Realism began as an art movement and in the 19th century. These realists wanted to give an accurate description of nature and of the way people lived. Realism can also apply to artists and artworks from before the 19th century though.
The word "realism" first appeared in 1794, as the opposite of idealism in art and philosophy. The French magazine () used the word in 1826. It said that realism was the art-style of being accurate to real life, rather than following art of the past. Around this same time, realism was thought to have been one of the styles of philosophy within scholasticism. Then in the 1840s, realism began as an art movement in France. It focused on realistic modern life without avoiding what was unpleasant. It also focused on the lower or middle classes.
In music there was a movement called Verismo which was the Italian word for "reality". Verismo was popular in Italian opera around the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Puccini was an opera composer whose style is typical of Verismo.
In politics, realism focuses on conflict and the harsher parts of history.
Realism as a literary movement began in Germany. The poet and writer Heinrich Heine tried in his books to accept the world as it is instead of trying to escape from it. Realistic writers tried to find good things about society. The interest in realism led to a movement called naturalism. This meant describing scenes in nature accurately. The novelist Emile Zola was a naturalist.
In philosophy, realism is also a way of thinking about knowledge and reality. It is usually the view that a particular thing is real whether or not it is known about. In fact, one person can be a realist about some things and a non-realist about other things. For example, some realists say that the past really happened no matter what we think about it. Other realist philosophers say that there are morals that really exist as facts. This is different from philosophers who say that things only exist because of people who are aware of them. For example, a non-realist philosopher might say beauty only exists because someone sees something that they think is beautiful. A realist philosopher might instead say that beauty is there whether anyone sees it or not.
The term social realism describes an art form in America in the 1930s which expressed social protest in a naturalistic way. This is different from what is usually called socialist realism which was a term used by Soviet politicians from 1932 to the mid 1980s to describe art which showed the workers' struggle, glorifying the Soviet Union.
In the early 20th century Realism led to other movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism.
Ridge (meteorology)
A ridge is a stretched out area of high atmospheric pressure compared to normal recorded pressures. It is also the opposite of a trough.
Hurricane Hunters
Hurricane Hunters are special aircraft that fly into or around a tropical cyclone to gather information (or data). Hurricane Hunters are only used to study tropical cyclones in the northern Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean.
St. Vincent Island, Florida
St. Vincent Island, Florida is one of a group of islands that is located in the Floridan Gulf Coast.
Phencyclidine
Phencyclidine (a shortened version of the chemical name "phenylcyclohexylpiperidine"), usually called PCP, is an illegal drug. PCP is called a hallucinogenic drug: it causes people to hallucinate, and see, hear, and sense things that are not real. PCP is neurotoxic. It causes changes to the brain that can leave permanent damage. Before people started using PCP as an illegal drug, it was used as an anesthetic.
PCP is a white powder, made of tiny crystals. It dissolves easily in water or alcohol. PCP has many slang or 'street names'; the most common is "angel dust". Other slang names for PCP are angel hair, angel mist, aurora borealis, black whack, crystal, cyclones, devil dust, dummy dust, embalming fluid, hallucinogen, horse tranquilizer, jet fuel, magic dust, rocket fuel, or star dust. PCP is sometimes mixed with marijuana and called love boat or killer weed. PCP can also be mixed with crack; this is called "space basing".
PCP was created after World War II as a surgical anesthetic. It worked well, but there were serious side effects: hallucinations, jumbled speech, and delirium. Around the mid-to-late 1960s, the drug sprang up on the streets of San Francisco as a "Peace Pill." People soon realized that it was a very dangerous drug. In the San Francisco area, the use of PCP died out before the 1970s. At the same time, the drug was becoming more common in New York, and it spread quickly there. However, its use in this area died out, like in San Francisco. The United States made it illegal to use PCP for any reason, or to make the drug, because of its serious effects.
People can have many different effects from using PCP. The drug can affect the central nervous system (the brain and major nerves). This can cause many changes in the brain and body.
PCP often causes major changes in what a person senses (what he feels, sees, hears, smells, or tastes). For example:
PCP can also cause people to have a lot of energy, feel and act stronger than usual, and not feel pain.
PCP can be eaten, snorted, injected (shot into the body using a needle), or smoked. A person can take a low, medium, or high dose of PCP, and he will have different effects depending on which dose he takes. Low doses can cause a person to feel euphoric (very happy), relaxed, numb, detached from his own body, anxious, or confused. At low doses, people can also have sensory distortions (changes in how they hear, see, taste, smell, or feel things); amnesia (where the person cannot remember things normally); speech which does not make sense; blurred vision; or a blank stare. Medium doses can cause confusion, agitation, analgesia (not feeling pain), fever, excessive salivation, and "schizophrenic-type" behavior. High doses can cause seizures, respiratory failure (where the breathing systems in the body stop working), coma, fever, stroke, or death.
People who use PCP can get physically or psychologically (mentally) addicted to the drug. If an addicted person suddenly stops taking PCP, he will get withdrawal symptoms, like diarrhea, chills, and tremors (uncontrollable shaking in part of the body). In the brain, PCP affects multiple neurotransmitter systems. (Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in the brain.) For example, it keeps the brain from getting rid of extra dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. These are all very important neurotransmitters in the brain. PCP can also affect some types of opioid receptors in the brain. It also inhibits (or blocks) the action of glutamate by blocking NMDA (N-methyl d-aspartate) receptors. Prescription drugs like diazepam (Valium), haloperidol (Haldol), and phentolamine may be used to help manage some of PCP's effects.
Philodendron
Philodendron ("tree lover") is a large genus of the Arum family, Araceae. Currently, about 900 different species are known. The plants are evergreen flowering plants. Some of them are vines, some can grow as epiphytes. Most of them grow like bushes. They can reach a height of about 6 meters.
Very often, "Philodendron" are grown as houseplants. They grow quickly, and are easy to care for. Sometimes "Monstera" are still called "Philodendron". That plant is very similar.
"Philodendron" are sometime grown because they can neutralise some poisons commonly found indoors, most notably formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and benzene.
Sagittarius
Sagittarius could mean:
Sagittarius (astrology)
Sagittarius is the astrological Zodiac sign that represents the constellation Sagittarius. Sagittarius is from November 22 to December 17. The opposite sign to Sagittarius is Gemini, which is from May 21 to June 20.
In mythology Sagittarius is related to Greek myth of a centaur.