William Hogarth (10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist.

He is said to have started western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraits to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". His work is so well known that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".

Moral series art

Harlot's Progress

In 1731, he completed a series of moral works which made him recognised as a great and original genius. This was A Harlot's Progress. It was first done as paintings, which are now lost. Then the series was published as engravings. In the six scenes, the fate of a country girl who became a prostitute in town is traced out. At the start, the girl meets a bawd, a woman who persuades her to take up prostitution. At her shameful end, the girl dies of venereal disease and there follows a merciless funeral ceremony. The engraving show vivid scenes of drunken and loose behaviour. The series was an immediate success.

Rake's Progress

A Rake's Progress showed in eight pictures the reckless life of Tom Rakewell, the son of a rich merchant. Tom wastes all his money on luxurious living, whoring, and gambling, and dies in Bedlam. The original paintings of A Rake's Progress is displayed in the gallery room at Sir John Soane's Museum, London.

Marriage à-la-mode

In 1743–1745 Hogarth painted the six pictures of Marriage à-la-mode (National Gallery, London), a pointed skewering of upper class 18th century society. This moralistic warning shows the miserable tragedy of an ill-considered marriage for money. This is regarded by many as his finest project and may be among his best planned story serials. Marital ethics were the topic of much debate in 18th century Britain. Marriages of convenience, and their unhappiness, came in for particular criticism.

The series shows the story of the fashionable marriage of the son of bankrupt Earl Squanderfield to the daughter of a rich but miserly city merchant. It starts with the signing of a marriage contract at the Earl's mansion and ending with the murder of the son by his wife's lover, and the suicide of the daughter after her lover is hanged at Tyburn.

Industry and Idleness
In the twelve prints of Industry and Idleness (1747) Hogarth showed the lives of two apprentices, one of whom is dedicated and hard working, the other idle. The industrious apprentice becomes Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London. The idle turns one to crime. In the end, he is executed at Tyburn. The idle apprentice is sent to the gallows by the industrious apprentice himself.

This shows the work ethic of Protestant England, where those who work hard get rewarded, and those who do not end badly,

Beer Street and Gin Lane

Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751) was his warning on alcoholism. They were two engravings designed to be seen side by side. Hogarth engraved Beer Street to show a happy city drinking the 'good' beverage of English beer. On the other side was Gin Lane. This showed the effects of drinking gin which, as a harder liquor, caused more problems for society. People are shown as healthy, happy and prosperous in Beer Street, while in Gin Lane they are scrawny, lazy and careless.

The woman at the front of Gin Lane who lets her baby fall to its death, echoes the tale of Judith Dufour who strangled her baby so she could sell its clothes for gin money. The prints were published in support of what would become the Gin Act of 1751.

Hogarth's friend, the magistrate Henry Fielding, may have got Hogarth to help with propaganda for the Gin Act: Beer Street and Gin Lane were issued shortly after Fielding's work An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, and Related Writings.

The Four Stages of Cruelty

Other prints were his outcry against inhumanity in The Four Stages of Cruelty (published 21 February 1751). Hogarth depicts the cruel treatment of animals, and suggests what will happen to people who carry on in this manner. In the first picture there are scenes of torture of dogs, cats and other animals. The second shows one of the characters from the first painting, Tom Nero, has now become a coach driver, and his cruelty to his horse has caused it to break its leg. In the third painting Tom is shown as a murderer, with the woman he killed lying on the ground, while in the fourth, titled Reward of Cruelty, the murderer is shown being dissected by surgeons after his execution. The method of execution, and the dissection, reflect the 1752 Act of Parliament. This allowed the public dissection of criminals who had been executed for murder.

Hogarth wished to stop "that barbarous (mean) treatment of animals, the very sight of which renders [makes] the streets of our metropolis so distressing to every feeling mind".

Humours of an Election

The Humours of an Election is a series of four oil paintings and later engravings by Hogarth. They show what went on in the 1754 election of a Member of Parliament. The oil paintings were created in 1755.

At this time each constituency elected two MPs, and there was a property qualification for voters, so only a minority of the male population was enfranchised. There was no secret ballot, so bribery and threats were used to raise votes.

The originals are held by Sir John Soane's Museum, London.

Hogarth was also a popular portrait painter. In 1746 he painted actor David Garrick as Richard III. He was paid £200, "which was more," he wrote, "than any English artist ever received for a single portrait". In the same year a sketch of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, afterwards beheaded on Tower Hill, had an exceptional success.

Hogarth's portrait of his friend, the philanthropic Captain Coram (1740; Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, now Foundling Museum), and his unfinished oil sketch of The Shrimp Girl (National Gallery, London) are highly regarded. There are also portraits of his wife and his two sisters and of many others.

References

Other websites

English painters
British cartoonists
1697 births
1764 deaths
Artists from London
Engravers

William Hogarth


Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the third largest urban area in the country. Christchurch is located on the South Island's east coast. The population is approximately 376,700 (2010).

The name 'Christchurch' was decided upon at the first meeting of the Canterbury Association (made up of settlers of the surrounding province of Canterbury) on March 27, 1848. The city's name came from the Christ Church, Oxford College and was suggested by John Robert Godley, who attended the college. Earlier, the name of the town was Christ Church. On July 31, 1856, Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter and is officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.

History
Original settlers of the Christchurch region were Moa Hunters. These settlers hunted the moa out of existence by about the year 1500. The hunters cleared large areas of Mataī and Tōtara forests by fire, changing the landscape. The Māori people (Ngati Mamoe and later Ngai Tahu) arrived in Canterbury between 1500 and 1700. The Moa Hunters were either killed or adopted by tribes. On February 16, 1770, Captain James Cook was the first European to see the Canterbury peninsula from his ship the Endeavour. Thinking it was an island, he named it Banks Island after the ship's botanist, Joseph Banks. It was not until around 1815 when European sailors from the sealing ship, Governor Bligh, landed and set foot on Banks Peninsula. During the 1820s the local Māori population fell due to fighting between different groups of Ngāi Tahu and raids by the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha from 1830 to 1832. The impact of European diseases, especially measles and influenza only increased the death toll of the Māori people. The Māori tribes fought each other to near disappearance in the Christchurch region.
European pilgrims began settling the area in the 1800s. In 1839, the New Zealand Company was established in London. In current history, people started immigrating from Europe to New Zealand during this time. In May 1840, Major Thomas Bunbury arrived on a ship, the HMS Herald, to collect signatures from the Ngāi Tahu chiefs for the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty had been signed by many North Island chiefs in the Bay of Islands earlier in the year on 6 February, 1840. During Bunbury's visit, only two of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed it. After this treaty was signed, the colony became in direct control of the UK. The settlement by the British began in 1850. Christchurch was born by a royal warrant of the British King as the oldest city in New Zealand on July 31, 1856. A building of Neo-Gothic architecture was designed and constructed by Benjamin Mount Fort in the city center. The suburb of Hei Hei was subdivided for poultry farming after WWI for returning serviceman, but the venture failed due to the poor soil conditions. In 1947, New Zealand's a major fire occurred at Ballantyne's Department Store in the inner city. 41 people died in a blaze which razed the rambling collection of buildings. Mass shootings occurred at two mosques on 15 March 2019.

Geography
Christchurch is in Canterbury. It is the largest city in the South Island. The Pacific Ocean lines its east coast and south coast. The Southern Alps act as a border on the west coast. The Waimakariri River creates a natural northern border. The purest and cleanest water can be found in Christchurch. This water comes from the Southern Alps via aquifers.

A two-hour drive by car includes the many highlights from Christchurch International Airport. One can enjoy skiing, golf, bungee jumping, white-water rafting, mountain biking, windsurfing, whale watching and a variety of other activities including the winery garden circulation. Christchurch has earned the pet name of "the garden city" with the southern island.
Central city

The Cathedral Square is located right in the center of the city. The city center was damaged by the earthquake of February, 2011. The area around this square, within the 'four avenues' of Christchurch, was the central business district of the city. There were a number of residential areas within the central city including Inner City East, Inner City West, Avon Loop, Moa Neighbourhood and Victoria. Cathedral Square is located at the crossing of two famous, major central streets, Colombo Street and Worcester Street, both of which are currently cordoned off as you approach the square.

Attractions such as the Wizard of New Zealand, Ian Brackenbury Channell, and evangelist Ray Comfort were hosted at the Cathedral Square until the earthquake in February, 2011. They also held market days, free standing food and coffee carts, an aquarium, pubs, restaurants and the city's chief tourist information centre. The City Mall was refurbished in 2008 & 09 before the earthquake of February 2011. The mall had specially designed seating, flower and garden boxes, more trees, paving, and an extension to the central city tram route. Now all that lies there is The Bridge of Remembrance commemorating war dead stands at the western end of the mall.
"A City for People Action Plan" was released in 2010 by the Christchurch City Council. This program of work is planned through the year 2022 to improve public spaces within the central city to entice more inner city residents and visitors. To increase the comfort of pedestrians, a plan was put into action to reduce the impact of motorized private vehicles. The renowned Danish design firm, Gehl Architects prepared this report. Wellington architect Ian Athfield has since been selected to re-plan and help rebuild since the February, 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

Transportation
The main mode of public transportation in the city is by bus. The bus system operates throughout the city. Also, there is a free shuttle bus going around the city center.
A railroad station exists southwest, around 4 km from the inner-city, but it is not for citizens. It is used for freight and sightseeing exclusively.

Economy
Agriculture is the main industry that is carried out over the Canterbury plains. The main crops grown are wheat, barley, various strains of clover and other grasses for seed exporting. Besides growing these crops, it also created various processing and distribution businesses in Christchurch. In recent years, agriculture has expanded to the wine industry and olive production and processing. Deer farming has led to new processing using antlers for Asian medicine and aphrodisiacs. Also, dairy farming and raising stock are also carried out on the flourishing Canterbury plains. Other industries include manufacturing, real estate and wholesale business. In more recent years, sightseeing and tourism have become prosperous, led by tourists from Europe, Asia, and North America.

Climate
Christchurch has moderate rainfall year-round. It has warm summers and cool winters. The most common wind is a northeasterly sea breeze, but the city is famous for Nor'westers, hot dry, dusty winds which blow across the plains.

Education

Secondary schools
Burnside High School is in Christchurch. Largest school in New Zealand with 2,506 students enrolled. Cashmere High School at Rose Street is the second largest co-educational secondary school. Recently, Papanui High School has grown rapidly and is almost the same size. Then there is Riccarton High School that was one of the first state schools in the country to adopt a strong values base – the Riccarton Way. There are several single-sex schools as follows: Shirley Boys' High School, Christchurch Boys' High School, Avonside Girls' High School and Christchurch Girls' High School.

English public schools
Christchurch is also well known for several very traditional schools of the English public school type as follows: St. Thomas of Canterbury College, St. Margaret's College, Christ's College, St. Bede's College, Mariam College, St. Andrew's College, Villa Maria College and Rangi Ruru Girls' School.

College
There are also less conventional schools such as Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti and Hagley Community College.
Tertiary educational institutes include:
 University of Canterbury
 Lincoln University
 Ara Institute of Canterbury
 University of Otago
 Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences

References

Christchurch


An article is a word that is used with a noun. There are two kinds of articles: definite articles and indefinite articles.

In English there is just one definite article: the. There are two indefinite articles: a and an. The word an is used before a word starting with a vowel sound (which does not have to be a vowel letter): we say a horse, a child, a European (European has a "Y" sound, /j/, which is a consonant sound), a university, but an orange, an elephant.

Some languages have more than one word for the. In some languages, this is because each noun is either masculine or feminine or, in some languages it can be masculine, feminine or neuter. For example: in French le is used for masculine nouns (le jardin - the garden) and la for feminine nouns (la table - the table). The becomes les in front of plural nouns. The indefinite articles in French are un (masculine) and une (feminine). German, Dutch and Ancient Greek have masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, but in the case of Dutch the word for the is the same for masculine and feminine (de) so you do not need to know which it is. The Māori language uses one word for the for when the subject or object to which the the refers is one in number, and uses another word for the when the subject or object to which the the refers numbers more than one.

There are also many languages that do not have articles. Some examples include Russian, Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese. When speakers of these languages are learning English, it is often difficult to explain to them what an article is because English speakers use them naturally. Even though these languages do not have articles, they still have grammatical features that allow them to show definiteness.

In general: the in English is used for something you already know about or have already been talking about. The word a is used when introducing a new idea:

"The tired woman was looking for her cat. Suddenly she saw the cat up a tree". (We are already talking about the cat. The tree is a new idea).

"The tired woman was walking along when she suddenly saw a cat up a tree". (She had not been thinking about cats until then).

Sometimes we do not need an article, for example when talking about something in general:

"The dogs do not bite" (meaning: dogs that you are thinking about).
"Barking dogs do not bite" (barking dogs in general).

Parts of speech
Basic English 850 words

Article (grammar)


Saunt Andra (dee'd c. 60 AD) wis a disypil o Jesus Christ an brither o Saunt Peter. Tho he kythsna aften in the Gospels, he is mentiont in acoonts o a twa-thrie wechtie an kenspekil happenins.

Andra is the patron saunt o Scotland, Ukraine, Roushie, Romanie, Patras in Greece, Amalfi in Italy, Luqa in Maltae, an Esgueira in Portugal. He wis the patron saunt o Prussie an o the Order o the Gowden Fleece anaw. The Banner o Scotland an banner o Nova Scotia featur St Andra's saltire cross. The saltire is on the Banner o Tenerife, the banner o Galicie an the naval jack o Roushie anaw. Forby thon, he is the patron saunt o fishermen.

The feast o Andra is on the 30t November in baith the Eistren an Wastren kirks, an is the naitional day o Scotland.

Name
The name "Andra" cums frae the Greek for "manlie, braw" (ἀνδρεία, meinin "manhuid, valor"). Lyk ither Greek names, it seems ti hae been common amang the Jews frae the 3rd or 2nt yeirhunder BC. Nae Hebrew or Aramaic name is recordit for him. He is dempt ti be the foonder an first beishop o the Kirk o Byzantium.

Lyf
(Aw Biblical quotes haes been taen frae W.L Lorimer's translate)

In The New Testament
It isna kent whan Andra wis born, but lyk as no he wis a man o Bethsaida, bi Loch Genesareth in Galilee. This is no faur frae Capernaum that wis ane o the important steids o Jesus's darg.

A fisherman bi tred, he wis a follaer o John the Baptist. Eftir listenin ti John cry Jesus "the Laum o God", he left him ti tak the gate wi Jesus, The Gospel o John tels that he at anss kent Jesus wis the Messiah an gaed ti tel his brither. The Gospel o Matthew gies this upcast o the cawin o Peter an Andra:

Ae day he [viz. Jesus] wis traivlin asyd the Loch o Galilee, whan he saw twa brithirs, Símon, cried Peter, an Andra his brithir, castin a net intil the loch; for thay war fishers bi tred.
"Cum eftir me," qo he til thaim, "an I s' mak ye men-fishers": an strecht thay quat thair nets an follaed him. (Matt. 4: 18-20)

Acause he wis ane o the first follaers o Christ, he is kent in the Greek as Prōtoklētos that meins "the first-caw'd". His name isna aften mentiont in the Gospels, but whan it is, he is aye bringin ither fowk ti Jesus. Ae byspel kyths in The Gospel o John, whan Jesus is aboot ti feed a fell thrang o fowk. Seein that thar isna eneuch fuid for the thrang, the disypil begoud ti colloge aboot hou ti feed thaim:

"Twa hunder merk," Philip answert, "wadna buy as mukkil breid as wad gie thaim a tuithfu the piece".
Ane o the disypils, Anda, Simon Peter's brither, sayd til him, [viz. Jesus] "Thar's a laddok here wi five bear laifs an twa fishes: but whit is that amang sae monie?""Gar the fowk lie doun," sayd Jesus... (John. 6: 6-10)

An Jesus gaes on ti say the grace an gie the fuid amang the thrang. Later on, the same Gospel gies this upcast:Amang thaim at cam ti Jerusalem ti wurship at the Festival thar wis a whein Greeks. Thir Greeks cam ti Philip, at belang'd Bathsaïda in Galilee, an sayd til him, "Cud we see Jesus, sir?" Philip gaed awa an telt Andra, an the twasum gaed an telt Jesus. (John 12: 20-22)

Eftir Jesus's daith an resurrection, Andra wis ane o the curn that gat the Haly Gaist at Pentecost (Acts chaipter ane).

 Ootwi The New Testament

Eusebius o Caesarea quotes Origen as sayin Andra preichit alang the Blek Sie as faur as the Volga, Kiev an Novgorod. Hence he becam a patron saunt o Ukraine, Romanie an Roushie. By tradeition, he foondit the Episkopal See o Byzantium (Constantinople) in 38 AD, makkin Stachys the beishop. By Hippolytus o Rome, he preichit in Thrace, an his bein in Byzantium is mention'd in the apocrifal Acts o Andra, wrat in the 2nt yeirhunder.

Andra is sayd ti hae been mairtir'd bi crusifixion at the ceitie o Patras (Patræ) in Greece. Aerlie texts, sik as the Acts o Andra'' kent ti Gregory o Tours, beskrive Andra as band, no nailt, til a Laitin ruid o the kynd on whilk Jesus is sayd ti hae been crusifee'd; yit a tradeition cam aboot that Andra haed been crusifiee'd on an X-shapit ruid, or "saltire", nou aften kent as a "Saunt Andra's Cross". Thon wis sayd ti be at his ain behest, as he dempt himsel wanwirthie ti be crusifee'd on the same kynd o ruid as Jesus.

Relics
Relics o Andra ar keppit at the Basilica o St Andra in Patras, Greece; the Duomo di Sant'Andrea in Amalfi, Italy; St Mary's Roman Catholic Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland; an the Kirk o St Andra an St Albert in Warsaw, Poland. Thar ar monie smawer reliquaries athort the warld anaw.

Andra an Scotland
Gaun by auld threaps, St Rule brocht Andra's relics ti Scotland in the 4t yeirhunder - gydit bi God ti modren St Andras in Fife - whaur he biggit a kirk an haed his heidsteid for his ain mission darg for the neist thritie yeir. Houaniver, maist skolars jalouses that this isna true.

Gaun bi legend, in 832 AD, Ungus II led an airmie of Pechts an Scots inti battil agin the Angles, led bi Æthelstan, naur modren-day Athelstaneford, East Lowden. On the morn o the battil, it wis sayd that Ungus saw white cluds shapit lyk a saltire in the lift. Ungus an his airmie, in maugre o bein ootnummer'd, wan the fecht. Ungus threapit that his airmie haed been unner the beild o Saunt Andra. Eftir, he tuik Andra as his patron an appyntit him the Patron Saunt o Scotland. This is sayd ti hae been the springheid o the Banner o Scotland; the white saltire agin a blue bakgrund.

Referenses

Fremmit airtins
 The Meesionary Vaiges o Andra
 St Andra in Orthodoxy
 St Andra in the Naitional Archives o Scotland
 Biography o Andra
 Sermon anent St Andra; Partick Newton Place Church, Glesca, 1976, A. S. Borrowman

1st-century births
1st-century daiths
1st-century Romans
1st-century Christian mairtyrs
Saunts frae the Haly Laund
Fowk executit bi crucifixion
Roman-era Jews
1st-century bishops
History o Christianity in Ukraine
Fishers
Buirials at the Kirk o the Haly Apostles

Saunt Andra


Coburg (East Franconian: Coborch, Coburch)  is a town on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. It joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920. Before 1918, it was the larger of the two capital cities in the united duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Coburg's Coat of Arms honoring the city's patron Saint Maurice was granted in 1493.

History
Coburg is about 90 km south of Erfurt and about 100 km north of Nuremberg. Coburg was first mentioned in a document dated 1056, although there was a settlement at the site that before then called Trufalistat. Following several changes of noble owners, it came into the hands of the House of Wettin in 1353 when Friedrich III, the Strong, married Katherina von Henneberg. In 1596, it became the capital of one of the new Duchy of Saxe-Coburg under the leadership of Duke Johann Casimirs (ruled 1596-1633).

Due to the royal connections among the royal houses of Europe, Coburg was the site of many royal Ducal weddings and visits. Britain's Queen Victoria made 6 visits to Coburg during her 64-year reign. In 1896 one ceremony brought together Queen Victoria, her son Edward (future Edward VII), her second son Alfred (Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha), her daughter the German dowager Empress Friedrich (Victoria), and many of her grandchildren, such as Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and the future King George V of Great Britain.

In 1920, two years after the abdication of the last duke, the locals voted to join Bavaria. Thus whilst the other Saxon-Thuringian principalities were later incorporated into the German Democratic Republic after World War II, Coburg became part of West Germany As a result, the town spent the Cold War years lying right next to the Iron Curtain, surrounded by East German territory on three sides.

Main sights
Coburg has the typical features of a former capital of German little states. There are numerous houses from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The most important landmarks include:
 Ehrenburg, a former Franciscan convent built in 1220 and turned into a castle in 1543-1549, and renovated until the 19th century. The internal decoration dates from the late 17th-early 18th centuries.
 St.-Moriz Church ("St. Maurice", 14th-16th centuries), is a Gothic edifice on the Hallenkirche plan with two towers. The interior, remade in 1701, include the notable funerary moment of Duke John Casimir, a 12 m-tall alabaster sculpture painted with statue and reliefs (1595-1598).
 The medieval Veste Coburg, one of the biggest and most beautiful castles in Germany. It was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century. It has a triple line of walls with numerous towers. Martin Luther resided here in 1530. The edifices contain today 3 museums with armories, art galleria, exhibitions and other attractions.
 Casimirium, an elegant Renaissance edifice from 1598.
 Gymnasium Caimirianum, begun in 1601.
 Arsenal (1616-1621).
 Coburg State Theatre
 Coburg Doll Museum
 Callenberg Palace
 Town Hall (1414)
 Castle Rosenau near Coburg
 The Baroque sanctuary at the Basilica of the Vierzehnheiligen, 20 km outside the city.

Religion
Most residents of Coburg are members of the Evangelical Church (Lutheranism). Other Christian communities are Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, the ICF Movement, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, Old Catholics and the New Apostolic Church, as well as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are also three communities of Muslims. Coburg had a large Jewish community until the 1940s. Jews have lived there since the 14th century. The old synagogue was a former church. Today it is used by Old Catholics. Coburg became Protestant after the Reformation. All Catholics were persecuted. A new Catholic community was founded in the 19th century.

Districts
Coburg is divided into 15 districts:

 Coburg City
 Beiersdorf
 Bertelsdorf
 Cortendorf
 Creidlitz
 Glend
 Ketschendorf
 Löbelstein
 Lützelbuch
 Neu- and Neershof
 Neuses
 Rögen
 Scheuerfeld
 Seidmansdorf
 Wüstenahorn

Over two thirds of Coburg's population live in Coburg City.

Famous people
Amongst the associated royalty, one individual's 20th century association with Coburg proved especially tragic. This was that of the British Royal Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who was arrested and tried as a Nazi.

Besides various royalty, other famous individuals associated with Coburg include Hans Berger (graduated), William Frishmuth (born), and Eduard Study (born).

In 1530, Martin Luther stayed in the Veste Coburg to follow negotiations at the Imperial Diet in Augsburg. He also preached at St. Moriz church.

In 1887, Johann Strauss, the Waltz King, left Vienna when the Roman Catholic Church would not let him divorce his 2nd wife. He moved to Lutheran Saxe-Coburg-Gotha with his future 3rd wife Adele, where he lived the last 13 years of his life in Coburg. He was however buried in Vienna.

In 1922, Adolf Hitler led several hundred stormtroopers in a march through the city, fighting pitched street battles with leftists. During the Nazi era, the Coburg Badge was one of the most prestigious party medals.

Hans Morgenthau, founder of International Relations as a field of study, was born here.

The US National Hot Dog and Sausage Council asserts that Frankfurt am Main is traditionally credited with originating the Frankfurter. According to the Council, this claim is disputed and that the hot dog was created in the late 1600s by Johann Georghehner, a butcher, living in Coburg.  Coburg was the first German town to elect a Nazi Mayor.

Twin towns
 , Cobourg
 , Gais
 , Garden City
 , Isle of Wight
 , Niort
 , Oudenaarde

References

Other websites

 Coburg Tourist Board
 World sites atlas
 Schloss- under Gartenverwaltung Coburg
 Aerial view of the Castle
 Lots of Photos from Coburg

Coburg


The International Date Line (IDL), also known as just the Date Line, is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, going from north to south in the Pacific Ocean. The date becomes one day later as one travels across it in western direction, and one day earlier as one travels across it in eastern direction.

The reason for this effect is that the countries on the western side of the International Date Line, (in or outside eastern Asia) have the time zone 10–12 hours more than Greenwich. And the countries on eastern side of it (Alaska/Hawaii and other areas) have the time zone 9–12 hours less than Greenwich. So when travelling across the line, one's watch has to be adjusted 20–24 hours, depending on the time zones.

For example, New Zealand is twelve hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time while Hawaii is ten hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. When travelling from New Zealand to Hawaii the clocks must be switched 22 hours backwards, about one day.

Geography
International Date Line follows the meridian of 180° longitude down the middle of the Pacific Ocean for some distance. So that it does not cross nations, it passes around the far east of Russia and other archipelagos in the Pacific.

In the north the date line turns to the east through the Bering Strait and then west past the Aleutian Islands in order to keep Alaska and Russia on opposite sides of the line. This is to keep it in agreement with the date of the rest of those countries. The date line passes equidistantly between the two Diomede Islands—Little Diomede Island (US) and Big Diomede Island (Russia)—at a distance of 1.5 km (1 mi) from each island.

The date line circumvents the territory of Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150° meridian.

In the South Pacific the date line swings east such that Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand's Kermadec Islands have the same date but Samoa is one day earlier.

The International Date Line can cause confusion among airline travelers. The most problematic situation usually occurs with short journeys from west to east. To travel from Tonga to Samoa by air, for example, takes about two hours but involves crossing the International Date Line, causing passengers to arrive the day before they left. This often causes confusion in travel schedules, like hotel bookings. Some examples of time zone adjustments for real air trips are: Alaska-Siberia 21 hours, New Zealand-Cook Islands 22 hours, and Samoa-Tonga 24 hours.

If someone travels around the globe in an airplane from east to west (the same direction as Magellan), they should subtract one hour for every 15° of longitude crossed, losing 24 hours for one circuit of the globe; but 24 hours are added when crossing the International Date Line (from east to west). The International Date Line must therefore be observed in conjunction with Earth's time zones: the net adjustment to one's watch is zero. If one crosses the date line at precisely midnight, going westward, one skips an entire day; while going eastward, one repeats the entire day.

For two hours every day, at UTC 10:00–11:59, there are actually three different days observed at the same time. At UTC time Thursday 10:15, for example, it is Wednesday 23:15 in Samoa, which is eleven hours behind UTC, and it is Friday 00:15 in Kiritimati (separated from Samoa by the IDL), which is fourteen hours ahead of UTC. For the first hour (UTC 10:00–10:59), this phenomenon affects inhabited territories, whereas during the second hour (UTC 11:00–11:59) it only affects an uninhabited maritime time zone twelve hours behind UTC.

Problems
Originally, the date line ran along the 180° meridian. This is a relatively good choice, because most of the time, there is no land there. There are however some problems.

Chukchi Peninsula
Looking from the north, one of the first places where the meridian runs over dry land is the Chukchi Peninsula, which is part of Russia. The whole peninsula has been declared part of the UTC+12. This means that all of Russia (and with it, all of Asia) is on the same side of the date line.

Groups of islands
There are many groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean. These groups belong to states which do not want some islands on one side of the date line, and the rest on the other. They have therefore decided to move the date line, so that all islands are in the same time zone. Examples of this are the Aleutian Islands, which are on both sides of the 180° meridian. They are part of Alaska, and are therefore all in the UTC-10 timezone. The date line has a bump to the west, there.

There are a few Islands, east of the 180°, which belong to New Zealand. It was decided that they should have the same date as New Zealand, so the date line runs east of the meridian there.

Kiribati is a state consisting of many small islands, spread over a huge portion of the Pacific; the meridian runs right through the state. Because the state needed the same date over all its territory, the date line was shifted east, the biggest shift to occur, in 1995.  The easternmost island of Kiribati was renamed to Millennium Island, because it was the first part of the world which saw the new millennium.

The Philippines had very good trade relations with Mexico.  They therefore decided they wanted the same date, date line to the west of the state. When the trade with China grew, this was inconvenient.  They changed, after Monday, 30 December 1844, came Wednesday, 1 January 1845.

Difference in religions
Jews and Muslims and Christians regard particular days of the week as holy. For Muslims this is Friday, Jews (and a few Christian denominations) regard Saturday as the Sabbath, while most Christians observe Sunday as "the Lord's Day" in honour of the resurrection of Jesus on that day. This works well if the traveller stays on the same side of the date line, but there is a problem when travellers move across it. For the traveller it might still be Friday, but the place where he is might say that it is Saturday.

Related pages
 Meridian
 Time zone

Other websites
 A History of the International Date Line

Lines of longitude

International Date Line


A lecture is when someone talks to a group of people about something interesting.  It is like a lesson.  At college or university students go to lectures to learn things.  The person who is teaching (talking to the group) is called the lecturer or sometimes professor.  The lecturer may accept questions from the audience.

Sometimes we say that someone was "given a lecture".  This means that he was told off for doing something wrong.

Learning

Lecture


In Arabic, caliph means "a successor to the prophet". This is what leaders of the Islamic faith came to be called. Their rule is called a caliphate.

Some of the early leaders of the Muslim community following Muhammad's (570–632) death called themselves "Khalifat Allah", meaning representative of God. But the other title of "Khalifat rasul Allah", meaning the successor to the prophet of God, became the common title. Some academics write the term as Khalīf.

Caliphs were often also called Amīr al-Mu'minīn (), leader of the Muslims. This title has since been shortened to "emir". It is also found as a personal name in some countries.

After the first four caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib), the title was used by the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Ottomans, as well as by other dynasties in Southern Pakistan, Spain, Northern Africa, and Egypt. Most historical Muslim rulers simply titled themselves sultans or emirs, and the caliph himself often had very little real authority. The title was not used after the Republic of Turkey abolished the Ottoman caliphate in 1924.

Related pages
Caliphate
Emirate
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Shah
Shaykh al-Islam

Caliph


A sword is a hand-held weapon made for cutting.  It is often made of metal. It has a long blade, and a handle called a hilt.  Often there is some form of hand protection, such as a cross-guard or a basket. It can be used either for cutting, slashing or stabbing, depending on the type of sword.

Swords were first created from bronze by blacksmiths in Ancient Egypt in 1150 BCE. Soon other cultures adopted them, and they began to spread quite quickly. Before guns were invented, swords were much more common as a weapon. After the invention of the gun, swords remained as sidearms, as secondary weapons used in man-to-man fight once the battle lines had contacted after shooting. Since after the American Civil War, swords have not been used as much by armies, except as a ceremonial part of uniforms. Some guns, however, have bayonets to perform the same function.

Today, Sport fencing, is an Olympic games sport which uses very light swords and a strict scoring system. Western Martial Arts use swords that are much closer to the original blades, such as longswords, rapiers and sabres. The blades used are blunt, but they are much heavier than a sport fencing sword, which means the fencers need much more armour. Likewise, the Japanese sport kendo is swordplay in armour with two-handed bamboo swords called shinai.

Types of swords

There are many kinds of swords.  One kind of sword is a sabre (or saber). A sabre is a curved, light sword, sharpened on one side and at the tip, and was generally used on horseback.  A broadsword is a straight sword that is sharp on both sides and at the tip. A rapier is long and thin, with a basket protecting the hand. Another type of sword is a foil, used in sport fencing, and is long and thin, with a button at the tip to protect the fencers from injury. Larger swords, such as Longswords or claymores are used with two hands. In Eastern martial Arts, swords like the Katana are used. A Katana has one sharp edge and a small guard near the handle. Some Katanas are used with one hand, while other larger versions are used with two hands.

Famous swords
The sword of King Arthur, Excalibur, is one of the most famous swords, although it is suspected it is legendary and does not exist.

In a Vietnamese legend, the Dragon King gives a sword called Heaven's Will to Emperor Lê Lợi so he can free Vietnam from the Chinese.

The Frisian freedom fighters Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama are known to have wielded swords of great size. Donias sword was a long as 210 cm (seven feet) and weighed 7 kg (15 lbs). The swords are kept in the Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden.

References

Sword


A professional is someone who has a specialised job which only very well trained people can perform, such as  Doctors, lawyers, and teachers. These occupations are known as professional occupations. They may often get paid more than other people. In sport, a professional is someone who is paid to play. For example, Petra Kvitová and Tim Cahil are professional sportspeople.

The word "professional" is often used as an adjective, e.g.
 "He did a thoroughly professional job" (meaning: a very good one, even if he was not a professional).
 "His behaviour was always professional" (meaning: he behaved in a proper way, like someone of his profession should).
The opposite of "professional" in this sense is: "unprofessional".

Another word that is the opposite of "professional" is "amateur". This means that someone does not get paid for the job he is doing (even if he may be doing it very well).

Professional


Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists (also classified as escape artists) escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks, and other perils, often in combination.

History
The art of escaping from restraints and confined spaces has been a skill employed by performers for a very long time. It was not originally displayed as an overt act in itself but was instead used secretly to create illusions such as a disappearance or transmutation. In the 1860s, the Davenport Brothers, who were skilled at releasing themselves from rope ties, used the art to convey the impression they were restrained while they created spirit phenomena.

Other illusionists, including John Nevil Maskelyne, worked out how the Davenports did their act and re-created the tricks to debunk the brothers' claims of psychic power. However, the re-creations did not involve overt escape, merely a replication of tricks with the statement that they were accomplished by secret magicians' skills rather than spirits. It took another thirty years before the pure skill of escape began to be displayed as an act in itself. The figure most responsible for making escapology a recognized entertainment was Harry Houdini, who built his career on demonstrating the ability to escape from a huge variety of restraints and difficult situations.

Houdini made no secret of the fact that he was an expert on restraints and the skills needed to overcome them but he often concealed the exact details of his escapes to maintain an air of mystery and suspense. Although many of his escapes relied on technical skills such as lock-picking and contortion, he also performed tricks such as Metamorphosis and the Chinese Water Torture Cell, which are essentially classic stage illusions reliant on cleverly designed props. Houdini's feats helped to define the basic repertoire of escapology, including escapes from handcuffs, padlocks, straitjackets, mail bags, beer barrels, and prison cells.

A succession of performers have added new ideas and created variations on old stunts, but it is common for even the best contemporary escapologists to be dubbed modern day "Houdinis". During his lifetime, Houdini argued his main escape acts were copyrighted, and sued competitors such as John Clempert, who in 1906 apologized and settled out of court.

Because St. Nicholas Owen successfully escaped the Tower of London and arranged the escape of two Jesuit inmates from the prison, the 16th-century Christian martyr is considered by Catholic escapologists as their patron saint. Along with St. John Don Bosco, the two are considered the primary patrons of Catholic Gospel Magicians.

Societies
The United Kingdom Escape Artists was formed in 2004 and is currently the only organisation in the United Kingdom devoted to the promotion of UK escape artists and the preservation of escapology within the UK. Its members are made up of professional escapologists, restraint collectors, master locksmiths, and historians. The UKEA meet once a year for their AGM.

The International Escapologists Society is an online society with its own monthly newsletter that is dedicated to the art of escape on an international level.

Escape Masters (The International Association of Escape Artists) was formed in 1985 by renowned escape artist Norman Bigelow and has been run by Thomas Blacke as International President of the organization and Editor/Publisher of the magazine since 2001.  This newsletter ceased publication with the passing of Mr. Blacke in 2019.

Founded in February 2021, Global Escapology Organisation (GEO) is an elite group of Escapologists and subject experts from around the world.

Forms of escape performance
Hidden is a style of escape performance popularised by the late Harry Houdini that involved much of the performance taking place behind some form of screen or inside a cabinet in order to protect the secrets of the performer. This style of escape performance was popular with the majority of escape artists until the end of the 20th Century and is still preferred by many performers today. Its disadvantage is that audiences may wrongly believe a concealed assistant to have released the escapologist, whom they may not have seen struggle.
Full View is a form of escape performance that was popularised by Norman Bigelow Sr. during the 1970s. He presented his escapes as pure tests of human skill and endurance and the audience could actually see everything from start to finish. His signature escape, "The Doors of Death," inspired many escape artists to adopt this style of performance in their own shows.  One performer, Jonathon Bryce, took the full view approach to the Buried Alive escape and with the encouragement of Norman Bigelow Sr., made the world debut of Buried Alive in Full View at the Music is Art Festival in Buffalo, NY with the help of Goo Goo Dolls bassist, Robby Takac. Mark Nelson, "The Great Markini" also performed Full View with his Electrified Mummy Lid Torture Board Escape.
Escape or Die, the form of escape performance originated by Houdini, is the standard for top-of-the-line escapologists. There are at least three possible ways for an escapologist's life to be at risk from the possible failure of this escape. These are death by drowning, as in the water escapes Houdini pioneered; death by suffocation, as in escapes from airtight enclosures containing no water, such as coffins; and death by falling, as also originated by Houdini, in a straitjacket escape hanging high above the earth as when Houdini hung from cranes and buildings upside down in a strait jacket where falling would mean certain death. UK escape artist Alan Alan took this further by hanging from a burning rope hundreds of feet in the air. This type of escapology does fail, and its failures have resulted in escape artists getting hurt or losing their lives.  Others who have done this type of escape include Dorothy Dietrich, Antony Britton, Jonathon Bryce, and Mark Nelson "Markini The Worlds Youngest Professional Escape Artist" highlighted death by electrocution with his "Electrified Mummy Lid Torture Board". Escape was required in under 60 seconds or a fatal charge of electricity would be passed through the chains holding him to the board.

World Records
In 2012, Lucas Wilson, an illusionist from Canada managed the fastest ever recorded escape from a straitjacket while suspended; he escaped in 8.4 seconds while hanging upside down from his ankles at a height of 1m.

In fiction
The Grim Game, a 1919 film, stars Harry Houdini as a young man who is bound and imprisoned on numerous occasions by a gang who have kidnapped his fiancée. Considered by many as Houdini's best film. Lost for over 90 years and rediscovered in 2015 by escape artist and magician Dorothy Dietrich.
Haldane of the Secret Service, a 1924 film directed by and starring Harry Houdini, who is repeatedly restrained by villains who murdered his detective-father. Filmed at Beaver Kill Falls in Valatie, NY.
The novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, written by Michael Chabon and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize, features escapology as an important plot point.
Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow, features Harry Houdini as a major character, and uses escapology as a metaphor for the struggles faced by the American immigrant.
In American superhero comic books, many superheroes like Batman are trained in escapology, which is invaluable when dealing with deathtraps. However,  superheroes who are escapologists by profession include Mister Miracle, Ms. Liberty and The Escapist. (Mister Miracle and The Escapist were both based on escapologist-turned-comic artist Jim Steranko.) Houdini himself appeared as a time/space traveler in the comic book series Daring Escapes featuring Houdini.
The 1953 biographical film, Houdini, starring Tony Curtis in the title role, depicted many of Houdini's escapology performances.  Curtis' performance artist character, The Great Leslie, also performs a suspended straight-jacket escape at the start of the film The Great Race.
In 1971, Christopher George played an escape artist named Cameron Steele in the TV movie/unsold series pilot, Escape. Steele was a non-performing escapologist and night-club owner who, like Bill Bixby's Anthony Blake (The Magician), habitually helped people in trouble.
In 1982, Griffin O'Neal played a junior escapologist named Danny Masters in the film, The Escape Artist.
In 1983, real-life escape artist Bill Shirk played himself in a film called The Escapist.
Yorick, the main character of the comic book Y: The Last Man, is an escape artist.
In the 1991 film, The Linguini Incident, Rosanna Arquette plays an aspiring escape artist.
The novels Specific Gravity and Ontario Lacus by J. Matthew Neal (2007 and 2008) features a scientist who is also a master escape artist.
Paul Adam's Escape from Shadow Island, first published in 2009, features young escapologist Max Cassidy. Two further books in the series, Jaws of Death and Dead Man's Bay, will be released in April 2011 and 2012 respectively.
 Houdini himself - or rather his ghost - appeared in an episode of The Real Ghostbusters; not having lost his touch, the protagonists' ghost traps could not hold him for more than a minute.
Adam Phillips's essay "Houdini's Box" uses Houdini himself, as well as a young victim of sexual abuse and other examples, to discuss escapology.
The console video game Exit focuses around the exploits of the self-proclaimed escapologist known as Mr. ESC.
The 2006 movie The Prestige deals with two magicians who employ increasingly difficult escape illusions in a competitive one-upmanship, with tragic results.
In the 2013 film, Now You See Me, Isla Fisher plays an escape artist named Henley Reeves. In an interview, she says, "I watched all of Houdini's work and Dorothy Dietrich, who is a female escapologist, who is amazing, you have to watch her." "I got to train with Dorothy Dietrich, the first lady magician to catch a bullet with her teeth." Fisher studied the life and work of Dietrich to prepare for the role. "Dorothy is a real female escapologist who is working today. She was the first woman to capture a bullet between her teeth, which is an amazing feat. She's not only good at misdirection, but she also connects emotionally with the audience, so she's better able to involve them in the stunts."

List of notable escape artists

 Harry Houdini
 David Copperfield
 Doc Cunningham
 Alan Alan
 Antony Britton
 Dean Gunnarson
 Frank Reno
 James Randi
 Norman Bigelow
 David Merlini
 Bill Shirk
 Dorothy Dietrich
 Criss Angel
 Michael Griffin
 Kristen Johnson
 Jonathan Goodwin
 Roslyn Walker
 Major Zamora
 Gopinath Muthukad
 Johnny Strange

See also
 Illusionist
 List of magicians
 Stunt performer

References

External links
 Houdini Museum Tour * Magic Show
 Escapology — the magic art of escape
 Busker Central - Rare and historic videos of Escapologists.

Magic (illusion)
Magic tricks
Physical restraint

de:Fesselung (physisch)#Entfesselungskunst

Escapology


Shelf life is length of time that food can be stored safely.  Food cannot be kept forever. After a certain time it will go bad.  After this time it is no longer safe to eat it.  Shelf life is also used for drugs, drinks and other things that can go bad.

In some countries, a best before, use by or freshness date must be put on packaged foods.

During this time, if the food is kept under proper conditions the quality of the food does not change.  Frozen food that does not remain frozen will go bad earlier, for example.  Most of these labels do not guarantee the safety of food.  They should only be used as a guide.

Shelf life
Shelf life is different from expiration date.  Shelf life is linked to food quality, expiration date to food safety.  A product that has passed its shelf life might still be safe, but quality is no longer guaranteed.  In most food stores, shelf life is controlled by using stock rotation.  This means moving products with the earliest sell by date to the front of the shelf, so that most shoppers will pick them up first and take them out of the store.  This is important, as stores can be fined for selling out of date products.  Most shops, if not all, will have to mark such products down as wasted, leading to a loss of profit.

Shelf life is can be changed by many things: exposure to light and heat, transmission of gases (including humidity), mechanical stresses, and contamination by things such as micro-organisms.

Mathematically, product quality is often modelled using only one parameter, for example the concetration of a chemical substance, a microbiological index, or a physical parameter. Sometimes, the parameter picked is irrelevant.

The shelf life is an important factor to health. Bacteria are everywhere, and foods left unused too long will often get large amounts of bacterial living in them. It may be dangerous to eat them and lead to food poisoning. The shelf life itself cannot always be trusted to tell how safe it is to eat a certain item of food. For example, pasteurized milk can remain fresh for five days after its sell-by date if it is refrigerated properly. In contrast, if milk already has harmful bacteria, the use-by dates do not matter.

For drugs the situation is different. If drugs are used within the expiration date, the manufacturer guarantees that they work as expected. After that date, they may still work, but only to a lesser extent. A rare exception is a case of renal tubular damage said to have been caused by out of date tetracycline. A study done by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration covered over 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter. The results showed that about 90% of them were safe and effective as far as 15 years past their expiration date. Joel Davis, a former FDA expiration-date compliance chief, said that with a handful of exceptions - notably nitroglycerin, insulin and some liquid antibiotics - most expired drugs are probably effective.

Preservatives and antioxidants may be put into some food and drug products to make their shelf life longer. Some companies use induction sealing and vacuum pouches to add to the shelf life of their products.

Some degradation factors can be controlled by provisions in the ed packaging. For example, the amber bottle used for many beers blocks damaging wavelengths of light. Transparent beer bottles do not. Packaging with barrier materials (e.g., (low moisture vapor transmission rate, etc.) extends the shelf life of some foods and pharmaceuticals.

Temperature control
Nearly all chemical reactions will occur (at various rates depending on the individual nature of the reaction) at common temperatures. Examples are the breakdown of many chemical explosives into more unstable compounds. Nitroglycerine is notorious. Old explosives are thus more dangerous (i.e., liable to be triggered to explode by very small disturbances, even trivial jiggling) than more recently manufactured explosives. Rubber products also degrade as sulphur bonds induced during vulcanization revert; this is why old rubber bands and other rubber products soften and get sticky as they age.

These breakdown processes usually happen more quickly at higher temperatures. The usually quoted rule of thumb is that chemical reactions double their rate for each temperature increase of 10 Celsius degrees (C°) because of activation energy barriers become more easily surmounted at higher temperatures. However, as with all rules of thumb, there are many caveats and assumptions. This particular one is most applicable to reactions with activation energy values around 50 kJ/mole; many of these are important at the usual temperatures we encounter. It is often applied in shelf life estimation, sometimes wrongly. There is a widespread impression. for instance in industry, that "triple time" can be simulated in practice by increasing the temperature by 15 C°, e.g. storing a product for one month at 35 °C simulates three months at 20 °C. There is enough variation that this practical rule cannot be routinely relied upon .

The same is true, to a point, of the chemical reactions of life. They are usually enzymatically catalyzed which changes reaction rates, but with constant catalytic action, the rule of thumb is still mostly applicable. In the particular case of bacteria and fungi, the reactions needed to feed and reproduce increase at higher temperatures, up to the point that the proteins and other compounds in their cells themselves begin to breakdown, or denature,  so quickly that they cannot be replaced. This is the reason high temperatures kill bacteria and other micro organisms; 'tissue' breakdown reactions reach such rates that they cannot be compensated for and the cell dies. On the other hand, 'elevated' temperatures short of these result in increased growth and reproduction; if the organism is harmful, perhaps to dangerous levels.

Just as temperature increase speeds up reactions, temperature decreases reduce them. Therefore, to make explosives stable for longer periods, or to keep rubber bands springy, or to force bacteria to slow down their growth, they can be cooled. This is the reason shelf life is generally extended by temperature control: (refrigeration, insulated shipping containers, controlled cold chain, etc.)  and the reason some medicines and foods must be refrigerated.

Best before
Best before is sometimes put on food and drink wrappers, followed by a date. It shows the date before which the supplier intended the food should be consumed. The term best before is also used to show the date by which the item will have outlived its shelf life, and is intended to ensure that customers will not unwittingly purchase or eat stale food. Sometimes the packaging process involves using pre-printed labels, making it impractical to write the best before date in a clearly visible location. In this case, a  term like best before see bottom or best before see lid might be printed on the label and the date marked in a different location as indicated.

Best Before is usually advisory and refers to the quality of the product, in contrast with Use By which indicates that the product is no longer safe to eat after the specified date.

Use by
Generally, foods that have a use by date written on the packaging must not be eaten after it has expired. This is because such foods usually go bad quickly and may be dangerous to eat. It is also important to follow storage instructions carefully for these foods (for example, product must be refrigerated).

Foods that have a best before date are usually safe to eat after the date has passed, although they are likely to have deteriorated either in flavour, texture, appearance or nutrition.

Bathroom products/toiletries usually state a time in months by which,  once the product is opened, they should be used. This is often indicated by a graphic of an open tub, with the number of months written inside (e.g., "12M" means use the product within 12 months of opening).

Open dating
Open Dating is the use of a date or code stamped on the package of a food product to help determine how long to display the product for sale. It is also helpful to the customer and ensures that the product is at its best quality when bought. An Open Date does not supersede a Use by date, which should still be followed.

Sell by / Display until
These dates are meant to help keep track of the stock in stores. Food that has passed its sell by or display until date, but is still within its use by / best before can still be eaten, if it has been stored correctly. It is common practice in large stores to throw away such food, as it makes the stock control process easier. It also reduces the risk of customers buying food without looking at the date, only to find out the next day that they cannot use it. Changing the posted date is illegal in many countries.

Most stores will rotate stock by moving the products with the earliest dates to the front of shelving units, which allows them to be sold first and saving them from having to be either marked down or thrown away, both of which contribute to a loss of profit.

Mark-downs
It is also common for food approaching the use by date to be marked down for quick sale, with greater reductions the closer to the use by date it gets.

Software Shelf Life
In a metaphorical sense, much software also has a shelf life. Most software products are released to market with defects, xecurity vulnerabilities, and design flaws. Over time, some of these are discovered and patches issued by the vendor (and possibly others, as in the open source environment) which fix bugs and add functionality. The result is that, after some time, the software application is rather different than it was at first release, even with the same version level. Since correct inclusion of patches at end user sites is spotty, the actual population of that software application in the field is quite varied; some will have patches 1 and 2, others 1, 2, and 3, some others none, in  all possible variations. This increases support difficulty. There have been a few attempts to address this. One commercial attempt is from Preemptive.

US Government Guidelines
The Food & Drug Administration, which controls packaged foods and drugs, only requires a use-by, or expiration, date on infant formula and some baby foods. That's because formula must contain a certain quantity of each nutrient that is described on the label. And if formula is stored too long, it loses its nutritional quality. It also separates or form lumps that will clog the bottle nipple. Except for infant formula and some baby foods, product dating is not required by federal regulations.

The Agriculture Dept., which controls fresh produce and meats, only requires labeling of the date when poultry is packed at the farm. However, many manufacturers are allowed to also add sell-by or use-by dates.

Example

Beer freshness date
A freshness date is the date used in the American brewing industry to indicate either the date the beer was bottled or the date before which the beer should be consumed.

Beer is does not keep forever. It can be affected by light, air, or the action of bacteria.  Although beer in the USA does not have to have a shelf life, freshness dates serve much the same purpose and are a marketing tool.

Beginnings of freshness dating
The Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams, was among the first to start adding freshness dates to their product line in 1985. For ten years there was a slow growth in  brewers adding freshness dates to their beer. The practice rapidly grew in popularity after the Anheuser-Busch company's heavily marketed "Born-On dates" starting in 1996. Many other brewers have started adding freshness dates to their products, but there is no standard for what the date means.  For some companies, the date on the bottle or can will be the date that the beer was bottled; others have the date by which the beer should be consumed.

Beer processing

Before a beer is bottled, it is processed to make its shelf life longer. This can change the beer's freshness date. It may be done in several ways, not all of which will be used by a particular brewery:

Pasteurisation is a how a liquid is heated for a brief time to kill microbes that may be in the liquid. Pasteurisation has also been used for many years to keep milk safe for drinking due to bacteria that may be present.
Sterile filtration, in which the beer is passed through a mechanical filtration system which removes anything larger than 0.5 micrometres.  This removes any yeast or hops that may still be in the beer which would continue to react with it.
Bottle conditioning allows yeasts to remain in the beer after it is bottled.  This helps prevent some oxidation of the beer.
Freshness longevity affects the time it takes a beer to become stale. Some of this depends on the type of beer ingredients included. If the beer has more hops and more alcohol than otherwise, it will stay fresh longer than those that are not as strong.

Other websites
USDA - Food Product Dating and storage guidelines
FDA - Food freshness and smart packaging
How to store your food

References

 Labuza, T. P., and Szybist, L., "Open dating of Foods". 2001, Food and Nutrition Press, Trumbul CN
 "Cold Chain Management", 2003, 2006,
 "Freshness and Shelf Life of Foods", Hugo Weenen and Keith Cadwallader,
 "Shelf-Life Evaluation of Foods", by C. M. Man, A. A. Jones,
 "Stability and Shelf Life of Food", by David Kilcast, Persis Subramaniam
Food preservation

Shelf life


Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan ( 9 August 1892 – 27 September 1972) was a librarian and mathematician from India. His most notable contributions to the field were his five laws of library science and the development of the first major faceted classification system, the colon classification. He is considered to be the father of library science, documentation, and information science in India and is widely known throughout the rest of the world for his fundamental thinking in the field. His birthday is observed every year as the National Librarian Day in India.

He was a university librarian and professor of library science at Banaras Hindu University (1945–47) and professor of library science at the University of Delhi (1947–55). The last appointment made him director of the first Indian school of librarianship to offer higher degrees. He was president of the Indian Library Association from 1944 to 1953. In 1957 he was elected an honorary member of the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) and was made a vice-president for life of the Library Association of Great Britain.

Early life and education
Ranganathan was born on 9 August 1892 in Siyali, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family. His birth date is also written 12 August 1892 but he himself wrote his birth date 9 August 1892 in his book,  The Five Laws of Library Science.

Ranganathan began his professional life as a mathematician; he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in mathematics from Madras Christian College in his home province, and then went on to earn a teaching license. His lifelong goal was to teach mathematics, and he was successively a member of the mathematics faculties at universities in Mangalore, Coimbatore and Madras. As a mathematics professor, he published papers mainly on the history of mathematics. His career as an educator was somewhat hindered by stammering (a difficulty he gradually overcame in his professional life). The Government of India awarded Padmashri to Dr. S.R. Ranganathan in 1957 for valuable contributions to Library Science.

Early career

In 1923, the University of Madras created the post of University Librarian to oversee their poorly organized collection. Among the 900 applicants for the position, none had any formal training in librarianship, and Ranganathan's handful of papers satisfied the search committee's requirement that the candidate should have a research background. His sole knowledge of librarianship came from an Encyclopædia Britannica article he read days before the interview. Ranganathan was initially reluctant to pursue the position (he had forgotten about his application by the time he was called for an interview there). To his own surprise, he received the appointment and accepted the position in January 1924.

At first, Ranganathan found the solitude of the position was intolerable. In a matter of weeks, complaining of total boredom, he went back to the university administration to beg for his teaching position back. A deal was struck that Ranganathan would travel to London to study contemporary Western practices in librarianship, and that, if he returned and still rejected librarianship as a career, the mathematics lectureship would be his again.

Ranganathan travelled to University College London, which at that time housed the only graduate degree program in library science in Britain. At University College, he earned marks only slightly above average, but his mathematical genius latched onto the problem of classification, a subject typically taught by rote in library programs of the time. As an outsider, he focused on what he perceived to be flaws with the popular decimal classification, and began to explore new possibilities on his own.

He also devised the Acknowledgment of Duplication, which states that any system of classification of information necessarily implies at least two different classifications for any given datum. He anecdotally proved this with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) by taking several books and showing how each might be classified with two totally different resultant DDC numbers. For example, a book on "warfare in India" could be classified under "warfare" or "India". Even a general book on warfare could be classified under "warfare", "history", "social organisation", "Indian essays", or many other headings, depending upon the viewpoint, needs, and prejudices of the classifier. To Ranganathan, a structured, step-by-step system acknowledging each facet of the topic of the work was immensely preferable to the anarchy and "intellectual laziness" (as he termed it) of the DDC. Given the poor technology for information retrieval available at that time, the implementation of this concept was a tremendous step forwards for the science of information retrieval.

He began drafting the system that was ultimately to become colon classification while in England, and refined it as he returned home, even going so far as to reorder the ship's library on the voyage back to India. He initially got the idea for the system from seeing a set of Meccano in a toy store in London. Ranganathan returned with great interest for libraries and librarianship and a vision of its importance for the Indian nation. The system remains useful even into the modern times. He returned to and held the position of University Librarian at the University of Madras for twenty years. During that time, he helped to found the Madras Library Association, and lobbied actively for the establishment of free public libraries throughout India and for the creation of a comprehensive national library.

Ranganathan was considered by many to be a workaholic. During his two decades in Madras, he consistently worked 13-hour days, seven days a week, without taking a vacation for the entire time. Although he married in November 1928, he returned to work the afternoon following the marriage ceremony. A few years later, he and his wife Sarada had a son. The couple remained married until Ranganathan's death.

The first few years of Ranganathan's tenure at Madras were years of deliberation and analysis as he addressed the problems of library administration and classification. It was during this period that he produced what have come to be known as his two greatest legacies: his five laws of library science (1931) and the colon classification system (1933).

Regarding the political climate at the time, Ranganathan took his position at the University of Madras in 1924. Gandhi had been imprisoned in 1922 and was released around the time that Ranganathan was taking that job. Ranganathan sought to institute massive changes to the library system and to write about such things as open access and education for all which essentially had the potential to enable the masses and encourage civil discourse (and disobedience). Although there is no evidence that Ranganathan did any of this for political reasons, his changes to the library had the result of educating more people, making information available to all, and even aiding women and minorities in the information-seeking process.

The Northern Ireland crisis got an unexpected metaphorical reference in a book by S. R. Ranganathan, as "making an Ulster of the ... law of parsimony", complaining about the harmful effects of low budget on the good functioning of a library.

Later career

After two decades of serving as librarian at Madras – a post he had intended to keep until his retirement –, Ranganathan retired from his position after conflicts with a new university vice-chancellor became intolerable. At the age of 54, he submitted his resignation and, after a brief bout with depression, accepted a professorship in library science at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, his last formal academic position, in August 1945. There, he catalogued the university's collection; by the time he left four years later, he had classified over 100,000 items personally.

Ranganathan headed the Indian Library Association from 1944 to 1953, but was never a particularly adept administrator, and left amid controversy when the Delhi Public Library chose to use the Dewey Decimal Classification system instead of his own Colon Classification. He held an honorary professorship at Delhi University from 1949 to 1955 and helped build that institution's library science programs with S. Dasgupta, a former student of his. While at Delhi, Ranganathan drafted a comprehensive 30-year plan for the development of an advanced library system for the whole of India. In 1951, Ranganathan released an album on Folkways Records entitled, Readings from the Ramayana: In Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita.

Ranganathan briefly moved to the Zurich, Switzerland, from 1955 to 1957, when his son married a European woman; the unorthodox relationship did not sit well with Ranganathan, although his time in Zurich allowed him to expand his contacts within the European library community, where he gained a significant following. However, he soon returned to India and settled in the city of Bangalore, where he spent the rest of his life. While in Zurich, though, he endowed a professorship at Madras University in honour of his wife of thirty years, largely as an ironic gesture in retaliation for the persecution he suffered for many years at the hands of that university's administration.

Ranganathan's final major achievement was the establishment of the Documentation Research and Training Centre as a department and research centre in the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore in 1962, where he served as honorary director for five years. In 1965, the Indian government honoured him for his contributions to the field with a rare title of "National Research Professor."

In the final years of his life, Ranganathan suffered from ill health and was largely confined to his bed. On 27 September 1972, he finally succumbed to complications from bronchitis.

Upon the 1992 centenary of his birth, several biographical volumes and collections of essays on Ranganathan's influence were published in his honour. Ranganathan's autobiography, published serially during his life, is titled A Librarian Looks Back.

Influence and legacy
Ranganathan dedicated his book The Five Laws of Library Science to his maths tutor at Madras Christian College, Edward Burns Ross. His birthday, August 12, has been denoted National Librarians' Day in India.

See also
 Colon classification
 Faceted classification
 Five laws of library science
 Madras Public Libraries Act
 Subject (documents)

References

Cited sources
 Srivastava, A. P. (1977). Ranganathan: A pattern maker. New Delhi: Metropolitan Book Co.

External links

 Portal on Dr. S R Ranganathan from India
 Ranganathan for Information Architects by Mike Steckel
 Ranganathan's Monologue on Melvil Dewey, Recorded 1964 – transcript
 India's First IT Guru
 S.R. Ranganathan (1892–1972): Google Scholar Profile
 Ranganathan- Profile in Brief
 Full-view works by S.R. Ranganathan at HathiTrust Digital Library.

1892 births
1972 deaths
20th-century Indian mathematicians
Academic librarians
Indian librarians
Librarianship and human rights
Library science scholars
People from Mayiladuthurai district
Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education
Scientists from Tamil Nadu
University of Madras alumni

S. R. Ranganathan


I Love You, California () — Калифорния штатының ресми әні. Әннің сөзін жазған — Лос Анжелес тұрғыны, тігінші Френсис Бернард Силвервуд (1863—1924). Композиторы — Абрахам Франклин Франкенштейн (1873—1934).

Әннің сөзі (ағыл.)
I Love You, California

   I шумақ:
   I love you, California, you're the greatest state of all.
   I love you in the winter, summer, spring and in the fall.
   I love your fertile valleys; your dear mountains I adore.
   I love your grand old ocean and I love her rugged shore.

   Қайырмасы:
   Where the snow crowned Golden Sierras
   Keep their watch o'er the valleys bloom,
   It is there I would be in our land by the sea,
   Every breeze bearing rich perfume.
   It is here nature gives of her rarest. It is Home Sweet Home to me,
   And I know when I die I shall breathe my last sigh
   For my sunny California.

   II шумақ:
   I love your red-wood forests - love your fields of yellow grain.
   I love your summer breezes and I love your winter rain.
   I love you, land of flowers; land of honey, fruit and wine.
   I love you, California; you have won this heart of mine.

   III шумақ:
   I love your old gray Missions - love your vineyards stretching far.
   I love you, California, with your Golden Gate ajar.
   I love your purple sun-sets, love your skies of azure blue.
   I love you, California; I just can't help loving you.

   IV шумақ:
   I love you, Catalina, you are very dear to me.
   I love you, Tamalpais, and I love Yosemite.
   I love you, Land of Sunshine, Half your beauties are untold.
   I loved you in my childhood, and I'll love you when I'm old.

Әнұрандар

I Love You, California


The Baltic Sea is a sea in northern Europe between Scandinavia, Finland, Russia, the Baltic countries, Poland, and Germany.

Many big rivers in the surrounding countries drain into the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is connected to the ocean through the narrow and shallow Danish straits and belts. For this reason, the water has a low amount of salt, so the northern parts of the sea freeze over in the winter. The ice can carry cars, and roads are established every winter between the islands in the archipelagos between Sweden and Finland.

For several thousand years, the Baltic Sea has connected the countries at her shores. For that reason there are many cultural similarities in these countries. Since all of these countries are European, this sea is also considered European.

Other websites

Baltic Sea
Baltic states

Baltic Sea


Röyksopp is an electronica musical group from Tromsø, Norway that formed in 1998. They are currently based in Bergen. The members are Svein Berge and
Torbjørn Brundtland. They won an award for best music video in 2002 by MTV Europe for their song, "Remind Me". They have released four studio albums and one EP.

Berge and Brundtland formed a band with Kolbjørn Lyslo and Gaute Barlindhaug called Aedena Cycle. They released a vinyl EP called Traveler's Dreams under Apollo Records in 1994. After this they left to form Röyksopp. Their first single "So Easy" was released by Tellé. It was used in a T-mobile advert in the UK.

Brundtland was a member of Those Norwegians in 1997.

They have worked with many other musicians. They released a single called "Running to the Sea" and a cover version of "Ice Machine" by Depeche Mode from their album Late Night Tales: Röyksopp in 2013. Both songs have vocals from Susanne Sundfør.

Their first album Melody A.M. has two songs with Erlend Øye, "Poor Leno" and "Remind Me".

'Røyksopp' is a Norwegian word that means puffball fungus. They have collaboration with the singer, Robyn.

References
http://www.metrolyrics.com/royksopp-awards-featured.html

Musical groups from Bergen
Musical groups established in 1998
1998 establishments in Europe
1990s establishments in Norway

Röyksopp


A watch is a small clock carried or worn by a person. It makes it easy to see the time. It is also a fashion accessory for men and women, and expensive watches are designed for this purpose. A watch may be one of the few accessories worn by a person.

A wristwatch is designed to be worn on a wrist, attached by a strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is to be carried in a pocket. There are other variations. Nurses often wear a watch attached to the front of their uniform. It hangs down from a short strap: when lifted by the user it is right side up.

A wrist watch has the advantage of being portable in comparison to traditional watches.

Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14th century. In 1524, Peter Henlein created the first pocket watch.
The first watches were strictly mechanical, driven by clockwork.

As technology developed, mechanical watches were largely replaced by vibrating quartz crystals, producing accurately timed electronic pulses. Some watches use radio technology to correct the time and date. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.

Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect. A varying electric voltage is applied to the crystal, which responds by changing its shape so it works as an oscillator. It resonates at a stable frequency, which paces a timekeeping mechanism. Most quartz movements are primarily electronic but are geared to drive mechanical hands on the face of the watch to give a traditional analog display of the time. Most consumers prefer this.

Some watches are smartwatches, mobile devices similar to smartphones but smaller.

References

Watch


Ae million (1,000,000), or ae thoosand thoosand, is the naitural nummer efter 999,999 an afore 1,000,001. In scienteefic notation, it's written as 106.

The million is whiles uised as a metaphor for a gey muckle nummer, as in "Ne'er in a million year", or a hyperbole, as in "A'v walked a million mile". Hence, a "millionaire" can mean juist a rich bodie, nae maiter the actual siller or the exact quantity. Il Milione is the teetle o Marco Polo's narration o his traivels tae Cheenae. The name is jaloused tae come frae Polo's byname efter his tales o riches an multitudes.

The wird "million" is common tae the dock scale an lang scale nummerin seestems (an tae the proposed Rowlett nummerin seestem forby), no like the muckler nummers that haes differin names in the twa seestems.

The name is derived frae Italian, whaur milla wis 1,000, an 1,000,000 becam millione, "a lairge thoosand".

Mathematics

Million


A castrato (plural castrati) was a type of male singer with a very high voice. The effect was produced either through castration, or because of some hormonal problems. The word castrato literally means castrated. Such singers were very sought after in the early days of the opera. Most of the main soprano roles in operas by Handel and other composers of that time were written for castrati. Nowadays they are almost always sung by female sopranos, since there are no castrati left.

The practice of castrating young boys who had good singing voices was quite common in Italy in the 17th century. When castration is done before puberty, the usual effects of puberty will not happen. These include the vocal cords enlarging and growing bigger, and the voice getting deeper as a consequence.

Even though castration was illegal in many parts of Italy, it was often performed. Many families who were poor had their children castrated because it might give them a better future.

Once a boy was castrated he would go to a special music school where children learned singing and musical instruments. The castrati pupils were given special treatment. They were fussed over and kept warm to stop them from getting colds. When they grew up they hoped to become famous opera singers. A few of them had very successful careers in opera. They were the great stars of their day, and audiences came to the opera to cheer on their favourite singers. Those who were not good enough to make a career in opera joined church choirs instead.

It is impossible now for us to know what these great castrato voices sounded like, but they must have had very powerful voices and many of the singers were very skilled in singing and adding musical ornamentation to the songs. In the 18th century Italian opera became very popular in England. This was largely due to the German-born composer Georg Friderich Händel who moved to England in 1709 and wrote lots of Italian operas. Many singers who sang in London came from Italy, and many were castrati. The most famous one was called Farinelli.

The popularity of castrato singers died out in the 19th century. By the mid-19th century they were no opera castrati left, although a few castrati still sang in church choirs. The last one, a man called Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1922 aged 64. There is a recording of his voice made in 1902 which can be heard online, but he may not have been a good singer and he was old when he made the recording, so we cannot judge whether the castrato voice was beautiful by that recording.

Related pages
 Breeches role

Other websites
 Alessandro Moreschi at Internet Archive

Vocal ranges

Castrato


Jules Massenet (born Montaud nr. Saint-Étienne, 12 May 1842; died Paris, 13 August 1912) was a French composer. He is most famous for his operas, although he wrote a large amount of other music as well.

His life

Early years

Jules' father had a business making agricultural tools. His mother gave him his first piano lessons. In 1847 his father retired and the family moved to Paris. When he was ten years old he went to the Paris Conservatoire for piano and solfège studies. Over a period of ten years he studied there, gaining many prizes. He was taught composition by Ambroise Thomas who was an excellent music teacher.

Jules earned enough money to keep himself by giving piano lessons. He also played timpani in the orchestra of the Théâtre Lyrique. This helped him to get a good knowledge of French composers such as Gounod (especially his Faust) as well as music by Gluck, Mozart and Beethoven. He was also very keen on the music of Berlioz and Wagner.

In 1863 he won the Prix de Rome (it was his second attempt). This allowed him to spend two years in Italy. During this time he travelled a lot but hardly composed anything.

Early career

In 1866 he returned to Paris where he married. He gave piano lessons. At this stage he had hardly written anything important. However, soon he was to start writing many famous works. He became friends with other composers: Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Delibes, Lalo, Fauré, Duparc and others. Several of these people competed in writing operas for competitions. Massenet wrote several works, but he found writing operas difficult. His operas never won any prizes.

Years of fame

In 1870 he served in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian war. After the war he continued to compose, and he became professor of composition at the Conservatoire. He spent many years working on an opera Le Roi de Lahore. This was a great success and helped him to become internationally famous. For many years he spent the winter in Paris and the summer in various places in the country where he could compose. His pupils at the Conservatoire included Pierné, Koechlin, Hahn, Enesco. In 1884 his opera Manon was produced at the Opéra-comique. This made him clearly the most famous opera composer of his time. It was an opéra-comique with some speech over the music. During the next 28 years he composed another 20 operas. Another opera that was particularly famous was Werther. It was first performed in 1892 in Vienna and a year later in Paris. It was soon being performed in all the big European opera houses.

Some of his greatest operatic roles were written for the young American soprano Sybil Sanderson. This includes the main role in his popular opera Thaïs. The story is set in Egypt and is about a monk who tries to persuade Thaïs to give up her life as a prostitute. However, he soon finds he is falling in love with her himself. This mixture of religion and salvation became an extremely popular subject for operas at that time. The Méditation from Thaïs is a short piece for violin solo. It is one of the best-loved of all Romantic violin solos.

He continued to compose lots of music even when his health was failing during his last years. He was a quiet, family man who hated it when people made a fuss about him. He liked best to spend his evenings quietly at home, or in the countryside during the summer. He continued to compose in a Romantic style to the end of his life, even though many composers around him (e.g. Debussy) were writing music which was more "modern" sounding.

Romantic composers
20th-century French composers
1842 births
1912 deaths
People from Saint-Étienne

Jules Massenet


Politics is the way that people living in groups make decisions.
Politics is about making agreements between people so that they can live together in groups such as tribes, cities, or countries. In large groups, such as countries, some people may spend a lot of their time making such agreements. These people are called politicians. Politicians, and sometimes other people, may get together to form a government. The study of politics in universities is called political science, public affairs, government, political studies, or public administration.

In everyday life, the term "politics" refers to the way that countries are governed, and to the ways that governments make rules and laws to manage the human society properly. Politics can also be seen in other groups, such as in companies, clubs, schools, and churches.

Government
The government  tries to lead the whole group. Governments do things such as:
 Decide which people get which pieces of land
 Decide which people can tell other people what to do
 Decide whether to go to war with another country
 Create money
 Build things for the use of the whole group, such as roads, hospitals, libraries, and docks.
 Educate people, either for their own good, or to teach them what the government wants them to know
 Take care of the very young, the sick, or the very old
 Manage the welfare of the country and manages the money available for spending on services (Hospitals, Schools, etc.)

One of the ways the government leads the group is by making laws and rules which tell everybody what they can and can not do. The government makes these laws so that society will be safe and well-ordered. The law that says "you must not drive a car when you have been drinking alcohol" stops people from drunk driving, which could kill people. The law that says "you must wear a helmet on a motorcycle" makes sure that people protect themselves when riding their motorcycles.

The government can also control people and what happens in a country in other ways besides making laws.
 For example, how the government spends its money makes a big difference in what people will do or what will happen to people. If the government spends a lot of money on hospitals and nurses, the people will probably become healthier.
 Also, if people like their government, or think that their government is wise, they may do something just because their government says it is a good thing to do. Governments often make posters or television advertisements that encourage people to stop smoking cigarettes or eat more fruits and vegetables.

Politics is often compared to ethics (ideas about right and wrong). Ethics is a more abstract study of right and wrong. Ethics is usually more concerned with principle than law or politics or diplomacy, so many people think ethics is not practical. But without some agreement on ethics, there is probably no way to even have a debate, laws or an election. There is always some agreement on ethics and personal conduct in a political system.

Political parties
In most countries, people have formed political parties to put forward their ideas. There is usually some disagreement between people within a party, but they work together because they feel that they agree on enough things, and they will have more power if they join together. They agree to take the same position on many issues, and agree to support the same changes to law and the same leaders. An election is usually a competition between different parties. Some examples of parties are the Liberal party, the Labor party and the Greens.

History
The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote that humans are a political animal and that ethics and politics are closely linked.

Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, in his 1532 book, The Prince, that politics was firstly about having and keeping power. He said that without power, a leader could do nothing.

In 1651, Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan, a book about politics. Hobbes wrote that people living in groups often give up some of their rights in exchange for some protections from a government. This is the basis of the social contract theory.

In the 1800s, John Stuart Mill developed the "liberal" idea of politics. Mill said that democracy is the most important political development of the 1800s. He said that there should be more protection for individual rights against the government.

Bernard Crick wrote a list of the political virtues, which were about best practices of politics itself.

International politics
There are also disagreements between different countries. Attempts to solve the problem with meetings are called diplomacy. This is politics between nations instead of politics within nations. If the problems are not resolved by diplomatic meetings they can lead to war or terrorism.

Related pages
 Constitution
 Geopolitics
 Horseshoe Theory
 Identity politics
 Political polarization
 Political economy
 Political philosophy

Other websites

 Politics -Citizendium

Politics


Engineering is the use of science and math to design or make things.  People who do engineering are called engineers.  They learn engineering at a college or university.  Engineers usually design or build things.  Some engineers also use science, mathematics, and other skills to solve Technology problems.  There are different types of engineers that design everything from computers and buildings to watches and websites.  People have been creating and engineering things for thousands of years.  Some engineers become engineering managers.

Specialties
Engineering is a big subject. Here are a few of the many types of engineers:

 Aerospace engineers design space vehicles or airplanes.
 Biomedical engineers design and work with medical equipment.
 Ceramic engineers create objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials.
 Chemical engineers use chemicals to make products like drugs and medicines or fertilizers for crops.
 Civil engineers work on roads, bridges, buildings and other public structures.
 Computer engineers design or improve computers (including embedded systems and their parts).
 Electrical engineers work with electricity and design electrical equipment, from small things like radios and computers to large things like electric power transmission systems.
 Electronic engineers work with electronics, which are used to build computer parts and electrical equipment.
 Environmental engineers design and implement ways to remediate and restore the environment.
 Manufacturing engineers design and improve the machines and assembly lines that make things.  They work with robots and automation and ways to help companies work faster and better with fewer mistakes.
 Mechanical engineers design machines or things that move, like cars and trains. A mechanical engineer also might help design electricity generating stations, oil refineries, and factories.
 Mechatronics engineers work in multiple fields of engineering that include mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, telecommunications engineering, control engineering and computer engineering.
 Marine engineers design, build, test and repair boats, ships, underwater craft, focusing primarily on their internal systems.
 Nanotechnology engineers study very small things, like strings of atoms and how they are put together.
 Nuclear engineers design and build nuclear plants. They also study the characteristic behaviors of certain radioactive or unstable elements.
 Structural engineers work on design and analysis of buildings and other large structures to withstand both the gravity and wind loads as well as natural disasters.
 Software engineers design and write programs for computers.
 Systems engineers look at how complicated things work and try to make them faster and smarter.
Engineers do not only work with machines.  They also work a lot with other people. Many engineering projects are large and very complicated. Often different kinds of engineers work together and help each other. As an example, computer engineers need help from electrical engineers to build a computer. The computer needs programs written by software engineers. The computer could be used by aerospace engineers to control an airplane. An airplane is a big mechanical system with many parts, so a mechanical engineer and a systems engineer are also needed.

Study
Most (but not all) engineers have had years of training. Much of their training involves working within a limited budget and materials.

American courses
In the United States, most engineers go to a college or university to get an engineering degree. Most people go to school for four years to get a bachelor's degree in engineering. A Master's Degree is an advanced degree, usually requiring two more years of study after the Bachelors. A person with a master's degree is eligible to enter a Doctoral program in engineering. A graduate of a Doctoral program is awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree, which is commonly called a PhD. A PhD in engineering requires three or four years of study after a master's degree, and includes the completion of a long research report called a dissertation. After having gained enough work experience, one can sit for their Professional Engineer's (PE) License, reinforcing their demonstrated proficiency in their specialty.

British courses
In the United Kingdom, engineering degrees at universities are either three year BEng (Bachelor of Engineering) or four year MEng (Master of Engineering). In many universities it is common to take only one engineering discipline (e.g. aeronautical or civil engineering) although some universities have a general engineering degree. British universities may also offer Doctoral programs as a doctor of philosophy (PhD) or a doctor of engineering (EngD).  Engineers of all disciplines have common approaches to solving problems including teamwork, communication, and an Iterative  design process.

Engineers can also get additional recognition in the form of becoming Chartered. A chartered engineer is one who has his degree or doctorate has been recognised by a group of professionals such as the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology), IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers), IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers) or ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers). Experience and responsibility enables a further step of recognition by becoming a Fellow of these institutions.

French courses
The best way to become an engineer in France is to take the CPGE (Classe Préparatoire pour les Grandes Écoles is the French class for engineer's school) for two years and then study for three years in an "École d'Ingénieur" (Engineer's school).
You can also study in an IUT (Institut universitaire technologique) for two years, and then study three years in an "École d'Ingénieur".

Notes

Other websites

 Engineering Citizendium

Engineering