Many other favorite sites were left out this time, including
Amy Tan
Amy Tan (born February 19, 1952) is an American writer. Her works deal with mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is "The Joy Luck Club". It has been translated into 35 languages. In 1993, a movie was made based on the book.
Tan has written several other novels. These include "The Kitchen God's Wife", "The Hundred Secret Senses", "The Bonesetter's Daughter" and "Saving Fish from Drowning". She also wrote a collection of non-fiction essays entitled "The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings." Her most recent novel "Saving Fish from Drowning" explores the problems dealt with by a group of people who disappear while on an art expedition in the jungles of Burma. Tan has also written two children's books: "The Moon Lady" (1992) and "Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat" (1994). "Sagwa" was turned into an animated series which aired on PBS. She also appeared on PBS in a short spot encouraging children to write.
Barriga de Aluguel
Barriga de Aluguel is a Brazilian historical telenovela. It was first shown in 1990. The series starred Cláudia Abreu, Cássia Kiss and Victor Fasano.
Stop Online Piracy Act
The Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA was a proposed American law to stop copyright infringement on the Internet.
The Internet community had major discussion over it in 2011 and 2012, but the bill was not passed. Some experts said the proposed changes to the internet would have worldwide effects.
Many critics said it would have bad unintended consequences.
Some people and businesses supported the new law. Others were alarmed. Supporters worried that current copyright laws are not effective in shutting down piracy websites. The opponents worried that it is a kind of censorship. It is hard to tell which side is correct because the language in the law is still being written.
The English Wikipedia masked most of its pages with a banner on January 18, 2012. They used JavaScript to do this, which means that people could avoid the banner by just disabling JavaScript in their browser. The Wikipedia blackout is intended to spotlight the value of open access to information on the Internet.
Other websites joined protests against SOPA. For example, Google put up a black censor board in front of its logo.
Many critics questioned the value and likely effects of the protests. Some people questioned the timing of the protests.
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is a role-playing video game. It was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. While "New Vegas" is not a direct sequel, it uses the same engine and style as "Fallout 3". Some of the employees at Obsidian also used to work at Interplay and Black Isle Studios who made "Fallout 1" and "Fallout 2". It is set in a post-apocalyptic Nevada.
The game was released on October 19, 2010 in North America, October 22, 2010 in Europe, and November 4, 2010 in Asia and October 21, 2010 Australia. It is available on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
Buffalo gourd
Buffalo gourd ("Cucurbita foetidissima"), also known as the buffalo gourd, calabazilla, chilicote, coyote gourd, fetid gourd, fetid wild pumpkin, Missouri gourd, prairie gourd, stinking gourd, wild gourd, and wild pumpkin is a small plant in the "Cucurbitaceae" family, related to squash.
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were people in the Thirteen Colonies who opposed the American Revolutionary War. They were also called Tories. They fought with the British against the Continental Army and Continental Congress that they felt was oppressing them. In many areas, Loyalists were treated very roughly by revolutionaries (who often called themselves "Patriots"). Tory lands and other properties were taken away, and sometimes they were put into jail or even killed. Some formed militias, fighting along with the British Army against the rebels.
After the war, many Loyalists sought asylum in Canada to escape the new United States and to stay loyal to King George and the British Empire.
Loyalists came from all walks of life. The majority were small farmers, artisans and shopkeepers. Not surprisingly, most British officials remained loyal to the Crown. Wealthy merchants tended to remain loyal, as did Anglican ministers, especially in Puritan New England. Loyalists also included some blacks (to whom the British promised freedom), Indians, indentured servants and some German immigrants, who supported the Crown mainly because George III was of German origin.
The number of Loyalists in each colony varied. Recent estimates suggest that half the population of New York was Loyalist; it had an aristocratic culture and was occupied throughout the Revolution by the British. In the Carolinas, back-country farmers were Loyalist, whereas the Tidewater planters tended to support the Revolution.
During the Revolution, most Loyalists suffered little from their views. However, a minority, about 19,000 Loyalists, armed and supplied by the British, fought in the conflict.
The Paris Peace Treaty required Congress to restore property confiscated from Loyalists. The heirs of William Penn in Pennsylvania, for example, and those of George Calvert in Maryland received generous settlements. In the Carolinas, where enmity between rebels and Loyalists was especially strong, few of the latter regained their property. In New York and the Carolinas, the confiscations from Loyalists resulted in something of a social revolution as large estates were parceled out to yeoman farmers.
About 100,000 Loyalists left the country, including William Franklin, the son of Benjamin, and John Singleton Copley, the greatest American painter of the period. Most settled in Canada. Brantford, Ontario for example was started by Iroquois refugees. Some eventually returned, although several state governments excluded the Loyalists from holding public office. Most of the Black Loyalists left, as they faced re-enslavement if they remained in the USA. In the decades after the Revolution, Americans preferred to forget about the Loyalists. Apart from Copley, the Loyalists became nonpersons in American history.
LaMarcus Aldridge
LaMarcus Aldridge (born July 19, 1985 ) is an American basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA. He plays both the forward and center positions. He played college basketball at the University of Texas at Austin. He is known or his smooth turn-around jump shot, which is hard to block since he is so tall and long. He has been chosen as an all-star for the past three years. In 2014, he helped the Portland Trail Blazers win a playoff series for the first time in many years.
Collatz conjecture
The Collatz conjecture is a conjecture (an idea which many people think is likely) in mathematics. It is named after Lothar Collatz. He first proposed it in 1937. It is about what happens when something is done repeatedly (over and over) starting at some integer "n":
The conjecture states that if "n" is positive, "n" will always reach one.
The problem is computationally verified for all numbers below formula_2.
Here is an example sequence:
Folketing
The Folketing () is the national parliament of Denmark. The name means "People's thing" (a "thing" in this case is a governing assembly). It is the highest legislative body in the Kingdom of Denmark and decides most of the laws for Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Folketing meets in Christiansborg Palace, in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. 179 members sit in the Folketing (175 from Denmark, 2 from Greenland and 2 from the Faroe Islands) and are democratically elected.
Greenland and the Faroe Islands also have their own, less powerful, parliaments and are allowed to make some laws on their own.