In June 1842 Mendelssohn was twice received by Queen Victoria at her palace in London. Mendelssohn thanked the Queen by dedicating his "Scottish Symphony" to her. He continued to conduct in Leipzig and helped to make Berlioz’s music famous in Germany. He became director of the new Conservatoire in Leipzig. In Berlin the king asked him to provide incidental music for Shakespeare's play " A Midsummer Night’s Dream ". He had already written some of this music 17 years earlier but now he finished it and performed it in 1843.
During his last years Mendelssohn suffered from bad health. He continued to work and travel as much as he could, but after a stroke in 1849 he died in Leipzig aged 38. His body was taken by a special train to Berlin where he was buried near the grave of his sister Fanny.
Mendelssohn’s most famous works are his 5 symphonies (especially the "Scottish" and "Italian" symphonies), his concertos (especially his violin concerto), his overtures (especially "The Hebrides") and his Incidental Music to "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" which includes the famous "Wedding March". He wrote some very good chamber music: string quartets and piano trios and two very famous oratorios: "Elijah" and "St Paul". His piano music includes a large collection of short pieces called "Songs without Words" (German: "Lieder ohne Worte") which many pianists like to play. His organ music shows his love for J.S.Bach, often sounding more Baroque than Romantic. After his death Mendelssohn’s music became less popular for a time. This may have been because of the rise of anti-semitism in the mid-19th century, it may also have been because some musicians played Mendelssohn’s music in a rather delightful way. But many great musicians saw his greatness and his music is well-loved today.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 1980;
Watercolour
Watercolours (UK), also called watercolor (US) or aquarelle (French), are paintings whose colours are water-based pigments.
Pigments are coloured materials from rocks, plants, or chemicals, that dissolve in water. They are made in the form of cakes or tablets. When water is added, the powdered pigment becomes liquid again. The pigment is applied to white paper or white card by brush or cloth or cotton wool, and allowed to dry. Unlike painting in oil-based pigments (coloured materials dissolved in oil), a watercolour can not be painted over without spoiling the colour, whose purity depends on the white backing below. Therefore, each area of a watercolour painting is painted only once, and looks fresh and original rather than worked over. Watercolour painting is often used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese paintings. Fingerpainting with watercolours came from China.
Expert system
An expert system is a program running on a computer. Like a human expert, it knows a lot about a subject. People can ask the expert system a question. The expert system will then use a set of rules and give answers to the question. This method of automated reasoning belongs to a field of computer science called artificial intelligence.
Different groups of people can have different kinds of access to an expert system. The people managing the network of computers have different needs than the office worker or secretary.
Expert systems are made of
When they are asked a question, they will filter the data with the rules they have. They might give back a result, or ask an additional question.
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known works include "Steppenwolf", "Siddhartha", and "The Glass Bead Game" (also known as "Magister Ludi").
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, is a protocol related to computers and networks of computers. It is referred to as DHCP for short. It was made so that computers could connect to other computers (on a network) automatically. To be able to access the Internet (or any computer network), an IP address is needed. DHCP allows for this IP address to be obtained automatically. Other data, like a DNS Nameserver, or a time server can also be obtained that way. Finally, computers that support it can even get a disk image they boot from over the network.
The address can be dynamic (it can change), or it can be static (it stays the same). After a certain time, the address lease has to be renewed.
DHCP is one of the most complicated IP protocols in networks of computers.Communication protocol
In computing, a communication protocol refers to the set of rules that computers use to communicate with each other. The protocol defines the signals that the computers will give each other, and other details such as how communication begins and/or ends.
Aldi
Aldi is a supermarket in Germany and in most parts of the European Union. Aldi shops are also in Australia and the United States. Most German towns and villages have at least one Aldi shop. There are about 4,100 stores in Germany, and 7,600 worldwide. The name of the shop stands for "ALbrecht-DIscount".
The company is a food retailer, but it also sells non-food at times. In the 1990s, Aldi often sold computers that were sought after. Aldi has a reputation for being cheap. It forces its suppliers to sell to them at low prices.
The company was started in 1913 as a family grocery business in Essen. In 1946, brothers Karl Albrecht (1920-2014) and Theo Albrecht (1922-2010) took over the business from their mother. Theo had been held by the US in a prisoner of war camp. They started the idea of discount shops in Germany. They decided to have a limited range of goods and sell them at a discount price. In 1960, the company was split into Aldi Nord (Aldi North) under the control of Theo, and Aldi Süd (Aldi South) under the control of Karl. The brothers became billionaires. In 2009 Karl's wealth was estimated to be €25 billion. Theo was kidnapped in 1971 and held prisoner for 17 days until a seven million mark ransom was paid. The family have avoided publicity and there are few known photographs of them.
Aldi started in Australia in 2001. At the end of 2010 there were 210 Aldi stores in eastern Australia and the company were planning to open 20-30 stores each year. In 2009 the Australian stores made a profit of AU$91.94 million, up 27% on 2008.
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel (or Chunnel) (French: le tunnel sous la Manche) is a long underwater tunnel between England and France that runs under the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. It is only for trains. Some of the trains in the Channel Tunnel carry freight, including automobiles. Others, like the Eurostar, carry only passengers.
The tunnel, which was once called the Eurotunnel, opened in 1994. It is 50 km (31 miles) long and its deepest point is 75 m (250 feet) beneath the surface. It connects Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom to Calais in northern France. This has reduced travel time between London and Paris to a little over two hours with high-speed trains.
Katowice
Katowice (pronounce: , also known as "Kattowitz" in German) is a city in Poland. It is in the south of Poland in the historical region called Silesia on Kłodnica and Rawa river. It received city rights in 1865. Between 1954 and 1956 Katowice had the name Stalinogród - "Stalin City". It was given by the polish communists. There are about 315,123 people living there. The mayor of the city is Marcin Krupa. For a long period of time the city was ruled by Germans, as it was a part of Germany until 1918. There is a little airport called "Airport Muchowiec". There are both modern and old buildings in Katowice. It was the center of the coal mining and metallurgy.
Mobile phone
A mobile phone (also known as a hand phone, cell phone, or cellular telephone) is a small portable radio telephone.