A minority of people are left-handed.
In fact, nearly everyone is right-handed, so we can say that the "vast majority" are right-handed, and only a "small minority" are left-handed.
If a political party or candidate gets a majority of votes, it means that they get more than all the other parties together. In Plurality voting, they only get more than any one of the others. Thus if there are three parties, the winning party may have a plurality of 40% while the other two each have 30%. A "true majority" or "absolute majority" means more votes than all the other parties together, i.e. more than half the total votes.
Charles Koechlin
Charles Koechlin (pronounce:”Ke-klin” with “klin” to rhyme with French “vin”), (born Paris, November 27 1867; died Le Canadel, December 31 1950) was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He wrote a very large amount of music, but very little of it was published because he was more interested in helping younger composers than making himself well-known. Some of his best works include his symphonic poems and his film music.
Koechlin was born in Paris, the youngest child of a large and rich family. His mother’s family came from the Alsace near the French border with Germany, and he was proud of his Alsatian background. His grandfather on his mother’s side had started a cotton textile firm in Mulhouse and his father worked in the textile business. When Koechlin was 14 his father died. He showed an interest in music, but his family wanted him to be an artillery officer. However, he had tuberculosis and had to spent six months getting better in Algeria. After finishing his schooling he was allowed to enter the Paris Conservatoire in 1890. Two years later he was studying composition with Massenet, and in 1896 he was a pupil of Gabriel Fauré. Ravel was a pupil in the same class. Fauré had a big influence on Koechlin who wrote a book about him and helped him to arrange some of his music for orchestra.
Koechlin became a freelance composer and teacher. He married Suzanne Pierrard in 1903 and they had five children. At first he was comfortably off, but after World War I the family lost a lot of money and they had to sell their country house.
Koechlin had very free views about music, and this is probably why he never got a teaching job at the Piano Conservatoire. He also agreed with some things that the Communists thought. He did not like modern inventions like the telephone and radio. He looked like an old Russian patriarch with his long beard. He dressed in velvet trousers, sandals and a shepherd’s cape for bad weather. He liked outdoor activities such as swimming and mountaineering. He was offered the Legion d’honneur in 1940 but refused it.
Koechlin composed in a variety of styles, even changing the style during a piece. He often liked quiet music with long chords which are played for the sounds they make rather than for giving the music a traditional shape. Sometimes there were no barlines in his music. He often composed in his head while on a train or climbing a mountain.
His works for orchestra include "Les Bandarlogs" which was based on the "Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling’s “Bandarlog” are a troupe of monkeys in the forest. The music describes the monkeys, but Koechlin also gives it another meaning: he is criticising music critics, comparing them to monkeys. In the "Seven Stars Symphony" each movement is about a famous film star. They include Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Charlie Chaplin. He wrote a lot of chamber music and piano music, including some dances for Ginger Rogers.
Robert Orledge, "Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) His Life and Works" (London, 1989)
Jastrzębie-Zdrój
Jastrzębie-Zdrój is a city in Poland in Silesian Voivodeship. It has about 94,072 inhabitants and an area of 85,44 km².
Palm (unit)
A palm, when used as a unit of length, is usually four digits ("fingers") or three inches, i.e. 7.62 cm (for the international inch).
In English this unit is no longer in use as other units that are based on the human arm: digit (¼ palm), finger (7/24 palm), hand (4/3 palms), shaftment (2 palms), span (3 palms), cubit (6 palms) and ell (15 palms).
Schnapps
Schnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic drink. The word "schnapps" comes from the German word schnaps.
Traditional German schnapps are usually clear alcoholic drinks which are distilled from fermented cereals, roots, and fruits. Traditional German schnapps has no sugar or other flavoring added. It is similar in look and flavor to vodka with light fruit flavors. The alcohol content is usually around 40%.
The other type of schnapps is American. This type of schnapps is a liqueur that has sugar and flavorings such as peach, mint, or butterscotch. The alcohol content of American schnapps is usually only about 20%, which is lower than German-style schnapps.
Standard time
Standard time is putting all clocks in a time zone to the same time.
Standard time can also be used to mean the time without daylight saving time. Standard time happens from autumn to early spring. Daylight saving time happens from early spring to autumn.
Standard time was first used by British railways on December 11, 1847, when they switched from local mean time to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Almost all of Great Britain's public clocks were using GMT by 1855.
Before 1883, local mean time was used in all of North America. This meant there were many different local times. This caused problems for train schedules. Sandford Fleming, a Canadian, proposed standard time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute on February 8, 1879. The owners of the major railroads met in Chicago to make the Standard Time System. Most states began using the system soon after the railroads. The U.S. government officially began using the system almost fifty years later.
Some people do not like standard time (and daylight saving time). Some people do not like it because they do not trust in government. Others believe that it disturbs circadian rhythms. Others simply like traditional, natural markers of time, like sunsets, noon and sunrise.
Span
Span could mean:
Span (unit of length)
Span is the width of a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the pinky finger.
In Slavic language, the analogue of span is pyad ("peti, пядь"). It is the width from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger.
Acting President of the United States
The Acting President of the United States is a person who temporarily acts as President when the president is unable to carry out their duties, but remains in office. The position was created by the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Acting President possesses all Presidential powers and duties during the time of their term but does not become the President, instead serving only as Acting President. This term lasts until the President declares in writing that they are no longer unable to execute the duties of their office themselves.
To date there have been two acting Presidents. Both were Vice Presidents:
Electric power transmission
Electric power transmission is the transmitting of electricity to places where it will be used. Specifically, it is the bulk transfer of electrical power from the power plant to substations near populated areas. Electric power distribution is the delivery from the substation to the consumers. Due to the large amount of power and long distances, transmission normally takes place at high voltage (110 kV or above).
Electricity is usually transmitted over long distance through overhead power transmission lines. Underground power transmission is used only in densely populated areas (such as large cities) because of the high cost of installation and maintenance and because the power losses increase dramatically compared with overhead transmission unless superconductors and cryogenic technology are used.