Curing salt (or pink salt or Prague powder #1) is mixture of salt and sodium nitrate that is used to preserve or cure meats or in the making of sausages. It contains 93.75% table salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite. The sodium nitrite in curing salt is used to stop the growth of "Clostridium botulinum" in order to prevent botulism. Curing salt may be dyed pink preventing it from being confused with table salt.
Ferdinand VI of Spain
Ferdinand VI (Fernando; 23 September 1713 – 10 August 1759) was a King of Spain July 1746 until his death in 1759 aged 49 He was the fourth son of the previous monarch Philip V and his first wife Maria Luisa of Savoy. The third Bourbon to rule Spain, he died childless and his half brother Charles became king.
Born at the Royal Alcazar (Royal Palace) of Madrid, he was the youngest son of Philip V of Spain and his wife Queen Maria Luisa. His parents enjoyed a loving relationship, Ferdinand being their fourth child. However, his mother died in 1714 and the king married again, this time to Elisabeth Farnese, a niece of the Duke of Parma. Queen Elisabeth was a domineering woman who ruled her husband. As such, the new queen would have a further seven children including Ferdinand's own successor Charles III. Ferdinand was by temperament melancholy, shy and distrustful of his own abilities. When complimented on his shooting, he replied, "It would be hard if there were not something I could do." Shooting and music were his only pleasures, and he was the generous patron of the famous singer Farinelli, whose voice soothed his melancholy. As the younger son, his brother Louis, Prince of Asturias was heir to the throne. However, Louis died aged sixteen in 1724 having reigned for a mere eight months. As such Ferdinand became Prince of Asturias and heir to the throne.
On 20 January 1729, Ferdinand married Barbara of Portugal, daughter of John V of Portugal and Maria Anna of Austria. This marriage further cemented a union with Portugal who had engaged Barbara's brother to Ferdinand's half sister. The very homely looks of his wife were thought by observers to cause the prince a visible shock when he was first presented to her. Yet he became deeply attached to his wife, and proved in fact nearly as adoring of her as his father was of Queen Maria Luisa.
When he came to the throne, Spain found itself in the War of the Austrian Succession which ended without any benefit to Spain. He started his reign by getting rid of the influence of the widow Queen Elisabeth and her Italian courtiers. As king he followed a firm policy of neutrality in the war between France and Britain, and refused to be tempted to join the war by the offers of either. The most important tasks during the reign of Ferdinand VI were carried out by the Marquis of Ensenada, the Secretary of the Treasury, Navy and Indies. He suggested that the state help modernise the country. To him, this was necessary to maintain a position of outward strength so that France and Great Britain would consider Spain as an ally without supposing Spain's renunciation of its claim to Gibraltar. Plans for modernising Spain included a new Treasury; the stimulation of commerce in the Americas; modernising the Navy; improving relations with the church and ensuring cultural progress.
The death of his wife Barbara, who had been devoted to him, and who carefully abstained from political intrigue, broke his heart. Between the date of her death in August 1758 and his own in August 1759, he fell into a state of prostration in which he would not even dress, but wandered unshaven, unwashed and in a nightgown around his park. He was buried at the Convent of the Salesas Reales, Spain.
Neue Wache
The "Neue Wache" (New Guard House) is a building in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is located on the north side of the Unter den Linden. The Neue Wache was designed by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, was built in 1816 and is a leading example of German neoclassicism. Originally it was built as a guardhouse for the troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia, the building has been used as a war memorial since 1931.
King Frederick William III of Prussia ordered the construction of the Neue Wache as a guard house for the nearby Palace of the Crown Prince, to replace the old Artillery Guard House. He commissioned Schinkel, the leading exponent of neoclassicism in architecture, to design the building: this was Schinkel's first major commission in Berlin.
Transitivity (grammar)
Transitivity in grammar is about whether a verb has an object or not. A transitive verb has an object; an intransitive verb does not. Examples:
A transitive verb is an action verb. It expresses something doable (something possible to do). The direct object is something or someone who is the receiver of the action (verb). In the first two examples above, the 'trip' and the 'book' are the direct objects. 'Enjoyed' and 'read' are the transitive verbs.
Audio description
Audio description is an additional track of narration. It is targeted at visually impaired or blind consumers of television, dance, opera, movies or other visual art. In these tracks, a narrator talks through presentation and makes a description about what's happening during natural pauses in audio. Descriptive video service (DVS) is used for the DVDs of certain movies as part of the audio description.
Teak
Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. "Tectona grandis" is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but grows in many countries, including those in Africa and the Caribbean. Burma produces nearly one third of the world's total teak.
The word teak comes from the Malayalam (in the Malabar Coast region) word "theka" or "tekka". This tree is mentioned in the seventh-century literature of Tamil popularly known as the Tevaram.
"Tectona grandis" is a large, deciduous tree that is dominant in mixed hardwood forests. It has small, fragrant white flowers and papery leaves that are often hairy on the lower surface.
The teak wood of some country is famous all over the world like Myanmar and Sudan Africa.
Reel-to-reel tape recorders
Reel-to-reel tape recorders (often called R2R, Open reel decks, etc.) were used during the 20th century, mostly in professional studios from the 1940’s and quickly spread into people’s homes in the 1950s and 1960s. The biggest popularity was in the 1970s, probably because people needed higher quality recordings. This technology was like a revolution, because everyone could record any kind of sound (vinyl records, radio broadcast, voice and music), then play it many times without the quality getting worse, and they could overwrite it many times. This technology has some weak points though: size of reels, sensibility, durability; but still, it has certain advantages over today’s “digital media formats.” Also, some famous bands and artists used reel to reel technology as a musical instrument or even as a separate band.
These reel to reel decks are usually analogue sound devices using a magnetic tape of ¼ inch (i.e. 6.25 cm) width. This plastic tape is covered by a special magnetic substance which is being made into magnetic domains when it is being recorded. The tape recorder must have a record, playback and an erase head which transfer the signal onto the tape. The more expensive tape decks have three or six separate heads. Tape recorders combine knowledge both on mechanics and electronics. There must be very precise motors and moving parts, but also a complicated circuit board. It has to contain transistors, amplifiers etc.
The usual functions of tape recorders are:
These functions can be handled mechanically (system of rubber belts and metal levers), or electronically (magnets, coils, integrated circuits).
The tape speed is one of the things that finds out the playback time. This table gives information on tape speed and the playback time with an 18 cm reel.