There is a Prom every night (i.e. every evening) for two months during the summer. The last concert is called the “Last Night of the Proms”. It is very famous and millions of people can watch it on television in lots of countries all over the world. Some people who go to the Last Night dress up in funny clothes and wave flags. They hear a piece of music called "Fantasia on British Sea Songs", written by Henry Wood in 1905. It is based on sailors' sea shanties including a 'hornpipe'. The dance that gets faster and faster and the audience clap along, trying to keep up with the orchestra. It includes the song “Rule Britannia”. The orchestra always play Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March no 1" which has the tune "Land of Hope and Glory". The concert finishes with Parry's hymn "Jerusalem". The conductor also makes a speech.
Since 1996 there have been Proms in parks in other towns in the United Kingdom to which thousands of people can go. These all take place on the same night, and there is interactive communication between them and the Prom in the Royal Albert Hall.
One way to go to the Proms is to buy a ticket for a seat, just like any other sort of concert. But many people think the best way to go to the Proms is to be a promenader. This means having a standing place. There are two places to prom: downstairs in the arena and upstairs in the gallery. The Royal Albert Hall is round, and looks like an old Roman amphitheatre. That is why the floor downstairs is called the “arena”, like in an amphitheatre. The promenaders who stand downstairs are near the orchestra, especially the front rows. But it can be quite a squash when there are lots of people, and small children need to be near the front to see properly. The other place to promenade is upstairs in the gallery. There is more room there, and it is easy to see, and easy to sit down or even lie down when one feels tired.
A ticket to promenade costs £5. People who want to be a promenader have to wait in a queue outside and buy their ticket as they go in. Anyone who wants to be near the front should join the queue early, especially for the very popular concerts, and at the weekend. Some people queue for hours. They pass the time by talking to one another, reading or playing games. It is all good fun and part of enjoying being at the Proms.
Mount Merapi
Mount Merapi (Gunung Merapi in Indonesian) is a volcano in Indonesia. It is on the island of Java. It is conical in shape. It is the most active volcano of Indonesia. In Indonesian, the name means "mountain of fire". The volcano has been descovered by Mr Morris in 1754
In 2006, scientists believed that the volcano would erupt soon. An earthquake occurred in that region on May 27, 2006, and killed about 6,200 people. On June 6, super hot gas and ash poured down the mountain. These hot gases are known as a pyroclastic flow. Two people were killed, and 15,000 people rushed to safety.
On 25 October 2010 the Indonesian government warned villagers living near the mountain to move to safer ground. Officials said hundreds of volcanic earthquakes had been recorded on the mountain over the weekend of 23–24 October, and that the magma had risen to about 1 kilometre (3,300 ft) below the surface due to the seismic activity. People living within a 20 km (12.5 mile) zone were told they must leave.
On the afternoon of 25 October 2010 lava erupted from the southern and south-eastern slopes of Mount Merapi. Many more followed over the next two weeks. There were also pyroclastic flows.
After the recovery of more bodies, an official in disaster management said the death toll reached 273 up to 18 November.
Electrical conductor
A conductor is a material which electricity, heat or sound can flow through. An electrical conductor conducts electricity. The ability to conduct electricity is called electrical conductivity.
Most metals, like iron and copper, are electrical conductors. These metals are used to make wires to carry electric current. Plasma is an excellent conductor of electricity and is used for many purposes but metals are more used.
Impure water can also conduct electricity. Living tissues, as in the human body, are wet and therefore conductors of electricity.
Some materials are "semiconductors". This means that electricity "can" flow through them, but not very well.
Some materials are "resistors". This means that they make it very hard for electricity to flow through them.
A material that stops electric current is called an insulator (electricity). Wires are covered with insulators like plastic to stop the electricity from leaving the wire.
Some materials when really cold, are superconductors. They offer no resistance at all to the flow of electricity.
A conductor's resistance tend to get higher when the temperature also gets high.
Michelson interferometer
The Michelson interferometer is the tool used for optical interferometry.
It was invented by Albert Abraham Michelson, famous for proving the inexistence of luminiferous aether in the Michelson-Morley experiment.
There are two mirrors in the interferometer, one fixed and the other is movable through a micrometer.
There is also a beam splitter that separates the laser or light beam and a screen that shows the interference pattern.
A wide laser or light beam is first shot at the beam splitter. Reflection takes place as the beam hits the beam splitter, part of it reflects towards mirror 1 while the rest towards mirror 2. The two beams again reflect off mirror 1 and 2 and travel back to the beam splitter, the two beams that goes through the beam splitter will combine and form an interference pattern at the screen.
The interference pattern will appear as bands and each band represents 2 path length difference or 1 wavelength, that is because the crest of wave 1 has caught up with the crest of wave 2 (or the other way around), causing a constructive interference. If given the change in distance of the movable mirror and number of bands on the screen, we can easily calculate the wavelength of the light source.
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Gods Must Be Crazy is a movie directed by Jamie Uys. It was released in the United States by 20th Century Fox in 1980.
Upon its release, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" made the more money than any other foreign movie. Four sequels followed from 1989 to 1994. The last three in the series were made in Hong Kong.
It stars Namibian farmer N!xau as a Bushman, whose happy village (in Africa's Kalahari desert) suddenly turns to a violent society, after a Coke bottle falls down there from a passing airplane. The Bushman, Xixo, decides to return the bottle to the "end of the earth", to finish all the evil his family has gone through. Along the way, he meets a group of terrorists on the run, as well as a clumsy scientist who falls in love with a former newspaper journalist. During his journey, Xixo encounters modern civilisation for the first time.
Janus
Janus was a two-faced god of Roman mythology who kept the gate of Heaven. He was the god of beginnings and ends, and so of gates, doors, doorways and passages. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. The Romans named the month of January (Ianuarius) in his honor. In January we look back on the last year and forward to the next.
Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The doors of his temple were open in time of war, and closed to mark the peace. As a god of transitions, he was remembered at births, and journeys: he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping.
It was also said that his face was split in two since a door can let you in or out.
An unusual feature of the mythology is that the ancient Greeks had no version of Janus.
The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland