In July 1843, the king said the Althing could be recreated. Elections were held the year after, and the new parliament met for the first time on 1 July 1845. A constitution was created in 1874. It granted the Althing joint legislative power with the crown in matters relating only to Iceland. It increased the number of members of the Althing to 36: 30 of them were elected and the other six appointed by the king.
Iceland was given home rule in October 1903. In December 1918, Iceland was brought into a personal union with the King of Denmark. It was set so that after 25 years, the country could choose to leave the union. The Althing was given unlimited legislative power. The king no longer had any law-making powers in the country. The number of members of the Althing was increased to 42 in 1920, and to 52 in 1942.
Women were given the right to vote in 1915. The first female member of parliament was elected in 1922.
When Denmark was occupied by Germany on 9 April 1940, its union with Iceland was no longer in effect. On the next day, the Althing gave the Icelandic cabinet executive power. It made the prime minister head of state. A year later the Althing appointed a regent to represent the king. This office continued until 1944, when the personal union with the Danish king expired. The modern-day Republic of Iceland was established at a session of the Althing held at Thingvellir on 17 June 1944.
Blues (disambiguation)
Blues can mean more than one thing:
Amapá
Amapá is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the far north, bordering French Guiana in the north. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south and west is the Brazilian state Pará.
The state is mostly covered by rainforest. The state is known for producing iron and other metals.
Amapá has only been a Brazilian state since 1988.
Fictional character
A fictional character is a Thomas & Friends person or animal in a narrative work of art (such as a novel, play, television series, or movie) The character can be completely fictional or based on a real-life person. In that case, the difference between a "fictional" and "real" character can be made. Coming from the ancient Greek word χαρακτήρ, the English word dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in "Tom Jones" in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an actor" developed. Character, mainly when played by an actor in the theatre or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human person." In literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping them to understand plots and ponder themes. Since the end of the 18th century, the phrase "in character" has been used to describe an effective impersonation by an actor. Since the 19th century, the art of creating characters, as practiced by actors or writers, has been called characterisation.
The word character can also mean "personality". We can say that someone has a "strong character" meaning a strong, confident personality. It is sometimes used as a noun in this sense: "He is a real character" (meaning someone you cannot easily forget).
A character role in a play means one of the people in the play who have a particular character (personality). They contrast with the main characters of the play. For example, a pair of lovers may be the main characters of the story. The character roles who help the story might be: a wicked step-mother, a kind nurse, an old wise man, a fool, a domestic worker who is very old, a "Mary Sue" who is virtually without flaws, and so forth. These may be archtypes.
Blues
The blues is a form of music that started in the United States during the start of the 20th century. It was started by former African slaves from spirituals, praise songs, and chants. The first blues songs were called Delta blues. These songs came from the area near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Many African Americans were taken to the north esp. in the northwest of the United States, to find work. They took the blues with them and developed it into new styles. The most important is the Chicago Blues, which is played with electric amplified instruments. But other cities and states have their own form of Blues developed from the Delta Blues (f. e. Texas Blues, West Coast Blues and others).
Blues is based on a simple pattern. "“Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel”"-Jimi Hendrix. A common form for the blues is a repeating 12 bar form (each bar has 4 beats). This is put together as 3 phrases or sections, each being 4 bars long. The basic blues only needs 3 chords, one based on the first note of the scale - the tonic chord, one based on the fourth note of the scale - the subdominant chord, and one based on the fifth note of the scale - the dominant chord. The first section or phrase of 4 bars only uses the tonic chord. A common variation is to use the subdominant chord in the second bar. The second phrase has 2 bars (8 beats) of subdominant chord then 2 bars of tonic chord. The third phrase has 1 bar (4 beats) of dominant chord, 1 bar of subdominant chord and finishes with 2 bars of tonic chord.
In a scale based on the note C (C is the 1st or tonic, F is the 4th or subdominant, and G is the 5th or dominant), the chord pattern of a 12 bar blues would be like this:
C C C C |C C C C or F F F F |C C C C |C C C C |
F F F F |F F F F |C C C C |C C C C |
G G G G |F F F F |C C C C |C C C C |
The melody of the simplest blues scales are based on the minor pentatonic scale for example C Eflat G A Bflat C, with extra notes (called "blue notes") added like this C Eflat Gflat G A Bflat C. Blue notes do not normally fit a scale, but they give the music a special feeling.
The lyrics (words) are usually about life, more specifically, the bad things in life. They are simple blues songs that are also based around the form of 3 phrases. The first phrase is set over the first 4 bars of music. The second phrase words are a repetition of the first phrase, this always happens and emphasises the message. The third phrase completes the "story" and rhymes (ends with the same sound) as the first line. This verse from Robert Johnson's ""Crossroad Blues"" shows how these phrases work in a song:
"I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees"
"I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees"
"Asked the Lord above, have mercy now, save poor Bob if you please"
The blues have made a difference in newer American and Western popular music, such as jazz, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, hip-hop, and country music, as well as common pop songs.
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics studies large-scale economic decisions. For example, a whole country's economy (or, its economic output) is summarised by the GDP (gross domestic product). Many governments use macroeconomic ideas to decide how much tax to collect and what interest rates should be.
It also considers the amount of unemployment, the rate that prices go up (inflation), and the exchange rates of its currency. The exchange rate affects the amount of imports and exports. Exchange rates and taxation are "levers of the economy".
Less dramatic, but also very important, are decisions about government spending inside the country. Such policy decisions are politically controversial due to differing political ideas on government spending. Another factor in macroeconomics is the make-up of the population. A growing population is economically different from a stable population (one which is not growing).
Game theory
Game theory is the study of how and why people make decisions. (Specifically, it is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers".) It helps people understand parts of science and politics. An alternative term suggested "as a more descriptive name for the discipline" is interactive decision theory.