Below the staging lights are three large amber lights, a green light, and a red light. When both drivers are staged, the tree is set to start the race causing the three large amber lights to illuminate, followed by the green light. If the front tires leave the starting line before the green light illuminates, the red light for that driver's lane illuminates instead. This indicates disqualification (unless a more serious violation occurs). Once a driver commits a red-light foul (also known as "redlighting"), the other driver can also commit a foul start by leaving the line too early but still win, having left later. Should both drivers leave after the green light illuminates, the one leaving first is said to have a "holeshot advantage".
The first vehicle to cross the finish line wins the race. The elapsed time is a measure of performance only; it does not determine the winner. Because elapsed time does not include reaction time and each lane is timed separately, a car with a slower elapsed time can actually win if that driver's holeshot advantage exceeds the elapsed time difference. This is known as a "holeshot win".
Several measurements are taken for each race: reaction time, elapsed time, and speed. Reaction time is the period from the lighting of the green light to the vehicle leaving the starting line. Elapsed time is the time from the vehicle leaving the starting line to crossing the finish line. Speed is measured through a speed trap covering the final to the finish line, indicating the approximate maximum speed of the vehicle during the run.
In the standard racing format, the losing car and driver are removed from the contest and the winner goes on to race other winners. This continues until only one is left.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) oversees most of drag racing events in North America. The next largest organization, Feld Entertainment's International Hot Rod Association (IHRA), is about one-third the size of NHRA. Nearly all drag strips are associated with one sanctioning body or the other. The NHRA is more popular with large, 1/4-mile, nationally recognized, tracks., The IHRA is a favorite of smaller 1/8-mile local tracks (and offers selected races on their national tour under the 1/8-mile format). One reason for this is the IHRA is less restrictive in its rules, such as rules on nitrous oxide (legal in Pro Modified) and oversized engines.
Dragstrip
A dragstrip is a facility for conducting automobile and motorcycle acceleration events such as drag racing. Although a quarter mile (402 m) is the best known measure for a drag track, many tracks are eighth mile (201 m) tracks. The race is begun from a standing start. Three factors decide the outcome of the race: reaction time, torque, and traction.
A dragstrip is a straight racetrack, usually an eighth or a quarter of a mile long (660/1320 feet, 201/402 metres), followed by a "shutdown area" to allow automobiles room to stop after crossing the finish line. Common features also include a 'water box' where cars and motorcycles start their burn-outs to clean and heat up their tires to improve traction. There is a set of lights known as a 'Christmas Tree' that counts down to the start. There are also return lanes for the vehicles to return from the end of the track to the pit area.
Olympia (painting)
Olympia is an 1863 oil painting by Édouard Manet. When it was first exhibited in 1865, the subject of the painting was controversial.
Manet reworked Giorgione's "The Sleeping Venus" (c. 1510) and Titian's "Venus of Urbino" (c. 1538) in creating "Olympia". "Olympia" may also take inspiration from Francisco Goya's "La maja desnuda" (c. 1800). This is uncertain however. Victorine Meurent was Manet's model for "Olympia". She posed as a bullfighter for him and also for the "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" of 1862-63. Manet painted "Olympia" in the autumn of 1863. The work was first seen by the public at the 1865 Salon in Paris. Manet delayed showing the painting because he feared it might produce some negative reactions.
"Olympia" did produce negative reactions: people hated it. Some people thought the painting was immoral and vulgar. Critic Paul de Saint-Victor wrote in "La Presse", "People throng in front of Manet's putrid "Olympia" as they would in front of a body in the Morgue. This is art fallen so low that it is not even worthy of censure". Nathaniel Harris writes, "In reviewing "Olympia" Gautier wrote that the model was puny, the bed covered with cat's footprints, the general effect ugly: but then he made the point that "we would forgive the ugliness, were it only truthful ... The least beautiful woman has bones, muscles, skin, and some sort of colour", whereas on this woman the flesh colour was dirty and the modeling non-existent." Some liked the painting. Émile Zola said it was Manet's "masterpiece". He added, "When other artists correct nature by painting Venus they lie. Manet asked himself why he should lie. Why not tell the truth?" In 1866 Zola wrote with tongue-in-cheek, "If only Manet had borrowed a powder puff ... and had lightly powdered Olympia's cheeks and her breasts she would have been a bit more presentable".
Modern art historian Nathaniel Harris writes, "..."Olympia" was an erotic shock ... Manet presented a young woman with erotic modern trappings ... that served to emphasize her nakedness ... To add to the puzzlement of the ordinary man, Olympia's gaze was not in the least inviting, or provocative, or even enigmatic ... it was simply neutral ... [N]eutrality ... was one more affront to the 19th-century male, whose picture-women were supposed to yield, to comply ... Here the girl is cool and confident, and it is the setting and properties that suggest sexualityperhaps a commercialized sexuality that is none too reassuring to the male ego."
Filipinos
Filipinos are a group of people from the Philippines, a country in Southeast Asia. They speak any of the Philippine languages. Most Filipinos also speak English as a second language in addition to other native Philippine languages. Most Filipinos are Christian, with a Muslim minority in Mindanao. Due to colonial influence, Filipino culture is a blend of Spanish, American, and indigenous cultures.
Little Dancer of Fourteen Years
Little Dancer of Fourteen Years () (1881) is a statue by Edgar Degas. The work measures 81 inches in height. The subject is a young dance student named Marie van Goethem. The relationship between van Goethem and Degas is uncertain. It was not unusual for the young dancers of the Paris Opera to seek protectors from among the well-heeled visitors at the back door of the opera.
The statue was shown in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881. It received mixed reviews. Most critics were shocked by the piece. They thought it was ugly. Degas exhibited it inside a glass case. Some thought it was a medical specimen. The head and face were thought grotesque and primitive.
The dancer is dressed in a cotton skirt and is wearing a hair ribbon. For a finishing touch Degas used a wig made of real hair. He covered it with wax. The only parts not covered with wax were the ribbon given to him by van Goethem and the tutu. Each museum that shows this figure gives it a different tutu. The original wax model was acquired by Paul Mellon in 1956.
The sculpture was originally made in wax before it was cast in bronze. Degas's wife and daughter made the decision to have 27 of them cast in bronze. The casting was undertaken at the Hébrard foundry in Paris from 1920 until the mid-20th century. These statues posthumous Degas bronzes can be seen in many museums. Sixty-nine original sculptures in wax and mixed-media survived the casting process.
List of heavy mortars
Heavy mortars are large-calibre mortars which fire a heavy shell on a high angle trajectory. These weapons have a short range, but are usually less complex than similar sized field artillery.