Archimedes' screw is a machine. It is a type of pump used for raising water up. It is a screw inside a fairly tight-fitting cylinder. With the bottom end in water, the screw lifts water up to the top, where it pours out of a spout. The screw can be turned by hand, or by a windmill, or by an engine. The screw is often used for filling irrigation ditches.
Archimedes wrote about it when he was in Alexandria, Egypt. It is not known for certain whether he did invent it, but it is always attributed to him. The Archimedes screw is still much in use all over the world.
There is also a kind of reverse Archimedes' screw. Water poured in on top turns the screw. The turning drives an electric generator, which makes electricity. It is good for rivers with modest water drops ('low heads'). The reverse screw has the same benefits as using the screw for pumping: it can handle very dirty water and widely varying rates of flow, with high efficiency.
Ezra
Ezra (; , "Ezra"; fl. 480–440 BC), is a highly respected figure in Judaism.
He is called Ezra the Scribe (, "Ezra ha-Sofer") and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. In an early Greek translation of the bible, the Septuagint, the name is written as "Esdras" (), from which comes . His name may be an abbreviation of "", "God-helps".
In Islam he is known as Uzair (). He was mentioned in the Qur'an.
The "Book of Ezra" and "Book of Nehemiah" are the oldest sources for the history of Ezra. Many of the other books they say are written by Ezra (First Esdras, 3-6 Ezra) are written after that. Those books take the story from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Ezra was a member of the family of Seraiah the high priest. He lived in Babylon when in the seventh year (~ 457 BCE) of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, the king sent him to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God to any who did not know them.
Ezra led a large group of exiles back to Jerusalem. He discovered that Jewish men had been marrying non-Jewish women. He worked to stop this from happening again.
Some years later the king Artaxerxes sent a Jewish nobleman, Nehemiah, to Jerusalem. He had to rebuild the city walls. Once this was done, Nehemiah asked Ezra to read the Law of Moses (the Torah) to the people. The people and priests agreed to keep to this law and to separate themselves from all other peoples.
The second book of Esdras was written a lot later, c. AD 100. In this book, Ezra talks with an angel or God three times and has four visions. At the end, he is taken up to heaven like Enoch and Elijah. Ezra is seen as a new Moses in this book.
Judaism believes Ezra started the Great Assembly of scholars and prophets. Later, this would become the Sanhedrin, the authority when it comes to religious law.
It is said that Ezra was the writer of the Books of Chronicles.
His tomb at Al-ʻUzair on the banks of the Tigris near Basra, Iraq, is a pilgrimage site for the local Marsh Arabs.
Olga Prokhvatylo
Olga Borisovna Prokhvatylo (; July 18, 1968 – June 8, 2013) was a Russian actress and comedian most famous for her roles in Russian TV Series of 2000s.
After having back pains, Prokhvatylo died in Moscow on June 8, 2013 from heart failure.
Turkana boy
Turkana boy, or Nariokotome boy, is the fossil KNM-WT 15000. It is a nearly complete skeleton of a hominid who died in the early Pleistocene 1.5 million years ago (mya), near present-day Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya. This specimen is the "most complete early human skeleton ever found". It was first classified as "Homo erectus"; after much heated debate, it was re-classified as "Homo ergaster".
His age at death has been estimated from 7 years six months to as old as 15 years. The most recent scientific review suggests 8 years of age. It was first thought that he would have grown to 1.85 m tall, but recently a height of 1.63 m was proposed. Research showed that his growth differed from that of modern humans: he would have had a shorter and smaller adolescent growth spurt.
The skeleton was discovered in 1984 by Kamoya Kimeu, a member of a team led by Richard Leakey, at Nariokotome near Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya.
The shape of the pelvis identifies that the specimen was a male. His estimated age at death depends upon whether the maturity stage of his teeth or skeletal is used, and whether that maturity is compared to that of modern humans or chimpanzees.
A key factor here is that while modern humans have a marked adolescent growth spurt, chimpanzees do not. While initial research assumed a modern human type of growth, more recent evidence from other fossils suggests this was less present in early "Homo". This affects the estimation of both his age and his likely stature as a fully grown adult.
The pelvis is narrower than in "Homo sapiens", which might indicate more efficient running, whether to run down small game or to avoid predators. The Boy was relatively tall, which would have increased his surface area and helped him to lose heat.
Body hair may also have been thinner to hasten cooling. Body hair was lost in the shift towards savanna living. In equatorial Africa, modern humans evolved this trait an estimated one million years ago.
The skeleton still had features (such as a low sloping forehead, strong brow ridges, and the absence of a chin) not seen in "H. sapiens". The arms were slightly longer. Turkana Boy had a projecting nose rather than the open flat nose seen in apes.
Heinkel He 114
The Heinkel He 114 is a Nazi German two-seated biplane seaplane. It is used by Luftwaffe, and Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish air forces for aerial reconnaissance. Maiden flight was in 1936 and it started on unit on 1939. It was built by Heinkel.
Short 330
The Short 330 is a British twin-engines airliner used for regional and domestic flights. It can carry about 30 passengers. It was built between 1974 and 1992 by Short Brothers in Belfast. It is used by the US Army and US Air Force as C-23 Sherpa. Short 360 is a modernized variant.
Short 360
The Short 360 is a twin-engines British airliner built by Short Brothers in Belfast. Used for domestic flights, it can carry about 30 passengers. It is a variant of the Short 330. Its first test flight was in 1981. It was built between 1981 and 1991.
Technical University Munich
The Technische Universität München (TUM; "University of Technology, Munich"; "Technical University of Munich") is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching and Freising-Weihenstephan. It was founded in 1868. The university alumni and professor list include 17 Nobel Prize winners. As of winter semester 2018 TUM has 41.375 students, 566 professors, and 10.501 staff members.
Raindrop Prelude
The Prelude Op. 28, No. 15, by Frédéric Chopin is known as the "Raindrop" prelude. It is one of the 24 Chopin preludes. This is the longest of the preludes. It lasts between five and seven minutes. The prelude is famous for its repeating A-flat. This note appears throughout the piece. It sounds like raindrops to many listeners. It is known for it's repetitive raindrop motif.
Some of the Preludes were written during Chopin and George Sand's stay at a monastery in Valldemossa, Majorca in 1838. In her "Histoire de ma vie", Sand told how one evening she and her son Maurice, returning from Palma, Majorca, in a terrible rainstorm, found a frantic Chopin who cried, "Ah! I knew well that you were dead." While playing his piano he had a dream:
"He saw himself drowned in a lake. Heavy drops of icy water fell in a regular rhythm on his breast, and when I made him listen to the sound of the drops of water indeed falling in rhythm on the roof, he denied having heard it. He was even angry that I should interpret this in terms of imitative sounds. He protested with all his might – and he was right to – against the childishness of such aural imitations. His genius was filled with the mysterious sounds of nature, but transformed into sublime equivalents in musical thought, and not through slavish imitation of the actual external sounds."