People have set aside a special day for playing jokes for centuries. The ancient Romans had a holiday called Hilaria.
In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April 1. Some people think that April Fools' started because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates.
In the U.K., a person playing a joke would yell "April Fool!" at the recipient. According to tradition, the joking was supposed to stop at midday.
In the Nordic countries, many news outlets would publish or broadcast a fake news story on April 1.
In France, an April fools joke is called a "Poisson d'Avril'. One tradition there is to try and stick a paper fish on one's friends back, and shout "Poisson d'Avril!' when it is discovered.
Sometimes a large media corporation would broadcast or publish a fake news story on April 1. For example, in 1957 the BBC broadcast a story about spaghetti trees. According to the story, people in Switzerland grew spaghetti on trees. Later, many people called the BBC asking how they could get a spaghetti tree.
Baroque music
Baroque music is a set of styles of European classical music which were in use between about 1600 and 1750.
The word "Baroque" is used in other art forms besides music: we talk about Baroque architecture, painting, sculpture, dance and literature. The Baroque period comes between the Renaissance and the period of Classicism.
Musicians think of the Baroque period as starting around 1600. The famous Renaissance composers Palestrina and Lassus had died a few years earlier. Claudio Monteverdi wrote some music in Renaissance style, and other music in Baroque style. Opera was being invented. It was a time of musical change.
The change from writing music in the Baroque style to the Classical style was much more gradual. 1750 is the year that Bach died, so it is an easy date to choose for the end of the Baroque period.
The Baroque was a time when people liked large spaces and a lot of ornamentation. This can be seen in the architecture of famous buildings such as St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, or St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. They were built at this time. In Venice there were churches with galleries on either side of the church. Composers liked to write music for two groups of musicians placed in opposite galleries. Giovanni Gabrieli wrote a lot of music like this.
The idea of two contrasting groups was used a lot in Baroque music. Composers wrote concertos. These were pieces for orchestra and a solo instrument. Sometimes a concerto contrasted a group of soloists with the rest of the orchestra. These are called by the Italian name "Concerti Grossi. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are good examples.
Organs, and some harpsichords, had at least two manuals (keyboards). The player could change from one manual to the other, contrasting two different sounds.
Baroque music was often a melody with a bass line at the bottom. This could be, for example, a singer and a cello. There was also a harpsichord or organ that played the bass line as well, and made up chords in between. Often the composer did not bother to write out all the chords (harmonies) but just showed some of the chords by figures, leaving it to the performer to decide exactly which notes to play. This is called “figured bass” or “basso continuo”. The soloist, who played or sang the melody on top, often put in lots of ornamental notes. Again: the composer did not write this all down but left it to the performer to improvise something nice around the notes he had written.
Because composers were now writing opera it was important for the audience to hear the words clearly. In the Renaissance the groups of a choir were often singing several different words using different melodies all at once. This was called “polyphony”. Polyphony was widely used in instrumental music, but was not used in opera, which needed to tell a story without being confusing.
When a soloist in an opera sings a song (an aria) the aria is in a particular mood. They called this “affection”. There were several “affections” or moods: there were arias about revenge, jealousy, anger, love, despair, peaceful happiness etc. Each movement in a concerto also had one particular mood. Music from later periods is different. For example: Haydn in the Classical Period would often change its mood during a piece.
The Baroque suite is a collection of dance movements written in the style of Baroque music. There is an accepted standard order in which the dances are performed. The five primary dances are the Overture, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue. Many times a composer would add a Prelude before all the dances. Sometimes a composer would add another piece in between the Sarabande and the Gigue.
There are many exceptions to the standard order, but the order of Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Other, and Gigue is most common. This can be easily remembered by the acronym PACSOG.
Here are a few of the most important composers of the Baroque period:
Canyon
A canyon (or gorge) is a big crack in the ground, or a very deep valley. Most canyons are made by rivers. A few are made by earthquakes. They can be big, like the Grand Canyon, or small.
Canyons can be formed by erosion by running water which will take rocks and soil away.
Pattern language
Pattern language is used to mean a system of patterns that have a certain meaning other than just the pattern.
The pattern can be a pattern which has a hidden meaning shown through any sense like sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
The most obvious form of sight-based pattern language comes in the form of writing. Nearly every language has a unique written form, which grammatically follows the spoken form.
National Maritime Day
In the United States, National Maritime Day is held every May 22 to honor people who have served in the United States Merchant Marine service.
The first National Maritime Day was May 22, 1933, based on a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress on May 20, 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first President to issue a proclamation about the day.
The biggest National Maritime Day celebration was in 1946, the first National Maritime Day after the Allied Powers won World War II. That year, governors of many U.S. states also officially named the day National Maritime Day or "Maritime Day" for their state. The first National Maritime Day after the end of the Korean War, in 1954, was also more widely celebrated than most.
In the 2006 annual proclamation by president George W. Bush, he made special mention of the Merchant Marine service's hurricane aid work following Hurricane Katrina and the other hurricanes of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process of making a single heavy nucleus (part of an atom) from two lighter nuclei. This process is called a nuclear reaction. It releases a large amount of energy.
The nucleus made by fusion is heavier than either of the starting nuclei. However, it is not as heavy as the combination of the original mass of the starting nuclei (atoms). This lost mass is changed into lots of energy. This is shown in Einstein's famous "E=mc" equation.
Fusion happens in the middle of stars, like the Sun. Hydrogen atoms are fused together to make helium. This releases lots of energy. This energy powers the heat and light of the star.
Not all elements can be joined. Heavier elements are less easily joined than lighter ones. Iron (a metal) cannot fuse with other atoms. This is what causes stars to die. Stars join all of their atoms together to make heavier atoms of different types, until they start to make iron. The iron nucleus cannot fuse with other nuclei. The reactions stop. The star eventually will cool down and die.