Dirac was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics chair at Cambridge University from 1932 until his retirement in 1969. He was Professor of Physics at Florida State University from 1972 until his death in 1984.
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is the head of state of Japan, The monarch is the symbol of the Japanese nation and the unity of its people.
In the Japanese constitutional monarchy, the emperor does not have any political power. In world politics, he is the only current emperor.
The current emperor is his Majesty emperor Naruhito. He has been on the Chrysanthemum Throne since his father Akihito abdicated in 2019.
The amount of power belonging to the emperor of Japan has changed a lot throughout Japanese history. The Emperor of Japan has sometimes been a cleric with mostly symbolic powers and sometimes an actual ruler. Some believe that the emperor is descended from gods.
Since the mid-1800s, the Imperial Palace has been located on the former site of Edo Castle （江戸城）in the heart of Tokyo. Earlier emperors lived in Kyoto for nearly eleven centuries.
The earliest monarch listed as an emperor who is believed by historians to have existed in history was Emperor Ojin.
The imperial dynasty that rules Japan today began as a local kingship in Central Japan in the 500s. It slowly increased its power over its neighbors. This led to a more centralized state made up of almost all of the central areas of what is now Japan. The remote areas were outside its borders.
The emperor's role is defined in Chapter I of the 1947 Constitution of Japan.
The emperor of Japan has no reserve powers.
While the emperor does serve as head of state, many people question if the emperor is a true monarch in a political sense. Efforts in the 1950s by conservative powers to change the constitution to actually name the emperor as head of state were rejected. Regardless, the emperor does do all the diplomatic functions of a head of state and is recognized as one by foreign powers.
Succession is now controlled by laws passed by the Japanese Diet. The current law does not let females take the throne. A change to this law was considered until Princess Kiko gave birth to a son.
Until the birth of a son to Prince Akishino on September 6, 2006, there was a potential succession problem. No male child had been born into the imperial family since Prince Akishino in 1965. Following the birth of Princess Aiko, some felt they needed to change the current Imperial Household Law to allow women to succeed to the throne. In January 2005 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi created a group of judges, university professors, and civil servants to study the problem.
On October 25, 2005 they recommended changing the law to allow females of the male line of imperial descent to ascend the Japanese throne. On January 20, 2006, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made an announcement that they would change the law to allow women to ascend the throne. However, after finding out that Princess Kiko was pregnant with her third child, Koizumi decided to wait. Her son, Prince Hisahito, is the third in line to the throne under the current law of succession.
Naming the emperors of Japan is difficult because of differences between Japan and the Western world. The Japanese use "{name} tennō" (for the past emperors) or "Kinjō Heika" (今上陛下） for the current one). Problems occur because emperors are named "{name} tennō" after their death.
Some Japanese once thought it was rude to call a person of noble rank by their given names. This belief is not commonly followed today, but still used for the imperial family. The current emperor on the throne is almost always referred to simply as "Tennō Heika" (天皇陛下, lit. "His Majesty the Emperor") or formally as Kinjō Heika (今上陛下).
In English, the recent emperors are called by their personal names.
For example, the previous emperor is usually called Hirohito in English, but after his death he was renamed "Shōwa Tennō" and is now only called by this name in Japanese. However, when he was in power, he was never called Hirohito or "Shōwa Tennō" in Japanese. Rather, he was simply called "Tennō Heika" (meaning "His Majesty the Emperor").
Pipe (smoke)
A pipe is a tool that people use to smoke tobacco and other drugs. Pipe smokers do not usually breathe in the smoke. They let it go into their mouths and then exhale it. Pipe smoking is not a healthy alternative to cigarette smoking.
Tobacco pipes are used to smoke tobacco. In some Middle Eastern countries, people smoke tobacco with water pipes, which cool the smoke in water. Different types of pipes are also used to smoke marijuana, hashish, and crack cocaine. Some people who smoke marijuana or hashish use a special water pipe called a bong.
Native American tobacco pipes had two parts: a stone bowl and a wooden stem. Japanese "kiseru" pipes have a metal bowl and mouth piece with a wooden stem. Arabian "midwakh" pipes may be made from different materials. European tobacco pipes have been made from clay, tree root wood, meerschaum stone or even maize cobs.
Pipes to smoke opium may have clay or metal bowls with a wooden stem. Pipes for marijuana or hashish may be metal, wood or glass. Pipes to smoke other drugs may also be made of glass.
Pipes were first used by Native Americans in religious ceremonies. When the English came to North America, they tried pipe smoking and liked it. They sent tobacco back to England.
Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis (born c.1505; died Greenwich November 23 1585) was the most important English composer of his generation.
We know very little about Tallis’s youth. He may have started his career as organist at Dover and then Waltham Abbey. After the Dissolution of the monasteries he had a job at Canterbury Cathedral for a short time. He was soon made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He had a job in the royal household until his death. He worked for four monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I.
Tallis was an organist and composer. He had to write music for the royal chapels. He was given the lease of a big house in Kent and a salary of £91 12s a year (12s is 60p in modern money). That was a very good salary in those days. In 1575, Queen Elizabeth I gave Tallis and William Byrd a licence which meant they were the only people allowed to print and publish music in England (music printing was a very new invention at the time). Tallis owned a house in Greenwich where he died in 1585.
In the early 16th century church music was often very polyphonic. Voices imitated one another and sang different things at the same time. Tallis wrote church music which was much simpler. In a lot of his music the choir sing homophonic music instead of using the older polyphony. For a short time, during the reign of the Catholic Mary Tudor, polyphonic music was in fashion again. This was the time when Tallis wrote an antiphon “Gaude gloriosa Dei mater” and a mass musical setting|mass “Puer natus est nobis”. These two works are once more very complicated polyphonic works. After that his works become simpler once more, but he was always keen to try out new ideas from the continent of Europe. He wrote some very fine anthems. Many of his works are settings of Latin words, but he also made settings of English texts.
One of his works is called "Spem in Alium". The choir divide into forty parts i.e. the choir need at least 40 people to sing it, and each person sings a different line. It is possible that he wrote it for Queen Elizabeth I’s 40th birthday in 1573, but we cannot be sure.
His "Diliges Dominum" is a collection of contrapuntal exercises which includes a very famous canon often simply called “Tallis’s canon”.
Homophony