George Washington, who became President in 1789, chose Hamilton to be the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. While in this job, he supported a national bank and invented a way to pay the debt that the country owed for the Revolutionary War. He helped start the Federalist Party. John Adams was a member, and Washington supported the party though he was not a member. After being Secretary of the Treasury he worked as a lawyer and continued to lead the Federalist Party.
Hamilton said he was very anti-slavery. Along with John Jay he was a leader of the New York Manumission Society. The society worked to end slavery in New York by getting slave owners to choose to free their slaves. However, he bought and sold slaves for himself, his family, and his friends.
Hamilton also had great respect for the small Jewish community in America and was a major supporter of religious freedom.
In 1800 Hamilton's political rival Thomas Jefferson beat the Federalist John Adams. Jefferson and Hamilton had very different ideas about the direction the new country should take, although both were important founding fathers.
Hamilton had a long-time rivalry with Jefferson's vice president Aaron Burr. This resulted in the Burr–Hamilton duel of 1804 in which Burr killed Hamilton. Hamilton kept Burr from being re-nominated for Vice President. He also kept him from becoming Governor of New York. Burr responded by challenging Hamilton to a duel. They agreed to meet July 11, 1804 at Weehawken, New Jersey. Dueling was illegal in New York which is why they chose Weehawken. It was also the site where Philip Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's son, had been killed in a duel three years earlier. The night before the duel, Hamilton wrote his will, letters to friends, and finally a letter to his wife. At dawn the next morning the two met at Weehawken. Without any discussion, the two men took their positions. Unusual for a duel of this kind, the two fired about 4–5 seconds apart. Who fired first is not known today. Burr's bullet struck Hamilton and knocked him down. Then Burr promptly turned and left. The bullet went through Hamilton's ribs, and damaged his lungs and liver. Hamilton was taken to a friend's house in Manhattan where his wife and children joined him. He asked two ministers to give him Communion but was refused. Finally the Episcopal Bishop Benjamin Moore gave him the sacrament. Hamilton died the next morning.
Hamilton is shown on the face of the U.S. 10 dollar bill. Hamilton is one of only two non-presidents honored on commonly used notes. Some of Hamilton's words are still quoted. For example,
"I never expect a perfect work from imperfect man." -The Federalist #25
Hamilton was the founder of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which in 1915 became the United States Coast Guard. For that reason, he is considered the father of the United States Coast Guard. He was a staunch constitutionalist who, unlike several of the founding fathers, believed in a strong central government. During his life he was involved in nearly every major political event from the Revolution to the election of 1800. His writings fill a staggering 27 volumes. Yet he is probably the least well understood of any of the founding fathers. By the time of Hamilton's death, the Federalist Party he had helped start was in decline. Hamilton and the Federalists had convinced Washington to create a central bank, assume the debts of the states and pass tax laws. There is little doubt these moves helped save the new democracy.
Hamilton is the subject of the 2015 Broadway Musical, "Hamilton". It was written by and stars Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role.
Köbes
A Köbes (pronounced like 'kur-bess') is a waiter in traditional pubs in the Rhineland part of Germany, especially in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Krefeld.
A Köbes wears a blue apron and blue jacket and has a big leather belt with a leather purse. He serves beer and food to guests and replaces empty beer glasses with full ones until the customer either places a beermat on his glass to signal that he doesn't want any more, or until the customer asks to pay.
The word "Köbes" comes from the name Jakob in a local dialect.
Stop-motion
Stop motion is a way of animation which makes it look like still objects are moving. Clay animation is a good example of how stop motion is used.
Stop-motion requires any camera that can make single frames (or photos). It works by shooting a single frame, moving the object a little bit, and capturing a frame again. Cartoons use a similar way; one of the main differences is that stop motion uses real objects instead of drawn.
Tim Burton, Will Vinton and the Aardman studio have used this method in their productions.
D.C. United
D.C. United is a Major League Soccer league soccer (or football) team that plays in Washington, D.C. in the United States. Its nickname is "the Black-and-Red".
Wendy Carlos
Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos, November 14, 1939) is an American composer and musician. She was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She is known as one of the first people to use electric instruments to make music. In 1968, she released her music album "Switched on Bach". This album used many new electric instruments including the Moog Synthesizer. It won three Grammy Awards. She also did the music for movies. These include "A Clockwork Orange", "The Shining", and "Tron". In 1972, Carlos had a medical operation to change her body from male to female.
Boolean algebra
In mathematics, Boolean algebra is an algebra for binary digits (where 0 means false and 1 means true). It is equipped with three operators: conjunction (AND), disjunction (OR) and negation (NOT). It uses normal math symbols, but it does not work in the same way. It is named for George Boole, who invented it in the middle 19th century. Boolean algebra did not get much attention except from mathematicians until the 20th century when engineers began using it for logic gates.
The NOT operator is written with a bar over numbers or letters like this:
It means that the output is "not" the input.
The AND operator is written as formula_4 like this:
The output is true if and only if one and the other input is true.
The OR operator is written as formula_9 like this:
If one or the other input is true, then the output to be true (and false otherwise).
XOR basically means "exclusive or", meaning one input or the other must be true, but not both. It is also sometimes called NOR, which means the same thing.
The XOR operator is written as formula_14 like this:
In other words, the XOR operator returns true precisely when one or the other input is true—but not both.
Different gates can be put together in different orders:
It is not the same as a NOT then an AND: formula_20
which is called "XOR identity table"
, if
formula_23.
or if formula_24=TRUE, TRUE.,
Augustus De Morgan discovered that it is possible to preserve the truth values of Boolean expressions by changing a formula_9 sign to a formula_4 sign, while making or breaking a bar. That is:
These findings are commonly known as De Morgan's laws.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the US under the title "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone") is the first book in the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling. It was published in 1997 and a movie version was shown in theaters in 2001.
This is the first book in a series of seven about the wizard Harry Potter, and therefore the author begins by setting the scene and introducing the reader to some of the characters.