The piccolo is a small flute that plays one octave higher than the normal flute. It sounds an octave higher than written. It is the highest instrument in the orchestra. Sometimes it sounds like a birdcall.
Double reed
Double reeds are a group of musical instruments in the woodwind family. Instead of a mouthpiece, the player blows air through a pair of reeds that vibrate against each other.
Examples of double reed woodwinds are the bassoon, oboe and Cor anglais (English horn).
Alto flute
The alto flute is a flute that plays a fourth (half an octave) lower than the regular flute. It is longer than the regular flute. Sometimes alto flutes have a bent part at the top end.
The alto flute is a transposing instrument. This makes it easy for someone who plays the flute to play on the alto flute. The fingering for the note C on the flute will give a G on the alto flute.
The alto flute is not very often used, and only in very large orchestras. Maurice Ravel wrote a beautiful tune for alto flute in "Daphnis et Chloé". Igor Stravinsky used one in "The Rite of Spring". In "The Planets" by Gustav Holst there is a passage with three flutes and alto flute playing 4 part harmony.
The alto flute must not be confused with a bass flute which is even bigger and lower and very unusual indeed.
Stevenage
Stevenage is a town in Hertfordshire in England. It is between the towns of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City.
In 1801, 1,430 people lived in Stevenage. In 1901, 4,049 people lived in Stevenage. In 2001, 79,724 lived in Stevenage. The town grew the most in the 1950s and 1960s, when it became the first new town in the world.
The name Stevenage may come from an Old English word meaning "place at the stiff oak". Stevenage started as a village and people have lived there since Roman times. Some Roman remains were found when the New Town was being built. There are also six Roman round barrows, which is where a local family was buried.
In 1281, Stevenage was allowed to have a market twice a week and a fair every year. The fair still takes place every year.
Stevenage became the first New Town on 1 August 1946, and was planned with six neighbourhoods.
The town centre was the first shopping area in Britain with no traffic. It was opened in 1959 by Queen Elizabeth II. In the town centre there is a clock tower, fountain and a statue called "Joyride", which is a statue of a mother and child. It was made by Franta Belsky.
In 1999, a millennium countdown clock was put up on the town centre clock tower, which showed how much time was left until the year 2000. In 2005, plans were made for the town centre to be made more modern. The changes could take 10 years.
Next to the town centre is the town gardens, a modern church and a museum.
Stevenage has lots of roundabouts and not very many traffic lights. There are also lots of cycle tracks for people to ride on. Stevenage has some of the tallest street lights in the country. The town is a very green town, with lots of trees and grass. Fairlands Valley is a large park in the middle of Stevenage. There are also many playing fields. The schools in Stevenage all have large fields.
Many schools were built in the 1950s and 1960s because a lots of people from London were moving to Stevenage. The town has around 23 primary schools and several secondary schools.
Stevenage has a leisure centre and a theatre in the town centre. There is a leisure park with a large cinema, and lots of clubs and restaurants. Stevenage also has two industrial areas.
Stevenage F.C. is the town's football team, which plays in League Two and is based at The Lamex Stadium.
Stevenage holds a number of events every year including Stevenage Day, Rock in the Park and Stevenage Carnival. The Carnival ended in 2003 but it is returning 6th June 2010.
Stevenage has lots of places of worship for people of several different religions. Many of the Christian churches work together for town-wide projects.
Stevenage is twinned with the following places around the world:
Stevenage has been twinned with Shymkent since 1990
Stevenage has been twinned with Kadoma since 1989 and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. [www.skla.org.uk]
Stevenage has been twinned with Ingelheim since 1963 [www.tsiaa.org.uk]
Stevenage has been twinned with Autun since 1975. It was incorporated into the Stevenage-Ingelheim Association as Ingelheim and Autun were already twinned. see Stevenage-Ingelheim-Autun Association.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a manga series, two anime series, and a trading card game (the books came first, then the cards and then the series) based on the two anime series. The series follows the adventures of Yugi Mutou, a high school student who plays a game called Duel Monsters. It has a spin-off called "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX". Japan has an exclusive anime based on the first seven volumes of the manga.
"Yu-Gi-Oh cards" are a trading card game that uses monsters that Yugi and other characters on the show use. This trading card game is very popular with young children, teenagers, and even adults in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The series is about having hope and faith in for the characters and Duel Monsters on each cards. Yugi's grandfather Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Muto) owns a game shop. One day, Yugi finds a strange puzzle at the back of the shop, and tries to solve it. He tries to solve the puzzle for 8 years. When he is 16, he solves it. When he finishes the puzzle, he gets an extra soul. The soul is Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi), an Egyptian Pharaoh. Yami Yugi successfully recovers his lost memory. Yugi defeats Dark Bakura (Yami Bakura), Dark Yugi's worst enemy. Yu-Gi-Oh; cards of Doom
"Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters"
"Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" is an animation based on Yu-Gi-Oh! comic.
"Yu-Gi-Oh! GX" The spin-off of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters". The story is set several years after the "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" story.
"Yu-Gi-Oh! 5DS" The story is set many years after the "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" story. A prominent new feature of the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS" series is the use of Synchro Monster.
"Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal" An anime series. Relevance of previous work is not declared. Xyz Monsters are introduced.
Travelling salesman problem
The Traveling Salesman Problem (often called TSP) is a classic algorithmic problem in the field of computer science and . It is focused on optimization. In this context, "better solution" often means "a solution that is cheaper, shorter, or faster". TSP is a mathematical problem. It is most easily expressed as a graph describing the locations of a set of nodes.
The traveling salesman problem was defined in the 1800s by the Irish mathematician W. R. Hamilton and by the British mathematician Thomas Kirkman. Hamilton’s Icosian Game was a recreational puzzle based on finding a Hamiltonian cycle. The general form of the TSP appears to have been first studied by mathematicians during the 1930s in Vienna and at Harvard, notably by Karl Menger. Menger defines the problem, considers the obvious brute-force algorithm, and observes the non-optimality of the nearest neighbour heuristic:We denote by "messenger problem" (since in practice this question should be solved by each postman, anyway also by many travelers) the task to find, for ﬁnitely many points whose pairwise distances are known, the shortest route connecting the points. Of course, this problem is solvable by finitely many trials. Rules which would push the number of trials below the number of permutations of the given points, are not known. The rule that one first should go from the starting point to the closest point, then to the point closest to this, etc., in general does not yield the shortest route.Hassler Whitney at Princeton University introduced the name "traveling salesman problem" soon after.