Stoning or lapidation is a form of capital punishment: a group of people throws stones at the convicted person, until this person dies. Today, it is mostly used in countries which follow sharia law.
Hypnic jerk
A hypnic jerk, hypnagogic jerk or sleep twitch sometimes happens when a person is falling asleep. It is an involuntary movement, that is, not done on purpose. It may cause them to jump and awaken suddenly for a moment.
Hypnic jerks are one form of involuntary muscle twitches called "myoclonus". Such movements do occur in healthy people. They have been associated with causes such as irregular sleep patterns or stress. Certain substances such as caffeine may also cause them.
Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen (born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor. He is best known for his roles in the movies "King Arthur" (2004), "Casino Royale" (2006), "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" (2009), "The Hunt" (2012) and "Doctor Strange" and "Rogue One" (both 2016). He also played Hannibal Lecter in the NBC television series "Hannibal" (2013–15).
Mikkelsen was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen. His older brother, Lars, is also an actor. He married Hanne Jacobsen in 2000. The couple have two children.
Jiang Wen
Jiang Wen (born 5 January 1963) is a Chinese movie actor, screenwriter and director. He directed and starred in the movies "In the Heat of the Sun" (1994), "Devils on the Doorstep" (2000), "Let the Bullets Fly" (2010) and "Gone with the Bullets" (2014). He also directed a segment of the movie "New York, I Love You" (2008). In 2016, he starred as Baze Malbus in the "Star Wars" anthology movie "Rogue One".
Jiang was born in Tangshan, Hebei. He moved to Beijing when he was ten. He has been married twice and has three children.
Dick Latessa
Richard Robert "Dick" Latessa (September 15, 1929 – December 19, 2016) was an American stage, movie, and television actor. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was known for his stage role as Wilbur in the musical "Hairspray". In 2003, he won a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award in 2003.
Latessa died of heart failure in Manhattan, New York City, New York on December 19, 2016, aged 87.
Sharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville massacre was when a crowd of between 5,000–7,000 black people protested at the police station in Sharpeville, South Africa on March 21, 1960. The police started shooting into the crowd. A total of 69 people were killed including 8 women and 10 children, and 180 people were injured, including 31 women and 19 children. In South Africa today, this day is a public holiday in honor of human rights.
The demonstration was to protest against pass laws. The crowd went to the police station demanding to be arrested for not carrying their passes. At some point the South African Police started shooting. People have different explanations to what the crowd was doing. Some say that the crowd was peaceful. Others say that the crowd were throwing stones at the police. The shooting started when the crowd started going toward the fence around the police station. Some say this was what led Nelson Mandela to engaging in more violent protests.
Tullio De Mauro
Tullio De Mauro (31 March 1932 – 5 January 2017) was an Italian linguist and politician. He was the Italian Minister of Education from 2000 to 2001, under Prime Minister Giuliano Amato (2nd government). He was also a professor of general linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Rome. He was born in Torre Annunziata, Campania.
De Mauro died on 5 January 2017 in Rome at the age of 84.
Kafr Bara
According to the latest statistics, Kafr bara has a population (3,500 inhabitants), the population grows by 5% and its population are Arab Muslims.
There is a Community Center and retirement Centre shabib. and there is 3 mosques, a public library, a post office, a mother and child care centre, and 2 clinics. And a football playground.
There is 2 schools in Kafr Bara:
Snowy owl
The snowy owl ("Bubo scandiacus") is an owl native to the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. They hunt rodents.
Lemmings are a favourite prey.
The male's mating call sounds like "krek-krek", while the female's mating call sounds like "pyee-pyee" or "prek-prek".
In the novel "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (USA edition: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"), Harry is assigned a female snowy owl as his animal companion. Her name is Hedwig.
Poyang Lake
Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China. It is in the Jiangxi Province. Poyang is fed by the Gan, Xin, and Xiu rivers. They connect to the Yangtze through a channel.
Lake Poyang has always shrunk in the dry season and expanded in the wet season. It reached its greatest size during the Tang Dynasty, when its area reached . It is now around . Lake Pohang became much smaller because of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
Nanuqsaurus
Nanuqsaurus ('meaning polar bear lizard') is a genus of theropod dinosaur. It is only known from one specimen, DMNH 21461, a partial skull roof found in Alaska. This dinosaur may grown to about 6 m (~20 ft) long, half the size of "Tyrannosaurus".
The skull would have been about 50 cm (1.65 ft) when complete.
Madoc (poem)
Madoc is a long poem by Robert Southey. The author is famous as the third of the Lake Poets. "Madoc" is an epic poem. It was first published in 1805. The poet worked on the poem for ten years. It tells about legendary Welsh prince Madog, ab Owain Gwynedd. He lived in 12th century. According to the legend, he explored America long before Christopher Columbus. The poem is divided into two parts. The first is named "Madoc in Wales" while the second "Madoc in Aztlan". The poem is written in Blank verse that is in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
<poem>
"Fair blows the wind, the vessel drives along,"
"Her streamers fluttering at their length, her sails"
"All full, she drives along, and round her prow"
"Scatters the ocean spray. What feelings then"
"Filled every bosom, when the mariners,"
"After the peril of that weary way,"
"Beheld their own dear country ! Here stands one,"
"Stretching his sight toward the distant shore,"
"And, as to well known forms his busy joy"
"Shapes the dim outline, eagerly he points"
"The fancied headland and the cape and bay,"
"Till his eyes ache, o'erstraining."
</poem>
The poem was reviewed in "The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry".
Irish poet Paul Muldoon named his book "Madoc: A Mystery" (1990) after Robert Southey's poem.
Arrondissements of the Bouches-du-Rhône department
There are 4 arrondissements in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. The French departments, and in other countries, are divided into "arrondissements", which may be translated into English as districts (in some cases, as boroughs). The capital of an arrondissement is called a subprefecture.
If the prefecture (capital) of the department is in an arrondissement, that prefecture is the capital of the arrondissement, acting both as a prefecture and as a subprefecture.
Arrondissements are further divided into communes.
The arrondissements of Bouches-du-Rhône are:
Bouches-du-Rhône is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was divided in six districts: Tarascon, Apt, Aix, Marseille, Salon and Arles, with Aix as is capital.
In 1800, with the creation of the "arrondissements" in France, the six districts were changed into three "arrondissements": Marseille, Aix and Tarascon. The prefecture was moved from Aix to Marseille.
In 1817, the subprefecture of Tarascon was moved to Arles. The "arrondissement" of Istres was created in 1981.
Arrondissement of Aix-en-Provence
The arrondissement of Aix-en-Provence is an arrondissement of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Its capital is the city of Aix-en-Provence.
When the Bouches-du-Rhône department was created on 1800, the "arrondissement" of Aix-en-Provence was part of that original department.