A star cluster is a group of stars. They are held together by mutual gravitation. They are related by common origin, and have similar or identical ages.
In contrast, constellations and asterisms are just line-of-sight visual groups as seen from the Earth.
There are two major types of clusters:
Star clusters visible to the naked eye include the Pleiades, Hyades, and 47 Tucanae.
Super star clusters of very young large stars are known. They are thought to be precursors of globular clusters. The short-lived huge blue stars emit lots of UV radiation which ionises the surrounding gas. Examples are Westerlund 1 and 2 in the Milky Way, and R136 in the Larger Magellanic Cloud.
Giant armadillo
The giant armadillo ("Priodontes maximus"), colloquially tatou, ocarro, tatu-canastra or tatú carreta, is the largest living species of armadillo.
It was once found widely through the tropical forests of eastern South America. It now ranges throughout varied habitat as far south as northern Argentina.
Island Def Jam Music Group
Island Def Jam Music Group is a Record Label in the United States. Universal Music Group is the Managing Head of Island Def Jam.
Genie in a Bottle
"Genie in a Bottle" is a 1999 pop song by American singer Christina Aguilera, from her first album "Christina Aguilera". It was her first hit single and got to number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Aguilera got a Grammy Award nomination for it and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist later in the year.
Arista Records
Arista Records is a record label in the United States. Sony Music Entertainment controls Arista. It distributes albums in United Kingdom and United States.
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (July 9, 1892 or April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. She was sometimes called "The Empress of the Blues" and was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s. A lot of people think that she was one of the best singers of her time, and along with Louis Armstrong, she was an important influence on later jazz singers.
In the 1900 American census, Bessie Smith's mother, Laura Smith, said that Bessie was born in Chachanooga, Tennessee in July 1892. In the census in 1910, her sister, Viola Smith said that Bessie's birthday was April 15, 1894. That is the date that is on all later documents, and was the one that Smith used.
She was the daughter of Laura and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher who died before his daughter was old enough to remember him. By the time she was nine, her mother had died as well, and her older sister Viola had to look after for her sisters and brothers.
To earn money for their poor family, Smith and her brother Andrew began Busking (performing) on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo. She sang and danced, and he accompanied her on guitar. They liked to perform in front of the White Elephant Saloon in the middle of Chattanooga's African-American community.
In 1904, Smith's oldest brother, Clarence, ran away from home and joined small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."
In 1912, Clarence came back to Chattanooga, with the Stokes troupe and helped Smith get an audition. She got a job as a dancer, not a singer, because the company already had a singer called .
By the early 1920s, Smith starred a musical called "How Come?" with Sidney Bechet. The musical went to Broadway. Smith had an argument with the producer of "How Come?" and she was replaced by Alberta Hunter. Smith went back to Philadelphia, where she now lived. She met and fell in love with a security guard called Jack Gee. They got married on June 7, 1923. At this time, Smith made her first song recordings with Columbia Records. Her marriage was difficult and both of them had affairs.
Smith became the biggest headliner on the black Theater Owners Booking Association circuit. She ran a show that sometimes had as many as 40 people and made her the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Gee liked the money she was earning, but did not like her show business life. In particular, he did like the fact that Smith was bisexual. In 1929, Smith found out that Gee was having an affair with another performer called Gertrude Saunders. Smith separated from Gee but they never got divorced. Smith went to live with a man called Richard Morgan, as is they were husband and wife. He was an old friend and the uncle of a jazz musician called Lionel Hampton. Smith and Morgan stayed together for the rest of her life.
Ma Rainey helped Smith to get better as a performer, but she did not teach her to sing. Smith began started her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theatre. By 1920 she had got a good reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
In 1920, a singer called Mamie Smith recorded a song called "Crazy Blues,". This was one of the first blues songs recorded by an African-American singer, and was very popular. The recording industry realised that there were lots of black people who would buy blues records. Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 when the label decided to make a "race records" series.
Her first recording, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues," was very popular. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and was its top attraction in the 1920s. She worked very hard, in theatres during the winter, and touring for the rest of the year. She became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Somebody from Columbia Records gave her a nickname, "Queen of the Blues". Soon, the press were calling her the "Empress of the Blues".
She made about 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by other popular musicians like Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green, and Fletcher Henderson.
On September 26, 1937, Smith was seriously injured in a car accident while traveling between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her boyfriend Richard Morgan was driving. People think he might have fallen asleep at the wheel or that he could not tell what speed a slow-moving truck was driving in front of him. Tire marks at the scene showed that Morgan tried to hit the truck by driving around its left side but he hit the back of the truck side-on very fast. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, was hit worst in the crash. Morgan did not have any major injuries. One of the first people to see her after the crash was a doctor. He said that she had a bad injury to her arm which made her lose a lot of blood. She also had bad injuries to the side of her body, and was in shock.
An ambulance took Smith to Clarksdale's Afro-American Hospital and her right arm was amputated (taken off). She did not wake up and died that morning. After she died, some people said that it was because a hospital for white people would not treat her, but in those days, an amubulance driver would never have taken a black person to a "Whites only" hospital at all.
Brian Molko
Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a Scottish singer and songwriter. He is part of the rock band Placebo. He is considered to be the leader of Placebo. He is the rhythm guitarist of the band.
Molko is openly bisexual.
Roe deer
The roe deer or ("Capreolus capreolus") is a deer species of Europe and Asia Minor. It is also called European roe deer to not confuse it with the related Asian species, the Siberian roe deer ("Capreolus pygargus").
The roe deer is a smaller deer. In the summer its fur is reddish-brown, in the winter it is greyish brown or dark brown. Fawns have a reddish-brown fur, with white spots on their back and sides.
Male roe deer have antlers, which are small compared to other deer species. The antlers can become up to 20-25 cm (8-10 in) long, with two or three (rarely four) points.