The name Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a reference to the Ed Wood 1959 cult science fiction movie Plan 9 from Outer Space. Also, Glenda, the Plan 9 Bunny, is presumably a reference to Wood's film Glen or Glenda.
Plan 9 was originally developed for research purposes, as Bell Labs was looking for a replacement for the venerable UNIX. It underwent mass testing, as all the computers at Bell Labs had Plan 9 installed, in lieu of UNIX, which was commonplace previously. It explored several modifications to the pre-existing UNIX system, primarily the distributed nature of the system, and the graphical user-interface. In 1992, Bell Labs released a public version, for universities, and soon after, a version for the general public. The highly restrictive nature of the licence at the time, and the steep 500$ licencing fee resulted in it being ignored, in lieu of Linux.
When Lucent-Alcatel acquired Bell, in the 1990s, however, funding for the system was slashed, and in 2000, it was released into the world under a FOSSy licence. In February 2014, Alcatel-Lucent permitted the University of California, Berkeley to release Plan9 under the popular GNU General Public License.
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert hall in New York. The money for building it was given by Andrew Carnegie, a very rich businessman from Scotland. Carnegie Hall was built in 1891. It is the most famous concert hall in the world.
Carnegie Hall has three separate concert halls: the Main Hall, the Recital Hall and the Chamber Music Hall.
Carnegie Hall's main auditorium is big enough to seat 2,840 people. There are five levels. The main hall was named after the violinist Isaac Stern in 1997. The Main Hall is very tall, and visitors to the top balcony must climb 105 steps.
For many years the world-famous New York Philharmonic Orchestra gave their concerts there. They moved out to a new concert hall in the Lincoln Center in 1962. Many of the greatest performers of classical music have performed in the hall. Concerts continue to be given there including, more recently, concerts of popular music.
Zankel Hall, which seats 599, is now named after Judy and Arthur Zankel. At first it was simply called Recital Hall, then in 1896 it was renamed Carnegie Lyceum. It was used by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1898. In 1959 it was changed into a cinema. Since 1997 it has been a hall for recitals.
The Weill Recital Hall is a small concert hall seating just 268 people. Since 1986 it has been named after Sanford I. Weill, the chairman of Carnegie Hall's board, and his wife, Joan. At first it was called Chamber Music Hall, later Carnegie Chamber Music Hall).
The official opening night was on May 5, with an orchestral concert conducted by Walter Damrosch and the composer Tchaikovsky. Many famous works were given their world premiere (first ever performance) at the Carnegie Hall, including "Symphony No. 9, opus 95, "From the New World"" by Antonín Dvořák on December 16, 1893, the "Sinfonia Domestica" by Richard Strauss - March 21, 1904, conducted by the composer, "Concerto in F" by George Gershwin on December 3, 1925, with the composer playing the piano, and "Variations on a Theme of Corelli" by Sergei Rachmaninoff - November 7, 1931, with the composer playing the piano.
The world premiere of Disney's animated film "Fantasia 2000" took place at Carnegie Hall on December 17, 1999.
Musikverein
The Musikverein in Vienna, Austria is one of the most famous concert halls in the world. It was opened on 6 January 1870. The Musikverein is where the world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra perform.
The concert hall was built by the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" (Society of Friends of Music) who had been given the land by Emperor Franz Joseph. In 1907 a beautiful organ was put in the Konzerthaus by the Austrian firm of organ builders Rieger.
The main auditorium is called the Goldener Saal (The Golden Hall). There are seats for 1,744 people and standing room for another 300. Every year on 1 January the Vienna New Year's Concert is held here. Millions of people in countries all over the world watch this concert on New Year's Day.
Vienna New Year's Concert
The New Year Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is a concert of classical music that takes place each year on the morning of 1 January in Vienna, Austria. The concert hall where they are held is called the Wiener Musikverein. The music traditionally consists of waltzes, marches and polkas by the Strauss family. The concert is shown on television to about one billion people in 44 countries.
The music always includes pieces from the Strauss family (Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss). The music consists mainly of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and marches. Sometimes other Austrian composers are included. In 2009, for the first time, music by Josef Haydn was played. It was the 4th movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 45, known as the "Farewell Symphony". It was performed because the year 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death.
These concerts have been held in the "Großer Saal" (Large Hall) of the Wiener Musikverein since 1939. Since 1980 the flowers that decorate the concert hall are a gift each year from the city of Sanremo, Liguria, Italy. On television the viewers can also see ballet dancers who dance to the music. These dancers are often dancing in Schönbrunn Palace, Schloss Esterházy, the Vienna State Opera or in the Wiener Musikverein itself.
The concert always ends with three encores after the main programme. The first encore is a fast polka. The second encore is Johann Strauss II's "Blue Danube Waltz". The audience start to clap as soon as the music for this famous waltz starts. The last encore is the "Radetzky March". The audience like to clap along to the music.
The concert was first performed in 1939.
George Enescu
George Enescu (August 19, 1881, Liveni – May 4, 1955, Paris) was a Romanian composer. He was born in Liveni, Romania. He studied the violin at the Vienna Conservatory. He moved to Paris in 1895 to study composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Jules Massenet and then Gabriel Fauré. Other students at this time were Maurice Ravel and Charles Koechlin.
In 1927 he taught the violin to Yehudi Menuhin.
Cumans
The Cumans were a travelling people who lived in the area along the Black Sea near the Volga River.
Santa Lucia Stroncone Astronomical Observatory
The Osservatorio Astrometrico Santa Lucia Stroncone (Santa Lucia Stroncone Astronomical Observatory) is an observatory that studies stars in the sky. It is in the town of Stroncone, Italy. It has found lots of asteroids.
German South-West Africa
German South West Africa (, DSWA) was a German colony in Africa from 1884 through 1915. It is now Namibia. From 1891, the capital was Windhoek, the same city as the capital of today's Namibia. It covered an area of . This is over one and half times the size of German Empire at the time.
715
695
The year 695 (DCXCV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Ender's Game series
The Ender's Game series (sometimes called Enderverse) is a series of books written by Orson Scott Card. There are 2 major series of the Ender's Game series: the Ender series and the Shadow series.
The Ender series includes the books "Ender's Game", "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide", and "Children of the Mind". "Ender's Game" used to be a short story, but the author expanded it to make the novel "Ender's Game".