Franz Kafka (born Prague July 3, 1883 – died near Vienna June 3, 1924) was a Czech-born, German-speaking writer. His best known works are "The Metamorphosis" and the novels "The Trial" and "The Castle". Not much of his work was published during his lifetime. He asked his friend to make sure that all his writings which were not published, including his three novels, would be destroyed when he died. Fortunately his friend did not destroy them, and they were published after Kafka’s death.
Kafka’s writings are about the frightening world around him which he often did not understand. A typical situation in his books might be someone who has gone somewhere to take a message, but he does not know what the message is or who it is for. The people he meets confuse him even more. Sometimes, when people find themselves in strange, nightmarish situations like this, they are described as Kafkaesque situations.
Kafka was born into a middle-class Jewish family. His father was a merchant. He was very strict and unkind to his family. Kafka’s stories often have fathers who are very brutal and unkind. Kafka spent most of his life living at home. He never married or became free from his parents. He felt that he had no will of his own. He wrote about people who are dominated by some mysterious power. He found it difficult to make friends, he hated his job and everyone around him. He often felt that he belonged nowhere. He was German-speaking but lived in a Czech-speaking country (Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic). He was different because he was Jewish, but he did not become part of the Jewish community either. He said that he was a socialist and an atheist, but although he was interested in politics he never took part in political activity. He supported Czechs who wanted to rule their own country and let their culture flourish, but he was not one of them because he himself was brought up in a German culture.
It was while he was studying law at the University of Prague that he met Max Brod who was to become his friend. Brod was a writer himself, and he later wrote a biography of Kafka.
After his studies Kafka took a job in an insurance company. He was good at his job although he hated it. He found the office work boring, and he spent his nights writing. In 1917 he got tuberculosis. Gradually he became more and more ill. He had to retire in 1922. He spent some time in hospital. He died in Klosterneuburg in 1924.
Several publishers realized how good Kafka’s writings were and asked him whether they could publish his works. Kafka reluctantly let a few things be published. One of these works was a story called " Metamorphosis" (German: "Die Verwandlung"). It is about a man called Gregor Samsa (the name “Samsa” means "loner" or "lonely"). Gregor wakes up one morning to find he has changed into a giant cockroach. His family becomes ashamed of him and they stop looking after him so that he slowly dies. Stories like these are a kind of fable. They are full of strange and frightening situations.
His novel "Amerika" (published in 1927) is about a man who arrives in America looking for a father figure to protect him. He is quiet and timid and other people use him. In the end he dies.
In "The Trial" (German: "Der Prozess", published in 1925), a man who works in a bank is arrested and taken to court. He is never told what he has done wrong. Even the priest tells him that if he asks what he has done wrong it proves that he is guilty. Finally he is executed.
In "The Castle" (German: "Das Schloss") a man who is simply called “K” (the first letter of “Kafka”) arrives at a castle saying that he has been given a job there, but the people there say they have not been told about his appointment. Kafka never finished the novel, but Max Brod says that Kafka was going to end it with K receiving permission to stay at the castle just as he was dying. The German word “Schloss” has two meanings: “castle” and “lock”. K becomes locked (trapped) in this strange situation.
At the time of his death only a few people understood Kafka’s writings. Max Brod saved all the unpublished books which would otherwise have been lost. Kafka is now thought of as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. His works had a lot of influence on German literature.
Eva Braun
Eva Anna Paula Braun (6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was the longtime girlfriend of Adolf Hitler. She met him in Munich when she was 17 years old. They married the day before they committed suicide (killed themselves), Braun killed herself by using cyanide. Hitler used cyanide and at the same time shot himself. When she was married, she was known as Eva Anna Paula Hitler. She was born in Munich, Germany and died in Berlin, Germany at the age of 33. Her body was burned as well as Adolf Hitler.
Computer recycling
Computer recycling means taking things from old computers and using them in new computer things. The phrase is also used to mean that computers need to be thrown away in a special way, as they often have things that are bad for the environment or dangerous inside them that can cause problems if they are thrown away like usual waste (garbage).
Sometimes people are worried that the information inside a computer will be stolen when the computer is thrown away. For example, if you have a product design on an old computer, somebody might copy your design. Big companies have a lot of computers, with a lot of private information on them. They will often pay other companies to remove all the information from a computer before it is thrown away. This usually involves physically destroying the drive. It is possible to non-destructively erase the data on a hard drive by overwriting the entire drive with random numbers. With this method, only the data is destroyed, not the drive itself. This allows the drive to be reused.
Nagasaki
Nagasaki is in the southwest of the island Kyushu.
It has been recognized as a core city since 1997.
Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the late 16th century. During the Edo period, Nagasaki was the only port in which trade with other countries was permitted because of the national isolation policy ("sakoku").
In the 1870s, Nagasaki became the capital city of the prefecture which evolved from the former province.
Nagasaki was unfounded by the United states in the mid 20th century because she was the second of two Japanese cities which were destroyed with an atomic bomb near the end of the Second World War.
Ayyavazhi
Ayyavazhi (, "path of the father"), is a religion with one god that started in South India in the middle of the 19th century. The 'zhi' () in the word, 'Ayyavazhi', is a retroflex, ri.
Ayyavazhi is considered as a branch of Hinduism, officially. It is widespread in Tamil Nadu's southern districts of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, and Tuticorin. As one of the fastest growing faiths of southern India, its growth had been noted in the Christian missionary reports of the mid-19th century.
The ideas and philosophy of the religion are based on the teachings of Ayya Vaikundar and the religious texts Akilattirattu Ammanai and Arul Nool. Most followers of Ayyavazhi do not regard themselves as different from Hinduism.
Ayyavazhi began to be seen firstly by the large number of people gathering to worship Ayya Vaikundar at Swamithoppe, which is at that time "poovandanthoppe". The majority of the followers of Ayyavazhi were from the poor group of the society. For the Christian missionaries it gives a big challenge in their converting mission from its beginning. Although the majority of these followers were from the Chanar cast, apart from Ayyavazhi sources, some outer sources too says that a large number of people from other castes also followed this religion.