the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Extratropical cyclones that migrate into higher latitudes when the polar vortex is weak can disrupt the single vortex creating smaller vortices (cold-core lows) within the polar air mass.
Those individual vortices can persist for more than a month.
Volcanic eruptions in the tropics can lead to a stronger polar vortex during winter for as long as two years afterwards.
The strength and position of the polar vortex shapes the flow pattern in a broad area about it.
An index which is used in the northern hemisphere to gauge its magnitude is the Arctic oscillation.
en:Polar cyclone
(or  or ) are traditional female Japanese entertainers.
They are skilled at different Japanese arts, like playing classical Japanese music, dancing and poetry.
Some people think that geisha are prostitutes, but they are not.
The term 'geisha' is made of two Japanese words,  () meaning 'art' and  () meaning 'person who does' or 'to be employed in'.
The most literal translation of geisha to English is 'artist'.
Geisha are respected as artists and performers: it is difficult to become one.
Kyoto is the city with the most strict geisha traditions.
Geisha have worked there for the longest time.
Becoming a professional geisha can take up to five years of training in Kyoto.
Apprentice geisha are called .
This name is made of the Japanese words  () meaning 'dancing' and  () meaning 'child'.
wear white make-up called  and long-sleeved kimono of many bright colours.
in some places wear a belt, called an , that is up to  long.
Many  wear fancy hairstyles made with their own hair, though  in some places wear wigs.
Full geisha wear simpler kimono, and only use white make-up at special times.
Geisha also wear wigs, and their kimono belt is much shorter.
There are also geisha in other cities, though there are differences.
In Tokyo, becoming a full geisha takes from six months to a year.
Geisha apprentices in Tokyo are called , which means 'half jewel' or 'half pay'.
Apprentice geisha in Tokyo are also called , which means 'one who serves (alcohol)'.
Geisha in Tokyo are normally older than geisha in Kyoto.
Many geisha still live in traditional geisha houses called  in neighborhoods called  which means 'flower town'.
Older geisha who are successful may have their own home.
A geisha always needs to be registered to a geisha house in order to work.
The world that geisha are a part of is called , which means 'the flower and willow world'.
One very famous geisha, , said this is because "[a] geisha like a flower, beautiful in her own way, and like a willow tree, gracious, flexible, and strong".
Before the geisha appeared there were some women who worked as artists and entertainers.
In the Heian Period (794-1185), some women entertained people at the Imperial Court through singing and dancing, and these women were known as .
Later on, women who worked as prostitutes and courtesans entertained men in the red-light districts of Japan.
In 1589,  authorized the building of a neighborhood in Kyoto, closed from the outside with walls.
It was called , and it was dedicated to pleasure.
was established as a red-light district officially in 1640, and became one of three areas in Japan where people could legally practice prostitution; the other two areas were  in Tokyo, which had been established in 1617, and  in Osaka.
These areas were known as , and they were the only places where women were allowed to be prostitutes.
Courtesans were collectively called , and they were very expensive.
entertained men with singing, dancing, poetry, music and conversation as well.
The highest ranking  were called , and these women did not engage in prostitution like other .
Instead, they would have one or two rich clients act as their patron, and these men would pay a lot of money to be entertained by the  they were a patron of.
could turn men away and got to decide who they did and did not entertain.
were raised from a young age to be very skilled in different types of art and entertainment, and many of them became celebrities.
Many woodblock prints and paintings of famous , and other , exist.
Geisha only appeared much later, in the Tokugawa period.
Originally, geisha were men, who travelled throughout the red-light districts, entertaining clients with music, dancing and poetry.
These men were known as geisha, but were also called ,  and  because they played the , a Japanese drum.
Male geisha were very low-class entertainers, but  were thought to be upper class.
Every man who wished to be with an  had to follow difficult rituals and etiquette, as well as having enough money to pay for her time.
Because of this, only the richest nobility got to be entertained by .
Because of this, many tea houses () appeared outside , offering entertainment that was not offered inside .
At some of the tea houses, some women practiced cheaper prostitution; these women were called .
However other women, who were called  ('dancing girls'), acted as dancers and musicians.
These women soon became very popular.
They started calling themselves 'geisha', like the male artists who worked in .
By about the year 1700, female geisha had become much more popular than male geisha.
A few years later, almost all geisha were women.
The government made laws that prohibited geisha from working as prostitutes, and only gave them permission to act as entertainers.
One of these laws said that they had to tie their  (sash) in the back, as  wore theirs at the front as a sign that they were available for sex.
Geisha had to wear simpler hairstyles, less hair accessories, less make-up and simpler kimono.
If an  accused a geisha of stealing her customers, the geisha would be investigated.
Soon, the geisha became so much more popular than the , that in 1761, the last  of  retired.
Though  continued to work in Kyoto and Osaka,  as a whole were seen as outdated, too traditional and too expensive.
could not leave the red-light districts because they had a lot of debt to the owner of the brothel they worked in, and were not thought of as celebrities or fashionable any more.
Most people could not afford to hire them.
In contrast, geisha were cheaper, more fashionable, and could leave the red-light districts whenever they wanted.
They sang popular songs and did not need several expensive meetings before they would entertain a client.
New geisha neighborhoods () were created in Kyoto and other cities.
In the 19th century, geisha were in better position than common women, but they also had problems in Japanese society.
Sometimes, poor people sold their daughters to a geisha house, though this was not as common as some people think, with many geisha coming from families where their mother or another female relative had once been a geisha.
Geisha could not marry, but they could have a patron to pay for their expenses, and some retired when they gained a rich patron.
Other men paid a lot of money to take the new girls' virginity (), and if the owner of a geisha house was dishonest and greedy, a young geisha could have her virginity sold a number of times to different men.
However, the reputation and respect for the geisha grew in the Meiji Restoration, and even more after World War II.
Important laws that protected them were created.
Young girls could not be sold to the geisha houses anymore, and the virginity of young geisha could not be bought.
Since then, women only become geisha by their free will.
Modern geisha
Numbers of geisha
Though people often talk about how there are not many geisha left in Japan, and that geisha might be about to die out, the geisha profession is very resilient.
In history, sometimes the numbers of geisha fell, because of changes in the economy or because of war.
However, the number of working geisha usually rose again not long after.
In the 1920s there were over 80,000 geisha in Japan.
In 1944, all geisha districts were shut because of World War Two, and geisha, like everyone else, had to help out with the war; in Tokyo alone, close to 9,000 geisha were still entertaining guests before they were told they could not work as geisha anymore.
After the war, geisha districts opened up again on 25 October 1945.
By 1967, there were nearly 5,000 geisha in Tokyo again.
Today, there are far fewer geisha.
The exact number of geisha working today is not known, but it is estimated to be around 1,000 to 2,000.
Geisha in the 21st century
Geisha today live and work throughout Japan, in different geisha districts () that have their own traditions of arts, training and clothing.
The most well known geisha live in Kyoto, where there are five geisha districts, and the most famous geisha district in Kyoto is , which is sometimes just called .
There are also lots of geisha in Tokyo, and in towns with hot springs in them, like the town of .
In some places in Japan, people have decided to bring back the geisha districts that had no geisha in them for decades.
Many geisha houses and districts now use social media to advertise their work, and geisha do not need to be born into a geisha district to work there.
Some geisha districts put on events to attract tourists; in Kyoto, places like  Corner put on dances performed by  that anyone can go and watch.
People can also pay to dress up like geisha or  for the day.
Being dressed up as a geisha or  is known as .
Some dress-up services, like those in Kyoto, allow you to walk around the city for the day in dress-up.
However, they will not dress someone completely accurately, so that real geisha and  cannot be confused with people in costumes.
If someone wearing  wants to be dressed the exact same as a geisha or , they cannot walk around outside.
Most, if not all,  services will take photographs of someone in dress-up for them to keep.
Real geisha do not have the time to take pictures with tourists, so most women dressed as geisha or  who appear on the photos of tourists are in fact people in .
Young women who wish to become geisha now usually begin their training after finishing junior high school, or even high school or college.
Many women begin their careers as adults.
Geisha still study traditional musical instruments like the , the  (bamboo flute), and drums, as well as traditional songs, Japanese traditional dance, tea ceremony, literature and poetry.
By watching other geisha, apprentices also become skilled in the difficult traditions of dressing, make-up, and in dealing with clients.
Geisha are often hired to go to parties and gatherings, at tea houses or at traditional Japanese restaurants ().
Their time is measured by the time it takes an incense stick to burn, and is called  ('incense stick fee') or  ('jewel fee').
In Kyoto the terms  and , meaning 'flower fees', are used instead.
The clients hire the service of geisha through the geisha district's union or registery office, known as the , which takes care of the geisha's schedule, and will make appointments for her to entertain customers and train in the traditional arts.
Traditionally, geisha began their training at a very young age.
Although some girls were sold to become geisha as children, this was not normal practice in hanamachi with good reputation.
Daughters of geisha were often educated as geisha themselves.
The first part of training is called "shikomi".
In the past, when girls first arrived at the okiya, they were put to work as maids, or do everything they were told.
The work was difficult, to "make" and "break" the new girls.
The most junior shikomi of the house had to wait late into the night for the senior geisha to return from work, sometimes as late as two or three in the morning.
During this stage of training, the shikomi went to classes at the hanamachi's geisha school.
In modern times, this stage still exists, but it is not as hard as it was in the past.
Now, shikomi become used to the traditions and dress of the "karyūkai" ("flower and willow world").
When the apprentice became skilled in the geisha arts, and passed a final and difficult dance test, she was promoted to the second stage of training: "minarai".
Minarai did not do the housework anymore.
This stage also exists today, but is much shorter than in the past (only a month).
The minarai learn in the field.
They go to banquets and dance with the geisha, but they do not participate: they just sit, watch and learn from their onee-san (older sisters).
Their kimono are more elaborate than even a maiko's, to do the talking for them.
After a short time, the third (and most famous) stage of training begins, called "maiko".
Maiko are apprentice geisha, and this stage can last for years.
Maiko learn from their senior geisha and follow them around to every presentation she does.
The "onee-san/imoto-san" ("older sister/younger sister") relationship is very important.
The onee-san teaches her maiko everything about working in the hanamachi.
She will teach her the right ways of serving tea, playing the shamisen, and dancing, and everything about the art of Iki (see below).
Maiko have to wear heavy white make-up, elaborate hairstyle, and have her lips painted almost all the time.
Their kimono and obi have more vibrant colors and richer embroidery than those of full geisha.
Like the minarai, maiko do not charge as much money to go to parties or gatherings as a full geisha.
After a period of only six months (in Tokyo) or five years (in Kyoto), the maiko is promoted to a full geisha and charges full price for her time.
Geisha use kimono of fewer colors and only use make-up for work or dance, because she is more mature than a maiko, and the simpler style shows her own natural beauty.
Geisha remain as such until they retire.
The art of geisha and Iki
Geisha must be very skilled at traditional Japanese music, dance, and poetry, because they use all these arts when they work.
The art of make-up, hairstyles, and clothing are very important too.
The most important principle of a geisha is called iki.
Iki started in the 18th century as a reply to the extravagant ways of the courtesans (oiran) and those who liked their style.
Oiran wore very elaborate clothes, make-up, and jewelry.
Geisha preferred to be discreet, and more intelligent.
They created iki as a style that gave more importance to conversation and wit.
Instead of working with sex, like oiran did and simple prostitutes do today, geisha try to be sexy.
A geisha will flirt, tease, and joke with men, but always with art and elegance.
Japanese clients know that nothing more can be expected.
Men enjoy the illusion of that which is never to be.
Geisha do not have sex with clients for money.
Geisha give more importance to their reputation than prostitutes do, and they almost never enter a relationship with a client.
Those that do generally act with care usually get married.
Normally, when a geisha marries, she retires from the profession.
The most important quality of a geisha is her trustworthiness, especially to Japanese clients.
Anything that her clients do, or tell her, must remain a secret.
Anything said or done at a tea house will remain anonymous.
Becoming a geisha needs much discipline.
A geisha believes she must be a work of art in herself.
They work every day to improve, in everything they do.
A geisha's movements, her way of walking, sitting and talking are very important.
Geisha are geisha all the time, even when they are at home or not working.
An example of this dedication is the old custom of kangeiko ("lessons in the cold").
Until the early 1920s, apprentice geisha used to put their hands in icy water, and then go outside in cold weather to practice playing the shamisen until their fingers bled.
Geiko and Maiko Photo Gallery , by Lubomir Cernota.
Geisha and Maiko, Haruyo Morita's art.
Coming of Age - Yukina: Japan.
Documentary about a modern young woman who wishes to train to be a geisha.
BBC.com
Japanese words and phrases
Human nature, the fundamental nature and substance of humans, "one's humanity"
Compassion, altruism, etc.
Humanities, those academic disciplines which study the human condition using methods that are largely analytic, critical, or speculative
Thomas Midgley (18 May 1889 – 2 November 1944), was an American inventor.
His two most famous inventions are both now banned because they are dangerous for the world environment: the use of lead in petrol (gasoline)  and the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigerators.
Midgley was accidentally killed by something he was inventing.
Midgley was born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
His father was also an inventor.
He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Cornell University in 1911 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
His name was Thomas Midgley Jr because his father's name was also Thomas Midgley.
Discovery of Leaded Gasoline/Petrol
Midgley began working at General Motors in 1916.
In December 1921 Midgley discovered that the addition of Tetraethyllead to gasoline prevented "knocking" in internal combustion engines.
Discovery of Freon
In the 1930s Midgley  developed a non-poisonous substance called CFC (chlorinated fluorocarbon) for use in refrigerators, inhalers and aerosol spray cans.
He was given many high awards for his work and in 1944 he became president and chairman of the American Chemical Society.
In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley became ill with polio which left him disabled.
It was to the point where it was hard to do every day tasks; like getting  out of bed.
He decided to invent a complicated  system of strings and pulleys to lift him from his bed.
However, this plan backfired, and he got caught up in the ropes and died of strangulation.
Midgley died before the days when people realized that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer which prevents harmful rays from the sun reaching the earth.
They are now banned in refrigerators, but are still used in some countries.
In the United States it was not until 1973 that people started to produce gasoline without lead and, in 1996, the Clean Air Act banned the sale of leaded fuel for use in on-road vehicles.
However it was still legal in the U.S. for aircraft, racing cars, farm equipment, and marine engines until 2008.
Leaded gasoline is still common in South America, Africa, and some parts of Asia and the Middle East.
American chemists
Scientists from Pennsylvania
Scientists from Columbus, Ohio
Businesspeople from Columbus, Ohio
He was born Hovhannes (Onig) Garabedyan in the city of Alexandropol, then part of the Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia).
His first work called Beginning of Spring was published in 1935.
Novelist Atrpet gave the talented poet the epithet "Shiraz", because "this youth's poems have the fragrance of roses, fresh and covered with dew, like the roses of Shiraz."
Shiraz being one of Iran's major cities, famous for its roses and poets.
Most of Shiraz's publications were poetry.
He married famous Armenian poetess Silva Kaputikyan.
His son with Kaputikyan, Ara Shiraz, is a sculptor.
A street in Julfa of Isfahan is named after him.
In 2005 Levon Mkrtchyan released a documentary film titled "Hovhannes Shiraz".
Hayk Studio 43min.
A polar low is a small sized and short-lived atmospheric low pressure system that is found over the ocean areas pole ward of the main polar front in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The systems usually have a horizontal length scale of less than 1,000 km and live for less than a couple of days.
They are part of the larger class of mesoscale weather systems.
Polar lows can be difficult to detect using standard weather reports and are a problem to high-latitude operations, such as shipping and gas and oil platforms.
Polar lows have been also known as by using many other terms, such as comma cloud, mesocyclone, polar mesoscale vortex, Arctic hurricane, Arctic low, and cold air depression.
Today the term is usually set aside for the more-energetic systems that have near-surface winds of at least gale force (17 m/s).
European Polar Lows Working Group
NSIDC
Polar Low Forecasting by MetEd
Rasmussen,E.A. and Turner,J.(2003).
Polar Lows: Mesoscale Weather Systems in the Polar Regions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 612.
Pericles or Perikles (ca.
495–429 BC, , meaning "surrounded by glory") was a prominent and influential statesman.
He also was an orator, and general of Athens.
He lived between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.
He was descended, through his mother, from the Alcmaeonid family.
Pericles had great influence on Athenian society.
Thucydides, a contemporary historian, described him as "the first citizen of Athens".
Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War.
The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles,".
This period though can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century.
In Pericles late 20’s he sponsored a major dramatic production for the festival of Dionysus, and he also entertained the whole city.
Pericles also got married and had 2 sons.
His wife's name is unknown.
He associated with a courtesan named Aspasia.
A decade later the people started to like him more and more.
He got involved with the politics called Ephialtes.
Pericles and Ephialtes took away the noble's powers.
Ephialtes was later assassinated.
Pericles promoted the arts and literature.
This was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world.
He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon).
This project made the city more beautiful.,
It also showed its glory, and gave work to the people.
Furthermore, Pericles fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.
Works about Pericles
Aristophanes, The Acharnians.
See original text in Perseus program.
Aristotle, Politika (Politics).
Cicero, De Oratore.
Diodorus Siculus, Library, 12th Book.
Herodotus, The Histories, VI.
Plato, Alcibiades I. See original text in Perseus program, from
Plato, Gorgias.
See original text in Perseus program, from
Plato, Menexenus.
Plato, Phaedrus, See original text in Perseus program, from
Plutarch, Cimon.
Plutarch, Pericles.
Quintilian, Institutiones.
See original text in The Latin Library.
, I-III.
Xenophon (?),
Constitution of Athens.
See original text in  Perseus program
Gore Vidal, Creation (novel) for a fictional account of Pericles and a Persian view of the wars.
429 BC deaths
Ancient Greek politicians
Wind speeds usually mean the movement of air in an outside environment, but the speed of movement of air inside is also important in many cases, including weather forecasting, aircraft and maritime operations, construction and civil engineering.
High wind speeds can cause unpleasant side effects, and strong winds often have special names, including gales, hurricanes, and typhoons.
The highest wind speed ever measured on earth, 253 miles per hour, was recorded on Barrow Island, Australia.
The most simple method of measuring wind speed is to estimate the speed from the observed event against the Beaufort Scale.
Obviously, this method is not the most accurate available, so each value on the scale represents a range of values, three on the scale, for example, covers the wind speeds between seven and ten knots.
es:Viento#Características físicas de los vientos
Thebes is a city in Central Greece in Boeotia.
Today, about 23,000 people live there.
It lies on the border of Boeotia and Attica.
Archaeologists have found a Mycenaean settlement.
They have also found clay tablets written in Linear B script.
Thebes was once a super-power in Greece until the rise of Macedonia.
It became a dominant power after their victory over the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC.
Thebes sided with Persians the Persian wars.
It’s refrnced in multiple myths and in the setting off Antigone and Oedipus
The Minoan civilization was a civilization on Crete called after Minos.
It began in the Bronze Age between 3000 and 2700 BC.
It lasted until about 1450 BC.
The Minoan civilization is famous for its sea trading and well-planned cities.
The Minoans had an agricultural system which relied mainly on olives and grapes.
Their religion worshipped mostly goddesses.
The Minoan civilization was later replaced by the Mycenaean culture.
Minoan Architecture
Cretans built palaces during their architecture era.
In a non-royal palace there were many small rooms with cooler places to sit, because Crete got very hot in the summer.
Palaces were used for many things.
They were used as government centers, storerooms, stores, and administrative offices.
Most palaces were very big.
The Cretans might have gotten the money to create these palaces from working for the Egyptians.
The royal palace was very different.
Everyone had toilets, baths, and running water.
The ones for the king and queen were very fancy.
Their palace was fancy also.
The architecture era was ended by a great fire.
This era went from 2000 B.C. to 1450 B.C.
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/history/minoans.htm
http://photo.pds.org:5005/student/article?id=ar028740
http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Minoan_civilization
Minoan culture
The word is used mainly in war.
Two or more countries that make an alliance promise to help one other during war.
Such countries are called allies.
Those countries are said to be allied.
The Persian Empire ( - ) is the name for a few empires, that ruled over modern-day Iran.
Achaemenid Empire (550 BC – 330 BC), the first Persian Empire.
Sassanid Empire (224 – 651 AD),  the second Persian Empire.
Persia (1501-1935) under Safavid dynasty, Afsharid dynasty, Zand dynasty, Qajar dynasty and Pahlavi dynasty
Persia, Iowa, a city in the United States
Persian Gulf, an extension of the Indian Ocean between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula
Fars Province, a province in Iran, also known as Pārs
Persian (disambiguation)
Prince of Persia, a series of video games
Epic poetry tells a dramatic story in a poem.
There are characters in the story.
It is usually long, and takes place in different settings.
Epic poems started in prehistoric times as part of oral tradition.
The Kyrgyz Epic of Manas is one of the longest written epics in history.
Beowulf is a typical example, written in Old English.
Well-known people who wrote epics were Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Edmund Spenser and Milton.
William Wordsworth's Prelude plays with epic ideas though the poem is autobiography.
The hero is outstanding.
They might be important, and historically or legendarily significant.
The setting is large.
It covers many nations, or the known world.
The action is made of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.
Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action.
It is written in a very special style (verse as opposed to prose).
The poet tries to remain objective.
Epic poems are believed to be supernatural and real by the hero and the villain
It starts with the theme or subject of the story.
In epics inspired from Western civilization the writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus.
The poet prays to the Muses to provide divine inspiration to tell the great story.
Narrative opens in medias res, or in the middle of things, usually with the hero at his lowest point.
Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.
Catalogues and genealogies are given.
These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context.
Often, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.
Main characters give extended formal speeches.
Use of the epic simile.
Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases.
It presents the heroic ideals such as courage, honour, sacrifice, patriotism and kindness.
An epic gives a clear picture of the social and cultural patterns of the contemporary life.
Beowulf thus shows the love of wine, wild celebration, war, adventure and sea-voyages.
20th to 10th century BC:
Epic of Gilgamesh  (Mesopotamia)
8th century BC to 3rd century AD:
Mahābhārata  (Indian mythology)
8th to 6th century BC:
Iliad and Odyssey, ascribed to Homer  (Greek mythology)
1st century BC:
Aeneid, Vergil (Latin)
8th to 10th century AD
Beowulf (Old English)
12th to 13th century AD
Sirat Bani Hilal (Arabic)    *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghribat_Bani_Hilal]*
10th to 12th century AD
Njál's saga (Old Norse)
14th century AD
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (dialect of middle English)
Lyric poetry - contrary notion
The water flowers named Nymphaea
The famous series of paintings by Claude Monet: Water Lilies
Kousuke Atari (, Atari Kōsuke; born July 13, 1980 in Amami island, Kagoshima) is a Japanese singer and Shimauta utasha.
Sony Music Online Japan Artist
Kousuke Atari at EPIC-JP.net
The Apostles, op.
49, is an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar.
It was first performed on October 14, 1903.
Elgar had been thinking for many years about writing a musical work about Jesus's Twelve Apostles.
He was already 42 when his orchestral work Enigma Variations was first performed in 1899.
He was then asked by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival to compose a big work for the following year.
At first he thought of writing The Apostles, but then he realized he would need more than a year to write it, so he composed an oratorio called The Dream of Gerontius.
When it was first performed it was not a success.
This was because the orchestra and choir had only had two weeks to learn it and also because the conductor did not like Elgar's music anyway.
Then it was performed in Düsseldorf in Germany and shortly afterwards in Westminster Cathedral, London.
Both these performances were greeted with lots of applause.
Elgar was given a doctorate (title of Dr) by the University of Cambridge and he was becoming famous.
He started to work on The Apostles, and it was performed in Birmingham in 1903.
Originally Elgar wanted to write three oratorios which would belong together.
The Apostles is the first one, the second one became The Kingdom but the third one, which would have been about the Last Judgement, was never written.
The words and music
The oratorio is about the disciples of Jesus and the way they react to the amazing things that Jesus does.
There are six soloists: the narrator (who tells the story)-  he has a tenor voice and also does the part of St John, St Peter (bass), Jesus (bass) and Judas (bass) and the two female singers: the soprano who is both the Blessed Virgin and the angel Gabriel, and the mezzo-soprano who is Mary Magdalene.
Sometimes The Apostles is criticized for not being a carefully thought out dramatic story.
Elgar was more interested in what makes people behave in the way they do.
He was particularly interested in the two sinners Mary Magdalene and Judas Iscariot.
The orchestra is very big.
The music includes the call of the shofar.
Often this is played on a brass instrument.
There is a double choir and a small choir (semichorus).
The parts of the oratorio
The work is in two parts and seven sections, each played without a break.
Elgar chose the words himself.
He spent a lot of time looking at different translations of the Bible and combining sentences from several of the versions.
(Part 1) "The Calling of the Apostles".
The music begins just before dawn; the sun rises, and one by one the Apostles are chosen.
"By the Wayside".
This shows Jesus's teaching, and includes the Beatitudes.
"By the Sea of Galilee".
This is all about Mary Magdalene.
After a stormy night she is converted (changes her behaviour to live a good life).
(Part 2) "The Betrayal".
This is all about Judas.
Elgar shows Judas as a person who was trying to make a situation in which Jesus would have to perform a miracle to prove that he was the Son of God.
In the end Judas despairs.
"Golgotha".
This is a short interlude, as is the following section.
"At the Sepulchre".
The story of the Resurrection is briefly told by the narrator and a chorus of angels.
"The Ascension".
Elgar is not so interested in the actual miracle.
The music is really about the Apostles who are going to start the Christian Church on Earth.
Unlike The Dream of Gerontius which people did not like the first time they heard it, The Apostles was an immediate success with audience and critics.
People were getting used to the kind of big oratorio that Elgar was writing.
However, today The Dream of Gerontius is the most popular of Elgar's oratorios.
The Apostles is a strange mixture of words from different parts of the bible, but it has some very beautiful music.
Elgar often wrote the music first and then added the words afterwards.
Elgar uses leitmotifs in this work: melodies that are associated with particular people or ideas.
He got this idea from Wagner.
Some of the leitmotifs heard in The Apostles can also be heard in The Kingdom.
Compositions by Edward Elgar
A knot is a unit of speed.
It is abbreviated kt or kn.
It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI.
It is used around the world in meteorology and for maritime and aviation purposes.
1 international knot = 1 nautical mile per hour = 1.852 kilometres per hour exactly.
This is based on the internationally agreed length of the nautical mile, as adopted by the US in 1954 (which previously used the US nautical mile of 1853.248 m), the UK in 1970 (which previously used the UK or Admiralty nautical mile of 1853.184 m) and other countries.
This is the definition used in most, if not all, modern circumstances.
Knot is sometimes used for the nautical mile itself, but this is incorrect.
The speed of a vessel relative to the fluid in which it travels is usually measured in knots.
This may be referred to as 'boat speed', 'vessel speed' and, for aircraft, 'air speed'.
The speeds of relevant fluids, such as tidal streams, river currents and wind speeds, are also usually specified in knots.
Knots are then also used to describe the actual speed of a vessel over the ground (SOG) and for its rate of progress toward a distant point ('velocity made good' or VMG).
One (international) knot is the same as 1.852 kilometres per hour (km·h−1), and is approximately equal to the following:
101.268591 feet per minute
1.687810 feet per second
514.4444 mm per second (mm·s−1)
1.150779 mile (statute) per hour (mph)
0.99936 Admiralty knot
Although knots do not fit within the primary SI system, they are used for nautical and aviation use  for navigational reasons, because the length of a nautical mile is almost identical to a minute of latitude.
As a result, distance in nautical miles on a navigational chart can easily be measured by using dividers and the latitude indicators on the side of the chart.
Non-SI units accepted for use with the SI, and units based on fundamental constants  - At one time, the knot, along with the nautical mile, was discouraged for use by the BIPM, but it is now officially accepted for use (as of the 8th edition of the SI brochure), since its use is "expected to continue indefinitely", as well as having an exact SI definition.
OnlineConversion.com: What is a knot?
What is a nautical mile?
knot – a fastening or securing of linear material such as rope, by tying or interweaving
Knotted rope or quipu, an Incan record-keeping device
Decorative knotwork in East Asia, including Chinese and Korean knots
Knots per sq cm, a measure of quality in hand-knotted carpets
Celtic knot, a decorative graphic representation of a knot
knot (mathematics), an abstract representation of an interwoven linear object
knot theory, the study of mathematical knots
list of mathematical knots and links
In the theory of splines, a knot is an interpolating point on the spline.
knot (speed), a unit of water or air speed ideally equaling 1 nautical mile per hour, depending on the relative motion of the medium
knot (wood), a mark left in timber by the origin of branches; the knot's grain travels in a different direction to the trunk of the tree
Knotwork, a neofolk musical duo comprising journalist Michael Moynihan and Annabel Lee.
Red Knot, a wading bird (simply called "Knot" in Europe)
Great Knot, a wading bird
Knotted Marjoram, an alternative name for the herb Marjoram
Knotted wrack, a seaweed
Knotgrass or knotweed, a member of the buckwheat family
the bulbus glandis, a part of the penis of a canine, in animal anatomy
a knot garden, an elaborate interlace of tightly-clipped low hedging
a tight cluster or group, in statistics
a type of join, in figurative language, as in a marriage
a small, hard, tender spot in a muscle referred to as a kink or trigger point
Cramp, a strong muscle contraction resulting in pain
Knots (film), a 2004 film starring Scott Cohen and Annabeth Gish
Knots, a 1970 book on psychology by R. D. Laing.
Knott
Knots Landing, an American soap opera
Gordian Knot (disambiguation)
In some languages, the words for "node" and "knot" are the same.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British orchestra based in London.
It travels around to give concerts in many places.
The RPO was started just after World War II, in 1946, by the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham.
Beecham did not start to get his players together until three weeks before the first concert which took place in Croydon on September 15, 1946.
Beecham was principal conductor until his death in 1961.
Beecham controlled all the organization of the orchestra.
After Beecham’s death, the orchestra was made into a self-governing group, like the other London orchestras.
They went through some difficult years.
In 1963 the Royal Philharmonic Society decided they would stop asking the RPO to play for their concerts, and in Glyndebourne, where the RPO had played for the opera since 1948, the London Philharmonic Orchestra became the resident orchestra instead.
Sir Malcolm Sargent helped the orchestra to put on its own concerts at a cinema in north London.
The orchestra had made an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society about the concerts it would play.
This meant it could call itself “Royal”.
In the 1960s the work they were doing no longer allowed them to call themselves “Royal”, so in 1966 the Queen officially gave them the title “Royal”.
The RPO give a series of concerts in the Cadogan Hall, London, and in the Royal Albert Hall.
They tour all over Britain and also abroad.
In the period 2002-2007 they played in 30 different countries.
The orchestra made many recordings with Sir Thomas Beecham.
In 1964 Igor Stravinsky recorded his opera "The Rake's Progress" with the RPO.
From 1964 to 1979 they recorded many Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Non-classical work
The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is part of the same organization.
They spend their time playing lighter classical music.
The RPO have also worked with pop music groups and has given its own series of children’s concerts.
In 2007 they announced a series of free educational workshops for the local community.
Conducting leadership
Thomas Beecham (1946-1961)
Rudolf Kempe (1962-1975)
Antal Doráti (1975-1978)
Walter Weller (1980-1985)
André Previn (1985-1992)
Vladimir Ashkenazy (1987-1994)
Yuri Temirkanov (1992-1998)
Daniele Gatti (1996-2009)
Charles Dutoit (2009-present)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra official website
Boult was born in Chester.
He went to school in Westminster School and studied at Christ Church, Oxford.
He then went to the Leipzig Conservatory where he learnt to conduct by watching the great Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch.
He sang in choral festivals and at the Leeds Festival of 1913, where he went to watch Nikisch conduct.
During World War I he worked for the War Office, and while he was there in 1918 he planned a series of concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, which included several important new British works including Gustav Holst's The Planets, A London Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Elgar's Symphony No.
When Boult was a boy he had already met Elgar.
Elgar now wrote to him and said he felt sure the future of his music was safe in Boult's hands.
Boult was at the start of a great career in which he conducted a lot of 20th century British music.
Birmingham and the BBC
In 1924 Boult became conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra—now the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra — and in 1930 he was made Director of Music at the BBC.
When the BBC formed the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boult also became its chief conductor, combining both jobs.
Boult became famous for conducting a wide repertoire, including the very modern-sounding music of Arnold Schoenberg.
In 1933 he married Ann Wilson, the ex-wife of the singer and administrator Steuart Wilson.
The marriage lasted until Boult's death.
Boult was knighted in 1937.
War years and after
During World War II the BBC Symphony Orchestra was evacuated to Bristol.
Even there it was not safe from the bombing and they moved again to Bedford.
In 1948, Steuart Wilson became Director of Music at the BBC.
Some people were saying that the music on the BBC was not so good and that Boult ought to retire when he became 60 in 1949.
He then became conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he made many recordings.
Boult continued to conduct until he was very old.
His many recordings, including music he had heard Nikisch conduct many years before.
His last public performance was conducting Elgar's ballet The Sanguine Fan for London Festival Ballet at the Coliseum, in London on 24 June 1978.
Boult wrote two books about conducting, Thoughts on Conducting and A handbook on the technique of conducting.
He also wrote an autobiography:  My Own Trumpet (the expression “to blow one’s own trumpet” means: “to boast about oneself).
He also gave talks on the radio.
He spoke in a very polite, formal style.
Boult always conducted with a baton (conductor’s stick).
His conducting was very graceful, his movements were very simple and clear.
Musicians from Cheshire
Franz Lehár (born 30 April 1870; died 24 October 1948) was an Austrian composer of Hungarian descent.
He was the leading composer of operettas in the 20th century.
He is still one of the most popular composers of light music.
Lehár was born in Komáron in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Today the town is called Komárno and it is in Slovakia.
He was the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army.
He studied violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory.
Antonín Dvořák told him he should be a composer.
After graduation in 1899 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster.
In 1902 he became conductor at the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his first opera Wiener Frauen was performed in November of that year.
He is most famous for his operettas.
The best known one is The Merry Widow (in German: Die lustige Witwe) which is probably the most popular of all operettas.
He also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems, marches, and a number of waltzes, some of which come from his famous operettas.
Some of the songs from his operettas have become very well-known, especially "Vilja" from The Merry Widow and "You Are My Heart's Delight" ("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") from The Land of Smiles.
The tenor Richard Tauber sang in many of his operettas.
Six of them had parts especially written for him.
Lehár died in 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg where he was also buried.
His villa in Bad Ischl is now a museum in his memory.
The planet Neptune has a dim planetary ring system which is made up of several separate rings and some "ring arcs".
The "rings arcs" are part of the outer ring called the Adams ring and are not to be seen anywhere else.
The ring particles (small parts) are unusually dark colored, and have large amounts of microscopic dust.
Four of them orbit the planet inside the outermost rings.
Discovery and observations
The rings around Neptune could not be seen from Earth with strong telescopes.
The evidence that they were there was first seen when scientists were watching the planet as it passed between the Earth and a star. (
When this happens, the light of the star is blocked.
This is called "stellar occulation".)
Scientists watched this happen 50 times, and on five of those times in the early 1980s they saw the star give a little "blink" just before or after the planet covered it.
This meant that rings around the planet were blocking the light, but the rings were not complete.
In 1989 the unmanned spacecraft Voyager 2 flew by Neptune.
Voyager 2 sent back pictures that gave most of the information that scientists now have about the rings of Neptune.
The pictures also help scientists to know why the rings looked incomplete.
Not only did the pictures give a closer view, but they also showed the rings in a way that cannot ever be seen from earth.
From earth the rings are always seen with the light of the sun shining towards them.
When the spacecraft went past the planet, it took pictures with the sun shining behind the rings, as well.
Big particles in the rings looked dark against the sunlight, but all tiny dust particles (microscopic dust) shone brightly when the sun was behind it.
This allowed the scientists to work out what the rings were made of, and how all the particles were arranged.
As better types of telescopes have been developed, scientists can now see some of the rings from earth.
The brightness of Neptune makes it hard to see the rings, which are much dimmer and the faintest rings still cannot be seen, even with vey powerful telescopes.
Adams ring and the Ring Arcs
The most famous of Neptune's rings is the thin outer Adams ring, although by comparison with the rings of the planets Saturn or Uranus, it is very hard to see.
It was originally named as 1989 N1R. The reason that the Adams ring is famous is that it has a feature that has not been seen on any other planetary rings.
These are three long narrow "arcs" which are much brighter and look more solid than the rest of the ring system.
Each one spans from 4-10° of the whole ring.
All the arcs are close to each other, spanning under 40° of longitude, only about 1/8th of the edge of the ring.
It has been a puzzle to understand why the stuff in these arcs does not spread out evenly through the whole ring.
The three arcs have been named with French names Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité.
These names came from the famous saying of the French Revolution, which translates into English as "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood!".
These names were suggested by the scientists who discovered them during stellar occultations in 1984 and 1985.
Four of Neptune's 13 moons are inside the ring system.
The one that is nearest to the Adam's ring is called Galatea.
It is a lumpy mass of rock that orbits around the planet at about the same speed as the planet is rotating.
It is about 1000 kilometers inside the ring.
Many scientists now think that it is the effect of the moon Galatea that is causing the three arcs in the Adam's ring.
The ring also has 42 wiggles, which are like waves 30 kilometers high.
Scientists are able to use this information to work out the mass of the moon Galatea. .
The best photos that came back from Voyager 2 showed that there are clumps of particles in the rings, but no-one can tell whether they are made of fine dust, or if there may be bigger particles in the clumps as well.
All of Neptune's rings have a lot of microscopic dust but particularly the arcs of the Adam's ring.
Scientists know this because they looked very bright in the photos that Voyager 2 took with the sun shining behind them.
There is much more dust in the rings of Neptune than there is in the rings of Saturn.
The Adams ring is very red.
The background particles that make up the ring look twice as bright near the three arcs as they do on the side of the ring that is opposite the arcs.
Arc dynamics
This has showed that they are amazingly active, changing a lot over only a few years: Fraternité and Égalité have been exchanging material and changing their lengths noticeably.
Even more dramatically, Liberté appears to be fading away, being only 30% of its original 1989 brightness in 2003, and hardly visible in Hubble Space Telescope images from June 2005.
In the meantime, it seems to have gotten a split two-humped profile, and wandered several degrees closer to the more stable Égalité.
Courage, a very small and dim arc during the Voyager flyby, was seen to flare in brightness in 1998, while more recently it was back to its usual dimness but had advanced by an additional 8° ahead of the other arcs.
That is, it appears to have jumped over to the next stable corotation resonance position.
There were also some suggestions that the ring arcs may have been normally fading away.
However, visible light observations show that the total amount of material in the arcs has remained approximately steady, but they are dimmer in the infra-red where previous observations were taken.
This activity of the ring arcs is not currently understood.
Inner rings