Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman.

Hindenburg retired from the army in 1911. He rejoined the German army at the start of the First World War. He became famous when he won the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914.

Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to public life one more time in 1925 to be elected as the second President of Germany.

He was 84 years old and in poor health, but deciced to run for re-election in 1932 as the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler, because he saw him as a dangerous extremist. He tried to stop Hitler's and the Nazi Party's rise to power, but Franz von Papen persuaded Hindenburg, that the Conservative elite and the military could control Hitler when he becomes Chancellor of Germany and that the other more dangerous alternative was Communist rule.

As a result, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. But von Papen's belief in controlling Hitler and his assurances to Hindenburg did not happen, because Hitler started to control them and gain more power. In March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933 which gave special powers to Hitler and his government.

With this act, Hitler became a dictator in the next months, and crushed all opposition and banned all political parties, except the Nazi Party by the summer of 1933. Hindenburg died the next year, after which Hitler declared the office of President vacant and made himself Führer (Head of State and Head of Government) of Germany.

The famous zeppelin Hindenburg that was destroyed by fire in 1937 had been named in his honour, as is the causeway joining the island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein, the Hindenburgdamm, built during his time in office.

Presidency

1925 election
In 1925, Hindenburg had no interest in running for public office. After the first round Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, one of the leaders of the DNVP, visited Hindenburg and asked him to run.

Hindenburg eventually agreed to run in the second round of the elections as a non-party independent, although he was a conservative. Because he was Germany's greatest war hero, Hindenburg won the election in the second round of voting held on 26 April 1925.

He was helped when the Bavarian People's Party (BVP), switched its support from Marx, the SPD candidate and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to did not withdraw its candidate, Ernst Thälmann. If they had their supporters would most likely have voted for the SPD and Hindenburg may not have won.

First term

Hindenburg tried to stay out of day-to-politics, and be a ceremonial president. He liked the monarchy, but took his oath to the Weimar Constitution seriously.

Hindenburg often complained that he missed the quiet of his retirement and, that politics was full of ideas like economics that he did not understand.

His advisers included his son, Oskar, his old army aide General Wilhelm Groener, and General Kurt von Schleicher. The younger Hindenburg served as his father's aide-de-camp and controlled politicians' access to the President.

Schleicher came up with the idea of Presidential government, and the "25/48/53 formula".

Under a "Presidential" government the chancellor is responsible to the president), and not the Reichstag. The "25/48/53 formula" was the three articles of the Constitution that could make a "Presidential government" possible:
 Article 25 allowed the President to dissolve the Reichstag.
 Article 48 allowed the President to sign into law emergency bills without the consent of the Reichstag. (The Reichstag could cancel any law passed by Article 48 by a simple majority within sixty days of its signing).
 Article 53 allowed the President to appoint the Chancellor.

Schleicher's wanted to have Hindenburg appoint a chancellor that Schleicher chose. If that chancellor needed any laws he could use article 48. If the Reichstag should threaten to cancel any of those laws, Hindenburg could threaten a dissolution, and call new elections. Hindenburg did not like the idea, but was pressured into going along with them by his son and his other advisors.

Presidential government
The first try at "presidential government" in 1926–1927 failed for lack of political support. During the winter of 1929–1930, Schleicher had a series of secret meetings with Heinrich Brüning, the leader of the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum).

Schleicher then set about splitting the "Grand Coalition" government of the Social Democrats and the German People's Party. As a result, the government fell in March 1930 and Brüning was named Chancellor by Hindenburg.

Brüning's first act was to introduce a budget calling for steep spending cuts and sharp tax increases. When the budget was defeated in July, Brüning had Hindenburg sign the budget as an emergency law under Article 48. When the Reichstag voted to cancel the budget, Brüning had Hindenburg dissolve Reichstag only two years into its mandate, and had the budget passed again by Article 48. The Nazis got 17% of the vote in the September 1930 elections. The Communist Party of Germany also made gains.

Brüning ruled through Article 48; the Social Democrats never voted not to cancel his Article 48 bills in order not to have another election that could only benefit the Nazis and the Communists.

1932 Election

In the first round of the election held in March 1932, Hindenburg was the frontrunner, but did not have an absolute majority. In the runoff election of April 1932, Hindenburg beat Hitler for the Presidency.

After the presidential elections had ended, Schleicher held a series of secret meetings with Hitler in May 1932, and thought that Hitler had agreed to support the new "presidential government" Schleicher was building.

In May 1932 Schleicher had Hindenburg sack Groener as Defence Minister to humiliate both Groener and Brüning. On 31 May 1932, Hindenburg sacked Brüning as Chancellor and replaced him with Schleicher's suggestion, Franz von Papen.

von Papen's government openly wanted to destroy German democracy. Like Brüning's government, von Papen's government was a "presidential government" that governed through the use of Article 48.

As Schleicher wanted, Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and set new elections for July 1932. Schleicher and von Papen both believed that the Nazis would win the majority of the seats and would support von Papen's government.

The Nazi party did become the largest party in the Reichstag, and expected Hitler would be Chancellor. When Hindenburg met Hitler on 13 August 1932, in Berlin, Hindenburg rejected Hitler's demands for the Chancellorship.

The minutes of the meeting were kept by Otto Meißner, the Chief of the Presidential Chancellery. According to the minutes:

Hindenburg issued a press release about his meeting with Hitler that seemed to say that Hitler had demanded absolute power and that the President had refused. Hitler was enraged by this press release.

When the Reichstag met in September 1932, its first and only act was to pass a massive vote of no-confidence in von Papen's government. In response, von Papen had Hindenburg dissolve the Reichstag for elections in November 1932. In the 1949 constitution, a vote of no confidence must be accompanied by the election of a new chancellor, so this could not happen.

In the second Reichstag elections of 1932 the Nazis lost some support, but stayed the largest party in the Reichstag. There ensued another round of talks between Hindenburg, von Papen, von Schleicher on the one hand and Hitler and the other Nazi leaders on the other.

Hitler still demanded that Hindenburg give him the Chancellorship. Hindenburg could not accept this, so von Papen suggested Hindenburg declare martial law and do away with democracy.

Von Papen got Oscar Hindenburg to support the plan, and they persuaded the president to ignore his oath to the Constitution and go along with this plan. Schleicher saw von Papen as a threat so he blocked the martial law plan by saying it would make the Nazi SA and the Communist Red Front Fighters rebel, and that the Poles would invade and the Reichswehr would be unable to cope.

Hindenburg hated the idea of Hitler as Chancellor, but under pressure from Meißner, von Papen and Oskar Hindenburg the President decided to appoint Hitler Chancellor. On the morning of 30 January 1933, Hindenburg swore Hitler in as Chancellor at the Presidential Palace.

The Machtergreifung
Hindenburg played key role in the Nazi Machtergreifung (Seizure of Power) in 1933. He was not involved in the planning, but did not stop Hitler. In the "Government of National Concentration" headed by Hitler, the Nazis were in the minority. Most of the ministers were from the von Papen and von Schleicher governments. Besides Hitler, the only other Nazi ministers were Hermann Göring and Wilhelm Frick.

Hindenburg thought that the Nazis' power was limited, especially as his favourite politician, von Papen, was the Vice-Chancellor and the Reich Commissioner for Prussia.

Hitler's first act as Chancellor was to ask Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag so that the Nazis and D.N.V.P. could increase their number of seats, Hindenburg agreed.

In early February 1933, von Papen had an Article 48 bill signed into law that limited the freedom of press. After the Reichstag fire, Hindenburg signed into law the Reichstag Fire Decree.

At the opening of the new Reichstag on 21 March 1933, at the Kroll Opera House, the Nazis staged an elaborate ceremony, in which Hindenburg played the leading part, that was meant to mark the continuity between the Prussian-German tradition and the new Nazi state.

The ceremony at the Kroll Opera House had the effect of reassuring many Germans, especially conservative Germans, that life would be fine under the new regime. On 23 March 1933, Hindenburg signed the Enabling Act into law.

Hindenburg was still very popular, but his health was getting worse. The Nazis made sure that whenever Hindenburg did appear in public Hitler was with him, and that Hitler was always very respectful to the President. The Nazi propagandists hoped people would think Hindenburg liked Hitler, and Hitler would become more popular.

The only time Hindenburg ever tried to stop a Nazi bill was in early April 1933. The Reichstag had passed a Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. This said that all Jewish civil servants working for the Reich, the Länder, or the local districts should be sacked immediately.

Hindenburg refused to sign this bill into law unless all Jewish veterans of World War I, Jewish civil servants who served in the civil service during the war and those Jewish civil servants whose fathers were veterans were allowed to stay in office. Hitler agreed, in order to get the law signed, even though he believed that the Jews had tried to undermine Germany during the Great War. It was Hindenburg who said that Germany lost the First World War because of politicians and others "stabbing the Army in the back". Hindenburg did not believe the story. He said it so that his wartime deputy Erich von Ludendorff would not write bad things in his memoirs. But Hitler did believe the story, and used it to gain power.

Hindenburg stayed president until he died from lung cancer at his home in Neudeck, East Prussia on 2 August 1934.

One day before Hindenburg's death, Hitler flew to Neudeck and visited him. Hindenburg, old and senile, thought he was meeting Kaiser Wilhelm II, and called Hitler "Your Majesty".

He would be Germany's last president until 1945, when Karl Dönitz was appointed president in Hitler's last will. Following Hindenburg's death, Hitler declared the office of President to be permanently vacant, effectively merging it with the office of Chancellor under the title of Leader and Chancellor (Führer und Reichskanzler), making himself Germany's Head of State and Head of government.

Burial
Hindenburg was buried in the Tannenberg memorial near Tannenberg, East Prussia (today: Stębark, Poland). But Hindenburg always said he wanted to be buried next to his wife. In 1945, German troops removed his and his wife's coffins, to save them from the approaching Soviet troops, and blew up the memorial with explosives.

References

Sources
 Asprey, Robert The German High Command at War: Hindenburg and Ludendorff Conduct World War I, New York, New York, W. Morrow, 1991.
 Bracher, Karl Dietrich Die Aufloesung der Weimarer Republik; eine Studie zum Problem des Machtverfalls in der Demokratie Villingen: Schwarzwald, Ring-Verlag, 1971.
 Dorpalen, Andreas Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1964.
 Eschenburg, Theodor "The Role of the Personality in the Crisis of the Weimar Republic: Hindenburg, Brüning, Groener, Schleicher" pages 3–50 from Republic to Reich The Making Of The Nazi Revolution edited by Hajo Holborn, New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.
 Feldman, G.D. Army, Industry and Labor in Germany, 1914-1918, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1966.
 Görlitz, Walter Hindenburg: Ein Lebensbild, Bonn: Athenäeum, 1953.
 Görlitz, Walter Hindenburg, eine Auswalh aus Selbstzeugnissen des Generalfeldmarschalls und Reichpräsidenten, Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing, 1935.
 Hiss, O.C. Hindenburg: Eine Kleine Streitschrift, Potsdam: Sans Souci Press, 1931.
 Jäckel, Eberhard Hitler in History, Hanover N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 1984.
 Kershaw, Sir Ian, Hitler. 1889-1936: Hubris New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998; German edition, Munich, 1998, p. 659.
 Kitchen, Martin The Silent Dictatorship: The Politics of the High Command under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, 1916-1918, London: Croom Helm, 1976.
 Maser, Werner Hindenburg: Eine politische Biographie, Rastatt: Moewig, 1990.
 Noakes, Jeremy & Pridham, Geoffrey (editors) Nazism 1919-1945 Volume 1 The Rise to Power 1919-1934, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, 1983.
 Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John Hindenburg: the Wooden Titan, London : Macmillan, 1967; New York, Morrow, 1936.
 Turner, Henry Ashby Hitler's thirty days to power : January 1933, Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1996.

Other websites

 Out Of My Life by Paul von Hindenburg at archive.org
 Date of retirement

1847 births
1934 deaths
Cancer deaths in Germany
German generals
German military personnel of World War I
People from former German territories
People from Poznań
Presidents of Nazi Germany
Presidents of the Weimar Republic

Paul von Hindenburg


William Shakespeare (bapteesed 26 Aprile 1564 – 23 Aprile 1616) wis an Inglis makar an playwricht, nou cried the brawest writer in the Inglis leid an the warld's maist kenspeckle dramatist. He is aften cried England's naitional poet an the "Bard o Avon" (or juist "The Bard"). Makkin up his warks is 38 plays, 154 sonnets, twa lang nairative poems, an a puckle ither poems. His plays haes been pitten ower intil ilka great leevin tongue an is played mair nor thir o ony ither playwricht.

Shakespeare wis born an raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Whan he wis 18 he wis mairiet on Anne Hathaway, that buir him three bairns: Susanna, an twins, Hamnet an Judith. Atween 1585 an 1592 he begoud a successfu career in Lunnon as an aictor, writer, an pairt-awner o the troupe, "the Lord Chamberlain's Men", later kent as "the King's Men". It seems that he retired tae Stratford aboot 1613, whaur he dee'd efter three year. There arena mony extant records o Shakespeare's private life, an muckle speculation haes been biggit up anent sic maiters as tae his sexuality, his releegious conceits, an wha wrote the warks attreebute tae him

Shakespeare did maist o his weel-kent wark atween 1590 an 1613. His first plays wis comedies an histories in the main, genres he heised tae the heicht o sopheestication an airtistry by the 1600s. Syne he wrate traigedies up til aboot 1608, makkin plays, like Hamlet, King Lear, an Macbeth, conseedered some o the finest in the Inglis tongue. In his last phase, he wrate tragicomedies an wrocht wi ither playwrichts. Mony o his plays wis setten furth in edeetions o differin quality an accuracy durin his lifetime, an in 1623, twa o his ae time theatrical colleagues set furth the First Folio, a collectit edeetion o his dramatic warks that pit thegither aw but twa o the plays nou recogneesed as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare wis a respectit poet an playwricht in his ain time, but his reputation didna rise til its present heichts till the nineteent century. The Romantics, in parteecular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, an the Victorians thocht him sic a gey chiel, that George Bernard Shaw cried their reverence, "bardolatry". In the twintiet century, his wark wis taen up an rediscovered bi new muivements in scholarship an performance. His plays is aye unco popular the day an is played time an again an reinterpretit in mony differin cultural an poleetical contexts athort the warld.

1564 births
1616 daiths
16t-century Inglis actors
16t-century Inglis writers
17t-century Inglis writers
16t-century dramatists an playwrichts
17t-century dramatists an playwrichts
16t-century poets
17t-century poets
Buirials in Warwickshire
Inglis dramatists an playwrichts
Inglis poets
Inglis Renaissance dramatists
Fowk eddicatit at Keeng Edward VI Schuil Stratford-upon-Avon
Fowk frae Stratford-upon-Avon
Fowk o the Tudor period
William
Sonneteers

William Shakespeare


Vivparous animals have internal fertilisation and the eggs develop inside the mother. The key idea is that the growing embryo gets its nutrition from a placenta in the mother's womb. It is the standard method for all mammals except monotremes.

Ovoviviparity
Those reptiles which do not lay eggs mostly keep soft-shelled eggs inside their bodies. The embryo exists on the material in the egg. They are ovoviviparus, because of the source of nutrition. However, there are some amphibians and a few reptiles which are genuinely viviparous because they get their nutrition direct from the mother.

In plants

Viviparous plants produce seeds that germinate before they detach from the parent. In many mangroves, for instance, the seedling germinates and grows under its own energy while still attached to its parent. Then it drops into the water to transport away.

In some trees, like jackfruit, the seeds can be found already germinated while the fruit goes overripe. This condition is not vivipary because the moist and humid conditions just mimics a wet soil. However, the seeds can germinate under soil too.

References

Developmental biology
Biological reproduction

Viviparity


Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played on a field by two teams against each other. In baseball, a player on one team throws a small round ball at a player on the other team, who tries to hit it with a bat. Then the player who hits the ball has to run around the field. Players get runs by running around in a full circle around three points on the ground called bases, to back where they started, which is called home plate. They have to do this without getting caught by the players on the other team.

Baseball started in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s. Many people in North America, South America, and East Asia play baseball, but the sport is most known in the United States and Japan. In the U.S., baseball is called the national pastime, because so many people in the United States used to spend a lot of time playing or watching baseball games. Today, though, most Americans follow football more than baseball, especially when it comes time for the Super Bowl.

How baseball is played

A game of baseball is played by two teams on a baseball field. Each team has 9 players. There are also 4 umpires. There is one for where young players play. Umpires watch everything carefully to decide what happened, make calls about a play, and make sure everyone follows the rules.

On a baseball field, there are four bases. The bases form a diamond that goes around the field to the right from the starting base. The starting base is called home plate. Home plate is a pentagon, which is a shape that has five sides. First base is on the right side of the field, second base is at the top of the infield, third base is on the left side of the field, and home plate is at the back of the field, where the catcher plays.

The game is played in innings. Professional baseball games have 9 innings. In an inning, each team has one turn to bat and try to score runs, adding one point. When one team hits the ball, the other team defends and tries to get three players on the other team out. The team that is playing defense always has the ball. This is different from other team sports. When the team on defense gets three players out, it is their turn to try and score runs. Then the team that was batting starts playing defense, and the team that was playing defense starts batting. After nine innings, the team that has the most runs is the winner. If the teams have the same number of runs, they play more innings until one team wins. At the start of the game, the home team pitches, while players on the visiting team bat. Only one player can bat at a time.

The baseball field, or diamond, has two main parts, the infield and the outfield. The infield is where the four bases are. The outfield is beyond the bases, from the view of home plate. The lines from home plate to first base and home plate to third base are the foul lines, and the ground outside of these lines is called foul territory. A ball that is hit with a bat and flies between the foul lines is a fair ball, and the batter and runners can try and run around the bases and score. A ball that is outside the foul lines is a foul ball. If the ball hits the ground in  the foul area  rather than being caught in the air, the batter continues to bat, and any runners must return to the base that they were on before the ball was hit. If the batter has fewer than two strikes, a foul ball counts as a strike. If the batter already has two strikes, and the foul ball is not caught in the air, then the batter continues to hit. If a ball is caught by a fielder in fair or foul ground, the batter is out.

The most important part of the game is between the pitcher and the batter. The pitcher throws, or pitches, the ball towards home plate. The pitcher normally throws the ball close enough for the batter to hit it. If the pitcher throws the ball in the strike zone, which is the area  over home plate and between the hitter's knee and chest, the pitch is a "strike", unless the batter hits the ball. The pitch is always a strike, regardless of where it is, if the batter swings the bat and misses, so the batter must have good aim with the bat. Three strikes are a "strikeout", and this is one way to make an "out". A pitch that the batter does not swing at, and which is not called a strike, is a "ball." On the fourth "ball" thrown by a pitcher, the batter "walks" to first base, so it is important to pitch well.

The catcher for the pitcher's team waits behind the batter, and catches any ball that the batter does not hit. The catcher uses signals to tell the pitcher where to throw the ball. If the pitcher does not like what the catcher says, he will shake his head, which signals "no". If he agrees with what the catcher has signaled, he will nod his head, which signals "yes".

There are many ways to get batters out, and runners can also be gotten out. Some common ways to get batters out are catching a batted ball in the air, whether in fair or foul territory, throwing the ball to the defensive player at first base (an out if it gets there before the batter), and a strikeout. A runner can be put out by tagging the runner while the runner is not on a base, and by "forcing him out" (when a base is touched before a player can get there, with no base for the runner to go back to). When the fielding team has put out three of the batting team's players, the half-inning is over and the team in the field and the team at bat switch places.

The batting team wants to get runs. In order to get a run, a player must bat, then become a base runner, touch all the bases in order, and then touch home plate without being called out. So first, the batter wants to make other players get to home plate, or to run the bases himself. Runners can not pass each other while running the bases.

A base runner who touches home plate after touching all previous bases in order, and without getting out, scores a run. If the batter hits the ball over the fence (between the foul lines) without touching the ground, it is a home run. The batter, and any base-runners, are allowed to advance to the home plate and score a run. The fielding team can do nothing to stop them.

Fielding team
The team on the field tries not to let the team who's batting get any runs. The fielding team has a pitcher and a catcher. The remaining seven fielders can stand anywhere in the field. However, there are usually four people that stand around the infield close to the bases and three outfielders who stand around the outfield.

The four infielders are the first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman. The first baseman and third baseman stand close to first base and third base. The second baseman and the shortstop stand on either side of second base.

The first baseman's job is to make force plays at first base. In a force play, another infielder catches a ball that has touched the ground, and throws it to the first baseman. The first baseman must then touch the batter or the base with the ball before the batter can touch first base. Then the batter is out. First basemen need to have quick feet, stretch well, be quick and know how to catch wild throws. First base is one of the most important positions as a significant number of plays happen there.

The second baseman's job is to cover the area to the right of second base and to back the first baseman up. The shortstop's job is to cover the area between second and third bases. This is where right-handed batters usually hit ground balls. The shortstop also covers second or third base and the near part of left field. The shortstop is usually the best fielder on the team. The third baseman needs to have a strong throwing arm. This is because many times the batter will hit a ball toward third base. The third baseman must throw the ball very quickly to the first baseman, to get the runner out. Because the balls that go to third base are usually hit very hard, the third baseman must also be very quick.

The three outfielders are called the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder, because they stand in left field, center field and right field. Left field and right field are on the left and right sides, if you look out from home plate. Center field is straight ahead from home plate. Center field is very big, so the center fielder is usually the fastest.

The team can decide where to put the infielders and outfielders. Players often stand at slightly different places on the field between some plays. These changes are called "shifts". The fielders may shift at any time. Players can shift for many reasons. One of the more popular ones is the defensive shift, where players move in the infield. They do this because they know that some batters can only hit a ball a certain direction. It can also be easier to make a double play when fielders are moved a certain way.

Pitching

Teams can change pitchers during a game. Teams change their pitchers often because it is hard for a pitcher to throw a full game of nine innings. A pitcher can sometimes throw a no-hitter where no one on the opposite team gets an earned hit. A team can use as many pitchers as it wants to, but it is rare to use more than eight in a game. The ways that a pitcher throws the ball are called pitches. Many professional pitchers use two or more different pitches. Pitchers change which pitch they throw so that the batter will not know what pitch to expect. This makes it more difficult for the batter to hit the ball. Pitchers can make the ball move differently: faster or slower, closer or farther from the batter, higher or lower. There are also many types of pitches, such as the curveball, slider, splitter, sinker, screwball, cutter, knuckleball, knuckle-curve, changeup, circle changeup, palm ball, and others, including some made from mixing others together .

When throwing the ball, the pitcher stand on top of the pitcher's mound with both feet. The pitcher's rubber is on top of the mound. The pitcher cannot take more than one step forward when he throws the ball. That makes the pitcher throw the ball slower. Many major-league pitchers can throw the ball up to 100 miles per hour (145 km/h). Throwing a baseball that fast can be bad for the body, and they can be injured often. Doctors often will perform Tommy John surgery on a pitcher with an elbow injury. The operation is named after Tommy John, the first pitcher to have the surgery. Today, pitchers are able to recover from their injuries much faster and better than before Tommy John surgery.

The batting team
The batting team wants to get runs. The batting team sends its players up to home plate in a special order. This order is called the lineup. Each team chooses its lineup at the start of the game. After the game starts, the team cannot change the order. But the team can use a player who was not on the lineup. The new player has to change with an original player. The new player's name is written in the lineup where the original player's name was. After the ninth player has batted, the first player in the lineup starts again. If a runner comes to home plate, he scores a run. Then he is not a base runner. After scoring a run, the player must leave the field until it is his turn again. So a player can only score one run for each time he bats.

Since people began to have more free time, baseball has become the national pastime of America. About 12 million people play baseball in the United States.

Baseball terms

The field
See the image above for a diagram of the playing field.
 Base: Four points on the field the players must run to. The player starts at Home plate and must go to each of the other bases in order and return to Home plate to score a run. The other bases are named First base, Second base and Third base. Home plate is a piece of hard rubber and the other bases are made of cloth. In professional baseball, the bases are 90 feet from each other. The bases on the field are in the shape of a diamond.
 Baseline: the line between each of the bases in order. For example, from home plate to first base, from first base to second base, and so on.
 Base path: The area along the baseline where the players run from base to base.
 Ball: A pitch that was thrown outside the strike zone and that the batter did not swing at.
 Strike: A pitch that was thrown inside the strike zone and that the batter did not swing at, a pitch that the batter swung at and missed, or a ball that the batter hit into foul territory.
 Dugout: the place where the players and coaches who are not on the field sit.
 Bullpen: the place where the pitchers watch the game and warm up before they start playing or when they are not playing.
 Outfield: where three players play, typically where the best arm, the fastest and the second best arm play

The Game
 Grounder: A ball that bounces and rolls on the ground after being hit.
 Pop Fly: A ball that goes high in the air after being hit. It can be caught for an out or it can fall for a hit
 Double Play: When the defense gets two outs on one play. Often happens when a ground ball is hit to an infielder with a runner on base.
 Bunt: when the batter holds his bat out to try and hit the ball rather than swinging it. A bunted ball does not go far usually. Pitchers often bunt because they are not as good at hitting. A bunt is also often used when trying to advance another runner already on one of the bases. This is called a "sacrifice" or "sacrifice bunt."
 Hit: When the batter hits the ball (thrown by the pitcher) in fair territory.
 Home Run: When the batter hits the ball outside the baseball field, he (and any runners on base) gets to run all of the bases and scores at home plate.

Related pages
Major League Baseball
Comparison of baseball and cricket

References

Further reading
 Dickson, Paul. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3d ed. (W. W. Norton, 2009).
 Fitts, Robert K. Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005).
 Gillette, Gary, and Palmer. Pete (eds.). The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, 5th ed. (Sterling, 2008).
 Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams (Oxford University Press, 1992 [1970]).
 Reaves, Joseph A. Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia (Bison, 2004).
 Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Baseball: An Illustrated History (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).

Other websites
 World Baseball Softball Confederation
 "Baseball". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
 Baseball Prospectus
 Society for American Baseball Research
 The Rules of Baseball
 Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio

Baseball


Moses Löb Bloch (15 February 1815 – 6 August 1909) was a Hungarian rabbi and rector at the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest.

Life

After studying under Philipp Kohner, a pupil of Ezekiel Landau, district rabbi of Pilsen, Bloch was entrusted to the care of his uncle, Wolf Löw, author of the Sha'are Torah. Löw, who guided the boy's studies for seven years (1827–34) in his house at Gross-Tapolcsány (Hungary), is often quoted in his nephew's lectures.

On graduating from the gymnasium at Pilsen, he went in 1840 to the University of Prague, and was appointed a rabbi at Wotitz in 1841, when he married Anna Weishut (died 1886). He was called as rabbi to Hermanmiestec, Bohemia, in 1852, and to Leipnik, Moravia, in 1856, where he remained until October 1877. In that year he was called as professor and rector to the Rabbinical Seminary at Budapest.

Works

Bloch published the following works: (1) "Sha'are Torat ha-Tekanot" ("Die Institutionen des Judenthums nach der in den Quellen Angegebenen Geschichtlichen Reihenfolge Geordnet und Entwickelt"), 4 vols., Vienna and Cracow, 1879–1902, 3 vols., Budapest, 1902; (2) 11 Das Mosaisch-Talmudische Polizeirecht" (special print from the "Annual Report" of the Rabbinical Seminary), Budapest, 1879; (3) "Die Ethik in der Halacha" (also in Hungarian; appeared in the "Annual Report" of the Seminary for 1885), Leipsic, 1886; (4) "Das Mosaisch-Talmudische Erbrecht" (in the "Annual Report" for 1889); (5) "Sefer Sha'are Teshubot Maharam" ("Die Bisher Unedirten Responsa des R. Meïr von Rothenburg"), Berlin, 1891 ("Mekiẓe Nirdamim" publications); (6) "Der Vertrag nach Mosaisch-Talmudischem Rechte" (from the "Annual Report" for 1893), Budapest, 1893; (7) "Das Mosaisch-Talmudische Besitzrecht" (from the "Annual Report" for 1897).

The works published in the reports of the Landes-Rabbinerschule (National Rabbinical School) have all appeared also in the Hungarian language.

Family
He was born a Czech-Jewish family. Among his ancestors were Isaac, rabbi at Cracow; the grandson of the latter,
Phinehas Selig, author of the "'Aṭeret Paz"; and the latter's son, Aryeh Löw, a well-known Talmudist, who was the father of Eleazar Löw, the author of "Shemen Roḳeaḥ." He later immigrated to Hungary.

References

Further reading
 Block Mózes, Rabbi (Festschrift zu Ehren SR. Ehrwürden des Herrn Rabbiners Moses Bloch Anlässlich Seines 80. Geburtstages), edited by the professors of the Rabbinical Seminary, 1895.
 Source,

1815 births
1909 deaths
People from Poběžovice
Jews from Bohemia
Czech Orthodox rabbis
19th-century Hungarian rabbis
Hungarian people of Czech-Jewish descent

Moses Löb Bloch


Chinese herbs do not grow in China only. If you find the right climate and soil type, you can grow many of those herbs overseas. For instance, American Ginseng is grown in Wisconsin State.

The raw herbs available in retail have the following natural features:
 Part of a plant: root, leave, seed, flowers, branch, etc.
 Unprocessed except being cut, sliced, and cleansed of dirt.
 Dried because the dried form weighs less and can be stored longer.
 Some herbs can be eaten after boiling because they turn soft.
 Most herbs cannot be eaten for they remain very coarse after boiling.
 Herbs in general do not taste good. Most taste bitter and earthly. Some taste neutral. A few taste even sweet.
 Inexpensive except for a few like Ren Shen 人參, Chuan Bei Mu 川貝母, or Dong Chong Xia Cao 冬虫夏草.

Herbal tea
How do people take the raw herbs? Raw herbs are usually taken orally by extracting the essence out of them. The natural way being practiced since ancient time is to boil and brew the herbal package in water to get a dark brown solution called herb tea that never tastes good. One hour of brewing should be good enough. Then you drink one or two cups a day. Honey or sugar may be added to make it taste less bad. The herbal package can be conveniently modified by changing some ingredients to make it work for you. So an herbal package is really tailor-made for you only.

Tablet form
Raw herbs can be dried and grounded into a powder then compressed into a tablet which is better than buying your own tablets or having to buy gel capsules

Capsule form
Raw herbs can be made into capsules at home. All you need is a tailor-made package of raw herbs. Turn it into fine powder with a powerful grinder, and put the powder into empty gel capsules. When you swallow the capsules, your digestive system has to extract the essence out of the raw herb powder. Whereas if you drink the herb tea, the essence extraction is already done after brewing. The herbal solution will readily be absorbed by your body. Furthermore, the herb tea has a history spanning over two thousand years. How many years of history does the tablet or capsule have besides offering convenience?

Healing properties
 Herbs have natural healing effects on organs, blood, and various unhealthy conditions.
 In contrast to Western pharmaceuticals, which are mainly designed to fix or suppress certain health conditions, herbs have additional enhancing and strengthening values on the body.
 Due to their strengthening and enhancing values, herbs can also be used for preventive measures.
 The herbal effects are natural and mild, with little adverse side effects.
 Each herb has multiple effects on the body, in addition to one major effect.
 Herbs do not work singly because the effects of one herb are too gentle.
 The effects of herbs rely on synergies because of their overlapping multiple effects. Therefore, an herbal package of different herbs put together can deliver a much greater effect than a single herb of equal weight.
 How to create synergy for an herbal package is an essential knowledge and experience that distinguish a good herbalist from a mediocre one.

Usage of some Chinese herbs

(A) General Tonics

(1) *** (Tonify Qi) ***

ren shen	人参	radix Ginseng

dang shen	党参	radix Codonopsis

bai zhu	白朮     	rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae

gan cao	甘草	radix Glycyrrhizae

shan yao	山药	rhizoma Dioscoreae

da jao	大枣	fructus Jujubae

(2) *** (Tonify Yang) ***

lu rong	 鹿茸	cornu Cervi Pantotrichum

rou cong rong	肉蓯蓉	herba Cistanches

yin yang huo	淫羊霍	herba Epimedii

du zhong	杜仲	cortex Eucommiae

xu duan	 续断	radix Dipsaci

gou ji	狗 脊	fructus Psoraleae

bu gu zhi	补骨脂   	rhizoma Cibotii

dong chong xia cao	冬虫夏草	Cordyceps

yi zhi ren	益智仁	fructus Alpiniae Oxyphyllae

ge jie	 蛤蚧	Gecko

(3) *** (Tonify Blood) ***

dang gui	当归    	radix Angelicae Sinensis

hu tao rou	胡桃肉	semen Juglandis

shu di huang	熟地黄	radix Rehmanniae Preparata

he shou wu	何首乌   	radix Polgoni Multiflori

e jiao	阿胶	Colla Corii Asini

(4) *** (Tonify Yin) ***

nan sha shen	南沙参	radix adenophorae

bei sha shen	北沙参	radix Glehniae

tian men dong	天门冬	radix Asparagi

mai men dong	麦门冬	radix Ophiopogonis

shi hu	石斛	herba Dendrobii

huang jing	黄精	rhizoma Polgonati

yu zhu	玉竹	rhizoma Polgonati Odorati

shan zhu yu	山茱萸	fructus Corni

gou qi zi	枸杞子	fructus Lycii

nu zhen zi	女贞子	fructus Ligustri Lucidi

mo han lian	旱莲草     	herba Ecliptae

bie jia	鱉甲 	carapax Trionycis

gui ban	龟板	plastrum Testudinis

(B) Stabilise and Bind

wu wei zi	五味子	fructus Schisandrae

wu mei	乌梅	fructus Mume

wu bei zi	五倍子	galla Chinensis

fu xiao mai	浮小麦	fructus Tritici Levis

he zi	訶子	fructus Chebulae

shi liu pi	石榴皮	pericarpium Granati

rou dou kou	肉荳蔻   	semen Myristicae

lian zi	 莲子	semen Nelumbinis

qian shi	芡实	semen Euryales

sang piao xiao	桑螵蛸	ootheca Mantidis

wu zei gu	乌贼骨	os Sepiae

bin lang	檳榔	semen Arecae

(C) Transform Phlegm and Stop Coughing

zi wan	紫菀	radix Asteris

bai bu	百部	radix Stemonae

kuan dong hua	款冬花	flos Farfarae

sang bai pi	桑白皮	cortex Mori Radicis

ma dou ling	马兜铃	fructus Aristolochiae

ting li zi	葶靂子	semen Lepidii seu Descurainiae

(D) Regulate Blood:  Stop Bleeding

san qi (tianqi)	三七	radix Notoginseng

qian cao	茜草	radix Rubiae

(E) Regulate Blood:  Invigorate Blood

shui zhi	水蛭	Hirudo

chuan xiong	川芎	rhizoma Chuanxiong

ru xiang	乳香	Olibanum

mo yao	没药	Myrrha

yu jin	鬱金	radix Curcumae

e zhu	莪朮	rhizoma Zedoariae

dan shen	丹参	radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae

(F) Transform Phlegm-cold

ban xia	半夏	rhizoma Pinelliae

tian nan xing	天南星	rhizoma Arisaematis

bai jie zi	白芥子	semen Sinapis Albae

xuan fu hua	旋覆花	flos Inulae

(G) Regulate Qi

fo shou	佛手	fructus Citri Sarcodactylis

mu xiang	木香	radix Aucklandiae

wu yao	乌药	radix Linderae

xiang fu	香附	rhizoma Cyperi

ju pi (chen pi)	陈皮	pericarpium Citri Reticulatae

ju hong	橘红	exocarpium Citri Rubrum

qing pi	青皮	pericarpium Citri Reticulatae Viride

zhi ke	枳壳	fructus Aurantii

zhi shi	枳实	fructus Aurantii Immaturus

chen xiang	沉香	lignum Aquilariae Resinatum

chuan lian zhi	川楝子	fructus Toosendan

yan hu suo	延胡索	rhizoma Corydalis

xie bai	薤白	bulbus Allii Macrostemi

(H) Regulate Digestion

shan zhu yu	山茱萸	fructus Crataegi

mai ya	 麦芽	fructus Hordei germinatus

gu ya	穀芽	fructus Oryzae germinatus

lai fu zi	莱菔子	semen Raphani

ji nei jin	鸡内金	endothelium corneum Gigeriae galli

shen qu	   神麴   massa Fermentata Medicinalis

(I) Dispel Wind Dampness

du huo	        獨活	radix Angelicae Pubescentis

wei ling xian	威靈仙	radix Clematidis

fang ji 	防己 	radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae

qin jiao	秦艽	radix Gentianae Macrophyllae

mu gua	番木瓜	fructus Chaenomelis

sang ji sheng	桑寄生	ramulus Taxilli

wu jia pi	五加皮	cortex Acanthopanacis

bai hua she	白花蛇	Agkistrodon seu Bungarus

hu gu	虎骨	os Tigris

wu shao she	烏梢蛇	Zaocys

cang zhu	蒼朮  	rhizoma Atractylodis

hou po	厚樸	cortex Magnoliae Officinalis

huo xiang	藿香	herba Agastaches

pei lan	佩蘭	herba Eupatorii

sha ren	砂仁	fructus Amomi

bai dou kou	白豆蔻   	fructus Amomi Rotundus

cao guo	草果	fructus Tsaoko

(J) Warm, pungent, Release Exterior Wind Cold

su geng	        苏梗	caulis Perillae

zi su ye	苏叶	folium Perillae

xiang ru	香薷	herba Elsholtziae

jing jie	荆芥	herba Schizonepetae

fan feng	防风	radix Ledebouriellae

jiang huo	薑活	radix Angelicae Dahuricae

bai zhi	        白芷	rhizoma seu radix Notopterygli

cang er zi	苍耳子	fructus Xanthii

xin yi	辛荑花	flos Magnoliae

bo he	薄荷	herba Menthae

niu bang zi	牛蒡子	fructus Arctii

can tui	蝉蜕 	periostracum Cicadae

dan dou chi	淡豆豉 	semen Sojae preparatum

ju hua	菊花	flos Chrysanthemi

ge gen	葛根	radix Puerariae

chai hu	柴胡	radix Bupleuri

sheng ma	升麻	rhizoma Cimicifugae

ma huang	麻黄 	radix Ephedrae

gui zhi	        桂枝	ramulus Cinnamomi

(K) Regulate BloodL  Stop Bleeding

zhu ma gen	苧麻根	radix Boehmeriae

bai mao gen	白茅根   	rhizoma Imperatae

ce bai ye	侧柏叶	cacumen Biotae

huai hua	槐花	flos Sophorae

da ji	大蓟	herba seu Radix Cirsii Japonici

xiao ji	小蓟     	herba Cephalanoploris

di yu	地榆	radix Sanguisorbae

xian he cao	仙鹤草	herba Agrimoniae

bai jiang	(败酱草)	rhizoma Bletillae

qian cao	茜草	radix Rubiae

ai ye	艾叶	folium Artemisiae Argyi

pu huang	蒲黄	pollen Typhae

(L) Drain Dampness

fu ling 	茯苓	Poria

zhu ling	豬苓	Polyporus Umbellatus

ze xie	        澤瀉	rhizoma Alismatis

yi yi ren	薏苡仁	semen Coicis

che qian zi	车前子	semen Plantaginis

hua shi	滑石	Talcum

mu tong	木通	caulis Akebiae

jin qian cao	金钱草	herba Lysimachiae

tong cao	通草	medulla Tetrapanacis

shi wei	石苇	folium Pyrrosiae

yin chen hao	茵陈蒿     	herba Artemisiae Scopariae

bi xie	萆薢	rhizoma Dioscoreae Septemlobae

(M) Drain Fire

shi gao	        石膏	gypsum Fibrosum

zhi mu	        知母	rhizoma Anemarrhenae

tian hua fen	天花粉	radix Trichosanthis

lu gen	芦根	rhizoma Phragmitis

huang lian	黄莲	rhizoma Coptidis

huang qin	黄芩	radix Scutellariae

huang bai	黄柏 	cortex Phellodendri

zhi zi	梔子     	fructus Gardeniae

long dan cao	龙胆草    	radix Gentianae

xia ku cao	夏枯草	spica Prunellae

ku shen	苦参	radix Sophorae Flavescentis

jue ming zi	决明子   	semen Cassiae

(N) Relieve Fire Toxins

jin yin hua	金银花	flos Lonicerae

ren dong teng	忍冬藤	caulis Lonicerae

lian qiao	连翘	fructus Forsythiae

pu gong ying	蒲公英	herba Taraxaci

zi hua di ding	紫花地丁	herba Violae

da qing ye	大青叶   	folium Isatidis

qing dai	青黛	indigo Naturalis

ban lan gen	板蓝根	radix Isatidis

chuan xin lian	穿心莲	herba Andrographitis

yu xing cao	鱼腥草	herba Houttuyniae

shan dou gen	山豆根	radix Sophorae Tonkinensis

she gan	射干	rhizoma Belamcandae

ma chi xian	马齿莧	herba Portulacae

bai tou weng	白头翁	radix Pulsatillae

hong teng	红藤	caulis Sargentodoxae

qin pi	秦皮	cortex Fraxini

(O) Cool Blood

shui niu jiao	水牛角	cornu Bubali

sheng di huang	生地黄	radix Rehmanniae

xuan shen	玄参	radix Scrophulariae

xi jiao	        西角	cornu Rhinocerotis

bai jiang	败酱草	herba Patriniae

mu dan pi	牡丹皮	cortex Moutan Radicis

chi shao	赤芍	radix Paeoniae Rubra

zi cao	紫草	radix arnebiae seu lithospermi

(P) Cleasr Deficient Heat

qing hao	青蒿	herba Artemisiae Annuae

bai wei	  白薇	radix cynanchi Atrati

di gu pi	地骨皮	cortex Lycii Radicis

yin chai hu	銀柴胡	radix Stellariae

(Q) Purge Downwards, Cathartically Drain Downwards

da huang	大黃	radix et rhizoma Rhei

mang xiao	芒硝	natrii Sulfas

fan xie ye	番瀉葉	folium Sennae

da ma ren	大麻仁	fructus Cannabis

gan sui	     甘遂	radix Kansui

yu li ren	郁李仁	semen Pruni

da ji	大戟	radix Euphorbiae Pekinensis

yuan hua	芫花	flos Genkwa

qian niu zi	牽牛子	semen Pharbitidis

(R) Warm Interior and Expel Cold

rou gui	        肉桂     	cortex Cinnamomi

wu zhu yu	吴茱萸	fructus Evodiae

xi xin	        细辛	herba Asari

hua jiao	花椒	pericarpium Zanthoxyli

ding xiang	丁香	flos Caryophylli

gao liang jiang	高莨姜   	rhizoma Alpiniae Officinarum

xiao hui xiang	小茴香	fructus Foeniculi

fu zi	地肤子 	radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata

chuan wu tou	川乌头	radix Aconiti

cao wu tou	草乌头	radix Aconiti Kusnezoffiae

wu tou	乌头	radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata

gan jiang	乾薑	rhizoma Zingiberis

(S) Expel Parasites

shi jun zi	使君子	fructus Quisqualis

da fu pi	大腹皮	pericarpium Arecae

lei wan	        雷丸	Omphalia

ku lian pi	苦莲皮	cortex Meliae

nan gua zi	南瓜子	semen Cucurbitae

he cao ya	鹤草牙 	gemma Agrimoniae

he shi		fructus Carpesii

guan zhong	贯眾(贯仲)	rhizoma Dryopteris Crassirhizomae

fei zi	榧子	semen Torreyae

(T) Calm Shen

long gu	     龙骨	os Draconis

suan zao ren	酸枣仁   	semen Ziziphi Spinosae

yuan zhi	远志	radix Polygalae

bai zi ren	柏子仁	semen Biotae

(U)Extinguish Internal Wind and Stop Tremors

mu li	牡蠣	concha Ostreae

zhen zhu	珍珠	Magarita

zhen zhu mu	珍珠母	concha Margaritifera Usta

dai zhe shi	代赭石	Haematitum

ling yang jiao	铃羊角	cornu Saigae Tataricae

tian ma	天麻	rhizoma Gastrodiae

(V) Open Orifices

she xiang	麝香 	Moschus

niu huang	牛黄	calculus Bovis

Bing Pian	冰片	borneolum Syntheticum

su he xiang	苏合香	Storax

shi chang pu	石菖蒲	rhizoma Acori Graminei

Notes

(1)The terms used here reflect typical TCM usage (as translated literally from individual Chinese characters), and may not reflect their meanings in TCM, namely, meanings that are normative, figurative or metaphorical when read in context. The meanings of these terms are therefore different from that in common English usage. In particular, they are not to be used for purposes of self-diagnosis, much less for self-medication. For example, "Xia Huo" means "To reduce fire", but "fire" here does not refer to combustion involving oxygen. Even within TCM, there are various meanings of "fire", and it can refer to "real" or "false" fire. The 3 herbs mentioned above cannot be used to reduce "false fire", or fires of yin deficiency in the zhang organs.

(2) An example of the non-literal use of transliterated characters is "long gu" which literally means "dragon bones". This term cannot possible refer to Chinese dragons, since they do not exist. However, one can easily buy "long gu" from any TCM herbal shop. Another term that cannot be taken literally is "di long" which literally means "earth dragon".

(3) Although the above herbs are common in TCM prescriptions, they cannot be purchased if we refer only to their Latin names. One likely reason is that TCM pharmacists rarely, if ever, use the Latin names of the herbs. The Chinese names, or the transliterated names (pinyin) should be used instead. For example, if we ask for "flos Lonicerae" we will almost certainly get a blank look. However, if we ask for "Jin Yin Hua" or	金银花 we will connect immediately, even though the pharmacist may speak any of the large number of Chinese dialects (such as Cantonese, where the herb is known as "Kum Gen Fa", or Golden Silver Flower, in Hong Kong). Wherever possible, use the written form (金银花) to avoid miscommunication and/or mis-pronunciation, since there is no dialect form of the written language.

(4) There are a large number of synonyms of the herb names, in both Chinese, English and Latin. This makes it even more essential to use the written form of the Chinese names to ensure accuracy.

(5) Some herbs are prone to adulteration, substitution, or both. For example, Ling Zhi Cao (Cordyceps) can be substituted with an inactive form of the herb. If an extract is first made with water, the herb will be tasteless when dried and re-used/recycled. On the other hand, the genuine Ling Zhi tastes bitter, but few consumers would know the difference, especially if the herb is mixed in a prescription and boiled together with other herbs. The pharmacists themselves may not be aware, as some may trust their suppliers implicitly, and do not conduct regular testing.

(6) Animal-based "herbs" are prone to substitution or adulteration, including Xiong Dan (bear bile / gall bladder) which looks very much like Niu Dan (bovine bile /gall bladder) when the gall bladder is dried, although Niu Dan is far less bitter in taste. Some are simply unavailable because they are banned in many countries. These include tiger parts, such as Hu Gu (tiger bone) which is substituted by bobcat bone, and Chuan San Jia (scales of the pangolin) which has no animal-based substitute. Niu Huang (bovine gallstone) is unavailable in many Western countries and Singapore because of its potential impact on pregnant women, although Niu Huang Pills with about 2% of Niu Huang are available in many Asian countries.

Herbs

Chinese herbology


Sǣƿeard is an organization devoted to saving the lives of shipwrecked mariners or people in danger at sea.  In some countries it is part of the military.  In other countries it is a civilian or even volunteer organization.  Most coast guards operate ships and aircraft including helicopters and seaplanes for this purpose.

Coast guards also enforce maritime law, maintain aids to navigation such as beacons and buoys, and provide other services for the benefit of mariners.  Most coast guards are run on military lines and serve as an auxiliary to the national navy.  During wartime coast guards are responsible for harbour defense, port security, naval counterintelligence and coastal patrols.

Þēodliċe sǣƿeardas

In the United States, the United States Coast Guard is a military service under the United States Department of Homeland Security in peacetime.  In wartime the Coast Guard reports to the Secretary of the Navy but does not become part of the United States Navy; however, its boats and cutters are integrated into U.S. military operations. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is located in New London, Connecticut. The U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Academy is located in Petaluma, California. http://www.uscg.mil/hq/tcpet/cpoa/index.shtm

In Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard is a civilian service under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  The Canadian Coast Guard College is located near Sydney, Nova Scotia.

In India, the Indian Coast Guard is a paramilitary unit. It secures the country's coast, carries out rescues, and aids shipping.

In Singapore, the coast guard comes under the command of the Singapore Police Force. Hence, it is called the Police Coast Guard (PCG).

In the United Kingdom coastguard functions are split between four organisations: HM Coastguard deals with rescue co-ordination and carries out land-based rescues, Trinity House and the Northern Lighthouse Board maintain buoys and lighthouses, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution carries out rescues from the sea, assisted by Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Coastguard air-sea rescue helicopters when necessary.

Sǣweardas

Australia - two rival privately-run volunteer Coast Guard organizations exist:
Australian Volunteer Coast Guard
Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol
Canada- Canadian Coast Guard
Greece - Hellenic Coast Guard
Hong Kong - Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre
Japan - Japan Coast Guard (ex Maritime Safety Agency)
Philippines - Philippine Coast Guard
Taiwan (Republic of China) - Republic of China Coast Guard
United Kingdom
HM Coastguard
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
United States -  United States Coast Guard

Ūtanwearde bendas
US Sǣweard
RNLI
Þrīneshūs
Guardia Costiera

coast guards Types of military

Sǣweardþrēat


A trophy is an object given to someone because of an accomplishment. These are often given out through sporting events.

A trophy can be in the shape of a cup, a bowl, a plaque, a mug (these usually painted or engraved with something), a human shape (like the Emmy Award), or a spaceship (like the Hugo Award for science-fiction).

Trophies can also be an animal head. These are often taken as trophies by hunters.

History

In ancient times people would take heads or other body parts of enemies they had killed in a battle to show how good a warrior they were.
Many years ago (in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome) the winners did not get any trophy, only a wreath (a wreath is made of flowers and looks like a crown). The winner also got olive oil in a container that was similar to today trophies. In local games, the winners got different trophies, such as a vase or a silver cup.
In ancient Rome, the tradition of getting a trophy was slowly forgotten and money were given instead.
Trophies were introduced back in the world on large scale in last century. Football, rugby and baseball trophies were introduced.
Today trophies are mostly made from plastic and are easily accessible to public thanks to low prices.

Trophy


The Internet Archive (IA) is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California that has an on-line library and archive of Web and multimedia resources. The Internet Archive was founded by Brewster Kahle in 1996.

This archive includes "snapshots of the World Wide Web" (archived copies of pages, taken at various points in time), software, movies, books, and audio recordings. To make the books available on the Internet, they are first placed into special scanning machines by volunteers and employees of the library. These machines take very high quality pictures of the books' pages, and then images and text of the books are freely available on the Website. This process is called "digitization". The old collections of films and sound are digitized in this way too before being made available online. All of the original books, movies, records and so on are stored in a giant warehouse in California, just like normal libraries store their smaller collections of books or other records. This collection is called the Open Library and aims to create "one web page for every book ever published." It was created by computer programmer and activist, Aaron Swartz.

The Archive also purchases new electronic books and loans them out to readers just like any other normal library. These electronic books can be read by viewing the Website, on the reader's own computer or electronic reading device, and even in special reading areas inside the Archive where the tables have touchscreens and computers built into them.

To ensure the stability and endurance of the archive, The Internet Archive is mirrored at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the only library in the world with a mirror. The Internet Archive makes the collections available at no cost to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Internet Archive is a member of the American Library Association and is officially recognized by the State of California as a library.

Related pages
Alexa Internet
Project Gutenberg

References

Other websites

The Internet Archive home page
The Open Library - Digital library index
Wayback Machine - historical "snapshots" of the World Wide Web
Internet Archive Blogs - A blog from the team at archive.org
The International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)
Library of Congress, Web Capture
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
Petabox, a useful invention created in collaboration with the Internet Archive
Pictures and descriptions of the Wayback Machine hardware in 2003 (prior to the Petabox), with cost information
Form 990-PF for Internet Archive (2003)
Archive-It 1.5 Press Release and Archive-It FAQ
Warrick  – a tool for recovering websites from the Internet Archive and search engine caches
Video interview with Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle (short intro in German language, the interview is in English with German subtitles)
The European Archive in Amsterdam
Recover websites from Web Archive and search engines caches
Internet Archive by Deepspeed media - Short documentary and interview with Brewster Kahle (hosted on YouTube)

Internet-related organizations
Archives
Non-profit organizations of California
1996 establishments in California

Internet Archive


A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.

General properties
Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to comprehend the text. By contrast, other possible symbolic systems such as information signs, painting, maps, and mathematics often do not require prior knowledge of a spoken language.

Every human community possesses language, a feature regarded by many as an innate and defining condition of mankind. However the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional oral systems of communication has been sporadic, uneven and slow. Once established, writing systems on the whole change more slowly than their spoken counterparts, and often preserve features and expressions which are no longer current in the spoken language. The great benefit of writing systems is their ability to maintain a persistent record of information expressed in a language, which can be retrieved independently of the initial act of formulation.

All writing systems require:
 a set of defined base elements or symbols, individually termed characters or graphemes, and collectively called a script;
 a set of rules and conventions understood and shared by a community, which arbitrarily assign meaning to the base elements, their ordering, and relations to one another;
 a language (generally a spoken language) whose constructions are represented and able to be recalled by the interpretation of these elements and rules;
 some physical means of distinctly representing the symbols by application to a permanent or semi-permanent medium, so they may be interpreted (usually visually, but tactile systems have also been devised).

Basic terminology

The study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines in the examination of individual scripts, and as such the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field.

The generic term text may be used to refer to an individual product of a writing system. The act of composing a text may be referred to as writing, and the act of interpreting the text as reading. In the study of writing systems, orthography refers to the method and rules of observed writing structure (literal meaning, "correct writing"), and in particular for alphabetic systems, includes the concept of spelling.

A grapheme is the technical term coined to refer to the specific base or atomic units of a given writing system. Graphemes are the minimally significant elements which taken together comprise the set of "building blocks" out of which texts of a given writing system may be constructed, along with rules of correspondence and use. The concept is similar to that of the phoneme used in the study of spoken languages. For example, in the Latin-based writing system of standard contemporary English, examples of graphemes include the majuscule and minuscule forms of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet (corresponding to various phonemes), marks of punctuation (mostly non-phonemic), and a few other symbols such as those for numerals (logograms for numbers).

Note that an individual grapheme may be represented in a wide variety of ways, where each variation is visually distinct in some regard, but all are interpreted as representing the "same" grapheme. These individual variations are known as allographs of a grapheme (compare with the term allophone used in linguistic study). For example, the minuscule letter a has different allographs when written as a cursive, block, or typed letter. The selection between different allographs may be influenced by the medium used, the writing instrument, the stylistic choice of the writer, and the largely unconscious features of an individual's handwriting.

The terms glyph, sign and character are sometimes used to refer to a grapheme. Common usage varies from discipline to discipline; compare cuneiform sign, Maya glyph, Chinese character. The glyphs of most writing systems are made up of lines (or strokes) and are therefore called linear, but there are glyphs in non-linear writing systems made up of other types of marks, such as Cuneiform and Braille.

Writing systems are conceptual systems, as are the languages to which they refer. Writing systems may be regarded as complete according to the extent to which they are able to represent all that may be expressed in the spoken language.

History of writing systems

Writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbols. The best known examples are:
 Jiahu Script, symbols on tortoise shells in Jiahu, ca. 6600 BC
 Vinča script (Tărtăria tablets), ca. 4500 BC
 Early Indus script, ca. 3500 BC

The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BC. The Sumerian archaic cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400–3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BC.

Though the Ge'ez writing system of Ethiopia is considered Semitic it is likely of semi-independent origin, having roots in the Meroitic Sudanese ideogram system.

The Chinese script likely developed independently of the Middle Eastern scripts, around 1600 BC.

The pre-Columbian Mesoamerican writing systems (including among others Olmec and Maya scripts) are also generally believed to have had independent origins.

It is thought that the first true alphabetic writing appeared around 2000 BC, as a representation of language developed for Semitic slaves in Egypt by Egyptians (see History of the alphabet).  Most other alphabets in the world today either descended from this one innovation, many via the Phoenician alphabet, or were directly inspired by its design.

Functional classification of writing systems

The oldest-known forms of writing were primarily logographic in nature, based on pictographic and ideographic elements. Most writing systems can be broadly divided into three categories: logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic (or segmental); however, all three may be found in any given writing system in varying proportions, often making it difficult to categorise a system uniquely. The term complex system is sometimes used to describe those where the admixture makes classification problematic.

Logographic writing systems

A logogram is a single written character which represents a complete grammatical word. Most Chinese characters are classified as logograms.

As each character represents a single word (or, more precisely, a morpheme), many logograms are required to write all the words of language. The vast array of logograms and the memorization of what they mean are the major disadvantage of the logographic systems over alphabetic systems. However, since the meaning is inherent to the symbol, the same logographic system can theoretically be used to represent different languages. In practice, this is only true for closely related languages, like the Chinese languages, as syntactical constraints reduce the portability of a given logographic system. Japanese uses Chinese logograms extensively in its writing systems, with most of the symbols carrying the same or similar meanings. However, the semantics, and especially the grammar, are different enough that a long Chinese text is not readily understandable to a Japanese reader without any knowledge of basic Chinese grammar, though short and concise phrases such as those on signs and newspaper headlines are much easier to comprehend.

While most languages do not use wholly logographic writing systems many languages use some logograms. A good example of modern western logograms are the Hindu-Arabic numerals — everyone who uses those symbols understands what 1 means whether he or she calls it one, eins, uno, yi, ichi or ehad. Other western logograms include the ampersand &, used for and, the at sign @, used in many contexts for at, the percent sign % and the many signs representing units of currency ($, ¢, €, £, ¥ and so on.)

Logograms are sometimes called ideograms, a word that refers to symbols which graphically represent abstract ideas, but linguists avoid this use, as Chinese characters are often semantic–phonetic compounds, symbols which include an element that represents the meaning and element that represents the pronunciation.  Some nonlinguists distinguish between lexigraphy and ideography, where symbols in lexigraphies represent words, and symbols in ideographies represent words or morphemes.

The most important (and, to a degree, the only surviving) modern logographic writing system is the Chinese one, whose characters are or were used, with varying degrees of modification, in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other east Asian languages. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Mayan writing system are also systems with certain logographic features, although they have marked phonetic features as well, and are no longer in current use.

Syllabic writing systems

As logographic writing systems use a single symbol for an entire word, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents a consonant sound followed by a vowel sound, or just a vowel alone.

In a "true syllabary", there is no systematic graphic similarity between phonetically related characters (though some do have graphic similarity for the vowels). That is, the characters for "ke", "ka", and "ko" have no similarity to indicate their common "k"-ness. However, another type of syllabic writing system is known as the abugida, where each grapheme typically represents a syllable, but where the characters representing related sounds are similar graphically (typically, a common consonantal base is annotated in a more or less consistent manner to represent the vowel in the syllable).  The nomenclature used to make this distinction was only introduced by linguists relatively recently, borrowing the term abugida from Ethiopian languages that call their own Ge'ez script by this name.

Syllabaries are best suited to languages with relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. The English language, on the other hand, allows complex syllable structures, with a relatively large inventory of vowels and complex consonant clusters, making it cumbersome to write English words with a syllabary. To write English using a syllabary, every possible syllable in English would have to have a separate symbol, and whereas the number of possible syllables in Japanese is no more than about fifty to sixty, in English there are many thousands.

Other languages that use true syllabaries include Mycenaean Greek (Linear B) and Native American languages such as Cherokee.  Several languages of the Ancient Near East used forms of cuneiform, which is a syllabary with some non-syllabic elements.

Alphabetic writing systems

An alphabet is a small set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly represents or represented historically a phoneme of a spoken language. The word alphabet is derived from alpha and beta, the first two symbols of the Greek alphabet.

In a perfectly phonemic alphabet, the phonemes and letters would correspond perfectly in two directions: a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling. Each language has general rules that govern the association between letters and phonemes, but, depending on the language, these rules may or may not be consistently followed.

Perfectly phonemic alphabets are very easy to use and learn, and languages that have them (for example Serbocroatian or Finnish) have much lower barriers to literacy than languages such as English, which has a very complex and irregular spelling system. As languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages for which they were not designed, the degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language. In modern times, when linguists invent a writing system for a language that didn't previously have one, the goal is usually to develop a phonemic alphabet. It should be noted that a truly phonetic alphabet for a natural spoken language would be very cumbersome, as it would have to have a huge variety of phonetic variation. An example of such a writing system is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Abjads

The first type of alphabet that was developed was the abjad. An abjad is an alphabetic writing system where there is one symbol per consonant. Abjads differ from other alphabets in that they have characters only for consonantal sounds. Vowels are not usually marked in abjad.

All known abjads (except maybe Tifinagh) belong to the Semitic family of scripts, and derive from the original Northern Linear Abjad. The reason for this is that Semitic languages and the related Berber languages have a morphemic structure which makes the denotation of vowels redundant in most cases.

Some abjads (such as Arabic and Hebrew) have markings for vowels as well, but use them only in special contexts, such as for teaching. Many scripts derived from abjads have been extended with vowel symbols to become full alphabets, the most famous case being the derivation of the Greek alphabet from the Phoenician abjad. This has mostly happened when the script was adapted to a non-Semitic language.

The term abjad takes its name from the old order of the Arabic alphabet's consonants Alif, Bá, Jim, Dál, though the word may have earlier roots in Phoenician or Ugaritic.

Abjad is still the word for alphabet in Arabic, Malay, and Indonesian.

Abugidas

An abugida is an alphabetic writing system whose basic signs denote consonants with an inherent vowel and where consistent modifications of the basic sign indicate other following vowels than the inherent one.

Thus, in an abugida there may or may not be a sign for "k" with no vowel, but also one for "ka" (if "a" is the inherent vowel), and "ke" is written by modifying the "ka" sign in a way that is consistent with how one would modify "la" to get "le". In many abugidas the modification is the addition of a vowel sign, but other possibilities are imaginable (and used), such as rotation of the basic sign, addition of diacritical marks, and so on.

The contrast with "true syllabaries" is that the latter have one distinct symbol per possible syllable, and the signs for each syllable have no systematic graphic similarity. The graphic similarity of most abugidas comes from the fact that they are derived from abjads, and the consonants make up the symbols with the inherent vowel, and the new vowel symbols are markings added on to the base symbol.

In the Ge'ez script, for which the linguistic term abugida was named, the vowel modifications do not always appear systematic, although they originally were more so. Canadian Aboriginal syllabics can be considered abugidas, although they are rarely thought of in those terms. The largest single group of abugidas is the Brahmic family of scripts, however, which includes nearly all the scripts used in India and අග්නිදිග ආසියාව.

The name abugida is derived from the first four characters of an order of the Ge'ez script used in some contexts. It was borrowed from Ethiopian languages as a linguistic term by Peter T. Daniels.

Featural writing systems
A featural script represents finer detail than an alphabet. Here symbols do not represent whole phonemes, but rather the elements (features) that make up the phonemes, such as voicing or its place of articulation. Theoretically, each feature could be written with a separate letter; and abjads or abugidas, or indeed syllabaries, could be featural, but the only prominent system of this sort is Korean hangul. In hangul, the featural symbols are combined into alphabetic letters, and these letters are in turn joined into syllabic blocks, so that the system combines three levels of phonological representation.

Ambiguous systems
Most writing systems are not purely one type. The English writing system, for example, includes numerals and other logograms such as #, $, and &, and the phonetic letters are a poor match to sound. As mentioned above, all logographic systems have phonetic components as well, whether that's along the lines of a syllabary, such as Chinese ("logo-syllabic"), or an abjad, as in Egyptian ("logo-consonantal").

Some scripts, however, are truly ambiguous. The semi-syllabaries of ancient Spain were syllabic for plosives such as p, t, k, but alphabetic for other consonants. In some versions, vowels were written redundantly after syllabic letters, conforming to an alphabetic orthography. Old Persian cuneiform was similar. Of 23 consonants (including null), seven were fully syllabic, thirteen were purely alphabetic, and for the other three, there was one letter for /Cu/ and another for both /Ca/ and /Ci/. However, all vowels were written overtly regardless; as in the Brahmic abugidas, the /Ca/ letter was used for a bare consonant.

The zhuyin phonetic glossing script for Chinese divides syllables in two or three, but into onset, medial, and rime rather than consonant and vowel. Pahawh Hmong is similar, but can be considered to divide syllables into either onset-rime or consonant-vowel (all consonant clusters and diphthongs are written with single letters); as the latter, it is equivalent to an abugida but with the roles of consonant and vowel reversed. Other scripts are intermediate between the categories of alphabet, abjad, and abugida, so there may be disagreement on how they should be classified.

Graphic classification of writing systems
Perhaps the primary graphic distinction made in classifications is that of linearity. Linear writing systems are those in which the characters are composed of lines, such as the Latin alphabet and Chinese characters. Chinese characters are considered linear whether they're written with a ball-point pen or a calligraphic brush, or cast in bronze. Similarly, Egyptian hieroglyphs and Maya glyphs were often painted in linear outline form, but in formal situations they were carved in bas-relief. Non-linear systems, on the other hand, such as braille, are not composed of lines, no matter which instrument is used to write them. The earliest examples of writing are linear: the Sumerian script of c. 3300 BCE was linear, though its cuneiform descendants were not.

Cuneiform was probably the earliest non-linear writing. Its glyphs were formed by pressing the end of a reed stylus into moist clay, not by tracing lines in the clay with the stylus as had been done previously. The result was a radical transformation of the appearance of the script.

Braille is a non-linear adaptation of the Latin alphabet that completely abandoned the Latin forms. The letters are composed of raised bumps on the writing substrate, which can be leather (Louis Braille's original material), stiff paper, plastic, or metal.

There are also transient non-linear adaptations of the Latin alphabet, including Morse code, the manual alphabets of various sign languages, and semaphore, in which flags or bars are positioned at prescribed angles. However, if "writing" is defined as a potentially permanent means of recording information, then these systems do not qualify as writing at all, since the symbols disappear as soon as they are used.

If the Edo script is indeed a complete writing system, it may be the only natural example of a script in which the color of the graphemes is contrastive.

Directionality

Scripts are also graphically characterized by the direction in which they are written. Egyptian hieroglyphs were written in either horizontal direction, with the animal and human glyphs turned to face the beginning of the line. The early alphabet could be written in multiple directions, horizontally (left-to-right or right-to-left) or vertically (up or down). It was commonly written boustrophedonically: starting in one (horizontal) direction, then turning at the end of the line and reversing direction.

The Greek alphabet and its successors settled on a left-to-right pattern, from the top to the bottom of the page. In Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format, this pattern is abbreviated LRTB.  Other scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, came to be written right-to-left.  Scripts that incorporate Chinese characters have traditionally been written vertically (top-to-bottom), from the right to the left of the page, but nowadays are frequently written left-to-right, top-to-bottom, due to Western influence, a growing need to accommodate terms in the Roman alphabet, and technical limitations in popular electronic document formats.  The Uighur alphabet and its descendants are unique in being the only scripts written top-to-bottom, left-to-right; this direction originated from an ancestral Semitic direction by rotating the page 90° counter-clockwise to conform to the appearance of vertical Chinese writing. Several scripts used in the Philippines and ඉන්දුනීසියාව, such as Hanunó'o, are traditionally written with lines moving away from the writer, from bottom to top, but are read horizontally left to right.

Writing systems on computers
Different ISO/IEC standards are defined to deal with each individual writing systems to implement them in computers (or in electronic form). Today most of those standards are re-defined in a better collective standard, the ISO 10646, also known as Unicode. In Unicode, each character, in every language's writing system, is (simplifying slightly) given a unique identification number, known as its code point. The computer's software uses the code point to look up the appropriate character in the font file, so the characters can be displayed on the page or screen.

A keyboard is the device most commonly used for writing via computer. Each key is associated with a standard code which the keyboard sends to the computer when it is pressed. By using a combination of alphabetic keys with modifier keys such as Ctrl, Alt, Shift and AltGr, various character codes are generated and sent to the CPU. The operating system intercepts and converts those signals to the appropriate characters based on the keyboard layout and input method, and then delivers those converted codes and characters to the running application software, which in turn looks up the appropriate glyph in the currently used font file, and requests the operating system to draw these on the screen.

In computers and telecommunication systems, graphemes and other grapheme-like units that are required for text processing are represented by "characters" that typically manifest in encoded form. For technical aspects of computer support for various writing systems, see Universal Character Set, CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and Bi-directional text, as well as :Category:Character encoding.

See also
Artificial script
Asemic writing
Calligraphy
Font
Formal language
Genealogy of scripts derived from Proto-Sinaitic
History of writing
History of writing numbers
ISO 15924 — a list of "codes for the representation of names of scripts"
List of inventors of writing systems
List of writing systems
Lower case
Majuscule
Nü Shu
Official script
Orthography
Pasigraphy
Penmanship
Shorthand
Spelling
Transliteration
Universal Character Set
Written language

References

 Coulmas, Florian. 1996. The Blackwell encyclopedia of writing systems. Oxford: Blackwell.
 Daniels, Peter T., and William Bright, eds. 1996. The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.
 DeFrancis, John. 1990. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1068-6
 Hannas, William. C. 1997. Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1892-X (paperback); ISBN 0-8248-1842-3 (hardcover)
 Rogers, Henry. 2005. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-23463-2 (hardcover); ISBN 0-631-23464-0 (paperback)
 Sampson, Geoffrey. 1985. Writing Systems. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1756-7 (paper), ISBN 0-8047-1254-9 (cloth).
 Smalley, W. A. (ed.) 1964. Orthography studies: articles on new writing systems. London: United Bible Society.

External links
 Arch Chinese (Traditional & Simplified) Chinese character writing animations and native speaker pronunciations
 decodeunicode Unicode Wiki with all 98,884 Unicode 5.0 characters as gifs in three sizes
 African writing systems
 Omniglot

 Ancient Scripts Introduction to different writing systems
 Michael Everson's Alphabets of Europe
 The Unicode Consortium

ලේඛන කලාව
 writing system
Typography

අක්ෂර ක්‍රම


Villa Clara is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its main cities are Santa Clara (the capital), Sagua La Grande, Placetas, Camajuaní, Remedios and Caibarién.

The coast of Villa Clara is dotted with numerous cays, and there are many coral reefs and sandy beaches, too.

Around Santa Clara, the land rises into the Alturas de Santa Clara. The highest point in the province is in the Alturas, at 464 m above sea level. Villa Clara also has numerous lakes, which are used for both water sports and fishing. The largest Cuban river to drain into the Atlantic, Río Sagua la Grande, is also in Villa Clara province.

Sugar, the commodity that the Cuban economy relies upon, is grown in the plains in the north of the province, and several large mills provide employment to many people.

The provinces of Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara were once all part of the now defunct province of Las Villas.Santa Clara was the capital of Las Villas.

Famous People of Villa Clara
 Joe Carollo - former mayor of Miami, USA
 Richard Egues - Musician (Orquesta Aragon)
 Francisco Gatorno - actor
 Rubén González - pianist
 Livan Hernandez - baseball player
 Orlando Hernandez - baseball player
 Wilfredo Lam - painter
 Benny "Kid" Paret - boxer
 José Bernal - artist
 Amelia Pelaez - painter
 Zaida del Rio - painter
 Aida ida Morales - painter

Municipalities
 Caibarién
 Camajuaní
 Cifuentes
 Corralillo
 Encrucijada
 Manicaragua
 Placetas
 Quemado de Güines
 Ranchuelo
 Remedios
 Sagua La Grande
 Santa Clara
 Santo Domingo

Provinces of Cuba

Villa Clara Province


Giant tortoises have evolved on a number of tropical islands. They can weigh as much as 3 or 400 kg (660880 lbs) and can grow to be 1.3 to 1.9 m (45.9 ft) long (accounts vary). They live, or lived (some species are recently extinct), in the Seychelles, the Mascarenes and the Galapagos. Today, the world's largest population lives on Aldabra Atoll in Seychelles, where there are about 150,000 individuals.  Although looking similar, the tortoises represent separate branches of evolution.  The Seychelles and Mascarenes tortoises came originally from nearby Madagascar, while the Galapagos tortoises came from nearby Ecuador. Their similarity is an example of convergent evolution.

These tortoises are capable of living over 100 years in the wild. This makes them the longest-living vertebrates. The longest living survivor is 182 years old (probably).

The Madagascar  tortoise "Tu'i Malila" was 188 at death in Tonga in 1965. "Harriet" was reported by the Australia Zoo to be 176 years old when she died in 2006. Also, on 23 March 2006, an Aldabra giant tortoise named "Adwaita" died at Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata. He was brought to the zoo in the 1870s from the estate of Lord Robert Clive. He was around 255 years old when he died.

Around the time of its discovery, they were caught and killed for food in such large quantities that they became virtually extinct by 1900. Giant tortoises are now under strict conservation laws and are categorised as threatened species.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Galápagos were frequented by buccaneers preying on Spanish treasure ships. Filling a ship's hold with tortoises was an easy way to stock up on food, a tradition that was continued by whalers in the centuries that followed. "whaling skippers were almost lyrical in their praise of tortoise meat, terming it far more delicious than chicken, pork or beef". They said the meat of the giant tortoise was "succulent meat and the oil from their bodies as pure as butter, but best of all, the giants could hibernate in a ship's damp for a year or more".

At least five species of the genus Cylindraspis have gone extinct in historic times. They lived in the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius, Rodrigues and Réunion) in the Indian Ocean.

Galapagos tortoise
The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) is the biggest living species of tortoise and the 10th-heaviest living reptile.

The tortoise lives in seven of the Galápagos Islands. The island is a volcanic archipelago about 1,000 km (620 mi) west of the Ecuadorian mainland. Spanish explorers, who discovered the islands in the 16th century, named them after the Spanish galápago, meaning tortoise.

Their shell size and shape are different between populations. On islands with humid highlands, the tortoises are larger, with domed shells and short necks. On islands with dry lowlands, the tortoises are smaller, with "saddleback" shells and long necks. Charles Darwin's observations of these differences on the second voyage of the Beagle in 1835, helped him to develop his theory of evolution.

The population of the Galápagos tortoise is getting smaller. There were over 250,000 individuals in the 16th century. In the 1970s, that number got smaller to around 3,000. The decline is believed to be caused by over-exploitation, habitat loss and introduced species to the islands such as rats, goats and pigs. Ten subspecies of the original fifteen survive in the wild. An eleventh subspecies (C. n. abingdoni) had only a single known living individual. It was kept in captivity. "Lonesome George" died in June 2012.

There have been many conservation efforts. Because of this, thousands of captive-bred juveniles were released onto their home islands. As a result, the population grew to 19,000 at the start of the 21st century. However, the species is still classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Aldabra giant tortoise

The main population of the Aldabra giant tortoise lives on the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles. The atoll has been protected from human influence and is home to some 100,000 giant tortoises, the world's largest population of the animal. Another isolated population of the species lives on the island of Changuu, near Zanzibar and other captive populations are in conservation parks in Mauritius and Rodrigues. The tortoises exploit many different kinds of habitat, including grasslands, low scrub, mangrove swamps, and coastal dunes.

The species is called Aldabrachelys gigantea or Dipsochelys dussumieri. The names refer to the same tortoise.

References

Other websites

 ARKive – images and movies of the Galápagos giant tortoise (Geochelone spp.)
 American Museum of Natural History, Galápagos Giant Tortoise webpage
 'Extinct' Galapagos tortoise may still exist

Megafauna
Turtles

Giant tortoise


Modern history is the history of the world beginning after the Middle Ages. Generally the term "modern history" refers to the history of the world since the advent of the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

 The Early Modern Times lasted from the end of the 15th century to the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century, circa 1450/92 to 1750/92.
 Modern Times are the period from Enlightenment and the 18th century until today.
 Modernity, based on Modernism, explores the changes of society due to the industrialization.
 Postmodernity and Postindustrialism are theories to apply the art movement term of postmodernism (below) to social and cultural history, or to refer to the rise of the service sector during the late 20th century when industry was no longer predominant; the prefix "post-" implies a reaction to modernity and in that sense does not cover all contemporary history.

The modern period has been a time of many advances in science, politics, warfare, technology, and globalization. During this time, the European powers began expanding their political, economic, and cultural influences to the rest of the world.

Late 15th to early 18th century

This period is also called the early modern period. This time was a time where the Europeans found the New world and began colonizing it. It also saw trade with China and other Eastern Asian cultures.

Discovery of America (1492): Age of Discovery.
Gutenberg's moveable type printing press (1450s): information age and newspapers.

Within the early modern period, some events shaped the world immensely:
Martin Luther challenges the Church on 31 October 1517 with the 95 Theses: Reformation.
Fall of the Spanish Armada 8 August 1588 enabled the Rise of the British Empire
Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 in Central Europe decimated the population by up to 20%.
The treaties of the Peace of Westphalia are signed in 1648, which ended several wars in Europe and established the beginning of sovereign states.
Treaty of Utrecht marked the change from Spanish to British naval supremacy.
Louis XIV, "roi soleil".

Industrial Revolution

This period saw advances in industrial technology. Industries were beginning to make clothes, armaments, and other useful tools people need. This industrial revolution began the modern world as we know it.

Inventions of the Steam engine (1764) and Spinning Jenny (1769), one of the peak events influencing Romanticism.
Rejection of monarchy and absolutism: Declaration of Independence by the British Colonies in America, then USA, 1776, influencing the French Revolution of 1789.

Napoleonic era

The Napoleonic era is a period in the History of France and Europe. It is also known as the fourth stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory. The Napoleonic era begins roughly with Napoleon's coup d'état, overthrowing the Directory. It ends at the Hundred Days and his defeat by the alliance of several nations at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

19th century

The 19th Century is a time in history from 1815  to 1914

During this century, the Spanish, Portuguese, and Ottoman  Holy Roman and Mughal empires start to die

Following the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire became the world's leading power, controlling one quarter of the World's population and one third of the land area. It helped trade, and battled piracy. This time also sees the first lightbulb, Cars, railways, airplanes, printing press and other inventions

20th century

The 20th century was a time in which advancements in technology and medicine changed peoples way of life. Some advancements were in space exploration, nuclear technology, genetics, and the beginning of the information age.

This was also a time of the two world wars (World War I, World War II), the outbreak of Spanish Influenza, the Cold War, and the decolonisation of many parts of the world.

Related pages
Fin de siècle

References

Other websites
China and Europe

Periods and ages in history

Modern history


The Bundesverfassungsgericht is the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. It does not hear ordinary criminal cases. Instead it deals with matters that affect the Constitution of Germany.

The Court is in Karlsruhe. This was to show it was separate from the federal government, first based in Bonn, and other federal bodies such as the German intelligence (BND) based in Munich.

Competence
Federal law helps to describe what the court can do, and how it works. Article 20.3 of the Grundgesetz says that each the three branches of the government – the parliament, the ministers and the courts – can only do what the constitution allows. The court can decide that acts of all three branches are not allowed by the constitution and prevent them from happening.

There are different reasons the court may find something unconstitutional:
 Formal violations (breaking the rules)
 Doing something not allowed by the constitution
 Not properly doing something allowed "violating procedures"
 Material conflicts (ignoring one part of the constitution)
 Doing something which is allowed, but ignoring a different part of the constitution, such as ignoring the civil rights guaranteed in the Grundgesetz. For example, the federal government must protect the security of Germany and its citizens. To do this it gave the air force the power to shoot down hijacked aircraft. The Bundesverfassungsgericht stopped the law because the right to life was more important.

Decisions of the court on material conflicts are applied through a federal law by the Federal Constitutional Court Act (BVerfGG).

The court only hear certain cases:
 Constitutional Complaint ()
 Anyone can complain to the court that their constitutional rights were violated. They have been some of the most important decisions the court has made. Some important laws have been overturned, especially about taxes.
 Abstract Regulation Control
 Some other government bodies, for example the Bundesländer, can ask the court to declare any federal law unconstitutional. The laws legalizing abortion were twice declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
 Concrete Regulation Control
 Any ordinary court considering a case can stop the case and ask the Federal Constitutional Court if the law is constitutional. If it is then the ordinary court can carry on hearing the case.
 Federal Dispute
 Federal bodies, including members of the Bundestag, may bring disputes over powers and procedures before the court.
 State-Federal Dispute
 The Länder can ask the court to decide if they or the federal government have the right to do something, or if something is being done in the right way.
 Investigation Committee Control
 The Bundestag's Committees of investigation, individual members of the Bundestag, or the federal government can ask the court to decide on the committee's powers and procedures.
 Federal Election Scrutiny
 Any government body or involved voter can ask the court to investigate if a federal election was properly run.
 Impeachment Procedure
 If the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the federal government think that the President or a judge or member of one of the Federal Supreme Courts has broken the constitution or a federal law, the Bundesverfassungsgericht decides if they should be removed from office.
 Prohibit a political party
 Only the Constitutional Court has the power to ban a political party. This has only happened twice, both times in the 1950s: the Sozialistische Reichspartei (SRP), was a neo-nazi party. It was banned in 1952. The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was banned in 1956. In 2003 the third case to ban a party failed. The court found out that many of the officials of the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD) were actually controlled by the German secret services. The court decided not to carry on hearing the case.

Organization
The court has 16 judges. They are divided into two groups, called senates, of eight judges. The chairman of one senate is also the President of the Court ("Chief Justice"). The chairman of the other senate is the vice president. Most cases are heard by a "chamber" which is three members of one senate. All three judges of the chamber must agree on a decision. A chamber has to use precedent (past rulings). If a chamber thinks a precedent should be changed they have to let the case be decided by the Senate as a whole. Similarly, if a Senate thinks a precedent set by the other Senate should be changed precedent of the must ask the "Plenum" (a meeting of all 16 judges).

Decisions by a Senate need an absolute majority of 5 votes (in some cases a two-thirds majority is required, that is, 6 out of 8 votes). The BVerfGG decides which type of cases a senate hears.

Election of judges
Four judges of each senate are elected by the Bundestag. The others are elected by the Bundesrat. Choosing a judge needs a two-thirds majority.

The judges have a 12-year term, but they must retire when reaching the age of 68. A judge must be at least 40 years old and must be a well-trained jurist. Three out of eight members of each Senate must have been a judge of a Federal Supreme Court. Of the other five members of each Senate, most judges have been a professor of law at a university, a public servant or a lawyer.

At the end of their term, most judges retire from public life. One notable exception was Roman Herzog, who was elected Federal President in 1994, shortly before the end of his term as President of the Court.

References

Other websites
 www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de, the Court's website
 Federal Constitutional Court Act (BVerfGG) in German
 Federal Constitutional Court Act (BVerfGG) in English

Karlsruhe

Bundesverfassungsgericht