There are many famous stories and legends about Glamis Castle. It is said to have more "dark secrets" than any other home in Scotland.
Glamis Castle is set in the wide valley of Strathmore, near Forfar, the capital of Angus. It is between the Sidlaw Hills to the south and the Grampian Mountains to the north, approximately 20 kilometres from the North Sea.
The estate (the castle's land) covers more than 14,000 acres (57 km²). There are gardens and walking trails, as well as a farm which produces beef and a plantation (planted forest) which produces timber. There are two streams run through the estate. Near one stream, called the Glamis Burn is an "arboretum" (a tree garden) which has trees from all over the world, many of them rare and several hundred years old. Birds and other small wildlife can often be seen in the grounds.
Oasis
In geography, an oasis is an isolated place in the desert where there is vegetation. Most often, this occurs around a source of water. Oases provide a habitat for animals and are used as a source of water for humans.
The knowledge of the location of oases has been important for trade and transportation routes in desert areas. Caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be refilled. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames and Kufra, in modern-day Libya, have at various times been vital to both North-South and East-West trade in the Sahara desert. The word "oasis" came into English via Greek ὄασις , which was borrowed from Egyptian "wḥ3t" or Demotic "wḥỉ". It was not borrowed from Coptic "ouaḥe" (<nowiki>*</nowiki>/waħe/), as is sometimes suggested; the Greek word is attested several centuries before Coptic existed as a written language.
Ancient Near East
The Ancient Near East is the name given to early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (modern Iran), Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan), and Ancient Egypt, from the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BCE until the region's conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, or covering both the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the region. As such, it is a term widely used in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology, ancient history and Egyptology.
Some would exclude Egypt from the ancient Near East as a geographically and culturally distinct area. However, because of Egypt's intimate involvement with the region, especially from the 2nd millennium BCE, this exclusion is rare.
The ancient Near East is considered the cradle of civilization. It was the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture; it gave the rest of the world the first writing system, invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular- and mill wheel, created the first centralized governments, law codes and empires, as well as introducing social stratification, slavery and organized warfare, and it laid the foundation for the fields of astronomy and mathematics.
Boxer (Animal Farm)
Boxer is a character from the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. He is a horse, and is nearly eighteen hands high. In the book he is as strong as two horses put together. He has a white stripe down his nose, and that gives him a strange appearance. But still he was respected for his great power in work and his good character. He works as a cart-horse, as does Clover. Benjamin likes him in secret.
In the book Boxer falls into the quarry when he was pulling a cart full of rock and is sent to a veterinarian on another farm by Napoleon. Squealer, Napoleon's spokesman, then claims he died peacefully, but Benjamin realises he has actually gone to the knacker's (slang for slaughterhouse, where animals are killed). Boxer was the most hard-working animal in the farm and was respected by all. When Boxer tried to support Snowball against Squealer, Napoleon tries to attack Boxer with his dogs but Boxer easily crushes the dog. Boxer is an ideal character showing loyalty along with his great hard work.
His slogans are:
He is a very loyal, caring character, but kind of thick and does not see the real truth behind situations.
Benjamin (Animal Farm)
In the fictional story "Animal Farm", Benjamin is the oldest animal on Manor Farm, and very cool-tempered. He seldom speaks, except to make some cynical remark. He is the only animal on the farm that never laughs, saying that there was nothing to laugh at when asked about it. Without admitting it, Benjamin is devoted to Boxer, grazing with him in a small padlock near the orchard on Sundays. He was not changed by the rebellion that took place towards the beginning of the novel.
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in the United States in October 1977. The Atari 2600 was originally called the Atari Video Computer System (or VCS). The Atari 2600 uses game cartridges which can be swapped in and out to change games, which was a new idea in video games at the time. Over 30 million Atari 2600 consoles were sold.
While Atari designed their console, they code-named it Stella. When released in 1977, they called it the Video Computer System (VCS for short). There was also a version that was sold at Sears called the Sears Video Arcade. It was not called the Atari 2600 until the Atari 5200 released in 1982. The 2600 is called this because that is the part number the company used to tell the difference in versions.
When the Atari 2600 came out, it usually came with two joystick controllers, a pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge. There were initially nine games available at launch, featuring "Combat" (packaged with the console), "Air-Sea Battle", "Basic Math", "Blackjack", "Indy 500", "Star Ship", "Street Racer", "Surround", and "Video Olympics". The 2600 originally sold for $199.
The Atari 2600 uses different sets of colors depending on the television used with it:
When the Atari 2600 was released nine games were available. Those games were "Combat" (which came with the console), "Air-Sea Battle", "Basic Math", "Blackjack", "Indy 500", "Star Ship", "Street Racer", "Surround", and "Video Olympics". Later more games came out, including "Pac-Man", "Missile Command" and "Space Invaders". The best-selling Atari 2600 game was "Pac-Man", which sold 7 million copies.
"Combat" was chosen to be included in the box with the Atari 2600. It contained 27 games in one cartridge. Each game involved tanks, bi-planes, or jets.
"Space Invaders" began as an intensely popular Japanese arcade game. In 1980 a version of the game was released for the Atari 2600. The pixelated aliens from this game are still used as a popular symbol for video games today.
"Pac-Man" began as an arcade game developed by Namco. In 1982 a version was released for the Atari 2600. It sold the most copies of any game released for the Atari 2600 (7 million copies). Despite this, the game was not popular with critics and consumers, because of the major differences in gameplay between the 2600 version and the arcade version.
See for a bigger list of games.
In 1980 the Atari 2600 was at the middle of an important development in video games, the beginning of third-party developers for console video games. In 1980 a group of four dissatisfied Atari employees founded the company Activision, who then released four games: "Dragster", "Fishing Derby", "Checkers", and "Boxing". This was an important moment in video game history as now every video game console on the market depends on some third-party game support.