During his life, Escher made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings. He did over 2000 drawings and sketches. He also illustrated books, designed tapestries, postage stamps and murals. Escher was interested in different ways of making art, he used tile-like repeated patterns in many of his paintings. Early in his career he drew inspirations of nature: he studied art, landscapes and insects. Some of Escher’s most famous drawings include: "Drawing hands", "Relativity" and "Flying Fish". Most of his works were related to maths.
Adit
An adit is a type of entrance to a mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal. Adits are usually built into the side of a hill or mountain, and often occur when coal or ore is located inside the mountain but above the local valley floor or coastal plain. The use of adits is generally called "drift mining".
Mitsubishi A5M Claude
The A5M Claude was a Japanese fighter aircraft made by Mitsubishi. It first flew in 1935 and was introduced in 1937. It was the first monoplane (fixed-wing aircraft with one set of wings) that could work from an aircraft carrier. It was similar to the P-26 Peashooter, an American monoplane fighter. It fought in the second Sino-Japanese War. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, it was not good enough to fight against American fighters like the Curtiss P-40 and the F4F Wildcat, so it was replaced by the A6M Zero.
Near the end of WW2, many A5M’s were pulled out of retirement to be used as suicidal kamikaze aircraft.
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the biggest city in the U.S. state of Alabama, with about 230,000 people living in it. It is the county seat of Jefferson County. Its metropolitan area has over 1 million people living in it. The city has an area of about and an elevation of above sea level.
Birmingham was founded in 1871. Three smaller towns came together to make one, which grew into a large town. It was named after Birmingham, England, a British industrial city. The Alabama city is famous for its iron ore, coal, and limestone, which are used in making steel.
Birmingham became famous around the world when a bomb exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sunday September 15, 1963. Four young black girls were killed. A member of the Ku Klux Klan was charged for the bombing many years later. Richard Farina wrote a sad song called "Birmingham Sunday" in 1964 to the tune of "I Love A Lass". It has been recorded by several singers, including Joan Baez.
Independent Women Part I
"Independent Women (Part I)" is an R&B song written by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé Knowles, Sam Barnes, Jen-Claude Olivier, and Cory Rooney for Destiny's Child's third studio album, "Survivor" (2001), only considered as a bonus track. It was produced by Knowles, Rooney, and Poke & Tone and first appeared on the soundtrack to the film "Charlie's Angels". Released as both the soundtrack's and album's first single in fall 2000, the song held the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eleven consecutive weeks from November 2000 to February 2001. Although, for the United Kingdom, it was released on the same day, with both Part I and Part II counting as the song release.
The music video was directed by Francis Lawrence. At the end, the women are greeted by the ever-mysterious "Charlie".
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in the north of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is in Madison County. It extends west into Limestone county. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The 2000 census showed that Huntsville has a population of 158,216 people. In 2009, the population grew to 179,653. The Huntsville Metropolitan Area's population was estimated at 406,316.
John Hunt first settled in Huntsville in 1805. The town was named Twickenham after Alexander Pope's home town at the request of Leroy Pope. However, the town was renamed to "Huntsville" on November 25, 1811. It has grown across nearby hills and along the Tennessee River. It has textile mills and also munitions factories. Also in this city are NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command at the Redstone Arsenal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Huntsville to its "America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2010" list.
Huntsville is named after John Hunt. He was the first settler of the land around the Big Spring Park. However, Hunt did not correctly register his claim. The area was purchased by Leroy Pope, who imposed the name Twickenham on the area to honour the home village of his kinsman Alexander Pope.
Twickenham was carefully planned. The streets were built from the northeast to southwest direction based on the Big Spring ("see images below"). However, due to anti-English feeling during the War of 1812, the town name was changed to Huntsville to honour John Hunt, who had been forced to move to other land south of the new city.
Both John Hunt and Leroy Pope were Freemasons and charter members of Helion Lodge.
In 1811, Huntsville became the first official town in Alabama. However, the recognized "birth" year of the city is 1805. This was the year of John Hunt's arrival. The city's sesquicentennial anniversary was held in 1955 and the bicentennial was celebrated in 2005.
Huntsville's quick growth was generated by the cotton and railroad industries. Many rich planters moved to the area from Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. The forty-four delegates who met in Huntsville wrote a constitution for the new state of Alabama. The new state constitution said that Huntsville is Alabama's first capital. This was temporary for one legislative session only. The capital was then moved to another temporary location, Cahawba, until the legislature selected Montgomery as the permanent location.
In 1855, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was built through Huntsville. It became the first railway to link the Atlantic coast with the lower Mississippi River.
Huntsville firstly opposed secession from the Union in 1861, but provided many men for the state's defense. The 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment, led by Col. Egbert J. Jones of Huntsville, fought at the Battle of Manassas. It was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The Fourth Alabama Infantry, which contained two Huntsville companies, were the first Alabama troops to fight in the war. Eight generals of the war were born in or near Huntsville.
After the Civil War, Huntsville became a center for cotton textile mills, such as Lincoln, Dallas and Merrimack. Each mill had its own housing community. It included everything the mill workers needed (schools, churches, grocery stores, theatres, and hardware stores, all within walking distance of the mill).
During the 1930s, industry decreased in Huntsville because of the Great Depression. Huntsville became known as the Watercress Capital of the World because of its harvest in the area. Madison County produced most cotton in Alabama during this time.
By 1940, Huntsville was still a small quiet town with a population of only 13,150 inhabitants. This quickly changed with the beginning of World War II. Huntsville was chosen as the location of Huntsville Arsenal, with chemical and munitions manufacturing plants. The Arsenal was almost closed in 1949 when it was no longer needed, but it saw new life when Major General Holger Toftoy with support from Senator John Sparkman convinced the U.S. Army to choose Huntsville as the location for its missile research program. In 1950, General Toftoy brought German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and his team to Redstone Arsenal to develop what would eventually become the United States' space program.
On September 8, 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicated the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.