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April |
April is the fourth month of the year, and comes between March and May. It is one of four months to have 30 days. |
April always begins on the same day of week as July, and additionally, January in leap years. April always ends on the same day of the week as December. |
April's flowers are the Sweet Pea and Daisy. Its birthstone is the diamond. The meaning of the diamond is innocence. |
April comes between March and May, making it the fourth month of the year. It also comes first in the year out of the four months that have 30 days, as June, September and November are later in the year. |
April begins on the same day of the week as July every year and on the same day of the week as January in leap years. April ends on the same day of the week as December every year, as each other's last days are exactly 35 weeks (245 days) apart. |
In common years, April starts on the same day of the week as October of the previous year, and in leap years, May of the previous year. In common years, April finishes on the same day of the week as July of the previous year, and in leap years, February and October of the previous year. In common years immediately after other common years, April starts on the same day of the week as January of the previous year, and in leap years and years immediately after that, April finishes on the same day of the week as January of the previous year. |
In years immediately before common years, April starts on the same day of the week as September and December of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, June of the following year. In years immediately before common years, April finishes on the same day of the week as September of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, March and June of the following year. |
April is a spring month in the Northern Hemisphere and an autumn/fall month in the Southern Hemisphere. In each hemisphere, it is the seasonal equivalent of October in the other. |
It is unclear as to where April got its name. A common theory is that it comes from the Latin word "aperire", meaning "to open", referring to flowers opening in spring. Another theory is that the name could come from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. It was originally the second month in the old Roman Calendar, before the start of the new year was put to January 1. |
Quite a few festivals are held in this month. In many Southeast Asian cultures, new year is celebrated in this month (including Songkran). In Western Christianity, Easter can be celebrated on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. In Orthodox Christianity, it can fall between April 4 and May 8. At the end of the month, Central and Northern European cultures celebrate Walpurgis Night on April 30, marking the transition from winter into summer. |
Poets use "April" to mean the end of winter. For example: "April showers bring May flowers." |
August |
August (Aug.) is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, coming between July and September. It has 31 days. It is named after the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. |
August doesn't begin on the same day of the week as any other month in common years, but begins on the same day of the week as February in leap years. August always ends on the same day of the week as November. |
This month was first called "Sextilis" in Latin, because it was the sixth month in the old Roman calendar. The Roman calendar began in March about 735 BC with Romulus. October was the eighth month. August was the eighth month when January or February were added to the start of the year by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. Or, when those two months were moved from the end to the beginning of the year by the decemvirs about 450 BC (Roman writers disagree). In 153 BC January 1 was determined as the beginning of the year. |
August is named for Augustus Caesar who became Roman consul in this month. The month has 31 days because Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC. August is after July and before September. |
August, in either hemisphere, is the seasonal equivalent of February in the other. In the Northern hemisphere it is a summer month and it is a winter month in the Southern hemisphere. |
No other month in common years begins on the same day of the week as August, but August begins on the same day of the week as February in leap years. August ends on the same day of the week as November every year, as each other's last days are 13 weeks (91 days) apart. |
In common years, August starts on the same day of the week as March and November of the previous year, and in leap years, June of the previous year. In common years, August finishes on the same day of the week as March and June of the previous year, and in leap years, September of the previous year. In common years immediately after other common years, August starts on the same day of the week as February of the previous year. |
In years immediately before common years, August starts on the same day of the week as May of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, October of the following year. In years immediately before common years, August finishes on the same day of the week as May of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, February and October of the following year. |
Art |
Art is a creative activity that expresses imaginative or technical skill. It produces a product, an object. Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, performing artifacts, and expressing the author's imaginative mind. The product of art is called a work of art, for others to experience. |
Some art is useful in a practical sense, such as a sculptured clay bowl that can be used. That kind of art is sometimes called a "craft". |
Those who make art are called artists. They hope to affect the emotions of people who experience it. Some people find art relaxing, exciting or informative. Some say people are driven to make art due to their inner creativity. |
"The arts" is a much broader term. It includes drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, performance art, dance, music, poetry, prose and theatre. |
Art is divided into the plastic arts, where something is made, and the performing arts, where something is done by humans in action. The other division is between pure arts, done for themselves, and practical arts, done for a practical purpose, but with artistic content. |
Some people say that art is a product or item that is made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind, spirit and soul. An artwork is normally judged by how much impact it has on people, the number of people who can relate to it, and how much they appreciate it. Some people also get inspired. |
The first and broadest sense of "art" means "arrangement" or "to arrange." In this sense, art is created when someone arranges things found in the world into a new or different design or form; or when someone arranges colors next to each other in a painting to make an image or just to make a pretty or interesting design. |
Art may express emotion. Artists may feel a certain emotion and wish to express it by creating something that means something to them. Most of the art created in this case is made for the artist rather than an audience. However, if an audience is able to connect with the emotion as well, then the art work may become publicly successful. |
There are sculptures, cave painting and rock art dating from the Upper Paleolithic era. |
All of the great ancient civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt, India, China, Greece, Rome and Persia had works and styles of art. In the Middle Ages, most of the art in Europe showed people from the Bible in paintings, stained glass windows, and mosaic tile floors and walls. |
Islamic art includes geometric patterns, Islamic calligraphy, and architecture. In India and Tibet, painted sculptures, dance, and religious painting were done. In China, arts included jade carving, bronze, pottery, poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, and fiction. There are many Chinese artistic styles, which are usually named after the ruling dynasty. |
In Europe, after the Middle Ages, there was a "Renaissance" which means "rebirth". People rediscovered science and artists were allowed to paint subjects other than religious subjects. People like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci still painted religious pictures, but they also now could paint mythological pictures too. These artists also invented perspective where things in the distance look smaller in the picture. This was new because in the Middle Ages people would paint all the figures close up and just overlapping each other. These artists used nudity regularly in their art. |
In the late 1800s, artists in Europe, responding to Modernity created many new painting styles such as Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism. The history of twentieth century art includes Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Minimalism. |
In some societies, people think that art belongs to the person who made it. They think that the artist put his or her "talent" and industry into the art. In this view, the art is the property of the artist, protected by copyright. |
In other societies, people think that art belongs to no one. They think that society has put its social capital into the artist and the artist's work. In this view, society is a collective that has made the art, through the artist. |
The functions of art include: |
1) Cognitive function |
2) Aesthetic function |
3) Prognostic function |
4) Recreation function |
5) Value function |
6) Didactic function |
A |
A or a is the first letter of the English alphabet. The small letter, a or α, is used as a lower case vowel. |
When it is spoken, ā is said as a long a, a diphthong of ĕ and y. A is similar to alpha of the Greek alphabet. That is not surprising, because it stands for the same sound. |
"Alpha and omega" (the last letter of the Greek alphabet) means from beginning to the end. In musical notation, the letter A is the symbol of a note in the scale, below B and above G. In binary numbers, the letter A is 01000001. |
A is the letter that was used to represent a team in an old TV show, The A-Team. A capital a is written "A". Use a capital a at the start of a sentence if writing. |
The letter 'A' was in the Phoenician alphabet's aleph. This symbol came from a simple picture of an ox head. |
This Phoenician letter helped make the basic blocks of later types of the letter. The Greeks later modified this letter and used it as their letter alpha. The Greek alphabet was used by the Etruscans in northern Italy, and the Romans later modified the Etruscan alphabet for their own language. |
The letter A has six different sounds. It can sound like æ, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, such as the word "pad". Other sounds of this letter are in the words "father", which developed into another sound, such as in the word "ace". |
In algebra, the letter "A" along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent known quantities. |
In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to label line segments, lines, etc. Also, A is typically used as one of the letters to label an angle in a triangle. |
Air |
Air refers to the Earth's atmosphere. Air is a mixture of many gases and tiny dust particles. It is the clear gas in which living things live and breathe. It has an indefinite shape and volume. It has mass and weight, because it is matter. The weight of air creates atmospheric pressure. There is no air in outer space. |
Air is a mixture of about 78% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen, 0.9% of argon, 0.04% of carbon dioxide, and very small amounts of other gases. There is an average of about 1% water vapour. |
Animals live and need to breathe the oxygen in the air. In breathing, the lungs put oxygen into the blood, and send back carbon dioxide to the air. Plants need the carbon dioxide in the air to live. They give off the oxygen that we breathe. Without it we die of asphyxia. |
Wind is moving air, this is refreshing. This causes weather. |
Air can be polluted by some gases (such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides), smoke, and ash. This air pollution causes various problems including smog, acid rain and global warming. It can damage people's health and the environment. |
Since early times, air has been used to create technology. Ships moved with sails and windmills used the mechanical motion of air. Aircraft use propellers to move air over a wing, which allows them to fly. Pneumatics use air pressure to move things. Since the late 1900s, air power is also used to generate electricity. |
Air is invisible: it cannot be seen by the eye, though a shimmering in hot air can be seen. |
Air is one of the four classical elements in Greek theory. It was considered an intervening element, somewhere between fire and water, and the driving force for the birth of the cosmos. |
Earth's atmosphere has changed much since its formation. |
At first it was mainly a hydrogen atmosphere. It has changed dramatically on several occasions—for example, the Great Oxygenation Event 2.4 billion years ago, greatly increased oxygen in the atmosphere from practically no oxygen to levels closer to present day. Humans have also contributed to significant changes in atmospheric composition through air pollution, especially since industrialisation, leading to rapid environmental change such as ozone depletion and global warming. |
Outgassing from volcanism, supplemented by gases produced during the late heavy bombardment of Earth by huge asteroids, produced the next atmosphere, consisting largely of nitrogen plus carbon dioxide and inert gases. |
The constant re-arrangement of continents by plate tectonics influences the long-term evolution of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide was transferred to and from large continental carbonate stores. Free oxygen did not exist in the atmosphere until about 2.4 billion years ago. The Great Oxygenation Event is shown by the end of the banded iron formations. |
Autonomous communities of Spain |
Spain is divided in 17 parts called autonomous communities. "Autonomous" means that each of these autonomous communities has its own executive, legislative judicial powers. These are similar to, but "not" the same as, states in the United States of America, for example. |
Spain has fifty smaller parts called provinces. In 1978 these parts came together, making the autonomous communities. |
Before then, some of these provinces were together but were broken. The groups that were together once before are called "historic communities": Catalonia, Basque Country, Galicia and Andalusia. |
The Spanish language is the sole official language in every autonomous community but six, where Spanish is co-official with other languages, as follows: |
List of the autonomous communities, with their Capital city (the place where the government has its offices): |
Spain also has two cities on the north coast of Africa: Ceuta and Melilla. They are called "autonomous cities" and have simultaneously the majority of the power of an autonomous community and also power of provinces and power of municipalities. |
Alan Turing |
Alan Mathison Turing OBE FRS (London, 23 June 1912 – Wilmslow, Cheshire, 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician and computer scientist. He was born in Maida Vale, London. |
Alan Turing was born in Maida Vale, London on 23 June 1912. His father was part of a family of merchants from Scotland. His mother, Ethel Sara, was the daughter of an engineer. |
Turing went to St. Michael's, a school at 20 Charles Road, St Leonards-on-sea, when he was five years old. |
"This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.” – Alan Turing. |
The Stoney family were once prominent landlords, here in North Tipperary. His mother Ethel Sara Stoney (1881–1976) was daughter of Edward Waller Stoney (Borrisokane, North Tipperary) and Sarah Crawford (Cartron Abbey, Co. Longford); Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry. |
Educated in Dublin at Alexandra School and College; on October 1st 1907 she married Julius Mathison Turing, latter son of Reverend John Robert Turing and Fanny Boyd, in Dublin. Born on June 23rd 1912, Alan Turing would go on to be regarded as one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century. |
A brilliant mathematician and cryptographer Alan was to become the founder of modern-day computer science and artificial intelligence; designing a machine at Bletchley Park to break secret Enigma encrypted messages used by the Nazi German war machine to protect sensitive commercial, diplomatic and military communications during World War 2. Thus, Turing made the single biggest contribution to the Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany, possibly saving the lives of an estimated 2 million people, through his effort in shortening World War II. |
In 2013, almost 60 years later, Turing received a posthumous Royal Pardon from Queen Elizabeth II. Today, the “Turing law” grants an automatic pardon to men who died before the law came into force, making it possible for living convicted gay men to seek pardons for offences now no longer on the statute book. |
Alas, Turing accidentally or otherwise lost his life in 1954, having been subjected by a British court to chemical castration, thus avoiding a custodial sentence. He is known to have ended his life at the age of 41 years, by eating an apple laced with cyanide. |
Turing was one of the people who worked on the first computers. He created the theoretical Turing machine in 1936. The machine was imaginary, but it included the idea of a computer program. |
Turing was interested in artificial intelligence. He proposed the Turing test, to say when a machine could be called "intelligent". A computer could be said to "think" if a human talking with it could not tell it was a machine. |
During World War II, Turing worked with others to break German ciphers (secret messages). He worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking centre that produced Ultra intelligence. |
Using cryptanalysis, he helped to break the codes of the Enigma machine. After that, he worked on other German codes. |
From 1945 to 1947, Turing worked on the design of the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) at the National Physical Laboratory. He presented a paper on 19 February 1946. That paper was "the first detailed design of a stored-program computer". Although it was possible to build ACE, there were delays in starting the project. In late 1947 he returned to Cambridge for a sabbatical year. While he was at Cambridge, the Pilot ACE was built without him. It ran its first program on 10 May 1950. |
Turing was a homosexual man. In 1952, he admitted having had sex with a man in England. At that time, homosexual acts were illegal. Turing was convicted. He had to choose between going to jail and taking hormones to lower his sex drive. He decided to take the hormones. After his punishment, he became impotent. He also grew breasts. |
In May 2012, a private member's bill was put before the House of Lords to grant Turing a statutory pardon. In July 2013, the government supported it. A royal pardon was granted on 24 December 2013. |
In 1954, Turing died from cyanide poisoning. The cyanide came from either an apple which was poisoned with cyanide, or from water that had cyanide in it. The reason for the confusion is that the police never tested the apple for cyanide. It is also suspected that he committed suicide. |
The treatment forced on him is now believed to be very wrong. It is against medical ethics and international laws of human rights. In August 2009, a petition asking the British Government to apologise to Turing for punishing him for being a homosexual was started. The petition received thousands of signatures. Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged the petition. He called Turing's treatment "appalling". |
Alanis Morissette |
Alanis Nadine Morissette (born 1 June 1974) is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian-American singer and songwriter. She was born in Ottawa, Canada. She began singing in Canada as a teenager in 1990. In 1995, she became popular all over the world. |
As a young child in Canada, Morissette began to act on television, including 5 episodes of the long-running series, "You Can't Do That on Television". Her first album was released only in Canada in 1990. |
Her first international album was "Jagged Little Pill", released in 1995. It was a rock-influenced album. "Jagged" has sold more than 33 million units globally. It became the best-selling debut album in music history. Her next album, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie", was released in 1998. It was a success as well. Morissette took up producing duties for her next albums, which include "Under Rug Swept", "So-Called Chaos" and "Flavors of Entanglement". Morissette has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. |
She also acted in several movies, including Kevin Smith's "Dogma", where she played God. |
Alanis Morissette was born in Riverside Hospital of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario. Her father is French-Canadian. Her mother is from Hungary. She has an older brother, Chad, and a twin brother, Wade, who is 12 minutes younger than she is. Her parents had worked as teachers at a military base in Lahr, Germany. |
Morissette became an American citizen in 2005. She is still Canadian citizen. |
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