the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Economist Tyler Cowen questions the conventional wisdom surrounding the Plan
Truman Presidential Library online collection of original Marshal Plan documents from the year 1946 onwards
The Marshal Plan documents collection at MCE
Marshall Plan from the National Archives
Excerpts from book by Allen W. Dulles
United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes famous Stuttgart speech, September 6, 1946 The speech marked the turning point away from the Morgenthau Plan philosophy of economic dismantlement of Germany and towards a policy of economic reconstruction.
Marshall Plan Commemorative Section: Lessons of the Plan: Looking Forward to the Next Century
U.S. Economic Policy Towards defeated countries  April, 1946.
"Pas de Pagaille!" ,
Time magazine July 28, 1947
"The Marshall Plan as Tragedy," comment on Michael Cox and Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy?
Rethinking the Marshall Plan," both published in the Journal of Cold War Studies, vol.
1 (Winter 2005) (text of comment on pdf ) (text of original article on pdf )
Luis García Berlanga's critique of the Marshall Plan in a classic Spanish film: Welcome Mr. Marshall!
Marshall Plan Still Working, 60 Years Later Cincinnati Enquirer December 10, 2006
Luther argued that the Church should not sell indulgences.
Because many people agreed, Luther became very popular, paving the way for the Protestant Reformation.
On October 31, 1517, Luther approached the church authorities with his pressing call for reform.
On this day he presented them with his theses.
When the bishops did not respond, Luther circulated his theses privately.
The theses spread quickly and were printed in Nuremberg, Leipzig, and Basel.
Most recently, in February 2007, the media reported that a handwritten note by Luther's secretary Georg Rörer, found in the university library at Jena, appeared to confirm the traditional account of Luther's nailing the theses to the door.
As of February 2007, this new find has yet to be assessed by scholars.
Erwin Iserloh The Theses Were Not Posted: Luther Between Reform and  Reformation.
by Jared Wicks, S.J.. Boston: Beacon Press, 1968.
Project Wittenberg: 95 Theses by Dr. Martin Luther (1517)
BELIEVE Religious Information Source
Christian texts
The basis of indulgences was said to be that the church has a "treasury of merit".
This came from past Christians who had been even better than was required to gain salvation.
Their good deeds were kept in a kind of bank that the Pope could draw from.
He could  give or sell the merit to others whose sins prevented them from being saved.
During the crusades, the Pope promised "full indulgence" to those who volunteered to fight the Muslims.
This meant that if they became soldiers in the Pope's army and died, they would go to heaven even if they had done evil things.
By 1500, indulgences had developed into a printed letter that said that having paid money a person had received full pardon for all their sins.
Even people who had died and were suffering in purgatory could be instantly freed if a living person paid for the indulgence.
The money was used for building a church in Rome, with some of it going to local princes or secular leaders.
This extreme abuse of indulgences caused Martin Luther to protest against them.
Luther said that it is better to give money to the poor and repent of one's sins instead of paying money to the Church.
This was the starting point for the Protestant Reformation (1517).
Soon after, at  the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church tried to respond to the problems that led to the Reformation and the sale of indulgences was stopped.
Code of Canon Law (1983) concerning Indulgences
Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th edition, 1999 (Latin) (English translation: "Manual of Indulgences", published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, )
Pope John Paul II's General Audience on Indulgences - 29 September 1999
The Apostolic Penitentiary publication on 'The Gift of the Indulgence' (29 January 2000) concerning esp.
the Jubilee Indulgence
"Indulgences", in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
"A Primer on Indulgences" by James Akin
"The Enchiridion of Indulgences" (1968)
"Myths About Indulgences" from Catholic Answers
Indulgence of Sancta Congregatio Sedes
Prospero is a small retrograde non-spherical moon of Uranus found on 1999-07-18 by the astrophysicist Matthew Holman and his team, and given designation S/1999 U 3.
Confirmed as Uranus XVIII it was named after the sorcerer Prospero in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
The moon appears grey in the visible light
, similar to Setebos but different from Sycorax (which is light red).
Prospero Profile  by NASA's Solar System Exploration
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (5 January, 1744 - 27 November, 1811) was a  Spanish neoclassical statesman, writer, and philosopher.
Banishment
Reintroduction
When he was involved in the fall of the party he was sent back to Gijon.
The vessel in which he sailed was compelled by stress of weather to put in at Vega de Navia (now Puerto de Vega) in Asturias where died on November 27 1811.
18th-century philosophers
Spanish philosophers
The Empire State Building is a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
It is  tall and has 102 floors.
Named after the popular nickname for New York, the Empire State,  it is one of the most famous landmarks in the US.
When the Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, it was the world's tallest building.
Designed by the architects named Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates, it was built at a time when many people were trying to make the world's tallest building, but the Empire State Building won.
The old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was destroyed so that the Empire State Building could be built.
The Empire State Building was completed in 410 days.
It opened on May 1, 1931, when United States President Herbert Hoover pushed a button in Washington, D.C. to turn on the lights.
The Empire State Building's design was based on the 21-story Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, built in 1929.
In the 1930s, the Empire State Building was called the "Empty State Building" because not many people worked in the building.
The Empire State Building became the tallest building in New York City and the world until the first World Trade Center towers passed it in 1970.
When these towers were brought down in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York.
It stopped being New York's tallest building in 2012 when the new One World Trade Center was built.
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, a plane crashed into the building due to heavy fog and started a fire, but the building was only damaged a little.
14 people (3 in the plane) were killed in the accident.
The Empire State Building is at 350 Fifth Avenue.
The building has its own ZIP code, 10118.
There is a big Art Deco lobby with shops at Fifth Avenue.
People can also go to a lobby on 34th Street.
The Empire State Building has 73 elevators.
The 80th, 86th, and 102nd floors have places where people can look at the city from high above.
There is a steel mast on the top of the Empire State Building.
The builders wanted to have an airship station on the roof, but the station was not opened.
Today, people cannot go to the mast.
The mast has a radio transmitter.
The Empire State Building also lights up at night.
Official Website – Empire State Building
Emporis.com – Empire State Building
SkycraperPage.com – Empire State Building
20th-century architecture
Art Deco buildings
Skyscrapers in New York City
The village of Calvià has an area of  and an  altitude of  .
There are almost 50,000 inhabitants.
Tourism is the main source of income in this city.
In summer there are many tourist coming to this city, especially from the United Kingdom.
Municipalities in the Balearic Islands
The Hoover Dam is a large dam on the Colorado River.
It is on the border of the states of Arizona and Nevada.
The reservoir it made is called Lake Mead.
The dam is named after the former US President Herbert Hoover.
At first it was called "Boulder Dam", but the name was changed to honor Hoover, who was president when the idea of building the dam started.
Hoover Dam's official website
Official State of Nevada Tourism Site
Hoover Dam: Lonely Lands Made Fruitful
BBC - Hoover Dam, industrial and social history
Hoover Dam page
Dams of the Lower Colorado River - Hoover Dam
"Boulder Dam" – Part I and Parts III and IV,  documentary films from the Prelinger Archives at the Internet Archive.
Construction of diversion tunnel #4 and spillway tunnel which drops sharply to enter diversion tunnel
PBS American experience - Hoover Dam
Dams in the United States
Buildings and structures in Arizona
Felanitx is on the east side of Majorca close to Porto Colom on the coast.
It is  from Palma.
It is the centre of a very touristic  area (there are more than 2.300 hotel rooms), especially in summer.
http://www.idealspain.com/Pages/Places/mallorca/Felanitx.htm
http://www.info-mallorca.co.uk/felanitx/
St. Peter's Basilica, which is called "Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano" in Italian, is a large church in the Vatican City, in Rome, Italy.
It is often called “the greatest church in Christendom".
In Catholic tradition, St. Peter's Basilica is believed to be the burial place of Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus.
It is believed that Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome.
Although the Bible does not say that the apostle Peter went to Rome, other Roman Christians who were alive in the 1st century AD have written about him.
Catholics believe that after Peter was killed, his body was buried in a cemetery where the basilica now stands.
A tomb has been found below the altar of the basilica, and there were some bones, but no-one can say for certain if they are the bones of St. Peter.
A church was built here in the 4th century AD.
The building that stands here now was begun on April 18, 1506 and was finished in 1626.
Many Popes have been buried there.
Although many people think St. Peter's is a cathedral, it is not, because it does not have a bishop.
The pope is the Bishop of Rome, and although he usually uses St. Peter's as his main church, because he lives in the Vatican, his bishop's throne is in a different church, the cathedral of Saint John Lateran.
Large important churches like St. Peter's are often called basilicas.
There are four ancient basilicas in Rome that were begun by the Emperor Constantine soon after he made Christianity the legal religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD (300s).
The basilicas are St. Peter's Basilica, St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul outside the Walls.
The pope, who lives at the Vatican, often says mass at St. Peter's.
Many people go there on pilgrimage.
It is said to be the greatest work of architecture of its age.
It has works by many famous artists including Michelangelo and Bernini.
St. Peter's is probably the largest Christian church in the world.
It covers an area of 2.3 hectares (5.7 acres) and can hold over 60,000 people.
Burial place of St. Peter
One of the books of the Bible, called the Acts of the Apostles, tells what happened to the disciples of Jesus after he was put to death by crucifixion in the 1st century AD.
One of his twelve disciples became the leader.
His name was Simon Peter and he was a fisherman from Galilee.
Peter became one of the most important people in starting the Christian Church.
Another important disciple was Paul of Tarsus, who travelled to many places and wrote lots of letters to teach and to encourage people in the new Christian groups that began to spring up in many different parts of the Roman Empire.
St. Paul travelled to Rome.
It is believed that St. Peter also travelled to Rome and that both Paul and Peter were put to death there as Christian martyrs.
St. Paul was beheaded with a sword.
Peter was crucified up-side-down.
It is believed that the body of St. Peter was buried in a cemetery near the Via Cornelia, a road leading out of the city, on the hill called Vaticanus.
Peter's grave was marked, by a red rock, the symbol of his name.
The place where Peter died was marked, in the 1400s, by a little round temple called the "Tempietto" designed by Bramante.
St. Peter is very important in Roman Catholic tradition because Peter is believed to have been the head of the Christian Church in Rome, and so he was the first bishop.
The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 16, verse 18) tells that Jesus said these words to Peter:
"And I also say this to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church."
The name Peter means a "rock".
The Roman Catholic Church believes that Jesus made Peter the head of the Christian Church, and so all the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) must be the leaders of the Christian Church throughout the whole world.
The Protestant and Orthodox churches believe that Jesus was speaking about the important words Peter had just said: "You are the Christ and the Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16), and that this Confession of Faith is the rock that the Christian Church is built on.
On December 23, 1950, while making his Christmas radio broadcast to the world, Pope Pius XII announced that Saint Peter's tomb had been discovered.
Archaeologists had been searching for ten years in a place under the basilica that had been covered up for about a thousand years.
They had found part of a small building dating from soon after St. Peter's death, and some bones, but no-one could be sure if they were the bones of St. Peter.
Old St. Peter's
St. Peter's Basilica, as it stand today, was begun in 1506.
The first basilica, which is now called "Old St. Peter's Basilica" was begun by the Emperor Constantine between 326 and 333 AD.
This was a big wide church in the shape of a Latin Cross, over 103.6 metres (350 feet) long.
The central part called the "nave" had two aisles on either side, separated by rows of talls Roman columns.
In front of the main entrance was large courtyard with a covered walkway all around.
This church had been built over a small "shrine" (little chapel) believed to mark the burial place of St. Peter.
The old basilica contained a very large number of tombs and memorials, including those of most of the popes from St. Peter to the 15th century.
The plan to rebuild
By the end of the 15th century (1400s), the old basilica was falling to pieces.
Pope Nicholas V, (1447–55), was worried about it and got two architects, Leone Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino, to make plans to restore it or build a new one.
But Pope Nicholas had so many political problems that when he died, very little of the work had been done.
In 1505, Pope Julius II decided to demolish (pull down) the old St. Peter's and build a basilica that would be the grandest church in the world and make Rome (and himself) famous.
He held a competition and invited lots of artists and architects to draw designs.
A plan was selected and the build was begun, but Pope Julius did not get his new basilica.
In fact, it was not finished for 120 years.
The planning and construction (or "building work") lasted through the reigns of 21 popes and 8 architects.
One plan after another
The changing plans for St. Peter's.
The architectural terms are explained in the article.
When Pope Julius decided to build the "grandest church in Christendom" the design by Donato Bramante was chosen, and Pope Julius laid the foundation stone in 1506.
Bramante's plan was in the shape of an enormous Greek Cross, which means that it had four arms all of equal length, and a large dome at the middle.
For the next hundred years, the groundplan got changed backwards and forwards between a "Greek Cross" like Bramante's plan and a "Latin Cross" like the old basilica, but one thing never changed, and that was the idea of having an enormous dome at the place where the two arms crossed.
At that time, there were only three very large domes in the whole world.
One was far away in Constantinople on the church of Hagia Sophia and not many people in Italy had seen it.
The other two domes were both very well known.
One was the dome on the temple to the Ancient Roman gods, called the Pantheon.
The other dome was built in the early 15th century (1400s) on Florence Cathedral by Filippo Brunelleschi.
The dome of the Pantheon is 43.3 metres (142.06 ft) across and the dome of Florence Cathedral is about 42.1 metres (138 ft), but is much taller.
Bramante's plan for the dome of St. Peter's was for it to be about as wide as the dome of Florence, and even taller.
No architect with any sense would try to design a dome without first checking out how these other two domes were made.
Bramante checked them out.
He discovered that the dome of the Pantheon, which had been standing for nearly 1500 years, was made of concrete.
So that the concrete wouldn't be too heavy, it was mixed with pumice stone which comes out of a volcano and is full of gas holes so it is very light weight.
Bramante learned how to make concrete like the Ancient Romans.
Bramante's dome was to be like the one on the Pantheon.
But there was one very big difference between the Pantheon dome and Bramante's design.
The Pantheon's dome stands on a round wall like a drum, with only one doorway in it, but Bramante's dome was designed to stand on a drum, which was standing high up on four wide arches.
The aches rested on four enormous piers (pillars of stone).
He had got this idea from Florence Cathedral which had an enormous dome resting on eight big piers.
Another idea that Bramante got from Florence Cathedral was the design for the little stone tower which sits on top of the dome and is called the lantern.
Raphael, Peruzzi and Sangallo the Younger
When Pope Julius died in 1513, the next pope, Leo X, called in three architects, Giuliano da Sangallo, Fra Giocondo and Raphael.
Sangallo and Fr Giocondo both died in 1515.
Raphael made a big change to the plan.
Instead of having a Greek Cross, he decided to change the plan to a Latin Cross, which had a long nave and aisles like the old basilica.
Raphael also died, in his mid-30s, in 1520, before any important changes could be made to the building.
The next architect was Peruzzi who like some of the ideas that Raphael had, but did not like the Latin Cross plan.
Peruzzi went back to Bramante's Greek Cross plan.
But there were so many arguments in the church that the building stopped completely.
Then in 1527 Rome was invaded by Emperor Charles V. Peruzzi died in 1536 without his plan being built.
The only main parts of the building which had been constructed were Bramante's four big piers to hold the dome.
Antonio da Sangallo (known as "Sangallo the Younger") looked at all the different plans by Peruzzi, Raphael and Bramante.
He put some of their ideas together in a design that had a very short nave, (not a long one like Raphael's design) and had a big porch at the front.
He changed Bramante's dome to be much stronger and also much more decorated.
The main new idea that he added were 16 stone ribs to strengthen the dome.
This idea came from Florence Cathedral which had eight stone ribs.
But Sangallo's plan never got built, either.
The main job that he did was to strengthen Bramante's piers which had begun to crack.
On January 1st, 1547 in the reign of Pope Paul III, Michelangelo, who was already over 70, became the architect of St. Peter's.
He is the main designer of the building as it stands today.
Michelangelo died before the job was finished, but by that time, he had got the construction up to a point where other people could get it finished.
Michelangelo had already done a lot of work for the popes, carving figures for the tomb of Pope Julius II, painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which took five years, and the enormous fresco the "Last Judgement" on the wall of the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo found the popes and the cardinals very difficult to work with.
When Pope Paul asked him to be the new architect for St. Peter's, Michelangelo did not want the job.
In fact, Pope Paul did not really want Michelangelo.
But his first choice, Giulio Romano, died suddenly.
Michelangelo told the pope that he would only do the job, if he could do it in whatever way he thought was best.
"I am only doing this for the love of God and to honour of the Apostle."
When Michelangelo took over a building site in 1547, the nave of the old basilica was still standing and in use.
There were four of the most enormous piers in the world standing where the western part of the old basilica had been.
The building work had stopped for so long that weeds and bushes were growing out between the stones of the unfinished building as if it was a cliff.
Michelangelo looked at all the plans that had been drawn by some of the greatest architects and engineers of the 16th century.
He knew he could do whatever he liked but he had respect for the other designers, especially Bramante.
He knew that he was expected to make a design that would be the symbol of the city of Rome, in the same way as Brunelleschi's dome was the symbol of Florence where Michelangelo had lived as a young man.
He went back to the Greek Cross idea and re-drew Bramante's plan, making every part of it much stronger and simpler.
It had to be strong enough to support the tallest dome in the world.
Michelangelo was a sculptor.
When he was going to carve something, he would start by making a clay model.
Michelangelo could imagine the building like a lump of clay.
What if the building could be pushed and pulled and squeezed?
If you could squeeze the corners in, then other bits would bulge out.
If you could put your hands around the whole building and squeeze it, then the dome would bulge upwards.
The idea of imagining buildings as bendy and bulgy was a completely new one.
But other artists like Gianlorenzo Bernini looked at what Michelangelo did at St. Peter's and used this clever new idea in their own work.
This is called the Baroque style.
As it stands today, the Greek Cross part of the basilica is Michelangelo's design and the nave, which was added later, is by Carlo Maderna.
Comparing Michelangelo's plan with Raphael's plan shows that while the outside-line of Raphael's plan has clear square and round shapes, the outside-line in Michelangelo's plan has lots of changes of direction.
That is the way it was built.
All around the outside of the building are enormous "pilasters" (which are like giant columns stuck on the building).
Almost every pilaster is set at a different angle to the next one as if the flat walls had been folded up.
Right around the top of the building is a band called the "cornice".
A "cornice" is usually quite flat, but because of all the changes of direction, this cornice ripples like a giant piece of ribbon, tied around the outside of the building.
The art historian Helen Gardner wrote that it looked as of the whole building was being held together from top to bottom.
The Dome of St. Peter's
Michelangelo designed the dome again, using ideas from Bramante and Sangallo the Younger.
Three important ideas came from the dome that Brunelleschi had built in Florence more than 100 years earlier.
Michelangelo designed a brick dome with stone ribs, like Sangallo's plan, not like the concrete dome planned by Bramante.
He designed the dome with two shells, instead of one.
This was good for several reasons.
A high dome looks good from the outside, but a lower dome looks better from the inside.
The gap in between the domes has stairs so people can repair the dome.
The space also helps to keep the inside shell dry so the decoration does not get damaged.
The third way that the dome of St. Peter's is like that of Florence Cathedral is that it rises up to a point on top like an egg.
This means that the sides of the dome are steeper and do not push outward as much as a dome that is completely round.
No-one knows exactly what shape Michelangelo wanted the dome to be, because he died before it was built.
But there is some evidence.
Firstly, there is a drawing by Michelangelo that shows the dome with an egg-shape.
Secondly, there is a print by a different artist showing the dome with a round shape.
The artist said that it was Michelangelo's design.
Thirdly, there is a very large wooden model that Michelangelo had made, to show the building committee and the pope.
The dome is more pointy than the print, but not as pointy as the drawing.
When Michelangelo died in 1564, the walls were being built, the piers had been strengthened and everything was ready for the building of the dome.
The Pope wanted Michelangelo's assistant Vignola to finish it, but he was not able to.
After twenty years Pope Sixtus V gave the job to the architect Giacomo della Porta and the engineer Domenico Fontana.
Giacomo Della Porta successfully built the dome.
He made some changes to the design, like adding some lions' heads to the decoration because they were the symbol of Pope Sixtus' family.
The main way that the dome is different from the wooden model is that it is much more pointy.
Some writers believe that Michelangelo had changed his mind from his first plan, and did not want the pointy dome.
They believe he wanted a round dome which would look more "restful".
Other writers believe that Michelangelo wanted the pointed dome, not just because it was safer to build, but also because it looked more exciting, as if the building was pushing upwards.
Pope Sixtus V lived just long enough to see the dome finished in 1590.
His name is written in gold letters around the inside, just below the lantern.
Pope Clement III, had a cross raised into place on top of the lantern.
It took a whole day and everyone in Rome was given a holiday, and all the church-bells of the city were rung.
In the arms of the cross are set two lead boxes, one containing a fragment of the True Cross and a bone of Saint Andrew and the other containing medals of the "Holy Lamb".
The dome of St. Peter's rises to a height of 136.57 m (448.06 ft) from the floor of the basilica.
It is the tallest dome in the world.
Its inside diameter is 41.47 metres (136.06 ft), just slightly smaller than those of the Pantheon and the Florence Cathedral.
TV ES PETRVS ET SVPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM  ET TIBI DABO CLAVES REGNI CAELORVM
("...you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church ... and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven...." Vulgate, .)
The change of plan
In 1602 Pope Paul V put Carlo Maderna in charge of the building.
On February 18 1606, workmen began to pull down the rest of the old basilica.
Some people were very upset.
The building committee felt guilty.
They decided that the church was the wrong shape, and that they wanted a Latin Cross plan because it was the symbol of the death of Jesus.
They wanted a nave which would cover all the Holy Ground where the old building had been.
In 1607 Maderna's plans for the nave and the facade (the front) were accepted.
For the inside, he used very large piers with pilasters like Michelangelo's, but he made a clear join between the two parts of the building.
The building work began on May 7 1607 and 700 men were employed to do the work.
In 1608, the facade was begun.
In December 1614 the building was all finished except for the decorations on the ceiling.
Early in 1615 the temporary wall between Michelangelo's building and the new nave was pulled down.
All the mess was carted away, and the nave was ready for use by Palm Sunday.
The façade was designed by Maderna.
It is 114.69 metres (376.28 ft) wide and 45.55 metres (149.44 ft) high and is built of pale grey travertine stone, with a giant Corinthian columns and a central triangular pediment.
Along the roof-line are statues of Christ, John the Baptist, and eleven of the apostles.
Inside the main doors is a portico (a long hall) which runs across the front of the building and has five doors leading into the basilica.
Its has a long curving roof decorated with gold.
The light that comes through the doors shines on the beautifully patterned marble floor.
At each end of the portico, set between columns, is a statue of a figure on horseback.
They are Charlemagne sculpted by Cornacchini (18th century) to the south and Emperor Constantine by Bernini (1670) to the north.
Maderna's last work at St. Peter's was to design a sunken crypt called the "Confessio" under the dome, where people can go to be nearer the burial place of the apostle.
All around its marble handrail are 95 bronze lamps.
Furnishing of St. Peters
Pope Urban VIII and Bernini
As a young boy Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) visited St. Peter's and said that one day he wanted to build "a mighty throne for the apostle".
His wish came true.
As a young man, in 1626, Pope Urban VIII asked him to work as architect for the basilica.
Bernini spent the next fifty years thinking of new and beautiful things to design.
He is thought of as the greatest architect and sculptor of the Baroque period.
Baldacchino and niches
Bernini's first work at St. Peter's was to design the "baldacchino" which is like a tent or "pavilion" above the High Altar.
This amazing thing is 30 metres (98 ft) tall and is probably the largest piece of bronze in the world.
It stands underneath the dome and has four huge bronze twisted columns decorated with olive leaves and bees, because bees were the symbol of Pope Urban.
Pope Urban had a niece that he loved very much and he got Bernini to put her face and the face of her new-born baby boy on the columns as well.
Bernini had a great idea for Bramante's great big piers.
He had four hollow "niches" carved into them where four huge statues could stand.
The basilica owns some precious relics: a piece of the True Cross of Jesus, a veil that a woman wiped the face of Jesus with, while he was carrying the cross, the spear that was used to pierce Jesus side, and the bones of St. Andrew, the brother of St. Peter.
No-one knows for sure whether these things are real or not, but for hundreds of years they have been precious.
Bernini's plan was the make four marble statues of the four Holy people: St. Helena who found the cross, St. Longinus who was the soldier with the spear, St Veronica who wiped Jesus' face and St. Andrew. (
See below)
Cattedra Petri and Chapel of the Sacrament
Bernini's next job was to make a special throne out of bronze, to hold an ancient wood and ivory throne that had been at the basilica for more than 500 years.
It is called the Cattedra Petri or "throne of St. Peter".
The bronze throne, with the old wooden throne inside it, is held up high at the end of the basilica, by four important saints who are called "Doctors of the Church" because they were all great writers and teachers.
The statues are made of bronze.
They are Saints Ambrose and Augustine for the Church of Rome and Saints Athanasius and John Chrysostum for the Orthodox Church.
Above the chair is a window which is made not from glass but thin translucent stone called alabaster.
The Dove of the Holy Spirit is in the middle of the window with rays of light spreading out into the basilica through a sculpture of golden clouds and angels.
Bernini designed this to look like a window into Heaven.
There was a great celebration when the chair was put in place on January 16, 1666.
Bernini's last work for St. Peter's, 1676, was to decorate of the Chapel of the Sacrament.
He designed a miniature version of Bramante's Tempietto, and made it in gilt bronze.
On either side is an angel, one gazing in adoration and the other looking towards the viewer in welcome.
Bernini died in 1680 in his 82nd year.
St. Peter's Piazza
To the east of the basilica is the Piazza di San Pietro (St. Peter's Place).
The piazza was designed by Bernini and built between 1656 and 1667.
It was not an easy job because the designer had lots of things to think about.
Firstly, many people complained that Maderna's facade on St. Peter's looked too wide, so Bernini wanted to make it look narrower, not wider.
Secondly, in the old square left over from the Old St. Peter's, Pope Sixtus V had a monument set up.
This monument was a precious Ancient Egyptian obelisk (which is like a tall column, but with four flat sides).
From its base to the top of the cross (that the pope had put on top) it was 40 metres (131 ft) high, and had been brought to Rome in ancient times.
The obelisk really should be at the center of the new square, but it was not in quite the right place, and was very difficult to move without breaking.
The third problem was that Maderna had built a fountain to one side of the obelisk, and Bernini needed to make another fountain to match it, otherwise the design would look unbalanced.
Bernini solved the problem by making two areas, instead of one huge one.
The first area is an almost-square area right in front of the facade.
It is cleverly designed with sloping sides that make the building look taller and not so wide.
The second part of the piazza is oval.
It has the obelisk at the center with two fountains on either side at the widest part.
The two parts of the piazza are surrounded by a colonnade (covered walk-way) which is carried on tall columns.
All around are large statues of saints which seem to look down on the thousands of visitors that come to the square every day.
The colonnade is in two great arcs that seem to stretch out like loving arms, welcoming people to the Basilica.
In recent times some buildings were demolished, making another square, to match the one near the piazza.
The famous architectural historian, Sir Banister Fletcher, said that no other city in the world had given such a wonderful view to people visiting their main church.
He said that no other architect except Bernini could have imagined such a noble design.
He said it is the greatest entrance to the greatest Christian church in the whole world.
St. Peter's Basilica has many treasures.
These include Christian relics, the tombs of popes and many other important people, famous artworks which are mostly sculpture and other interesting things.
Hintzen-Bohlen, Brigitte and Sorges, Jurgen.
Rome and the Vatican City, Konemann,
Fletcher, Banister.
A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method, first published 1896, current edition 2001, Elsevier Science & Technology
Hartt, Frederick.
A History of Italian Renaissance Art.
Thames and Hudson (1970)
Lees-Milne, James.
Saint Peter's, Hamish Hamilton (1967).
Gardner, Helen.
Art through the Ages, 5th edition, Harcourt, Brace and World, inc.,
Goldscheider, Ludwig.
Michelangelo, 1964, Phaidon,
Pevsner, Nikolaus An Outline of European Architecture, Pelican, 1964,
Pinto, Pio V. The Pilgrim's Guide to Rome, Harper and Row, (1974),
stpetersbasilica.org Largest online site for the Basilica
Google Maps Satellite image of the Basilica
St Peter’s Basilica and St Peter’s Tomb
Circus of Nero and the old and new Basilicas superimposed, showing the tomb of Peter
St. Peter's Basilica Photo Gallery  249 photos
St Peter's Basilica, Rome pictures and virtual reality movies
Basilica of St Peter, Rome by Activitaly
Catholic Encyclopedia Catholic Encyclopedia article
Vatican City, Piazza San Pietro  VR panorama with map and compass effect by Tolomeus
The pipe organs of St Peter's Basilica
Vatican City, Piazza San Pietro  QTVR panorama hi-res (15 Mb) by Tolomeus
St. Peter's Basilica Floor Plan
The Bells of St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican
1626 establishments
Alcudia is a city on the island of Majorca.
About 5,400 people live there.
It used to be a fortified city to prevent attacks.
Tourism is one of the main resources in the city, especially during the summer, which is known as the high season.
Alcudia tourist information
Alcudia and Playa de Muro information
Alcudia map and information
Cities in the Balearic Islands
Computer memory is a temporary storage area.
It holds the data and instructions that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) needs.
Before a program can run, the program is loaded from storage into the memory.
This allows the CPU direct access to the computer program.
Memory is needed in all computers.
A computer is usually a binary digital electronics device.
Binary means it has only two states.
On or Off.
Zero or One.
In a binary digital computer transistors are used to switch the electricity on and off.
The computer's memory is made from lots of transistors.
Each on/off setting in the computer's memory is called a binary digit or bit.
A group of eight bits is called a byte.
A byte is made from two nibbles of four bits each.
Computer scientists made up the words bit and byte.
The word bit is short for binary digit.
It takes bi from binary and adds the t from digit.
A collection of bits was called a bite.
The computer scientists changed the spelling to byte to avoid confusion.
When the computer scientists needed a word for half a byte, they thought nibble, as in half a bite, would be a fun word to choose.
Characters in memory
A byte of memory is used to store a code to represent a character such as a number, a letter or a symbol.
Eight bits can store 256 different codes.
This was thought enough and a byte became fixed at eight bits.
Early computers used six bits to a byte.
This gave them 64 different codes.
These computers did not have lower-case letters.
Computer scientists had to agree on which code would represent each character.
Most modern computers use ASCII, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
In ASCII each code is eight bits – any combination of 0s and 1s – and form one character.
The letter A is denoted by the code 01000001.
To allow for all the different characters in all the worlds languages, modern computers need more than 256 different characters.
Another code system called Unicode allows for 1,112,064 different characters by using from one to four bytes for each character.
The computer's CPU can access each individual byte.
It uses an address for each byte.
Computer memory addresses start at zero and go up to the biggest number the computer can use.
Older computers were limited in how much memory they could address.
32-bit computers can address up to 4GB of memory.
Modern computers use 64 bits and could address up to 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes = 16 exabytes of memory.
The numbers that computers use can get very large.
To make it easier, the unit K (for kilobyte) or Ki (for kibibyte) can be used.
In computer memory numbers are powers of two.
One Kibibyte is two to the power of 10, that is 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 and written as 210 = 1024 bytes.
For example, 64 Kibibytes, written as 64KiB or 64KB, of memory is the same as 65,536 bytes (1,024 × 64 = 65,536).
For larger memory capacities, the units megabyte (MB) or mebibyte (MiB) and gigabyte (GB) or gibibyte (GiB) are used.
One megabyte of computer memory means 220 bytes or 1024KB, which is 1,048,576 bytes.
One gibibyte means 230 bytes or 1024MB.
The numbers are multiples of two.
This is why a kilobyte of memory is 1024 bytes and not 1000 as would be the case for kilogram.
To try to avoid this confusion the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) use the names kibibyte, mebibyte, and gibibyte for binary powers.
They use kilobyte, megabyte, and gigabyte to mean powers of 10.
The Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) have kept the older names.
To make it worse the sizes of computer storage, such as hard disk drives (HDD), are measured in powers of ten.
So a 500GB disk drive is 500 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes.
This is a lot less that 500GB of memory which is 500 x 1024 x 1024 x1024.
Most computer scientists still use the old names and have to remember that the units are different when talking about memory and storage devices.
Read only memory
There are some programs and instructions which the computer will always need.
Read only memory (ROM) is the permanent memory which is used to store these important control programs and systems software to perform functions such as booting up or starting up programs.
ROM is non-volatile.
That means the contents are not lost when the power is switched off.
Its contents are written when the computer is built, but in modern computers, the user can change the contents using special software.
Random access memory (RAM) is used as the working memory of a computer system.
It stores input data, intermediate results, programs, and other information temporarily.
It can be read and/or written.
It is usually volatile, which means that all data will be lost when the power is turned off.
In most cases it is loaded again from the hard disk which is used as data storage.
read-only memory
flash memory
It can sometimes refer to computer storage.
These are always non-volatile.
Solid state devices that use flash memory, like Solid State Drives (SSD) and USB flash drives.
Magnetic computer storage devices like hard disk drives (HDD), floppy disks and magnetic tape
optical discs such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and Blu-ray
paper storage such as paper tape and punched cards
Setebos is one of the farthest retrograde non-spherical moons of Uranus.
It was found on 1999-07-18 by John J. Kavelaars et al.
and designated S/1999 U 1.
Confirmed as Uranus XIX it is named after the god worshipped by Caliban and Sycorax in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
The orbital parameters suggest that it may belong, together with Sycorax and Prospero to the same dynamic cluster, suggesting common origin.
The moon appears grey in the visible light, similar to Prospero but different from Sycorax (which is light red).
Ephemeris (IUA)
Setebos Profile  by NASA's Solar System Exploration
*Capacity does not mean the amount of water that passes by the dam.
It means the capacity of dam.
**Some rivers have the same name as dams or hydro-electric plants.
Isla Culebra () (Snake Island) is an island-municipality of Puerto Rico originally called Isla Pasaje and Isla de San Ildefonso.
It is located about seventeen miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, twelve miles west of St. Thomas and nine miles north of Vieques.
Culebra is spread over 5 wards and Culebra (Dewey) Pueblo (The downtown area and the administrative center of the city).
The island is also known as Isla Chiquita (Little Island) and Ultima Virgen (Last Virgin).
Residents of the island are known as Culebrenses.
Culebra-Island.com
Culebra - The Complete Travel Guide
CulebraBlog - Culebra Information
Culebra National Wildlife Refuge
Map of Culebra Puerto Rico
1880s establishments in North America
Vieques (English pronunciation: vee-AY-kayz or -kez), in full Isla de Vieques, is an island-municipality of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean.
Like mainland Puerto Rico the island is US territory, though it retains strong Spanish influences from 400 years of Spanish ownership.
Pictures from the island
Vieques, Puerto Rico: ATSDR Documents Dealing with the Isla de Vieques Bombing Range
Fajardo  (fah-HAHR-do) is a small city in eastern Puerto Rico.
It is on the Atlantic Ocean, north of Ceiba and east of Luquillo.
Fajardo has 7 wards and Fajardo Pueblo (The downtown area and the administrative center of the city).
Map of Fajardo Puerto Rico
1772 establishments in North America
Hurricane Noel was the fourteenth named storm and sixth hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season.
Noel formed on October 27 from the interaction between a tropical wave and an upper-level low in the north-central Caribbean Sea.
It strengthened to winds of 60 mph (95 km/h) before making landfall on western Haiti and the north coast of eastern Cuba.
It turned northward, and on November 1 it attained hurricane status.
The hurricane accelerated northeastward after crossing the Bahamas, and on November 2 it became an extratropical cyclone. (
The Canadian Hurricane Centre classified Noel as a post-tropical storm until 2200 UTC November 4 when it determined that it had lost all tropical characteristics.)
The storm caused at least 169 deaths along its path, primarily in Hispaniola, due to flooding and mudslides.
It was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane of the 2007 season.
After its transition to post-tropical, Noel became a very strong low pressure system causing flooding and wind damage over Maine and Eastern Canada.
It even dropped snow over some areas of Eastern Quebec and Labrador.
The NHC's archive on Hurricane Noel
Hurricanes in the Dominican Republic
By late on October 15, the system was became strong for the National Hurricane Center to name it Tropical Depression Twenty-Four.
From October 18, and over the next day, Wilma underwent explosive deepening over the open waters of the Caribbean; in a 30-hour period, the system's central atmospheric pressure dropped from 982 mbar (29.00 inHg) to the record-low value of 882 mbar (26.05 inHg), while the winds increased to 185 mph (300 km/h).
At its strongest, the pinhole eye of Wilma was about 3 miles (5 km) in diameter, the smallest known eye in an Atlantic hurricane.
The origin of Hurricane Wilma is complicated.
During the second week of October, an unusually large, monsoon-like lower-level circulation and a large area of disturbed weather developed over much of the Caribbean Sea.
The system was enhanced by diffluence—the rate at which a fluid moves—from an upper-level low across the southwestern Atlantic.
By October 13, a broad area of low pressure developed and persisted about 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Jamaica, possibly aided by the passage of tropical waves through the area at the time.
Convection increased and became slightly better organized, though upper-level wind shear originally stopped development.
The system moved westward, and early on October 14 the convection became more concentrated and a little better organized as upper-level wind shear lessened slightly.
Later on October 14, the system became much better organized, with increasingly organized shower and thunderstorm activity, as conditions in the upper levels of the atmosphere became significantly more favorable.
It was then that the National Hurricane Center first said that it was possible for a tropical depression to develop in the area.
Dvorak classifications were initiated on October 15.
The system continued to organize, with the National Hurricane Center remarking the system could ultimately become a hurricane.
By late on October 15, the surface circulation became defined well-enough, with enough organized deep convection, for the National Hurricane Center to designate the system as Tropical Depression Twenty-Four while it was about 220 miles (345 km) east-southeast of Grand Cayman.
The depression tracked slowly westward, a motion due to weak steering currents caused by a high pressure system to its north across the Gulf of Mexico.
Initially, the center of circulation was broad without a defined inner core; forecaster Lixion Avila remarked, "The area of minimum pressure could [have been] anywhere within 60 miles (95 km) of its [initial advisory position]."
Originally, the tropical depression was forecast to drift west-southwestward before turning to the north; within 120 hours of the forecast's issuance, the system was predicted to be about 80 miles (130 km) south of the Isle of Youth as a 105 mph (170 km/h) hurricane.
However, the National Hurricane Center noted in the first advisory on the depression that there were "all indications that there could a dangerous hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea in 3 to 5 days."
This was due to the depression being in an environment very ideal for development, specifically low amounts of wind shear and very warm water temperatures.
As Tropical Depression Twenty-Four drifted southwestward, it steadily organized; by early on October 16, rainbands began to slowly consolidate with well-established outflow, and a large upper-level anticyclone developed over the depression.
Although deep convection and banding features increased, mid-level dry air from the north prevented significant organization, and the convection was split into two primary areas.
Surface buoy reports indicated that, due to its large size, the system failed to strengthen beyond tropical depression status, even though it received tropical storm strength Dvorak classifications from The National Hurricane Center's Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Satellite Analysis Branch.
Continued reconnaissance flights reported peak winds of about 30 mph (50 km/h).
Peak strength
By early on October 17, the outer rainbands, which had previously controlled the structure of the cyclone, dissipated, while deep convection developed near and to the south of the center.
Computer models predicted steady strengthening as the depression moved westward before turning to the north.
Of the intensity models, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory predicted an intensity of 135 mph (215 km/h) within 36 hours, with other forecasts being more conservative in their predictions.