Tom Welling (born 26 April 1977) is an American actor and is the main character on Smallville as Clark Kent.
Make Way for Ducklings
Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. It was first printed in 1941. The book is about two mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the middle of Boston, Massachusetts.
"Make Way for Ducklings" won the 1942 Caldecott Medal for McCloskey's pictures, drawn in charcoal, then lithographed on zinc. In 2003, the book had sold more than two million copies. The book was so popular a statue of a mother duck and her eight ducklings were set up in the Public Garden. In 1991, Barbara Bush gave a copy of this statue to Raisa Gorbachev as part of the START Treaty, and the work is in Moscow's Novodevichy Park.
The book is the official children's book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The book is still highly praised for over 60 years because of its pictures and pace. However, it was criticised for having a loose plot (story) and weak characters. The book is very popular around the world.
Sequence dance
Sequence dancing is a form of dance in which there is a preset pattern of movements, to music. The music is usually also preset. Sequence dancing may include dances of many different styles. The term may include ballroom dances, which move round the floor, as well as line, square and circle dances.
Sequence dancing in general is much older than modern ballroom dances. With the exception of the waltz, invented around 1800, all dances in ballrooms were sequence dances until the early 20th century. The quadrille was one example, the minuet another.
After modern ballroom dancing developed, in England, sequence dancing continued. It included so-called 'Old Time' dances and also adapted versions of the new ballroom dances, and then versions of Latin dances. Sequence dancing is a competitive sport as well as a social pastime.
The British Sequence Championships is the most famous annual sequence dance competition and is part of the Blackpool Sequence Dance Festival. This is held in the Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens, Blackpool, England, since 1949.
Škoda Felicia
The Škoda Felicia was a car produced by Škoda Auto. It replaced the Favorit in 1994 with a facelift in 1998. Its successor, Škoda Fabia, was introduced in 1999, but the Felicia still continued until 2001 in estate form until it was replaced by the Fabia version.
Minos
Minos was the mythical first king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. The following stories are mythological, and have no real historical basis.
Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in the underworld.
He once had a wife named Pasophae. Minos upset the Greek gods by cheating them in a sacrifice. He told Poseidon that he would sacrifice a beautiful bull that Poseidon gave him after he used it. Instead, he switched it with another bull. They punished him by having Pasophae fall in love with a bull.
Pasophae asked Daedalus to help her, so Daedalus made a mechanical cow for her, and she got into it. The bull mated with the wooden cow and Pasophae had a child. It was the Minotaur, half human, half bull.
King Minos took the Minotaur and put it in a labrynth, or maze, built by Daedalus. When he was in possession of all of Crete he ordered that fourteen young people come to him to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theseus volunteered to be one of them, and went there with daughter, Ariadne. He killed the Minotaur in the labyrinth.
The Minoan civilization was later named after him by Arthur Evans. Evans was the archaeologist who discovered and excavated the palace of Knossos in Crete.
Paso doble
The Paso doble is a dance and music based on the Spanish bullfight. It is the music played at bullfights at the procession of the bullfighters, between stages, and at the end of each session. The dance is based on the way matadors perform in the ring.
In the dance, the man takes the part of the matador, and the woman takes the part of the man's cape ("not" the bull!). The man's stance (the way he stands) should be proud, and when he has a free arm it should be held slightly bent, rather as matadors do. The photograph of the ice dancers gives a perfect example of what dancers should aim for in this style.
The paso doble is one of the five International Latin ballroom dances. It gives a very good contrast in style with the four other dances. Although so Spanish in style and origin, the dance techniques were first developed in Paris. Later, in mid 20th century London, the Latin and American dances took on their present form.
The music is scored in 2/4 time. It is a march-like type of music, and as a dance it is a two-step ("paso doble" = two-step). It is played at about 60/62 bars (measures) a minute for dancers.
The most famous piece of paso doble music is the "España Cañí" or "Spanish Gypsy Dance". A sample of "La Gracia de Dios" gives an idea of the rhythm.
Daedalus
Daedalus was King Minos' head architect in ancient Greece and son of Athena. When King Minos of Crete was having some sovereignty problems, he asked Poseidon, god of the sea, for an offering to sacrifice to him as a sign as true kingship. So Poseidon sent a snow-white bull straight out of the sea foam. Once the people of Crete saw the bull, they all agreed that it was a sign of true kingship. However, once King Minos saw the bull, he refused to sacrifice the bull, kept it for himself, and sacrificed another bull to Poseidon, thus angering him. Poseidon put a curse on Minos’ wife, making her fall in love with the bull. She loved it so much that she wanted to mate with it. Minos called for the help of Daedalus, who built a wooden bull and put Queen Pasiphae inside it, thus calming her anxiety for mating with the bull. She soon became pregnant with half-man, half-bull (also called the Minotaur).
King Minos was horrified and asked Daedalus to build some kind of prison to keep the Minotaur from destroying Crete. So Daedalus built a labyrinth that was so complicated that the Minotaur could not get out. Only Daedalus knew the course of the labyrinth. Minos was afraid that Daedalus would tell the route through the labyrinth, and that he would tell that the Minotaur was the son of Minos' wife, he imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus, in a high tower. Daedalus made some wings that he strapped to his and Icarus’ arms and together they escaped from the tower. However, Icarus, forgetting his father’s words, flew too close to the sun, and the wax that held the feathers together melted. Icarus fell into the ocean and drowned. Daedalus landed safely on an island, and in grief, he named the sea that he and Icarus had flown across the Icarian Sea.
Emergency medical dispatcher
An emergency medical dispatcher is a person who answers telephone calls to the emergency medical services and sends out the ambulances. For each call they much decide if an ambulance is needed and which one should be sent. They also help the caller with their problems until the ambulance arrives.
Santa Cruz, Chile
Santa Cruz is a Chilean commune in the Province of Colchagua, O'Higgins. The town was founded as Santa Cruz de Unco, in an unknown date.
Bircham International University
Bircham International University is an educational institution of higher education. It uses distance education. It offers adult degree programs. It is registered in Spain and Delaware. In the past it operated from the Bahamas or the United Kingdom. It has no recognized educational accreditation in any of these places.