Qi Xi, sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day, Magpie Festival, or the Double Seventh Festival is a traditional romantic festival in China. It take places on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month and often goes into August on the Gregorian calendar.
In late summer, two bright stars can be seen on opposite sides of the Milky Way. These stars are Altair ("the cowherd", Niulang) and Vega ("the weaver girl", Zhinü). The following story is told about the two:
Long, long ago, there was an honest and kind-hearted fellow named Niulang (Cowherd). His parents died when he was a child. Later, he was driven out of his home by his sister-in-law. So he lived by himself herding cattle and farming. One day, a fairy from heaven named Zhinü (Weaver Girl) fell in love with him. She secretly came down to earth and married him. Niulang farmed in the field and Zhinü wove at home. They lived a happy life and gave birth to a boy and a girl. Unfortunately, the God of Heaven soon found this out and ordered the Queen Mother of the Western Heavens to bring Zhinü back.
With the help of celestial cattle, Niulang flew to heaven with his son and daughter. When he was about to catch up with his wife, the Queen Mother took off one of her gold hairpins and scratched a river in the sky to separate the lovers. Niulang and Zhinü have been separated on the two banks ever since. Once a year all of the magpies in the world come to build a bridge for Niulang and Zhinü to meet each other. This meeting happens on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. Because of this, their meeting is called "Qi Xi" (Double Seventh).
Scholars have shown the Double Seventh Festival originated from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). Historical documents from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 371-420) mention the festival, while records from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) depict the grand evening banquet of Emperor Taizong and his concubines. By the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties, special articles for the Qi Xi were seen being sold on markets in the capital. The bustling markets demonstrated the significance of the festival.
Today some traditional customs are still observed in rural areas of China, but have been weakened or diluted in urban cities.
In the past, Qi Xi was not only a special day for lovers, but also for girls. It has been known as the "Begging for Skills Festival" or "Daughters' Festival."
In the past, girls would conduct a ceremony to beg Zhinü for wisdom, dexterity and a satisfying marriage in the future.
In some parts of the Shandong Province, young women offered fruit and pastries to pray for a bright mind. If spiders were seen to weave webs on sacrificial objects, it was believed the Weaving Girl was offering positive feedback.
In other regions, seven close friends would gather to make dumplings. They put into three separate dumplings a needle, a copper coin and a red date, which represented perfect needlework skills, good fortune and an early marriage.
Girls also held weaving and needlework competitions to see who had the best hands and the brightest mind, both important to being a good wife and mother in ancient China. Young women in southern China used to weave small handicrafts with colored paper, grass and thread. Afterwards, they competed to pass a thread through the eyes of seven needles in a single breath.
The Japanese version of Qi Xi is called "Tanabata". It is held on July 7th. On the evening of the 7th, slips of paper are hung on bamboo trees. The notes contain desires that the person hopes will be fulfilled.
Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith (November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007) was an American model, actress and celebrity. She first became popular as "Playboy" magazine's 1993 Playmate of the Year.
She was born Vicki Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas.
On February 8, 2007, Smith was found in a hotel room in Hollywood, Florida. At 1:38 p.m. (18:38 UTC) a nurse called 911. At 1:45 p.m. a bodyguard gave her CPR before she was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m. Her death was caused by an accidental overdose.
Smith was addicted to prescription medications. A psychiatrist said in court in 2010 that she was a member of hospital staff in 2006, when Smith was a patient. The psychiatrist said Smith had borderline personality disorder.
Ciao (magazine)
Sorting algorithm
A sorting algorithm is an algorithm that puts the elements of a collection into a certain order. Most commonly, numbers are sorted by their value, and words are sorted by their lexicographic order (as they would appear in a dictionary or phone book). Efficient sorting is important for other things: finding an element in a sorted collection is easier, and merging a new element may also be easier if the collection is sorted.
Note that not all sorting algorithms can be applied in all cases. An example might be that the records can only be read one after another (sequentially); they might be stored on a tape.
Ciao
The word "ciao" is a greeting in Italian. It is used for both "hello" and "goodbye". It is less formal than other greetings in Italian, such as "buongiorno" or "salve".
The word originally comes from the Venetian language. It is also sometimes used by English speakers and speakers of other languages around the world. Other words that mean both "hello" and "goodbye" are "shalom" in Hebrew, "salaam" in Arabic, "annyeong" in Korean, and "aloha" in Hawaiian. In Vietnamese, the word "chào" also means "hello" or "goodbye". It sounds similar, but is not related to the Italian word.
LaTeX
LaTeX is a computer program used for making articles, books and mathematical formulas more aesthetically pleasing. LaTeX is well-suited for expressing mathematical formulas on electronic devices in a more human readable format, by allowing them to be shown in a format similar to how they would be written in many textbooks or by hand.
LaTeX is used for making mathematical formulas for some articles on Wikipedia, in addition to being used within academic circles.
The writer types their article into a plain text document. A plain text document cannot have styled text, like bold or italic. When the writer wants to write styled text, they use computer commands. For example, the command for bold text is <nowiki>\textbf{This text is bold}</nowiki>.
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LaTeX was first made in the early 1980s by Leslie Lamport at SRI International, who published its first manual in 1986. The current version is LaTeX2e (styled ), which has been active since 1994.
The example below shows the LaTeX input and its corresponding output:
In order to support mathematical typesetting, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) has made the AMS-LaTeX package. AMS also founded MathJax, a Javascript extension to display mathematical formulas on web browsers, with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
First War of Scottish Independence
The First War of Scottish Independence lasted from the outbreak of the war in 1296 until the 1328.
The Scots were defeated at Dunbar on 27 April 1296. John Balliol abdicated in Montrose castle on 10 July 1296. John was imprisoned in the Tower of London at first, but then released into the custody of Pope Boniface VIII on condition that he remain in a papal residence. He was later released around the summer of 1301 and lived the rest of his life on his family's estates in Picardy.
But his supporters argued that he was still the rightful King of Scotland. Therefore, the Scots rose in rebellion in 1297 under William Wallace and Andrew de Moray and said they were acting on behalf of King John. But in fact Scotland had no monarch until the accession of Robert the Bruce in 1306.
John of Scotland