The is a group of islands in Kagoshima prefecture in the Kyūshū region of Japan. It is also known as the .
The name of the islands comes the mythological figure of "Amamiko".
It was attacked by the Ryūkyū Kingdom in 1570, but was invaded by Satsuma Domain in 1609.
Amami was occupied by the United States from 1945 to 1953.
The native people of the Amami Islands are the Amami people, who are a subgroup of a larger Ryukyuan ethnicity.
The Amami language belongs to the Ryukyuan languages, all of which are endangered because in the past, Japan suppressed them. This is also why most younger Amamians speak Japanese instead, as it was enforced in schools.
The largest island in the group is Amami Island. Other islands include Kikai Island, Tokunoshima, Okinoerabu Island, Yorontou and some small islands make up the Amami Islands.
Kagoshima
Kagoshima can mean a few things:
Formal
Formal is a word used to describe anything that has form or structure. So it is something which is used or done in accordance with rules or ceremonies.
Formal events have rules. 'Formal clothes' or 'formal attire' is a way of dressing to meet the rules for an event, such as a party or wedding. 'Formal attire' can be a suit, a tuxedo or a dress. People from all over the world have their own ideas about 'formal attire'. Most of the time "formal attire" clothes are the most beautiful or the best clothes a person owns. The opposite of "formal" is informal. Informal clothes are comfortable clothes for general use, e.g. T shirt and jeans. An informal ceremony might be a ceremony which is very relaxed instead of following an exact plan. An informal way to greet a friend might be: "Hi, John!"
Examples:
Kyūshū
Kyūshū is the third largest island of Japan.
Kyūshū region is made up of the entire island.
The name Kyūshū literally means "nine countries" in Japanese. Kyūshū was made of nine old "countries" or provinces that are now prefectures. In other words, each prefecture has a modern name and sometimes more than one old provincial name. The old names are still used sometimes, especially for foods, music, or art.
The original nine provinces in Kyushu were Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma.
Today, Kyushu is made up of seven prefectures.
Parts of Kyūshū have a warm climate, like the Miyazaki and Kagoshima regions. Major crops grown there are rice, tea, tobacco, sweet potatoes, and soy; silk is also made. The island is known for many types of porcelain like Arita, Imari, Satsuma and Karatsu.
Under the Gokishichidō system, the island of Kyūshū was a part of the region known as Saikaidō. It was a part of this region from the 7th century until the middle of the 1800s. Around 1905, it was made into its own region. In the modern system, Kyūshū and the small islands around it are a part of the Kyūshū region.
Presentation
Presentation is the process of presenting the content of a topic to an audience. Presentation software, such as OpenOffice.org Impress, Beamer, Apple Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint, is often used to generate the presentation content. As a form of communication, a presentation is usually 10-30 minutes long, but can take longer in special cases.
Keynote (software)
Keynote is a presentation software application made by Apple for its Mac OS X operating system.
Keynote was a software program that Steve Jobs, the chief executive officer of Apple used for his own presentations only. It was later sold to everyone as Keynote 1.0, competing against other presentation software, especially Microsoft PowerPoint. Unlike PowerPoint, Keynote can use all image types, and the design uses more pictures, making it easier to use. Because Keynote uses Mac OS X's built-in graphics technologies, it can produce slides with many graphics very easily.
Claymore
The claymore is a Scottish sword. It is double-edged. The word itself is of Gaelic origins and means “great sword”. The Claymore is indeed a big sword and was held only with two hands. In some sources the broad claymore sword is called “claidheamh da lamh”, which means “two-hand sword”. It was very popular in the 16th century when Scottish warriors (highlanders) used it against the Englishmen.
The claymore sword was in average about - overall length, the blade was about long. It weighed around . It possessed a very broad blade and a slim channel, called a fuller, to slightly reduce its weight.
There also existed a version of Claymore that had a single-edged blade and a basket-shaped handle. The basket of the handle was used as protection for the hand. The blade was very long, so the basket was designed for balance too. The making of these swords was widespread especially during the mid-1600s . The places where the claymore swords were made were: Edinburgh, Canongate, Stirling and Glasgow.
Beginning around 1350, very long claymore swords were used. The handles and the blades became longer. This was because of the heavy armour, that was almost impossible to penetrate. The Scottish Claymore was one of the two swords which could cut through the armour. The second was the Germanic Landsknecht sword.
Tamahagane
Tamahagane {tah-mah-ha-ga-nay} is a high quality metal (steel) made in the Japanese tradition. The word "tama" means "round and precious", like a gem or jewel. The word "hagane" means "steel". On the market, it costs 50 times more than ordinary steel. Tamahagane steel is used to make Japanese swords, knives, and other kinds of tools.
Good tamahagane contains around 1% of carbon and should not go over 1.5%.
Tamahagane is made of iron sand (called "satetsu" in Japanese). There are 2 main types of iron sands: "akome satetsu" and "masa satetsu". Akome is of lower quality and masa is of better quality. The man who decides the amount of the mixing parts is called the "murage". Depending on the desired result, the murage mixes one or more types of sands.
The iron sand is put in a clay tub (furnace) called a "tatara". The clay tub measures about 4 feet tall, 12 feet long, and 4 feet wide. The tub is then dried and heated. The clay tub is heated to a high temperature, about 1000 ºC (1.832 ºF). Then, it is mixed with charcoal to give tamahagane hardness.
The process of making tamahagane continues for 36 to 72 hours, depending on how many people work and how much metal is to be obtained. The iron sand is added every 10 minutes and the mixture is frequently turned over.
When the tamahagane is finished, the clay tub is broken and the steel is removed. The best steel is on the edges of metal block, because this is the where the oxidation process is stronger. The quality of tamahagane is determined by its color: bright silver pieces are very good for making blades.
Graviton
A graviton is a hypothetical particle that 'transfers' gravitation's force (particles like this are known as gauge bosons) from its field. Gravitons have never been observed, directly or indirectly, however, there have been several theories that use gravitons to explain certain phenomena. For example, a theory that describes black holes by combining quantum mechanics and gravity, has been advanced by Georgi Dvali and Cesar Gomez, which suggests a black hole is "an overpacked bucket of gravitons". There are some theories that suggest that gravitons would make up a new group of particles, "attraction particles". CERN is currently smashing more particles using the Large Hadron Collider to try to find this particle.
The graviton applies a tiny force as it impacts the nuclei of atoms.
All atoms themselves have these graviton particles in orbit around them. If you gather a lot of atoms together the population of orbiting gravitons increases proportionately. As a result, a large asteroid for example will have more gravity than a small one.
Because the graviton is a particle that has force (gravity), it is classed as a gauge boson. Other gauge bosons include the photon, the gluon, and the W and Z particles.