome at the same time. Even though their names are often said together as if they were friends, they were not. Leonardo at this time was in his sixties, Michelangelo was middle-aged. He was not friendly to either Leonardo or Raphael. Raphael was a very clever young painter who learnt a lot by looking at the pictures painted by Leonardo and Michelangelo. But neither of them was ever his teacher.

In October 1515, King Francis I of France captured Milan. On December 19, there was a meeting of Francis I and Pope Leo X, in Bologna. Leonardo went to the meeting with Pope Leo.
Leonardo made an amazing toy to entertain King Francis. It was a life-sized mechanical lion that could walk. It had doors in its chest which opened, and a bunch of lilies came out. Lilies were the royal symbol of the French Kings.

Old age, 1516–1519

In 1516, Francis I invited Leonardo to go to France with him. He gave Leonardo a beautiful house called Clos Lucé (sometimes called "Cloux"). It is near the king's palace, Chateau Amboise. Leonardo spent the last three years of his life at Clos Lucé, with his faithful friend and apprentice, Count Melzi. The king gave Leonardo a pension of 10,000 scudi. One of the last paintings that Leonardo did was a picture of John the Baptist. His model was Salai, with his beautiful long curling hair.

When Leonardo was dying, he asked for a priest to come, so that he could make his confession and receive Holy Communion.
Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, on May 2, 1519. King Francis had become a close friend. Vasari says that the King held Leonardo's head in his arms as he died. In his will, he asked that sixty beggars should follow his casket in procession. He was buried in the Chapel of the Chateau Amboise.

Leonardo had never married and had no children of his own. In his will, he left his money, his books and most of his paintings to Count Melzi. Leonardo also remembered his other pupil Salai and his servant Battista di Vilussis, who each received half of Leonardo's vineyards near Milan. Leonardo's left to his serving woman a black cloak with a fur edge. Salai was the owner of Leonardo's most famous oil painting, the Mona Lisa. He still owned it a few years later when he died, after fighting in a duel.

King Francis said: "There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher."

Drawings
Leonardo did not paint very many pictures. But he drew hundreds of quick sketches, plans, maps and detailed drawings. This is how he recorded all the interesting things that he saw, studied and thought about.

Some of Leonardo's drawings are "studies" for paintings. In these drawings Leonardo planned the things he was going to paint. Some studies are plans for whole paintings. One of these paintings is the large beautiful drawing of the Madonna and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist that is now in the National Gallery, London.

Many of the studies show "details" that Leonardo wanted to get just right. One study shows a very detailed perspective drawing of the ruined buildings in the background of the painting of the Magi. Other studies show hands, faces, drapery, plants, horses and babies.
The earliest drawing by Leonardo that has a date on it, is a Landscape of the Arno Valley, 1473, which shows the river, the mountains, Montelupo Castle and the farmlands beyond it in great detail.

Leonardo's notebooks

Leonardo studied things throughout his life. He did not go to university to study. He studied by observing things in the world around him, to see how they were made and how they worked. He drew things that he saw and discoveries he made into his notebooks. Many of his notebooks are now in museums. There are about 13,000 pages of notes and drawings in his notebooks, which are mostly scientific studies.

Leonardo's notebooks are hard to read because he wrote backwards in "mirror writing". Some people think that perhaps he was trying to keep his work secret. This is not true. Leonardo wrote (and sometimes drew) with his left hand. In those days pens were made from a quill (a large feather) that was cut with a pen-knife on the end. It is hard for a left-handed person to write with a quill in the ordinary way, but quite easy to write backwards.

It is likely that Leonardo planned to publish the studies in his notebooks. He organized many pages carefully, with one study taking up the front and back of each page. There is a page with drawings and writing about the human heart and a page about the womb and the fetus. One page shows drawings of the muscles of a shoulder and another page shows how an arm works.

The notebooks were not published in Leonardo's lifetime. After he died, they were divided between different people who had known him. They are nearly all in museums or libraries such as Windsor Castle, the Louvre, and the British Library. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana (a library) in Milan has the twelve-volume Codex Atlanticus.

Studies
Some of the things that Leonardo studied are:
 The geology of the Earth, with its mountains, valleys, rivers and rocks.
 The anatomy of the human body with its skeleton, muscles, veins and internal organs. Leonardo was given dead bodies by a hospital. He "dissected" (cut up) thirty dead bodies and carefully drew many of the parts. His drawings of bones and muscles were to help other artists to paint the human body properly.
 The anatomy of horses, cows, dogs, and bears.
 The expressions on human faces.
 The flight of birds .
 The weather and its phenomena.
 The way that water flows.
 The botany of plants.
 Light, shadows, mirrors and lenses.
 Perspective and the way to make things look near or far.
 The geometry of solid objects. He drew many careful pictures which were used by the mathematician Luca Pacioli in a book called De Divina Proportione.

Designs and inventions
Many of the drawings and notes in Leonardo's notebooks are designs, plans and inventions.

Some of the things that Leonardo designed are:
 Costumes for parades, carnivals and theatre. These were probably for Duke Federico's court. They include armour, and a ferocious dragon.
 War machines such as an armour-plated tank, an enormous cross bow and a horrible horse-driven leg-chopper. None of these things were ever made in Leonardo's lifetime.
 Dams and canals for rivers.
 A wooden bridge that could be carried flat on wagons and unfolded and put together at the river.
 Flying things with wings that flapped, a helicopter, a parachute and a hang glider. One of Leonardo's servants was injured, trying out the hang glider. The parachute has been made and tested in modern times, and it does work.
 Church (building) and castles. It is possible that the Castle of Locarno, in the south of Switzerland was designed by Leonardo. No other building that he designed was built.

Leonardo's studies, designs and inventions

Related pages
Salvator Mundi of Lecco (Lake Como)
 Renaissance
 Italian Renaissance art
 Lady with an Ermine
 List of Renaissance artists
 Michelangelo
 Raphael
 List of Italian painters

References

More reading

  ISBN 0-486-22573-9. 2 volumes. A reprint of the original 1883 edition.

 Silvia e Luca Guagliumi, "Leonardo e l'architettura", Silvia Editrice, Aprile 2015

 Silvia Guagliumi,Expo 2015:
Leonardo da Vinci e l'architettura lombarda.Saggio pubblicato su Il Giornale dell'Ingegnere (Organo ufficiale dell'Ordine degli Ingegneri e Architetti di Milano),
N.4 - Aprile 2015.
 Silvia Guagliumi, In ricordo di Leonardo, Rivista In Arte, Aprile/Maggio/Giugno 2019.

Other websites

 Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, Design (review)

 Complete text & images of Richter's translation of the Notebooks
 Vasari Life of Leonardo : in Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.
 Web Gallery of Leonardo Paintings
 Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
 Da Vinci Decoded Article from The Guardian
 The true face of Leonardo Da Vinci?
 Leonardo da Vinci's Ethical Vegetarianism
 Leonardo da Vinci, a biography with description of his major works, written for children; Tamsyn Taylor, 2020

1452 births
1519 deaths
Inventors
Italian mathematicians
Italian architects
Italian sculptors
Botanists
People from Florence
15th-century Italian painters
Anatomists
Polymaths

Leonardo da Vinci


In Hinduism and Hindu mythology, Mantra means a group of words. There are many such groups of words. Some mantras have meanings. However, there are many mantras which are just syllables, with or without any words. Such mantras do not carry meanings. From the ancient times, Hindus, as well as in many cases, texts of Buddhism and Jainism contain many mantras.

Traditionally, people associate the mantras with various powers. However, it is more a matter of individual faith and experience than a fact of science.

The earliest examples of mantras are many hymns and verses of Vedas. People read them aloud. They thought that by doing so they would get the blessings of the gods and other beings. The system continued in Hindu practices of worship and meditation. Even now, many Hindus believe in the power of mantras to gain health and wealth. Mantras may form part of worship or people may simply recite them loudly or slowly. Some time no recitation may take place, and the person would just think of the mantra silently for long time.

References

Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend () by Anna Dallapiccola
https://vedic7.blogspot.com/2022/12/mantras.html

Hinduism
Hindu mythology

Mantra


A weapon is an object that can be used to attack or injure a person or animal. People have used weapons since very ancient times. While other animals use weapons, in most cases they are attached to the animal (teeth, claws, tusks, etc.). In man's case they are detached and constantly selected for the purpose at hand. Man has been constantly developing newer and better weapons ever since he picked up the first rock.

History

Some of the oldest remains that we have of ancient people are weapons made of stone. Ancient people also used spears. Bows and arrows were in use by about 20,000 BC. During the Bronze age people learned to make things of metal, many people used swords. People also built huge machines which could throw rocks to destroy the defensive walls of enemy cities. Some of these machines were called catapults or siege engines. Later, gunpowder was invented in China and the Europeans began using it to make guns and cannons. These weapons were much better than the older weapons, and helped the Europeans to conquer people in many parts of the world. People in many parts of the world used guns such as rifles and shotguns for hunting animals, and handguns for shooting other people.

People continued to invent new weapons. In 1884 the machine gun was invented, which could shoot many bullets very fast. Soldiers began to use land mines, a bomb hidden in the ground, which explodes when someone walks on it.  Small submarines were able to use torpedos to attack bigger ships and hide under the ocean.  When airplanes were invented, people began to use them to shoot enemies and to drop bombs on them. They built tanks which had big guns and strong armor.  Poison gas was used in World War I but was outlawed and rarely used afterwards.

In World War II, cities were heavily bombed from the air and Nazi Germany used V-2 missiles to carry bombs to England. Both sides used many firebombs. At the end of World War II, the United States used atomic bombs (nuclear bombs) to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After World War II, people continued to develop new weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles. People became concerned about weapons of mass destruction, weapons that can kill many people very fast, and are usually cheap and easy to make and use. One kind of weapon of mass destruction is poison gas. New kinds of poison gas, such as nerve gas, are much more powerful than the old kinds. Another kind of weapon of mass destruction is disease germs, which could be used to make many people sick and maybe kill them.

Laws
Old-fashioned weapons still kill many people in wars and fighting. In wars in Africa in the 1990s and early 21st century, many people were killed with machetes (big knives). People sometimes try to make laws, treaties, and international agreements to try to control weapons because they are worried about all the killing done with them. Laws vary from country to country, for example, in the United States, the "right to keep and bear arms" is guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution. A country may say that people in that country cannot keep or use guns, or only when the government allows it. The laws of war forbid certain weapons, and countries may agree with each other that they should not use certain weapons against each other, or should not have more than a certain number of particular kinds of weapons.

Types of weapons
Things specifically made as weapons that most ordinary people can carry, include non lethal:
 Pepper spray or tear gas
 electric shocking devices

Weapons that soldiers or police personnel carry, include:
 Portable firearms like pistols, rifles, and shotguns
Portable firearms are also used by for hunting and for marksmanship practice.
 Some types of sticks
 Swords and most types of knives

Weapons that the defense people of a national government have, include:
 Explosive bombs of any type, grenades
 Rockets for carrying bombs
 Boats, vehicles, and aircraft with attached firearms, such as warships, tanks, and fighter and bomber aircraft.

Other types of weapons include:
 Sling
 slingshot
 Spear
 Bow and arrow
 Flamethrower
 Biological weapon

Related pages
 War

References

Weapon


In music, a bow is a stick which is strung with hair.  It is used to pull across the strings of a string instrument such as a violin, viola, cello or double bass.

Bow construction

The wood used for good quality bows is usually pernambuco wood from Brazil.  Some bows nowadays are made from carbon fiber.  They are often cheaper and still of very good quality.  The bow has to be slightly curved so that it straightens out a bit as the hairs are tightened (this is like the bow of 'bow and arrow' where letting go of the tension of the bent bow makes the arrow fly off).

Horsehair is used for the hairs of the bow.  These hairs gradually fall out when the bow is used a lot.  When a lot of the hairs have fallen out the player can have the bow re-haired.  When the bow is new, or when it has just been re-haired, it will not make any sound until the hairs have been well rubbed with rosin (also called "colophony").  The rosin makes the hair grip the string as it is drawn across.  Every violinist needs to keep a piece of rosin (called a "cake of rosin") in his or her violin case.  They may need to rosin the bow for a short while each time they play.  There is a screw at the end of the bow for tightening the hairs.  After playing, the bow hairs should be slackened again before the bow is put away.  This is to stop the wood from warping (bending out of shape).

The black bit near the heel of the bow (the end where the player holds it) is called the frog.  This holds the hair in place.  The frog may be made of ebony, but sometimes it is made of ivory or tortoiseshell.  Near the frog is the grip, which is made of leather or sometimes snakeskin.  Expensive bows sometimes have a tip made of silver.

There are other instruments which use bows.  In the Renaissance the viols were played with a bow which was held with the palm upwards.  Some double bass players still hold the bow in this way (this is called the German method.  The overhand method is called the French method.)

The kind of bow in use today was developed by the bow-maker François Tourte in 19th century France.

There are other cultures which have bows with only one thick hair.

Bowing techniques

People who learn to play the violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass spend a very long time learning the technique of bowing.  They have to learn to control the bow so that it makes a lovely sound on the string.  They learn to control the bow with strong fingers, but never to hold the bow tightly.  Sometimes they are asked to pluck the string instead of bowing it.  This is called "pizzicato".

The bow is held in the right hand.  The left hand makes the different notes by putting the fingers firmly down on the fingerboard.

When string players talk about "putting in the bowing" they mean: writing in the music for each note whether it is played with an upbow or downbow.   A downbow is when the player starts at the heel (the end that he is holding) and finishes at the tip.  An upbow is when the bow travels in the direction  tip to  heel.  A player does not always have to use "whole bows" (from the heel to the tip).  In fast music he may only use a small part of the bow.  A downbow feels stronger than an upbow, so it is usually used for the first beat of the bar.  Downbows and upbows may be used for alternate notes, but often two or more notes are taken in one bow-stroke.  This is shown in the music by a slur (a short curved line like a phrase mark over or under the notes to be slurred).

The bow generally should touch the part of the string mid-way between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge (see the article violin).  To play quietly the bow should be nearer the fingerboard.  To play loudly it should be nearer the bridge.

When the players have been plucking (pizzicato) and they need to start bowing again, the word arco is put in the music.  This is the Italian word for bow.

Special effects can be made with the bow.  These include:
sul ponticello which means that the bow is playing towards the bridge.  This produces a glassy, stratching kind of sound, full of dissonant harmonics.
Sul tasto means that the bow is over the fingerboard, producing a very quiet, muffled sound.
col legno (literally: with the wood) means that the players have to turn the bow over and hit the string with the wood.  Players with expensive bows often do not like doing this and bring a cheaper bow to play those bits.
On the string bowing means: keeping the bow in contact with the string between the notes.
Off the string bowing means lifting or bouncing the bow.
Spiccato means making the bow bounce so that the notes are staccato (short and detached).
Ricochet bowing is making the bow bounce of its own accord very quickly in the upper half of the bow (near the tip).  Each bounce may be for a different note.  This is a very advanced technique.
Two strings can be played at once so that two notes sound.  This is called double stopping.
Three or four strings can be played at once, but only at very high dynamic levels and with a very loose bow - sometimes the effect of a chord is produced by double stopping quickly on two strings and then on the other two.

Other types of bow

The Chinese yazheng and yaqin, and Korean ajaeng zithers are generally played by "bowing" with a rosined stick, which rubs against the strings without any horsehair.  The hurdy-gurdy, an instrument known in medieval Europe, has strings which are bowed by a "rosin wheel," which is turned by a handle.

String instrument construction

Bow (music)


A county town is the most important town of any county in Britain and Ireland. In the United States the town is called the county seat.

It can be the place where the headquarters of the county council is based, or the place where the courts are. It has usually been the county town for hundreds of years. It could also be the biggest or most important town in the county. There is often a university in or near the county town. Cities can also be county towns, such as Hereford, or Durham City.

Some examples of county towns today in England:

Aylesbury of Buckinghamshire
Ipswich of Suffolk
Bedford of Bedfordshire
Chelmsford of Essex
Chester of Cheshire
Exeter of Devon
Guildford of Surrey
Hereford of Herefordshire
Shrewsbury of Shropshire
Stafford of Staffordshire
Truro of Cornwall
Warwick of Warwickshire

Related pages
County seat

County town


The United States dollar (or American dollar) is the official currency (money) of the United States of America. It is also used in some other countries outside the US. It is the standard currency for international markets selling goods such as gold and oil (petrol). When writing, the symbol for the American dollar is the dollar sign ($). Dollars can also be known as USD (standing for 'U.S. dollar').

Denominations and value

The American one dollar bill has a picture of George Washington. There are currently paper bills (currency) of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollars.

All U.S. dollar currency has been the same size, shape and general design since 1928. This is unlike some countries where bank notes with different values have different sizes.

The U.S. also has dollar coins. Some are silver colored and some are gold colored. Vending machines often give dollar coins as change, since it is easier for the machines to give out coins than paper money. Some of the more advanced vending machines give out paper money as change. Paper dollars are much more common than dollar coins.

The US dollar in subdivided into cents, and 100 cents equals 1 US dollar. One cent can be written as either $0.01 or 1¢. The cent or "penny" (not to be confused with the English penny sterling) is the least worth coin used in the U.S.. There are several different coins with different cent values of different materials and sizes. There is the penny (1¢ or $0.01), nickel (5¢ or $0.05), dime (10¢ or $0.10), quarter (25¢ or $0.25), and the much rarer half-dollar (50¢ or $0.50). All coins and paper bills have the faces of famous Americans on the front side.

Federal Reserve
The paper "dollar bill" is actually called a "Federal Reserve Note".  Federal Reserve notes are legal tender currency notes. The twelve Federal Reserve Banks issue them into circulation pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. A commercial bank belonging to the Federal Reserve System can obtain Federal Reserve notes from the Federal Reserve Bank in its district whenever it wishes by paying for them in full, dollar for dollar, from its account with Federal Reserve Bank.

Federal Reserve Banks get the notes from the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). It pays the BEP for the cost of producing the notes.

Congress has specified that a Federal Reserve Bank must hold collateral equal in value to the Federal Reserve notes that the Bank receives. This collateral is chiefly gold certificates and United States securities. This provides backing for the note issue.

Federal Reserve notes are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity, and receive no backing by anything. This has been the case since 1933. The notes have no value for themselves, but for what they will buy.

The Coinage Act of 1965 titled "Legal tender" states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues".

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is no Federal statute saying a person or organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash. But there might be a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

Meeting the variable demand for cash

The public typically obtains its cash from banks by withdrawing cash from automated teller machines (ATMs) or by cashing checks. The amount of cash that the public holds varies seasonally, by the day of the month, and even by the day of the week. For example, people demand a large amount of cash for shopping and vacations during the year-end holiday season. Also, people typically withdraw cash at ATMs over the weekend, so there is more cash in circulation on Monday than on Friday.

To meet the demands of their customers, banks get cash from Federal Reserve Banks. Most medium- and large-sized banks maintain reserve accounts at one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, and they pay for the cash they get from the Fed by having those accounts debited. Some smaller banks maintain their required reserves at larger, "correspondent," banks. The smaller banks get cash through the correspondent banks, which charge a fee for the service. The larger banks get currency from the Fed and pass it on to the smaller banks.

When the public's demand for cash declines—after the holiday season, for example—banks find they have more cash than they need and they deposit the excess at the Fed. Because banks pay the Fed for cash by having their reserve accounts debited, the level of reserves in the nation's banking system drops when the public's demand for cash rises; similarly, the level rises again when the public's demand for cash subsides and banks ship cash back to the Fed. The Fed offsets variations in the public's demand for cash that could introduce volatility into credit markets by implementing open market operations.

The popularization of the ATM in recent years has increased the public's demand for currency and, in turn, the amount of currency that banks order from the Fed. Interestingly, the advent of the ATM has led some banks to request used, fit bills, rather than new bills, because the used bills often work better in the ATMs.

Maintaining a cash inventory
Each of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks keeps an inventory of cash on hand to meet the needs of the depository institutions in its District. Extended custodial inventory sites in several continents promote the use of U.S. currency internationally, improve the collection of information on currency flows, and help local banks meet the public's demand for U.S. currency. Additions to that supply come directly from the two divisions of the Treasury Department that produce the cash: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints currency, and the United States Mint, which makes coins. Most of the inventory consists of deposits by banks that had more cash than they needed to serve their customers and deposited the excess at the Fed to help meet their reserve requirements.

When a Federal Reserve Bank receives a cash deposit from a bank, it checks the individual notes to determine whether they are fit for future circulation. About one-third of the notes that the Fed receives are not fit, and the Fed destroys them. As shown in the table below, the life of a note varies according to its denomination. For example, a $1 bill, which gets the greatest use, remains in circulation an average of 5.9 years; a $100 bill lasts about 15 years.

Gallery

Other websites

References

Currency of the United States

United States dollar


A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S. and Canada, is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or lunchroom (in American English). Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, although the English term came from the Spanish term cafetería, which carries the same meaning.

Instead of table service, there are food-serving counters/stalls or booths, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths. Customers take the food that they desire as they walk along, placing it on a tray. In addition, there are often stations where customers order food, particularly items such as hamburgers or tacos which must be served hot and can be immediately prepared with little waiting. Alternatively, the patron is given a number and the item is brought to their table. For some food items and drinks, such as sodas, water, or the like, customers collect an empty container, pay at check-out, and fill the container after check-out. Free unlimited-second servings are often allowed under this system. For legal purposes (and the consumption patterns of customers), this system is rarely, if at all, used for alcoholic drinks in the United States.

Customers are either charged a flat rate for admission (as in a buffet) or pay at check-out for each item. Some self-service cafeterias charge by the weight of items on a patron's plate. In universities and colleges, some students pay for three meals a day by making a single large payment for the entire semester.

As cafeterias require few employees, they are often found within a larger institution, catering to the employees or clientele of that institution. For example, schools, colleges and their residence halls, department stores, hospitals, museums, places of worship, amusement parks, military bases, prisons, factories, and office buildings often have cafeterias. Although some of such institutions self-operate their cafeterias, many outsource their cafeterias to a food service management company or lease space to independent businesses to operate food service facilities. The three largest food service management companies servicing institutions are Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo.

At one time, upscale cafeteria-style restaurants dominated the culture of the Southern United States, and to a lesser extent the Midwest. There were numerous prominent chains of them: Bickford's, Morrison's Cafeteria, Piccadilly Cafeteria, S&W Cafeteria, Apple House, Luby's, K&W, Britling, Wyatt's Cafeteria, and Blue Boar among them. Currently, two Midwestern chains still exist, Sloppy Jo's Lunchroom and Manny's, which are both located in Illinois. There were also several smaller chains, usually located in and around a single city. These institutions, except K&W, went into a decline in the 1960s with the rise of fast food and were largely finished off in the 1980s by the rise of all-you-can-eat buffets and other casual dining establishments. A few chains—particularly Luby's and Piccadilly Cafeterias (which took over the Morrison's chain in 1998)—continue to fill some of the gap left by the decline of the older chains. Some of the smaller Midwestern chains, such as MCL Cafeterias centered in Indianapolis, are still in business.

History

Perhaps the first self-service restaurant (not necessarily a cafeteria) in the U.S. was the Exchange Buffet in New York City, which opened September 4, 1885, and catered to an exclusively male clientele. Food was purchased at a counter and patrons ate standing up. This represents the predecessor of two formats: the cafeteria, described below, and the automat.

During the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, entrepreneur John Kruger built an American version of the smörgåsbords he had seen while traveling in Sweden. Emphasizing the simplicity and light fare, he called it the 'Cafeteria' - Spanish for 'coffee shop'. The exposition attracted over 27 million visitors (half the U.S. population at the time) in six months, and it was because of Kruger's operation that the United States first heard the term and experienced the self-service dining format.

Meanwhile, in the mid-scale United States, the chain of Childs Restaurants quickly grew from about 10 locations in New York City in 1890 to hundreds across the U.S. and Canada by 1920. Childs is credited with the innovation of adding trays and a "tray line" to the self-service format, introduced in 1898 at their 130 Broadway location. Childs did not change its format of sit-down dining, however. This was soon the standard design for most Childs Restaurants, and many ultimately the dominant method for cafeterias.

It has been conjectured that the 'cafeteria craze' started in May 1905, when Helen Mosher opened a downtown L.A. restaurant where people chose their food at a long counter and carried their trays to their tables. California has a long history in the cafeteria format - notably the Boos Brothers Cafeterias, and the Clifton's and Schaber's. The earliest cafeterias in California were opened at least 12 years after Kruger's Cafeteria, and Childs already had many locations around the country. Horn & Hardart, an automat format chain (different from cafeterias), was well established in the mid-Atlantic region before 1900.

Between 1960 and 1981, the popularity of cafeterias was overcome by fast food restaurants and fast casual restaurant formats.

Outside the United States, the development of cafeterias can be observed in France as early as 1881 with the passing of the Ferry Law. This law mandated that public school education be available to all children. Accordingly, the government also encouraged schools to provide meals for students in need, thus resulting in the conception of cafeterias or cantine (in French). According to Abramson, before the creation of cafeterias, only some students could bring home-cooked meals and be properly fed in schools.

As cafeterias in France became more popular, their use spread beyond schools and into the workforce. Thus, due to pressure from workers and eventually new labor laws, sizable businesses had to, at minimum, provide established eating areas for their workers. Support for this practice was also reinforced by the effects of World War II when the importance of national health and nutrition came under great attention.

Other names

A cafeteria in a U.S. military installation is known as a chow hall, a mess hall, a galley, a mess deck, or, more formally, a dining facility, often abbreviated to DFAC, whereas in common British Armed Forces parlance, it is known as a cookhouse or mess. Students in the United States often refer to cafeterias as lunchrooms, which also often serve school breakfast. Some school cafeterias in the U.S. and Canada have stages and movable seating that allow use as auditoriums. These rooms are known as cafetoriums or All Purpose Rooms. In some older facilities, a school's gymnasium is also often used as a cafeteria, with the kitchen facility being hidden behind a rolling partition outside non-meal hours. Newer rooms which also act as the school's grand entrance hall for crowd control and are used for multiple purposes are often called the commons.

Cafeterias serving university dormitories are sometimes called dining halls or dining commons. A food court is a type of cafeteria found in many shopping malls and airports featuring multiple food vendors or concessions. However, a food court could equally be styled as a type of restaurant as well, being more aligned with the public, rather than institutionalized, dining. Some institutions, especially schools, have food courts with stations offering different types of food served by the institution itself (self-operation) or a single contract management company, rather than leasing space to numerous businesses. Some monasteries, boarding schools, and older universities refer to their cafeteria as a refectory. Modern-day British cathedrals and abbeys, notably in the Church of England, often use the phrase refectory to describe a cafeteria open to the public. Historically, the refectory was generally only used by monks and priests. For example, although the original 800-year-old refectory at Gloucester Cathedral (the stage setting for dining scenes in the Harry Potter movies) is now mostly used as a choir practice area, the relatively modern 300-year-old extension, now used as a cafeteria by staff and public alike, is today referred to as the refectory.

A cafeteria located within a movie or TV studio complex is often called a commissary.

College cafeteria

In American English, a college cafeteria is a cafeteria intended for college students. In British English, it is often called the refectory. These cafeterias can be a part of a residence hall or in a separate building.  Many of these colleges employ their students to work in the cafeteria.  The number of meals served to students varies from school to school but is normally around 21 meals per week.  Like normal cafeterias, a person will have a tray to select the food that they want, but (at some campuses) instead of paying money, pays beforehand by purchasing a meal plan.

The method of payment for college cafeterias is commonly in the form of a meal plan, whereby the patron pays a certain amount at the start of the semester and details of the plan are stored on a computer system. Student ID cards are then used to access the meal plan. Meal plans can vary widely in their details and are often not necessary to eat at a college cafeteria. Typically, the college tracks students' plan usage by counting the number of predefined meal servings, points, dollars, or buffet dinners. The plan may give the student a certain number of any of the above per week or semester and they may or may not roll over to the next week or semester.

Many schools offer several different options for using their meal plans. The main cafeteria is usually where most of the meal plan is used but smaller cafeterias, cafés, restaurants, bars, or even fast food chains located on campus, on nearby streets, or in the surrounding town or city may accept meal plans. A college cafeteria system often has a virtual monopoly on the students due to an isolated location or a requirement that residence contracts include a full meal plan.

Taiwanese cafeteria
There are many self-service bento shops in Taiwan. The store will put the dishes in the self-service area for the customers to pick them up by themselves. After the customers choose, they will go to the cashier to check out; many stores will use the staff to visually check the amount of food when assessing the price, and some stores will use the method of weighing.

See also
 Automat
 Coffee service
 Coffeehouse
 Food court
 Hawker centre
 List of cafeterias
 Mess
 Refectory

References

Rooms
Restaurants by type

Cafeteria


The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (, abbr. MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes works from Greek, Roman and Renaissance times, and especially Roman artifacts from the nearby Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum sites. From 1816 to 1861, it was known as Real Museo Borbonico ("the Royal Bourbon Museum").

Building

The building was built as a cavalry barracks in 1585. From 1616 to 1777 it was the seat of the University of Naples. During the 19th century, after it became a museum, it suffered many changes to the main structure.

Collections
The museum hosts extensive collections of Greek and Roman antiquities. Their core is from the Farnese Collection, which includes a collection of engraved gems (including the Farnese Cup, a Ptolemaic bowl made of sardonyx agate and the most famous piece in the "Treasure of the Magnificent", and is founded upon gems collected by Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo il Magnifico in the 15th century) and the Farnese Marbles. Among the notable works found in the museum are the Menologium Rusticum and the Herculaneum papyri, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, found after 1752 in Villa of the Papyri.

Marbles

The greater part of the museum's classical sculpture collection largely comes from the Farnese Marbles, important since they include Roman copies of classical Greek sculpture, which are in many cases the only surviving indications of what the lost works by ancient Greek sculptors such as Calamis, Kritios and Nesiotes looked like. Many of these works, especially the larger ones, have been moved to the Museo di Capodimonte for display in recent years.

 The Farnese Hercules, which fixed the image of Hercules in the European imagination.
 The Farnese Atlas is the oldest extant depiction of Atlas from Greek mythology, and the oldest view of the Western constellations, possibly based upon the star catalog of Hipparchus
 The Farnese Bull, widely considered the largest single sculpture ever recovered from antiquity.
The group Harmodius and Aristogeiton, a Roman copy of a bronze work that once stood in the Agora of Athens
The Aphrodite Kallipygos
The Farnese Artemis, again a Roman copy of a Greek original
a collection of busts of Roman emperors
another set of Roman sculptures (again mainly copies of Greek work) that (like the Hercules) once stood in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.

Bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri
A major collection of ancient Roman bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri is housed at the museum. These include the Seated Hermes, a sprawling Drunken Satyr, a bust of Thespis, another variously identified as Seneca or Hesiod, and a pair of exceptionally lively runners.

Mosaics
The museum's Mosaic Collection includes a number of important mosaics recovered from the ruins of Pompeii and the other Vesuvian cities. This includes the Alexander Mosaic, dating from , originally from the House of the Faun in Pompeii. It depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Another mosaic found is that of the gladiatorial fighter depicted in a mosaic found from the Villa of the Figured Capitals in Pompeii.

Egyptian Collection
With 2,500 objects, the museum has one of the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in Italy, smaller only than those in Turin, Florence and Bologna. It is made up primarily of works from two private collections, assembled by Cardinal Stefano Borgia in the second half of the 18th century, and Picchianti in the first years of the 19th. Since the recent rearrangement of the galleries, these two cores of the collection have been exhibited separately, while other items are on display in the connecting room, including Egyptian and "pseudo-Egyptian" artefacts from Pompeii and other Campanian sites. The collection provides an important record of Egyptian civilization from the Old Kingdom (2700-2200 B.C.) up to the Ptolemaic-Roman era.

Secret Cabinet
The Secret Cabinet (Gabinetto Segreto) (Gabbinete) or Secret Room is the name the Bourbon Monarchy gave the private rooms in which they held their fairly extensive collection of erotic or sexual items, mostly deriving from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Access was limited to only persons of mature age and known morals. The rooms were also called Cabinets of matters reserved or obscene or pornographic. After the revolution of 1848, the government of the monarchy even proposed the destruction of objects, fearful of the implications of their ownership, which would tarnish the monarchy with lasciviousness. The then director of the Royal Bourbon Museum instead had access to the collection terminated, and the entrance door was provided with three different locks, whose keys were held respectively by the Director of the Museum, the Museum Controller, and the Palace Butler. The highlight of the censorship occurred in 1851 when even nude Venus statues were locked up, and the entrance walled up in the hope that the collection would vanish from memory.

In September 1860, when the forces of Garibaldi occupied Naples, he ordered that the collection be made available for the general public to view. Since the Royal Butler was no longer available, they broke into the collection. Limiting viewership and censorship have always been part of the history of the collection. Censorship was restored during the era of the Kingdom of Italy, and peaked during the Fascist period, when visitors to the rooms needed the permission of the Minister of National Education in Rome. Censorship persisted in the postwar period up to 1967, abating only after 1971 when the Ministry was given the new rules to regulate requests for visits and access to the section. Completely rebuilt a few years ago with all of the new criteria, the collection was finally opened to the public in April 2000. Visitors under the age of 14 can tour the exhibit only with an adult.

 The Placentarius, the small bronze statue represents a distinctly ithyphallic old nude man who, on the palm of his hand, holds a little silver tray.

Gallery

References

External links

Museums in Naples
Art museums and galleries in Campania
Archaeological museums in Italy
National museums of Italy
Museums of ancient Rome in Italy
Museums of ancient Greece in Italy

1750s establishments in Italy
Farnese Collection

National Archaeological Museum, Naples


News is when people talk about current events (things that are happening right now). News Media is a portrayal of current affairs, perspectives and social influence. News can be given in newspapers, television, magazines, or radio. There are several news channels on cable television that give news all day long, such as Fox News and CNN.  There are several news magazines, such as Time, The Economist, and Newsweek. A newsman is a person who helps out with the news. For example, Brian Gotter is a  newsman. News Media can be viewed in many forms, such as newspaper, television and radio.

News
Communication

The - - - -


Sophism can mean two very different things. In Ancient Greece, sophism was practiced by sophists, who were a group of teachers of philosophy and rhetoric. In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or slightly incorrect argument used for deceiving someone.

Etymology
The word "sophism" originated from the Greek word σόφισμα, "sophisma" (from σοφίζω, "sophizo" meaning "I am wise").

The similar Greek word σοφιστής, "sophistēs" means "wise-ist, one who does wisdom, one who makes a business out of wisdom" while σοφός, "sophós" means a "wise man".

History
The ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras
(ca. 490–420 BC) is often said to be the first of the sophists. Others include: Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias, Thrasymachus, Lycophron, Callicles, Antiphon, and Cratylus.

Plato opposed those sophists because they only abused wisdom for their own interest and refused the truth and justice.

Modern usage
In modern usage, sophism, sophist, and sophistry are derogatory terms, due the influence of many philosophers in the past. Sophism and platonism were rival schools, as enemies of each other.

A sophism is a statement to deceive someone in a debate or conversation. It might be made to seem to make sense when really being wrong, or it might use difficult words and complicated sentences to intimidate the audience into agreeing.  An argument ad hominem is an example of sophistry.

A sophist is a person who uses sophisms. Sophistry means using sophisms for subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation.

References

Philosophy

Sophism