Coca-Cola is a carbonated, sweetened soft drink and is the world's best-selling soda. A popular nickname for Coca-Cola is Coke. The Coca-Cola Company claims that the beverage is sold in more than 200 countries. Coca-Cola was first made in Columbus, Georgia.The company's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola's main rival is Pepsi because of the similar taste of their main product. Coca-Cola has 7 cubes of sugar, whereas Pepsi has 8 cubes of sugar. The Coca-Cola Company is proud to have a long history of sponsoring major events, organizations and projects around the world. Among their most well known sponsorships are American Idol, Apple iTunes, BET Network, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, Marvel and the Olympic Games. After their products were put back on sale in Myanmar in 2012, the only countries that Coca-Cola cannot be bought officially are Cuba and North Korea, due to trade bans with the US.

History

Coca-Cola was first made in the 1800s by John Pemberton. The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. They sold it there for five cents a glass, it was very strong tasting because they did not mix it with water. Coca-Cola was first made the way it is now in Columbus, Georgia. It was called Pemberton's French Wine Coca at first and was sold as a medicine to help cure colds and give people more energy. The drink used to be sold at soda fountains in the United States. It was also created to stop addictions to morphine.

Coca-Cola was first sold in bottles in Atlanta on March 12, 1894 with actual cocaine content. It was first sold in cans in 1955. During the first year, sales were about only nine drinks per day. Dr. Pemberton did not think he could make a lot of money with the drink he invented, so he sold parts of his business to different people. Just before he died in 1888, he sold the rest of his Coca-Cola business to Asa G. Candler. Mr. Candler, together with some other businessmen, started the Coca-Cola Company.

Candler became mayor of Atlanta and gave most of his shares of Coca-Cola to his children. In 1919 the family sold control of Coca-Cola to Ernest Woodruff. In 1923 Woodruff's son Robert Winship Woodruff became president of Coca-Cola, replacing Asa Candler's son Charles Howard Candler.

How Coca-Cola was named
The drink is called "Coca-Cola" because of the coca leaf and kola fruits that were used to add flavor. Dr. Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, suggested the name "Coca-Cola" because he thought using the letter C twice would look better than if they used a K in the word "Cola". He then wrote down the name to use as a logo that is now very famous. The recipe was altered after a short while, after the cocaine/coca leaf reportedly caused cases of hallucinations. Coca has not been used in the formula since 1903.

Coca-Cola's advertising
Coca-Cola was the first ever sponsor of the Olympic Games. This was for the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

 In 2018, the company spent a whopping $5.8 billion on global advertising, dwarfing its next rival PepsiCo by nearly $2 billion in spending.
 From 1886 to 1959, the price of Coca-Cola was fixed at five cents, in part due to an advertising campaign.

Other products

The company sells many other products, including other sorts of Coca-Cola, such as Diet Coke (1981), Cherry Coke (1985), Diet Cherry Coke (1986), Diet/Coke with Lemon (2001), Diet Vanilla Coke (2002), Diet/ Coke with Lime (2004), Coke Zero (2006), Coca-Cola with Orange (2007), Diet Coke Citrus Zest (2007). Based on Interbrand's best global brand 2011, Coca-Cola was the world's most valuable brand.

Related pages

 Pepsi
 Fanta
 Cola, a generic type of drink
 World of Coca-Cola museum of Coke history.

References

Atlanta
Soft drinks

Coca-Cola


Front-wheel drive, or FWD, is a car setup, where the car's power is at the front wheels. This makes the car safe in wet and snowy conditions, because it has better traction, or grip, to the road. But, FWD can cause uneven weight, which may cause brakes to fail if used for large periods of time.

Automotive technologies

Front-wheel drive


YM (or Your Magazine) was an American magazine for teenaged girls. It originally began being published in the 1930s. It was published for 72 years. It was the second-oldest girls' magazine in the United States; the oldest being Seventeen.

It began as two separate magazines: Compact and Calling All Girls. Compact was aimed at older teenagers. It was first published in 1932. Calling All Girls was intended for younger girls. It began publication in July 1941 after a teen column in Parents' Magazine produced a positive interest from readers. It was the first magazine for girls. Contents consisted of comics, fashion advice, and short stories. It was originally published four times a year, but soon became published every month. This was because it was popular. By 1945 it was selling 500,000 copies of each issue. The average reader was aged 13. The magazine never appealed to older teens or fashion advertisers because of its emphasis on comics.

During the 1960s, the two titles (Compact and Calling All Girls) merged into Young Miss. The title changed again to Young & Modern in the 1980s. It was changed one final time in 2000 to YM. This was said to stand for Your Magazine.

YM stopped being published in 2004. Subscriptions were replaced with Teen Vogue.

References

American monthly magazines
American teen magazines
Defunct magazines of the United States
1932 establishments in the United States
2004 disestablishments in the United States

YM (magazine)


Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries is an American corporation that owns and operates a chain of cemeteries and mortuaries in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties in Southern California.

History
The company was founded by a group of San Francisco businessmen in 1906. Hubert Eaton assumed management control in 1917 and is credited with being Forest Lawn's "founder" because of his origination of the "memorial-park" plan. The first location was in Tropico, which later became part of Glendale, California.

Its facilities are officially known as memorial parks. The parks are best known for the large number of celebrity burials, especially in the Glendale and Hollywood Hills locations. Eaton opened the first mortuary (funeral home) on dedicated cemetery grounds after a battle with established funeral directors, who saw the "combination" operation as a threat. He remained as general manager until his death in 1966, when he was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick Llewellyn.

Memorial parks
 Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California
 Forest Lawn – Covina Hills in Covina Hills, Covina, California
 Forest Lawn – Cypress in Cypress, California
 Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California
 Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California
 Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Long Beach, California

See also
 Forest Lawn (disambiguation)

References

External links

Cemeteries in California
Companies based in Los Angeles County, California
1906 establishments in California
American companies established in 1906

Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries


James Butler Knill Kelly (18 February 1832 – 15 May 1907) was a bishop of the Church of England active in the British colony of Newfoundland and  Scotland. Kelly was a participant in the first Lambeth Conference, which was a crucial step in the creation of the Anglican Communion. He was also Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1901 to 1904.

Early life and education

Kelly received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the University of Cambridge, studying at Clare Hall (later renamed Clare College shortly after Kelly's graduation). However, Clare was in a period of academic decline during Kelly's time there.

In 1855, at the age of 23, Kelly was made deacon of the Anglican Church. A year later, in 1856, he was ordained priest. Kelly became curate of Abington, Northamptonshire, but left England for the Isle of Man, to serve as a domestic chaplain for Bishop of Sodor and Man, Horatio Powys. In 1860, upon the death of Joseph Brown, Kelly became registrar and vicar of the Kirkmichael parish on the Isle of Man, while continuing  as chaplain to Powys. Kelly was the second vicar, after Brown, in the new (1858) parish church, St. Nicholas-Bishop's Court.

Life in Newfoundland
In 1839 the Anglican Church had founded the See of Newfoundland, its second bishop, Edward Feild, appealed in 1864 for additional clergy to minister in the diocese, thus offering  Kelly an opportunity in North America which he quickly seized, leaving the Isle of Man two years before it achieved Home Rule. In June, Kelly found himself appointed incumbent of the cathedral in St. John's, Newfoundland, and archdeacon.

1867 was a momentous year for Kelly. His ministry had proven a success, and Feild named Kelly his assistant bishop. Charles Thomas Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, performed the ceremony of consecration on 16 August. Kelly, thirty-five years old, received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Cambridge University, and attended the first Pan-Anglican conference of British, colonial and foreign bishops conference in Lambeth.  The conference had been lobbied for by, among others, the Canadian synod, but much of the agenda focused on the controversy over John William Colenso, a missionary to the Zulu.  Eleven advisory resolutions regarding colonial district administration were nevertheless passed.

The Anglican Diocese of Newfoundland also included the island of Bermuda.  Kelly and Feild travelled aboard the diocesan ship The Star, and both nearly died in 1871 in a sailing accident that destroyed the ship.  This was not the last occasion in which sea travel proved a hardship to Kelly; he became seriously ill in 1874 when travelling to coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador.  Kelly's logs of his travels on The Star have been published as Journal of a visitation by the Right Reverend J. B. K. Kelly, DD, coadjutor bishop of Newfoundland, in the church ship Star, July–October, 1869, (London, 1870), and The voyage the churchship Star, 1870 (St.John's, 1973).

Kelly's trips did not distract him from projects at home. On 9 October 1871, he married Louisa Bliss, daughter of William Blowers Bliss, a prominent judge from Nova Scotia. Kelly took on leadership of the completion of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (not to be confused with the Basilica of St. John the Baptist).  The cathedral's nave, finished in 1850, had been serving as the entire church.  The cathedral was finished  in 1885, but burned down in the Great Fire of 1892.  Kelly organized its reconstruction.  The Cathedral bears a memorial window dedicated to his memory.

Kelly became diocesan bishop in 1876, after Feild's death.  His understandable aversion to sea travel, however, led him to resign the position in 1877 after a fruitless search for a coadjutor who could relieve him of its necessity.

Return to the United Kingdom
In 1877 Kelly returned to his country of birth, where he became vicar of Kirkby, Lancashire, from 1877 to 1880, bishop-commissary for the Bishop of Chester (1879-1884) and Archdeacon of Macclesfield from 1880 to 1884. He later became Provost of Inverness Cathedral and Assistant Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness in 1885, becoming diocesan bishop in 1886 after Robert Eden. In 1901, he was unanimously elected Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and served in that capacity for three years until his retirement.

He died in Inverness in 1907.

Notes and references

External links
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Registry of Vicars of Michael, Isle of Man

1832 births
1907 deaths
Provosts of Inverness Cathedral
Bishops of Moray, Ross and Caithness
Anglican bishops of Newfoundland
19th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops
19th-century Anglican Church of Canada bishops
20th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops
Canadian people of Manx descent
Newfoundland Colony people
Clergy from Gloucestershire
Primuses of the Scottish Episcopal Church
Archdeacons of Macclesfield
Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge

James Kelly (bishop)


The Groundhog Day blizzard of 2011 was a large blizzard that struck parts of Canada, Mexico, and the United States between 31 January 2011 and 2 February 2011. The blizzard was also called the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard because it happened close to Groundhog Day. The storm dumped over  of snow from Oklahoma City to Chicago and Boston. An ice storm south of the blizzard affected many areas from Dallas to Indianapolis to just north of New York City. The ice storm caused over  of ice on most of these areas. Heavy rain fell from Little Rock to New York City. At the same time, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes were seen across Texas and Alabama. A tornado watch was issued for Alabama, where an EF1 tornado dropped down.

History

The storm started as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes happened in Texas. It grew larger and turned into a mix of blizzard, ice storm, heavy rain, and severe weather. On 1 February, the blizzard reached from Oklahoma City up to Chicago. Heavy snow and strong winds were seen with the storm. Over night, the storm moved through Chicago to Boston. The blizzard caused more than  of snow on Oklahoma City, Chicago, and Boston. The ice storm produced up to  of ice. On February 2nd, the storm moved out to sea. This storm has impacted more than 10 states.

Impact

United States
Texas had severe weather from the storm with tornadoes, hail, and severe thunderstorms.

Oklahoma was hit by a blizzard and icestorm on the south part of the storm on 1 February. The blizzard caused more than  of snow in Tulsa and Oklahoma City as well as strong winds. The blizzard ended by the night of 1 February.

Kansas got over  of snow in  Kansas City and Topeka.

Nebraska got more than  of snow in Omaha. There was less than  in North Platte. There was extreme cold west of the blizzard.

Iowa got more than  of snow in Des Moines.

The blizzard caused over  of snow in Chicago. The ice storm caused about  of ice in the Southeast. There was about  of rain there.

Most of Indiana saw an ice storm. There was  heavy rain in the Southeast and a blizzard in the Northwest. The blizzard dumped several inches of heavy snow on the Northwest part of Indiana. The ice storm dumped  of ice on Indianapolis.

Half of Ohio saw an ice storm and half saw heavy rain. The ice storm caused  of ice in Cleveland. The heavy rain produced  of rain on Columbus.

Most of Pennsylvania saw heavy rain. Much of the northwest part had an ice storm. Only the most Northwest part of the state saw a blizzard.
The heavy rain caused  of rain on Philadelphia, and Harrisburg. The ice storm dumped  of ice north of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh also had  of heavy rain. The blizzard caused several inches of heavy snow on the far Northwest.

New York state saw heavy rain, the ice storm and the blizzard. The heavy rain caused  of rain on New York City. The ice storm caused  of ice on Albany. There were also several inches of snow in Albany. The blizzard dumped over  of snow in Buffalo.

Related pages
 North American blizzard of 2003
 December 2009 North American blizzard
 December 2010 North American blizzard
 February 2013 nor'easter

2011 in Canada
2011 in the United States
2010s in Mexico
2011 in weather
Natural disasters in Canada
February 2011 events
Historic blizzards in the United States
January 2011 events
2010s disasters in Canada
2010s disasters in the United States

January 31 – February 2, 2011 North American winter storm


Auxins are a class of plant hormones (or plant growth substances) with some morphogen-like characteristics. Auxins have a main role in coordination of many growth and behavioral processes in the plant's life cycle. they are essential for plant body development.

Auxins and their role in plant growth were first described by the Dutch scientist Frits Warmolt Went. Kenneth V. Thimann isolated auxin and found its chemical structure to be indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Went and Thimann co-authored a book on plant hormones, Phytohormones, in 1937.

There are synthetic auxins, and in big doses they can be used as herbicides. Agent Orange is a mixture of synthetic auxins.

References

Plant physiology
Organic compounds

Auxin


The Story of the Latter-day Saints is a single-volume history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) by James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, first published in 1976.

Overview
The authors summarised the tone of their work by identifying four recurring themes that emerged throughout The Story of the Latter-day Saints:
 The Latter-day Saints were primarily religiously motivated.
 The church was always influenced by its environment, to some degree.
 The church started small and American but would grow into an international organization.
 The church has been flexible with some issues, yet committed to certain central teachings.

Although seen as well written and comprehensive, the book was intended for a Latter-day Saint audience, because it detailed minutiae like organizational changes, but didn't focus on issues of interest to new readers on Mormonism. Unlike most earlier Mormon histories, this book focused on casting the church in a broader context, addressed controversial historical issues, and covered the events of the twentieth century.

The following list of the book's chapters also describe its historical scope:
 The Religious Setting for the Restoration
 The Restoration Commences, 1820-1831
 Unfolding Latter-day Zion, 1831-1836
 The Saints Move On, 1836-1839
 Building the City Beautiful, 1839-1842
 Difficult Days: Nauvoo, 1842-1845
 Exodus to a New Zion, 1846-1850
 Establishing an Ensign, 1851-1856
 In the National Spotlight, 1856-1863
 Challenges and Cooperatives, 1864-1872
 Close of a Career, 1872-1877
 A Turbulent Decade, 1877-1887
 The End of an Era, 1887-1896
 A Time of Transition, 1897-1907
 Consolidating for Growth, 1908-1918
 Change and Continuity in the Postwar Decade, 1919-1930
 The Church and the Great Depression, 1930-1938
 The Church in World War II, 1939-1950
 Foundations for Expansion, 1951-1959
 Correlating the Worldwide Church, 1960-1973
 "Lengthening Our Stride," 1973-1976
In the 1992 second edition, the last chapter was changed to "Toward a Universal Church, 1974-1990".

History

Impetus
For over 50 years, Joseph Fielding Smith's Essentials in Church History was issued as a popular single-volume history of the LDS Church. After Smith's death in 1972, LDS Church and Deseret Book officials asked the church's Historical Department to write a new single-volume history to replace Essentials in Church History and cover more recent events, while using new sources available in the Church Archives. With the First Presidency's approval, the department assigned the project to Allen, an Assistant Church Historian, and Leonard, a Senior Historical Associate. The Story of the Latter-day Saints was published in 1976, the one-hundredth anniversary of Joseph Fielding Smith's birth.

The book took a non-partisan, factually-sound approach to LDS Church history and was the first time the entire history of Mormonism was professionally surveyed in one book.  It was also one of the first institutionally-sponsored publications to deal frankly with many controversial issues such as the complexities of Nauvoo, and the church's political, economic, social and doctrinal developments. As professional historians, the authors cast their subject in its historic context, with connections made to larger Restoration and American movements. The product revealed the challenges and progress of the new Mormon history in confronting controversy and reevaluating setting and tone.

Reception
Anticipating high demand, Deseret Book prepared a very large first printing of 35,000. It sold quickly with 10,000 copies in the first month, including 5,000 to the LDS Church's Public Communications department to place in U.S. libraries.  Nearly 20,000 copies sold in the first year and the entire original printing was sold out within three years.

The book was initially received favorably. It was called a "significant" and "pathbreaking" history of Mormonism. Historian Richard Poll recommended it "to every serious student of Mormonism and every library interested in history, religion or Americana."  Its extensive bibliography was also respected and seen as noteworthy.

The book was commended for its modern scholarship and dispassionate tone while representing a faithful LDS perspective. One review noted the authors' "remarkable blend of the scholarly approach and the religious story… They do not feel constrained to bear testimony, and yet they demonstrate empathy toward Mormonism that could only emanate from devoted members. It is a pleasant balance."

However, this balance risked displeasing both religious and academic readers. Believers in the divinity of all church actions disliked seeing events cast against the influences in their historical setting. History purists wanted the discussion of more issues and problems and felt significant events and details were missing in this concentration of all Mormon history. Allen and Leonard's history was praised and criticized by both Mormon and non-Mormon readers.

Controversy
In 1976, some members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had concerns that the book wasn't faith-promoting. When they approached quorum president Ezra Taft Benson, he requested a thorough reading by his executive assistant. This produced a critique that asserted the book wasn't spiritual enough to be a "true" LDS history and that the Historical Department's activities should be controlled.

In a speech, Benson publicly worried the book may spiritually harm young church members.  He condemned the portrayal of the Word of Wisdom health code and Joseph Smith's visions as being influenced by parallel movements in American history.  Benson warned that the terms "experimental systems," "communal life," "primitivists," and "prophet alleged," were offensive and did not promote faith in the church. He advised against purchasing work by "liberal sources," because it would "help sustain their cause."

In a meeting with the First Presidency and Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington, Benson and Apostle Mark E. Petersen argued the book was faith-damaging and should have presented more prophetic evidence. Arrington defended it but agreed to allow future department manuscripts to be reviewed by an Apostle before publication, even though they already passed through a reading committee of accomplished historians.

While other church leaders agreed that the book was too "secular," several continued to support it, including Howard W. Hunter and LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball. Kimball felt it was a great work and was unhappy with "unchristian" treatment of Allen by some religion faculty at Brigham Young University (BYU) who were upset by it. Kimball thought Allen had performed honorably in this approved assignment, and "that Benson and Petersen did not have the authority or the right to interfere with the sale of the book." However, such support remained private, to preserve the public unity of the Apostles.

Despite its quick sell-out, The Story of the Latter-day Saints was not reprinted for years, and some doubted it would ever be.  It was rumored to be uncitable in publications by Deseret Book and the Church Educational System.

Aftermath
The book fueled growing suspicion and disfavor with the Historical Department's activities, which led to the History Division's turning point. Plans were cancelled for a 16 volume comprehensive history series in honor of the church's sesquicentennial. Division staff was downsized, bureaucratized and eventually transferred to BYU, where they could publish under academic rather than ecclesiastical sponsorship.

Eventually, a second printing was approved for 1986. Later, Allen and Leonard prepared a revised and updated manuscript, which was published as a second edition in 1992. After the controversy dissipated, the book was still seen as an influential and notable accomplishment in its field.  It is appreciated as respectful and faithful in its approach and "a model example of the new Mormon history ... It remains the best one-volume treatment of the Mormon past and the place where the beginning student of LDS history should turn first."  Curt Bench, a dealer in fine and rare Mormon books, listed it as one of the 50 most important Mormon books.

Reviews
The following are published reviews of The Story of the Latter-day Saints
 Drayton, John N. (Fall 1976). Sunstone 1 (4): 86–88
 Ellsworth, S. George (Winter 1977). BYU Studies 17 (2): 241–46
 Paul, Rodman W. (July 1977). Western Historical Quarterly 8: 351–53
 Lythgoe, Dennis L. (Autumn 1977). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 10 (4): 134–37
 MacKinnon, William P. (Autumn 1977). Arizona and the West 19: 272–74
 Foster, Lawrence (September 1977). Church History 46: 403–04
 Hansen, Klaus J. (Winter 1978). Utah Historical Quarterly 46 (1): 82–86
 Peterson, Charles S. (Winter 1978). Idaho Yesterdays 21 (4): 31–32
 Cannon, Donald Q. (1993). BYU Studies 33 (3): 618–23
 Bennett, Richard E. (Spring 1994). Journal of Mormon History 20 (1): 153–56

Notes

References

External links

 The Story of the Latter-day Saints, 1st ed., 1976
 The Story of the Latter-day Saints, 2nd ed., 1992

1976 non-fiction books
1992 non-fiction books
History books about the Latter Day Saint movement
LDS non-fiction
Mormonism-related controversies
Deseret Book books
1976 in Christianity

The Story of the Latter-day Saints


The Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard is an American helicopter built by Sikorsky as S-62's model. It was used by the United States Coast Guard between 1961 and 1988 for transport and search and rescue duties. It was replaced by Aérospatiale HH-65 Dolphin. Some were used in Iceland, India, Japan, Philippines and Thailand. Philippines Air Force was the last operator, until 1993.

Helicopters
United States Coast Guard aircraft
HH-52

Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard


Bromate is an ion. Its chemical formula is BrO3-. It contains bromine in its +5 oxidation state. It is more common than hypobromites, perbromates, and bromites. Sodium bromate is an example. Bromates are strong oxidizing agents.

Bromates are made by reacting bromides with ozone. They can also be made by electrolysis of a hot bromide solution. Chlorine dioxide can react with bromide when in sunlight to make bromate. Bromates can be made by reacting potassium hydroxide with bromine. This makes bromide and bromate. Bromates can be made by reacting bromic acid with a base.

It might be a carcinogen. It is made when bromide is in water and reacted with ozone or chlorine. Sometimes water with too much bromate has to be gotten rid of.

Related pages
Bromous acid

Bromine compounds
Ions

Bromate


A croupier or dealer is someone appointed at a gambling table to assist in the conduct of the game, especially in the distribution of bets and payouts. Croupiers are typically employed by casinos.

Origin of the word
Originally a "croupier" meant one who stood behind a gambler, with extra reserves of cash to back him up during a gambling session. The word derived from croupe (the rump of a horse) and was by way of analogy to one who rode behind on horseback. It later came to refer to one who was employed to collect the money from a gaming-table.

Originally a "dealer" meant one who was responsible for distributing cards or the player in the dealer position, regardless of whether or not that player was responsible for distributing the cards.

Training

Training methods to become a casino croupier vary from country to country. In North America, blackjack is almost always the game that dealers learn first, as it is simple and popular, and when the dealer makes errors, they tend not to cost the casino much money. In Europe, croupiers tend to learn roulette first. Complex, busy games such as craps, with complicated payout systems, etc., are usually reserved for the most competent and/or ambitious dealers.

Select colleges and non-collegiate third-level educational institutions now offer croupier training courses, formally dubbed Casino Operations Training, which when put in a historical context is a milestone achievement for the legitimization of poker in the mainstream. Besides courses, there's a host of private lessons available on social media, poker forums and classifieds sections worldwide, which could serve even better than attending an official course, giving one-on-one apprentice–master attention.

Casinos may also offer an in-house training program. However, sometimes it serves better to get a "general qualification" than to be trained exclusively into one company's way of operating. Prospective employers often prefer candidates without fully relevant experience over a candidate highly experienced in the idiosyncrasies of another operation. In Canada, this position is also known as a dealer and in addition to gaming experience requires excellent soft skills to interact with the visitors and sell them the idea of visiting the gaming establishment one more time to play again.

Licensing
American, Australian, Canadian and British croupiers are required to apply for a gambling license. This license includes police background checks and credit rating checks, to help determine if they are eligible to commence employment. Croupiers are not permitted to deal at a casino until being issued this license.

Tipping
As is common with customer service staff in the United States, croupiers there depend on tips to make their wage worthwhile. While a croupier should theoretically have no personal interest in the outcome of the game, a successful player customarily tips the croupier, especially in American casinos. Tips are often pooled and divided amongst all the staff. Fraternising with customers is frowned upon, and most casinos prevent their gambling staff from being seen smoking or even being seen in uniform outside the casino. Some gambling strategies include suggestions to tip the casino dealer in order to create a good atmosphere and improve the dealer's mood. According to these strategies, tipping might even make the dealer shuffle the cards less frequently and thereby allow easier tracking of particular cards. Australian casinos forbid dealers from taking tips.

Secondhand smoke exposure
Because casinos tend to allow smoking on the gambling floor, American croupiers are exposed to secondhand smoke. A health hazard evaluation of several Las Vegas casinos showed that nonsmoker croupiers suffered from more respiratory ailments than their administrative counterparts at the casinos, and had cotinine and NNAL (both components of secondhand smoke) in their urine samples. Britain banned smoking in all public places, including casinos, in 2007.

See also
Poker dealer

References

External links

Personal care and service occupations
Gambling terminology

Croupier


New Almaden, known in Spanish as Nueva Almadén, is a historic community and former mercury mine in the Capitancillos Hills of San Jose, California, located at the southwestern point of Almaden Valley in South San Jose. New Almaden is divided into two parts: the mines and much of their immediate surroundings, including historic ghost town settlements in the Capintancillas, which together form the Almaden Quicksilver County Park, and the largely residential historic district surrounding the Casa Grande.

Discovered in the 1820s by Mexican settlers, New Almaden mines are the oldest mines in California and were one of the most productive mercury mines in the country. Long before the arrival of the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans, the indigenous Ohlone people had long utilized the area for its cinnabar, which they used in paint production.

History

Cinnabar, bright red mercury ore, was used by the Ohlone people for paint, but the settlers soon saw its potential to produce quicksilver. The first settler to find the mine was Secundino Robles, who discovered it in 1824, and later owned shares in the mine along with his brother. Andres Castillero, a captain in the Mexican Army, obtained a grant to the mine in 1846 but, occupied with his military duties during the Mexican War, soon sold it to Barron, Forbes Company, an English textile firm based in Tepic, Mexico. It was named "Nueva Almaden" by Alexander Forbes. Castillero's mining claim was confirmed by the Board of Commissioners that evaluated private land claims in California on January 8, 1856, but there was continued litigation in the District court, The United States vs. Andres Castillero. A claim of fraud was made on behalf of the Quicksilver Mining Company, which had acquired a competing land claim originating in an agricultural claim to the land the mine was on. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States the claim was found invalid in a decision rendered March 10, 1863. One of the competing land claims was Rancho Los Capitancillos.

The mine is named for a mercury mine in (old) Almadén, Spain, which had operated since at least Roman times. (See Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija.) The term Almadén, meaning "the mine", is derived from the Arabic language.

In 1863, acting on information that title to the mine had not been proven, Abraham Lincoln attempted to seize the mine, but the federal agent and deputy federal marshal were met at the mine gates by armed miners. Mindful of the possibility of losing the loyalty of California during the Civil War, the federal government backed off and Barron, Forbes Company was allowed to sell it to American investors for $1.75 million.

Arthur De Wint Foote worked at New Almaden in the late 1870s under James Butterworth Randol.

Representations of historical life at the New Almaden Mine were drawn in vivid detail by Mary Hallock Foote, the wife of Arthur DeWint Foote, the resident engineer from 1876. Her illustrated correspondence about New Almaden, "A California Mining Camp", appeared in the February 1878 issue of Scribner's Monthly.
New Almaden also features prominently in her memoir A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West, which was later fictionalized by Wallace Stegner in his novel Angle of Repose.

Environment

Mining operations resulted in mercury pollution of the Guadalupe River and South San Francisco Bay, impacting birds and aquatic species. In 2005 the responsible parties, which include private companies and local government agencies, agreed to a legal settlement of approximately  for restoration projects. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued an environmental restoration plan for the area in 2008.

Geology
The mineralized area in the Almaden mining district where the New Almaden and the nearby Guadalupe mine are located is within the large Franciscan Assemblage associated with the Coast Range. Quicksilver ore deposited by hydrothermal deposition of cinnabar from deep within the earth is found in a gangue of silica-carbonate rock formed locally by hydrothermal alteration of serpentine. The Guadalupe mine produced about 10% as much mercury as the New Almaden. There are several smaller mines in the mining district, but their ore production was not significant. The only significant quicksilver ore is cinnabar; other sulfides are present in small quantities. Mining, other than a single placer deposit of cinnabar, was underground. There is a high probability of undiscovered high-grade ore which could be found and exploited using modern techniques.

New Almaden Mines

The entrances to the mines are closed off. After being identified as a Superfund site and after subsequent containment activities, the mining area can now be visited as part of the Santa Clara County Almaden Quicksilver County Park. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. By the time Santa Clara County bought the mines in 1976 and ended operations, 1,137,727 flasks totaling  of mercury (worth more than US$70 million) had been extracted.

The remains of a variety of structures left over from the 135 years of mining activity, including housing for the up to 1,800 miners, are scattered about the park, with the biggest concentration at what was known as English Camp, established by Cornish miners in the 1860s. Some structures were built later by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and there is a memorial honoring the Civilian Conservation Corps firefighters who were stationed there for a time.

Two California Historical Landmark markers honor New Almaden Mine: #339 marks a cinnabar hill where Indians gathered pigment for paint, while #339-1 is near Arroyo de los Alamitos Creek where the actual mining of ore first occurred.

There is also a museum adjacent at the site.

Almaden Quicksilver County Park

Almaden Quicksilver County Park is a 4,147 acre (17 km2) park that includes the grounds of former mercury ("quicksilver") mines. The park's elevation varies greatly: the most used entrances (on the east side of the park) are less than 600 feet (183 m) above sea level, while the highest point in the park is over 1,700 feet (518 m) above sea level. During the coldest storms of the winter season, it is not uncommon for the high summits to receive a light dusting of snow (which usually melts by noon). The park is owned and managed by the County of Santa Clara and its grounds also include the Guadalupe Reservoir; adjacent to the park is the Almaden Reservoir. The Casa Grande Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum is located nearby.

Conversion from mines to park

In the period 1976 to 1978 the county developed a number of new large parks in rapid succession including Grant Ranch Park, Sanborn Park and Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Very soon after buying the mining property in 1976, Santa Clara County began planning for park usage, in an era where the county parks program was aggressively expanding.

The county parks director envisioned a historic park where visitors could experience the mining past and also enjoy the biodiversity of the natural setting. Facilities plans were created and an Environmental Impact Report was prepared.

Principal issues assessed in the park proposal:
 biological impacts upon habitat by park users
 water quality impacts to creeks draining the watershed
 visual and drainage impacts of road improvements
 historical analysis of mine usage

New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum

The New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum is located in the Casa Grande (big house) at 21350 Almaden Road in New Almaden. La Casa Grande, an 1854 revival-style mansion designed and built by architect Francis Myers, was the official residence and office of the mine superintendents, as well as a country retreat for wealthy mine investors. The mansion now serves as the site of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum, which contains exhibits about the history of mercury mining and the cultural history of the mining communities at New Almaden. The exhibits include a mine diorama of the interior of a mine shaft, mining equipment and technology, a mine manager's office with period displays, and artifacts from Cornish, Mexican and Chinese mining families.

Notable residents
Pat Tillman, Arizona Cardinals All-Pro safety

See also
Almaden Valley, San Jose
New Idria, California

References

Further reading
Jimmie Schneider, Quicksilver: The Complete History of Santa Clara County's New Almaden Mine, Zella Schneider Pub (November 1992), hardcover, 178 pages,
Edgar Herbert Bailey, Donald Lough Everhart Geology and quicksilver deposits of the New Almaden district, Santa Clara County, California Professional Paper 360 USGS
Geology and quicksilver deposits of the New Almaden district, Santa Clara County, California''

External links

Almaden Quicksilver County Park
Volunteer Organization supporting the Park, includes more information about the park and museum

The Quicksilver Mines of New Almaden and Henriquita - Chapter 6 of "Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California" (1862) by James Mason Hutchings - description of life and operations at the mine site during the 1860s
Guide to the Papers Relating to Quicksilver Mining, (ca. 1849-1894) at The Bancroft Library
New Almaden Mine (Calif.) Collection, 1845-1973 housed at Stanford University Libraries

Mining in California
Mercury mines in the United States
Underground mines in the United States
New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum
New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum
New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum
History of Santa Clara County, California
National Historic Landmarks in California
National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, California
Parks in the San Francisco Bay Area
Parks in Santa Clara County, California
Regional parks in California
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California
1854 establishments in California
Ghost towns in the San Francisco Bay Area
1861 establishments in California

New Almaden


Nataline Mary Sarkisyan (July 10, 1990 – December 20, 2007) was an American teenager with recurrent leukemia.  Her case became part of the health care reform debate in the United States in 2007 when Cigna HealthCare denied coverage for a liver transplant operation.  The company later reversed its decision after a great deal of media attention to her story, but Sarkisyan died hours later.

Background
Sarkisyan was born to an Armenian-American family.  She was diagnosed with leukemia at age 14. She was covered under her father's health insurance, through his employer, Mercedes-Benz. The employer plan was administered by Cigna HealthCare. During her treatment for leukemia, her liver deteriorated.

Sarkisyan's doctors at the UCLA Medical Center told the family and Cigna that they recommended a liver transplant, and patients in similar circumstances have a six-month survival rate of 65%. Different doctors gave different estimates of the likelihood of success. Dr. John Roberts, chief of the transplant service at UC San Francisco (not the transplant center treating Sarkisyan), said that his center generally does not accept a patient without a 50% or greater five-year survival rate. Dr. Goran Klintmalm, chief of the Baylor Regional Transplant Institute in Dallas,  said  this particular operation was a "very high-risk transplant," but that he would consider the same operation on a similar patient.  On December 11, 2007, Cigna rejected the request for coverage for the liver transplant. Sarkisyan's doctors at UCLA, including the head of its transplant unit, wrote a letter to protest that the treatment proposed was neither experimental nor unproven and called on Cigna to urgently review its decision.

Cigna HealthCare refused to pay for treatment by citing policy provisions which do not cover services considered experimental, investigational and/or unproven to be safe and/or effective for the patient.  Cigna said that it had no financial stake in the decision because it only administered the insurance plan and would not bear the cost of any operation.   The cost of a liver transplant and one year of follow-up care was $450,000 in 2005. UCLA declined two livers while waiting for insurance approval from Cigna.  Ms. Sarkisyan's family was also informed that they could proceed with the transplant if they could make a down-payment of $75,000.

Among the groups who publicly spoke out against Cigna's decision was the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

Wendell Potter, a Cigna PR executive, advised the board to cover the cost of Sarkisyan's liver transplant as her situation became increasingly high profile. A flash point occurred during a protest for Sarkisyan in front of Cigna's offices in Glendale, California with live coverage from CNN. During the protest, the company agreed to reverse its decision and offered to pay for the transplant itself (independent of the insurance policy) when it made the exception to the policy. Potter advised a colleague from the regional office to inform the Sarkisyan family that Cigna would provide coverage, to which Hilda Sarkisyan, Nataline's mother, responded by jumping in joy and hugging supporters.  Nataline Sarkisyan died a few hours after Cigna's reversal of its policy.
Sarkisyan is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).

Aftermath

Sarkisyan's family spoke out at a New Hampshire rally in support of Senator John Edwards' presidential campaign on January 6, 2008, based on his advocacy of reforming and overhauling the US health care system.

Cigna PR Executive Wendell Potter resigned shortly after Sarkisyan's death and blew the whistle on the health insurance industry.

Lawsuit
Sarkisyan's family retained attorney Mark Geragos to sue Cigna, and requested that Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley file murder charges against the insurer. The case was thrown out due to a Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling shielding employer-paid healthcare plans from damages over their coverage decisions.

See also
 Health care in the United States

References

External links

Healthcare reform in the United States
Social problems in medicine
Corruption in the United States
December 2007 events in the United States
American people of Armenian descent

Death of Nataline Sarkisyan


Papyrus 46 (also referred to as simply 46) is one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts known to exist. It was probably created between the year 175 and 225. Some leaves are part of the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri Collection, and others are in the Papyri Collection of the University of Michigan. According to the website Bible Research, it contains (in order) "the last eight chapters of Romans; all of Hebrews; virtually all of 1st Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians; all of Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians; and two chapters of Thessalonians. All of the leaves have lost some lines at the bottom through deterioration."

References

New Testament

Papyrus 46


Veliky Novgorod () is a city in the European part of Russia. It is the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is about  from St. Petersburg. In 2007, about 217,000 people lived there. "Novgorod" is the Russian word for "new city" and "Veliky" means "the Great". The city is actually one of the most historic in Russia. Its past can be traced to the 9th century. Yaroslav the Wise ruled there in the 11th century. It was the only Russian province that was not captured by the Golden Horde.

Capitals of oblasts of Russia

Veliky Novgorod


Events
 January 1 – Britain and its colonies adopt the idea that 1 January should be New Year's Day, following adoption of the Gregorian calendar in September 1752. The concept was first conceived in 1582, but suffered from slow public adoption.
 January 13 – Sentenced conspirators of the Tavora affair are executed
 January 29 – After a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted. Following criminal trial causes uproar.
 April 5 – Founding charter of the British Museum

 Sweden adopts Gregorian calendar
 British parliament extends citizenship to Jews
 Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus on 1 May, adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature as the formal start date of the scientific classification of plants
 James Lind writes A Treatise of the Scurvy
 Tobias Smollett writes Ferdinand Count Fathom
 Robert Wallace writes On the Numbers of Man

1753


The Ain-i-Akbari () or the "Administration of Akbar", is a 16th-century detailed document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, written by his court historian, Abu'l Fazl in the Persian language. It forms Volume III and the final part of the much larger document, the Akbarnama (Account of Akbar), also by Abu'l-Fazl, and is itself in three volumes.

Contents
The Ain-i-Akbari is the third volume of the Akbarnama containing information on Akbar's reign in the form of administrative reports, similar to a gazetteer. In Blochmann's explanation, "it contains the 'āīn' (i.e. mode of governing) of Emperor Akbar, and is the administrative report and statistical return of his government as it was about 1590."

The Ain-i-Akbari is divided into five books. The first book called manzil-Abadi deals with the imperial household and its maintenance, and the second called sipah-abadi, with the servants of the emperor, military and civil services. The third deals with imperial administration, containing judiciary and executive regulations. The fourth contains information on Hindu philosophy, science, social customs, and literature. The fifth contains sayings of Akbar, along with an account of the ancestry and biography of the author.

Volumes
Volume 1: Manzil-Abadi (meaning place establishment)

The volume has a total of 90 'Ain' or Regulations dealing with and describing the different segments of administration and occupations at that time. The various ains include the one on the imperial mint, its workmen and their process of refining and extracting gold and silver, the dirham and the dinar etc. There are also portions dedicated to the Imperial Harem (Ain 15), the royal seals (Ain 20), the imperial kitchen (Ain 23), and its recipes and the rules relating to the days of abstinence (Ain 26). The volume contains a detailed description of the tr, andtems such as fruits, vegetables, perfumes, carpets, etc., and also of art and painting. Ain-i-Akbari is an excellent resource of information on the maintenance of the Mughal army during Akbar's reign. Ain 35 onwards deals with the use and maintenance of artillery, upkeep and branding of royal horses, camels, mules and elephants, describing even the detail of the food given to animals. The volume also has regulations pertaining to laborers' wages, house-building estimates, etc.

Volume 2: Sipah-Abadi (meaning military establishment)

The second book treats of the servants of the throne, the military and civil services, and the attendants at court whose literary genius or musical skill received a great deal of encouragement from the emperor, and who similarly commend the high value of their work.

Volume 3: Mulk-Abadi (meaning government of a country or government establishment)

The third book is entirely devoted to regulations for the judicial and executive departments, the establishment of a new and more practical era, the survey of the land, the tribal divisions, and the rent-roll of the finance minister.

Volume 4 (law and social conditions)

The fourth book treats of the social condition and literary activity, especially in philosophy and law, of the Hindus, who form the bulk of the population, and in whose political advancement the emperor saw the guarantee of the stability of his realm. There are also a few chapters on the foreign invaders of India, on distinguished travelers, and on Muslim saints and the sects to which they belong.

Volume 5 (things spoken and done by Emperor Akbar)

The fifth book contains moral sentences and epigrammatical sayings, observations, and rules of wisdom of the emperor collected by Abu'l Fazl.

Ain-i-Akbari by  Syed Ahmad Khan
In 1855, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan finished his scholarly,well-researched and illustrated edition of Abul Fazl's Ai'n-e Akbari, itself an extraordinarily difficult book. Having finished the work to his satisfaction, the work was brought to Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib believing that  he would appreciate his labours. He approached the great Ghalib to write a taqriz (in the convention of the times, a laudatory foreword) for it. Ghalib obliged but wrote a short Persian poem castigating the Ai'n-e Akbari and by implication, the imperial, sumptuous, literate and learned Mughal culture of which it was a product. Ghalib practically reprimanded Syed Ahmad Khan for wasting his talent on 'dead things' and lavished praise on the "sahibs of England" who at that time held all the a'ins in this world.

Ghalib seemed to be acutely aware of changes in world polity due to the actions of the great powers, especially in Indian polity. Syed Ahmad might well have been piqued at Ghalib's admonitions, but he would have realised the forces that impinged the publication.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan gave up an active interest in history and archaeology. Although he did edit another two historical texts over the next few years, neither of them bore the scope of the Ai'n: a vast and triumphant document on the governance of Akbar.

Notable Ains
The Mustard of Man (Ain 76 Book 1)
The business which Akbar Majesty transacts is multifarious. A large number of men were appointed on the days assembly of expenditure was announced. Their merits are inquired into and the coin of knowledge passes the current. Some pray his majesty to remove religious doubt; other again seek his advice for settling a worldly matter; other want medicines for their cure. Like these many other requests were made.
The salaries of large number of men from Iran, Turkey, Europe, Hindustan and Kashmir are fixed in a manner described below, and the men themselves are taken before His Majesty by the paymasters. Formerly it had been custom for man to come with horses and accoutrements; but now only men appointed to the post of Ahadi were  allowed  to bring horses. The salary is proposed by the officer who bring them, which is then increased or decreased, though it is generally increased; for the market of His Majesty is never dull. The number of men brought before His Majesty depends on number of men available. Every Monday all such horsemen are mustered  as were left from the preceding week. With the view of increasing army and zeal of officers, His Majesty gives to each who brings horsemen, a present of two dams for each horsemen.

Regulation regarding education (Ain 25 Book 2)
His Majesty orders that every school boy must learn to write the letters of the alphabet first and then learn to trace their several forms. he ought to learn the shape and name of each letter, which may be done on two days, after which the boy should proceed to write joined letter. They may be practiced for a week after which boy should learn some prose and poetry by heart, and then commit to memory some verses to the praise of God, or moral sentences, each written separately. Care is to be taken that he learns everything by himself but the teacher must assist him a little.

Translations
Ain-i-Akbari was one of the first Persian texts to be translated into the English language. The original Persian text was translated into English in three volumes. The first volume, translated by Heinrich Blochmann (1873) consisted of Books I and II.  The second volume, translated by Col. Henry Sullivan Jarrett (1891), contained Book III, and the remaining volume, also translated by Jarrett (1896), Books IV and V. These three volumes were published by the Asiatic Society of  Calcutta as a part of their Bibliotheca Indica series.

See also
 Mughal Karkhanas
 Mughal Empire
 Qutni

References

External links
 Ayeen Akbery (1684)
 The Ain i Akbari, Volume 3 (1894)
 Supplement to the first volume of Gladwin's Ayeen Akberi (1918)
 Ayeen Akbery, Or, The Institutes of the Emperor Akber, Volume 1
 Ain-e-Akbari, English translation, by H. Blochmann and Colonel H. S. Jarrett, 1873 – 1907. The Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta. at Packard Humanities Institute
 Ain-e-Akbari, English tr. by Colonel H. S. Jarrett. The Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta. 1948
 Aeene Akbari Part I at Digital Library of India
Persian text of the A'in-i Akbari in three parts:
 Abu al-Fazl's A'in-i Akbari in Persian, Vol 1, Part 1 (of 2)
 Abu al-Fazl's A'in-i Akbari in Persian, Vol 1, Part 2 (of 2)
 A'in-i Akbari of Abu al-Fazl, Volume 2, Ahval-i Hindustan

Mughal literature
Books about the Mughal Empire
16th-century Indian books
16th-century illuminated manuscripts
Indian manuscripts
Islamic illuminated manuscripts
Mughal art
Akbar
Works by Syed Ahmed Khan
Indian chronicles
16th-century Persian books

Ain-i-Akbari


The forehand in tennis is a shot made by swinging the racquet across one's body in the direction of where the player wants to place the shot. For a right-handed player, the forehand is a stroke that begins on the right side of his body, continues across his body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the left side of his body. It is considered the easiest shot to master, perhaps because it is the most natural stroke. Beginners and advanced players often have better forehands than any other shots and use it as a weapon.

Tennis

Forehand


Courland Governorate was one of provinces or governorates of the Russian Empire. It was formed in 1795 during the Third Partition out of territory of Duchy of Courland and Semigallia.

North of the governorate were the Gulf of Riga, the Baltic Sea and the Governorate of Livonia. West of it was the Baltic Sea. South of it were the Vilna Governorate and Prussia. East of it were the Vitbesk Governorate and the Minsk Governorate.

The governorate ended in 1915 when the German Empire conquered it. Russia surrendered the governorate during the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918.

1795 establishments
1915 disestablishments
18th-century establishments in Russia
Disestablishments in the Soviet Union

Courland Governorate


Killing Lincoln is a 2013 American television movie that was based on Bill O'Reilly's book Killing Lincoln. It was narrated by Tom Hanks.

The television movie was produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. It stars Billy Campbell and Jesse Johnson. It was released to positive reviews on February 17, 2013. Another television movie based on Bill O'Reilly's Killing Kennedy was released on November 10, 2013 starring Rob Lowe.

2013 movies
American television movies

Killing Lincoln (movie)


Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a disease of the blood vessels in the legs. It can cause leg pain with walking, or if it gets bad it can cause wounds on the skin of the feet and toes. Peripheral artery disease is a serious disease that can be fatal. Some people who get very sick from PAD may need surgery to improve blood flow in their legs and feet. If their feet get really sick they may need an amputation.

PA is also sometimes called peripheral artery occlusive disease (PAOD), peripheral obliterative arteriopathy, or peripheral vascular disease (PVD).

Diseases and disorders of the cardiovascular system

Peripheral artery disease


John Cameron (c. 1579 – 1625) was a Scottish theologian.

Life and academic career
Cameron was born in the Saltmarket district of Glasgow the son of Thomas Cameron and received his early education in his native city. He entered Glasgow University in 1595 and graduated MA in 1599.

After having taught Greek in the university for twelve months, he removed to Bordeaux, where he was soon appointed a regent in the college of Bergerac. He did not remain long at Bordeaux, but accepted the offer of a chair of philosophy at the Academy of Sedan, where he passed two years. He then returned to Bordeaux, and in the beginning of 1604 he was nominated one of the students of divinity who were maintained, at the expense of the church, and who for the period of four years were at liberty to prosecute their studies in any Protestant seminary. During this period he acted as tutor to the two sons of the chancellor of Navarre. They spent one year at Paris, and two at Geneva, whence they removed to Heidelberg. In this university, on 4 April 1608, he gave a public proof of his ability by maintaining a series of theses, De triplici Dei cum Homine Foedere, which were printed among his works. The same year he was recalled to Bordeaux, where he was appointed the colleague of Dr Gilbert Primrose; and when Francis Gomarus was removed to Leiden, Cameron, in 1618, was appointed professor of divinity at the Academy of Saumur, the principal seminary of the French Protestants.

In 1620, the progress of the civil troubles in France obliged Cameron to seek refuge for himself and family in England. For a short time, he read private lectures on divinity in London; and in 1622 the king appointed him principal of the University of Glasgow in the room of Robert Boyd, who had been removed from his office in consequence of his adherence to Presbyterianism. Cameron was cordially disliked for his adherence to the doctrine of passive obedience. He resigned his office in less than a year.

He returned to France, and lived at Saumur. After an interval of a year he was appointed professor of divinity at Montauban. The country was still torn by civil and religious dissensions; and Cameron excited the indignation of the more strenuous adherents of his own party. He withdrew to the neighboring town of Moissac; but he soon returned to Montauban, and a few days afterwards he died at the age of about forty-six and perhaps at the hands of an assassin. All his works were published after his death.

Theology
Cameron's name has a distinct place in the development of Calvinistic theology in Europe. He and his followers maintained that the will of man is determined by the practical judgment of the mind; that the cause of men's doing good or evil proceeds from the knowledge which God infuses into them; and that God does not move the will physically, but only morally, by virtue of its dependence on the judgment of the mind. This peculiar doctrine of grace and free will was adopted by Amyraut, Cappel, Bochart, Daillé and others of the more learned among the Reformed ministers.

The Cameronites (not to be confused with the Scottish sect called Cameronians) are moderate Calvinists. They are also wrongly called Universalists, as holding the universal scope [not application] rather than limited extent of Christ's death, and sometimes Amyraldians. The rigid adherents to the Synod of Dort accused them of Pelagianism, and even of Manichaeism, and the controversy between the parties was carried on with great zeal; yet the whole question between them was only, whether the will of man is determined by the immediate action of God upon it, or by the intervention of a knowledge which God impresses on the mind.

Family

Cameron married twice:

Firstly in 1611 to Suzanne Bernadin of Tonneins and had one son, who died in infancy. Secondly in 1625 to Jeanne de Thomas, daughter of Jacques de Thomas, advocate, and widow of Dr Jean Gautier MD.

Literature
 Axel Hilmar Swinne: John Cameron - Philosoph und Thneologe (1579 -1625), Institut für Wissenschaftliche Irenik Frankfurt am Main; N. G. Elwert Verlag, Marburg 1968 ISBN ??

References

Citations

Sources

Attribution

External links

Academics of the University of Glasgow
Scottish Calvinist and Reformed theologians
1570s births
1623 deaths
16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians

John Cameron (theologian)


The Oxford Movement was a religious movement within the Church of England, based at the University of Oxford, which began in 1833. Members of this movement were known as 'Tractarians' (from Tracts for the Times, a collection of books, pamphlets and essays that described their beliefs); opponents of the movement called them Newmanites (before 1845) and Puseyites (from 1845), after John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey, two leading Tractarians. The members of the movement tried to bring back Catholic doctrine and forms of service (how Sunday services and other forms of worship were carried out in Anglican churches, the Oxford Movement wanting to make these  more like a Catholic Mass) into the Church of England. They also believed the Anglican church was an 'apostolic' church, connected directly to the Church of Saint Peter and the other Apostles. John Keble was another leader of the movement.

After publishing ninety Tracts, Newman decided, in Tract 90, that the Branch Theory (that the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Churches were all part of the one Church) was not enough, and converted to Catholicism, and later became a Cardinal. Enemies of the Movement thought this proved that they were trying to reunify with Rome. Others followed Newman to Rome (for example, Henry Edward Manning, another important Tractarian, converted in 1851) while others, such as Pusey and John Keble, remained in the Anglican Church to continue the work of reforming it.

Today, it is represented in the 'Anglo-Catholic' or High Church (more Catholic, as opposed to Low Church, more Protestant) part of the Anglican Church, the smaller, conservative part. Recently, with the Anglican Church debating if female clergymen should be allowed, some Anglo-Catholics, such as Bishop Burnham, Bishop Newton and sixty priests have left the Church and converted to Rome in protest, as they do not believe female bishops, or female priests should be allowed.

More information
Michael Chandler An Introduction to the Oxford Movement. New York: Church Publishing, 2003

Other websites
 Tracts for the Times
 Tractarianism (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge)

Anglicanism

Oxford Movement


Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphic adventure video game released by LucasArts during the company's adventure games era. The game was originally released for MS-DOS in 1993 and for Mac OS in 1995. A 2002 re-release included compatibility with Windows. The game is based on the comic characters of Sam and Max, the "Freelance Police", an anthropomorphic dog and "hyperkinetic rabbity thing". The characters, created by Steve Purcell, originally debuted in a 1987 comic book series. Based on the 1989 Sam & Max comic On the Road, the duo take the case of a missing bigfoot from a nearby carnival, traveling to many American culture tourist sites to solve the mystery.

LucasArts began development of the game in 1992 with the intention to use new settings and characters after the success of the past Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island adventure titles. Series creator Steve Purcell, then a LucasArts employee, was one of the lead designers on the project. Sam & Max Hit the Road is the ninth game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine, and also integrated the iMUSE audio system developed by Michael Land and Peter McConnell. The game was one of the first to incorporate full voice talent; the two title characters were voiced by professional voice actors Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson while additional voices were provided by Irwin Keyes, Marsha Clark, Denny Delk, Tony Pope and Beth Wernick.

The game received critical acclaim on release, and was praised for its humor, voice acting, graphics, music and gameplay. It is now regarded as a classic  adventure game and is often considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Several attempts to produce sequels were cancelled, ultimately resulting in the franchise moving from LucasArts to Telltale Games. Since October 2014, after the acquisition of LucasArts by Disney, the game is being sold by GOG.com. The game was re-released on Steam by Disney Interactive in November 2018.

Gameplay
Sam & Max Hit the Road is a 2D adventure game where the player controls the actions of Sam from a third-person perspective. The player uses Sam to explore the pre-rendered cartoon environments of the game and solve a series of puzzles using a simple point-and-click interface. The game's puzzles have logical solutions, although a number of them have far-fetched solutions due to the game's cartoon setting. Players can set the game's cursor in a particular mode to designate how Sam interacts with the environment: Sam can walk around an area, talk to other characters, look at objects, pick them up or otherwise try to use them. The cursor's graphic changes when it is hovered over an in-game entity that Sam can interact with. When talking to another character, the player is given a choice of subject areas to discuss, depicted in a conversation tree as icons at the base of the screen. In addition to specific topics involving the game's plot, Sam can inject unconnected exclamations, questions and non sequiturs into a conversation.

The game incorporates an inventory system for items that Sam picks up during the course of the game. Items can be used on other entities in the game world, or can often be combined with other inventory items to provide a new object necessary for solving a puzzle. Although Max's character will walk around the game's areas by his own will, Sam can also use Max at various points by using an inventory icon of Max's head on game objects—usually on characters where the solution to a problem involves violence. Sam and Max travel to different locations in the game using their black and white 1960 DeSoto Adventurer, which when clicked on in-game will present a map of the United States with all the available locations the pair can travel to shown. As the game progresses, the number of locations on the map increases.

In addition to the main game, Sam & Max Hit the Road includes several minigames. Some of these, such as a carnival game based on Whac-A-Mole but involving live rats, must be completed in order to receive new items and further the game's plot, while others, such as a car-themed version of Battleship, are entirely optional as to whether the player uses them. As with the majority of LucasArts adventure games, Sam & Max Hit the Road is designed so that the player characters cannot die or reach a complete dead-end.

Plot
Sam and Max, the Freelance Police, are two comic book characters created by Steve Purcell, who act as private detectives and vigilantes. Sam & Max Hit the Road follows the pair on a case that takes them from their office in New York City across the United States. The game starts in a similar way to many of the comic stories, with Sam and Max receiving a telephone call from an unseen and unheard Commissioner, who tells them to go to a nearby carnival. At the carnival, they are told by the owners that their star attraction, a frozen bigfoot called Bruno, has been set free, and fled, taking their second attraction, Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl. Sam and Max set off to find Bruno and Trixie and bring them back. As the duo investigate the carnival, they learn that Bruno and Trixie are in love and that Trixie freed Bruno. The Freelance Police leave the carnival to pursue leads at various tourist traps throughout the country, such as The World's Largest Ball of Twine, a vortex controlled by giant subterranean magnets, and bungee jumping facilities at Mount Rushmore.

The pair learn that two other bigfoots used as tourist attractions in other parts of the country have been freed by Bruno, and that Bruno has been captured by Liverpudlian country western singer Conroy Bumpus, a cruel animal abuser who wishes to use Bruno in his performances. Sam and Max travel to Bumpus' home and rescue Bruno and Trixie, but Bruno then departs with Trixie to join a bigfoot gathering at an inn in Nevada. Following them, Sam and Max disguise themselves as a bigfoot to enter the party. Eventually the party is gatecrashed by Conroy Bumpus and his henchman Lee Harvey, who hope to capture the bigfoots. However, Sam manages to fool Bumpus and Harvey into donning their bigfoot disguise, and Max locks them in the inn's kitchen freezer.

Chief Vanuatu, leader of the bigfoots, in recognition of the pair's actions, makes the Freelance Police members of the bigfoot tribe and tells them of a spell that will make the world safe for bigfoots again, preventing their capture by humans. However, the chief requires help deciphering the spell's four ingredients, and asks for Sam and Max's help. Eventually, they discover that the ingredients are a vegetable resembling John Muir, hair restoration tonic, the tooth of a dinosaur, and a vortex contained within a snow globe. Combined with a live bigfoot sacrifice—which Max substitutes for frozen bigfoot-clad Bumpus and Harvey—the ingredients cause large trees to spring into existence, destroying towns and cities and covering the bulk of the west United States in forest. Content that their work is done, Sam and Max take the frozen ice block containing Bumpus and Harvey to the carnival. Believing that Bruno has been returned to them, the owners give a large reward of skee ball tickets to the Freelance Police, who then spend the end credits shooting targets at a carnival stall with real firearms.

Development
Sam & Max Hit the Road was developed by a small team at LucasArts with prior experience on their adventure games, including Sean Clark, Michael Stemmle, and Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell and his future wife Collette Michaud. Prior to being employed at LucasArts, Steve Purcell had developed the Sam & Max characters and started publishing stories about them around 1987. These had caught attention of some of the LucasArts developers; through a suggestion that LucasArts artist Ken Macklin, Purcell was brought into the team by art director Gary Winnick. Purcell helped to draw the cover art for Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, then helped with the character animations in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Sam and Max first appeared as video game characters as internal testing material for SCUMM engine programmers recently employed by LucasArts; Steve Purcell created animated versions of the characters and an office backdrop for the programmers to practice on. Soon after, Sam & Max comic strips by Steve Purcell were published in LucasArts' quarterly newsletter. After a positive reaction from fans to the strips and out of a wish to use new characters and settings after the success of the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion franchises, LucasArts offered in 1992 to create a video game out of the characters.

The game was based on the 1989 Sam & Max comic On The Road, which featured the two on a journey across the United States. Several of the game's tourist traps were based on real locations experienced by the developers; Steve Purcell recollects a childhood visit to a "Frog Rock" - one of the locations featured in the game - and remembered thinking "That's it? It doesn't even look like a frog!" A chain of "Snuckey's" roadside stores and attractions was a tribute to the Stuckey's chain which Purcell and his family often stopped at during road trips.

LucasArts planned a relatively short timetable for Sam & Max of about eight months, and the team opted to use storyboarding for the first time at LucasArts to plan out the game. Sam & Max was one of the first games to include a full speech soundtrack and music, which for Steve Purcell was a "dream opportunity" to hear his creations speak. Steve Purcell describes casting Bill Farmer in the role of Sam as his audition tape "was very dry; he wasn't trying too hard to sell the lines". Actor Nick Jameson was cast to voice Max. The game's jazz score was composed by LucasArts' Clint Bajakian, Michael Land and Peter McConnell, and was incorporated into the game using Land and McConnell's iMUSE engine, which allowed for audio to be synchronized with the visuals. High quality versions of four of the game's tracks were included on the CD version of the game. Sam & Max Hit the Road was released simultaneously on floppy disk and CD-ROM; only the CD version of the game contained full in-game speech and music.

As the Sam & Max comics had a more adult tone, Steve Purcell expected LucasArts to cut back "the edgier material" from the game, but expressed that he was pleased with how LucasArts allowed him to stay close to his original vision for the game. The game's various minigames were included to allow players to take a break from solving the main game's puzzles and play something "short and silly". Sam & Max Hit the Road also signified a major change in development for games on the SCUMM engine. The user interface was entirely rehauled from that introduced in Maniac Mansion and built upon in subsequent games. Instead of selecting a verb function from a list at the bottom of the screen and clicking on an in-game entity, Sam & Max Hit the Road compressed all verb functions into the mouse cursor, which players could cycle through using the right-mouse button. The inventory was also moved off the main screen to a sub-screen accessible by a small icon on the screen. According to Steve Purcell, this cleared space on the screen to "expand on the excellent backgrounds and also made interaction much quicker and less laborious than LucasArts' previous adventure games" The conversation trees were also affected by this; Michael Stemmle proposed removing the text-based selection menu used in previous LucasArts' adventure games in favor of icons representing topics of discussion as "nothing would kill a joke worse than reading it before you hear it". Several of these innovations were retained for future LucasArts adventure games.

Reception

According to Steve Purcell, Sam & Max Hit the Road was commercially successful. He remarked in 2000 that the numbers were never compared to Star Wars but it sold enough that it was considered a hit by most standards.

Sam & Max received a favorable reception from the gaming industry's press, holding a rating of 84% on the review aggregator site GameRankings. Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World in 1994 liked it "measurably less" than Day of the Tentacle. He compared the latter to a Looney Tunes cartoon and the former to an underground comic book, observing that Sam & Maxs style of humor "can all be funny, but only to a point ... its main characters are basically jerks" and the story was unimportant "even to them". Ardai cited the completely optional and disconnected minigames as "contribut[ing] to the feeling that Sam & Max is more a computerized busybox ... than a unified, focused piece of fiction". He liked the graphics and simplified SCUMM interface, but concluded that "the whole is rather less than the sum of its parts ... Sam & Max affords a couple of hours of somewhat similar amusement" to Tentacle. Edge noted that "with most adventure games, its hard to feel anything for the character(s) you control", but stated that Sam & Max Hit the Road broke this mold by being "genuinely funny". The reviewer praised the game's graphics as "beautifully detailed" and the puzzles as "intricate to solve", but noted that a number of the minigames were "dismal". Joonas Linkola, writing for Adventure Gamers, echoed many of these comments, praising the cartoon-style graphics as "appropriately cheesy" and "colorful". On the subject of the game's humor, Linkola noted that "there are many visual jokes, but the backbone of the game is in its witty dialogue", and as such this gave the game a "replayability value" as players may pick up on jokes based on "verbal acrobatics, on the use of polysyllabic words, old English and other such oddities" that they missed the first time around. Linkola gave additional praise to the soundtrack and audio work, stating that the "very fitting voices ... adds to the comical duo's wisecracking attitude".

Allgame reviewer Steve Honeywell was also very positive with his comments, describing the plot as "interesting", the graphics as "appropriately cartoonish and fun" and the locations as "well-designed", but noting that above all "what makes Sam & Max Hit the Road work is the humor". On the game's puzzles, Honeywell stated that "some of the puzzles are pretty simple, while others are difficult in the extreme. One nice thing is the almost complete absence of red herring items. Everything you find can be put to use somewhere". As with other reviews, Allgame praised the audio work, noting that "the music is decent throughout the game, and the voice talent is stellar", closing with the comment that the game takes point-and-click adventures to "insane new heights in terms of both fun and comedy". GamersHell praised the graphics of the game as "superb" but noted that "it's not so friendly that it can only be played by kiddies". Although describing sound setup as "a bit tricky", the reviewer praised the voice acting as "very good" and the music as "top quality". Although the review noted that the game had "easy to use" interfaces and menus, it was critical of the fact that "at times it can be the frustrating 'hunt for the correct pixel' syndrome".

The game was one of four nominees for the 1994 Annie Award in the category Best Animated CD-ROM, although the award instead went to LucasArts' Star Wars: Rebel Assault. In 1994, PC Gamer US named Sam & Max the 8th best computer game ever.

In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 10th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "still the best graphic adventure for the PC, hands down".

Sam and Max Hit the Road has since come to be regarded as a classic adventure game title, and is regularly featured in listings of the top 100 games. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 95th best game of all time, calling it "the adventure game that redefined 'wacky'". The same year, Next Generation ranked it 27th best game of all time, explaining that its "goofy charm" was the tiebreaker in the decision to include it on the list instead of other acclaimed LucasArts games such as Day of the Tentacle. In 1999, Next Generation listed Sam & Max Hit the Road as number 45 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that the game combined a bizarre plot with LucasArt's adventure game prowess and the robust SCUMM engine. In 2004, Adventure Gamers listed Sam & Max Hit the Road as the eighth-best adventure game of all time, describing it as "the most absurd and ridiculous game ever designed". IGN described Sam and Max Hit the Road in its 2007 top 100 games feature as "known more for its story and characters", noting that "the unusual and interesting gameplay is typically saddled in the shotgun position in fans' memories, but when you're driving a Porsche, even the trunk is a smooth ride". Writing for Adventure Classic Gaming in 2006, David Olgarsson noted that the game had "undoubtedly ... become [LucasArts'] most critically acclaimed adventure game of all time", citing the game's production values, graphical effects, challenging puzzles and story techniques as the reason for this, concluding that the game was an "enduring testament to adventure gaming's finest hours". In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Sam & Max the 28th-best adventure game ever released.

Sequels

The first attempts at creating a sequel took place in September 2001 with Sam & Max Plunge Through Space. The game was to be an Xbox exclusive title, developed by Infinite Machine, a small company consisting of a number of former LucasArts employees. The story of the game was developed by series creator Steve Purcell and fellow designer Chuck Jordan and involved the Freelance Police travelling the galaxy to find a stolen Statue of Liberty. However, Infinite Machine went bankrupt within a year, and the project was abandoned.

At the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo convention, nearly a decade after the release of Sam & Max Hit the Road, LucasArts announced the production of a PC sequel, entitled Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Freelance Police, like Hit the Road, was to be a point-and-click graphic adventure game, utilizing a new 3D game engine. Development of Freelance Police was led by Michael Stemmle, one of the original designers of Sam and Max Hit the Road. Steve Purcell contributed to the project by writing the story and producing concept art. The original voice actors for Sam and Max, Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson, were also set to reprise their roles. In March 2004, however, quite far into the game's development, Sam & Max: Freelance Police was abruptly cancelled by LucasArts, citing "current market place realities and underlying economic considerations" in a short press release. The fan reaction to the cancellation was strong; a petition of 32,000 signatures stating the disappointment of fans was later presented to LucasArts.

After LucasArts' license with Steve Purcell expired in 2005, the Sam & Max franchise moved to Telltale Games, a company of former LucasArts employees who had worked on a number of LucasArts adventure games, including on the development of Freelance Police. Under Telltale Games, a new episodic series of Sam & Max video games was made. Like both Sam & Max Hit the Road and Freelance Police, Sam & Max Save the World was in a point-and-click graphic adventure game format, although it lacked the original voice actors for the characters. The first season ran for six episodes, each with a self-contained storyline but with an overall story arc running through the series. The first episode was released on GameTap in October 2006, with episodes following regularly until April 2007, and a special compilation on the Wii released in October 2008. A second season, Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space, began in November 2007 and ended in April 2008. This was also released as a compilation on the Wii. Originally expected to be released in 2009, a third season, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, began in April 2010.

References

External links

1993 video games
Adventure games
Point-and-click adventure games
DOS games
SCUMM games
Windows games
LucasArts games
Classic Mac OS games
ScummVM-supported games
Video games based on Sam & Max
Video games about dogs
Video games about rabbits and hares
Video games set in New York City
Video games set in South Dakota
Video games set in the United States
Video games scored by Clint Bajakian
Video games scored by Michael Land
Video games scored by Peter McConnell
Video games developed in the United States
Disney Interactive
Single-player video games

Sam & Max Hit the Road


Aquatic is a term often used in biology and ecology. Literally, it means watery, and refers to both fresh and salt-water. So aquatic plants or animals are those that live in water: ponds, rivers, oceans. Aquatic mammals include whales, dolphins, seals, walrus, and also otters, beavers, and other river forms. Aquatic birds are even more numerous: ducks, herons, waders, kingfishers, penguins.

Related pages
Aquatic locomotion
Aquatic plant
Aquatic habitat

Water

Aquatic


La Misma Gente is a Colombian salsa music band founded in 1978 in Palmira, 20 miles East of Cali, by Jorge Herrera, leader and timbalero, and keyboard player Jaime Henao. It became one of the emblematic Cali salsa groups alongside Grupo Niche and Orquesta Guayacán, although unlike these groups the group was originally local to Cali and had grown out of a mainly white high school band. The group's early records are modeled after the Puerto Rican sound of trumpet quartet led Sonora Poncena, which Henao had listened to as youth, although expanded with two saxophones and a trombone. The band's first successful songs were "Juanita Ae" and "Titico". Later hits include "Hasta Que Llegaste," and "No Hay Carretera". The vocalists have changed over the band's 30 years but on the 30 Aniversario DVD the vocalists are Rey Calderon and Nelson Morales.

Discography
En su Salsa (Sonolux, 1986)
La Misma Gente Orquesta (Sonolux, 1987)
Suena (Sonolux, 1988)
En la Jugada (Sonolux, 1989)
Perfume De París (Combo Records, 1990)
El Loco, Ah tu sabes! (Combo Records, 1991)
Cambios (Combo Records, 1992)
Caliche (Codiscos, 1993)
Siempre (Codiscos, 1994)
Nos Quedamos Con La Salsa (Codiscos, 1995)
Caminantes (Fonocaribe, 1998)
Con Sabor Internacional (Latino's & Co, 2001)
25 Aniversario (Latino's & Co, 2004)
30 Aniversario, Pasado y Presente (Discos Fuentes, 2012)
Mi promesa Single (Discos Fuentes, 2013)
Llevao Single (Discos Fuentes, 2014)

References

Colombian salsa musical groups

La Misma Gente (Colombian band)


Zheng He or Ma He (Chinese 郑和; 1371–1433) was an explorer, diplomat, and admiral from China. He lived during the  Ming Dynasty. Zheng He was the leader of a very large fleet of ships that traveled all over the Indian Ocean and Southwest Asia. Zheng He was an eunuch of China's Imperial Court. The fleet that Zheng He commanded had 317 ships that were very large. 28,000 Chinese soldiers were on board these ships.

Early life
Zheng He was born in Kunyang, a village in Yunnan. He was born with the name Ma He (Chinese 马三宝). He and his family were Muslim. At the time, Yunnan was ruled by Mongols. In 1381, however, a Ming army invaded and took control of the area.

Ma He was taken as a prisoner by the Ming armies. He was about 10 years old. He was castrated and then taken away to serve the Prince, Zhu Di (the future emperor). Ma He became a servant at the Imperial Court. The name Zheng He was given to him by the Prince. He also came to be called "Sanbao", a reference to the Three Jewels of Buddhism.

Journeys
From 1405 to 1433, Zheng He went on seven journeys to the Indian Ocean, or what the Chinese people called the "Western Ocean". He was the leader of a large fleet of ships and a big army.

In his first three journeys he visited the countries of Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka. In his fourth to seventh journeys he went as far as the east African coast. In his journeys he gave the countries he visited gifts of silk, porcelain, gunpowder and other goods. He got lots of unusual gifts as well, including giraffes and zebras.

Zheng He had his first journey from 1405–1407, but it is not known why the journey was made. He travelled from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Vietnam, as well as the south of India. His fleet was made up of 317 ships, more than 27,000 men, and the cargo included porcelain, silk, and lacquerware. He used a treasure fleet which is known as the largest wooden ships ever built, being  long, and about  wide. On his first voyage, he defeated a famous pirate in the Strait of Malacca.

For the next 28 years, Zheng He traveled on six more voyages. From 1407–1409, he visited Calicut, Thailand and Java. From 1409–1411, he saw Ayutthaya, Malaya, Sumatra and Sri Lanka. From 1413–1415, he went to Sri Lanka, Bengal, India, Hormuz, Arabia and Aden. On his fifth journey, from 1417–1419, he visited the Ryukyu Islands, Brunei, and east Africa. Then from 1421–1422, he expanded on his fifth journey. His final journey, from 1433–1435, he revisited many of the previous places and brought back gifts from many rulers.

Zheng He visited over 30 countries, and is believed to have died in 1433 on the journey home during the final treasure fleet voyage. After Zheng He died at sea in 1433, his treasure fleet quickly faded, even though his voyages had been a success. Less than 100 years after his death, all of the ships from China were destroyed.

Notes

References
 "Zheng He Maritime Expeditions (Overview)." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
 "Voyages of Zheng He." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
 "Cheng Ho." Explorers & Discoverers of the World. Gale, 1993. Biography in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.

Other websites

 Ancient History Encyclopedia - The Seven Voyages of Zheng He
 TIME magazine special feature on Zheng He (August 2001)

1371 births
1433 deaths
Admirals
Chinese military people
Chinese diplomats
Asian explorers
Sailors

Zheng He


Object could mean:

 Object (philosophy), a thing, being or concept
 Physical entity, something that is tangible and within the grasp of the senses
 Object (grammar), a sentence element, such as a direct object or an indirect object
 Object (task), an aim, target or objective
 The intended result of an action
 Object (physics), a collection of masses
 Object, an entity treated by mathematical category theory
 3D model, a representation of a physical object
 Object (National Register of Historic Places), a classification used by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
 (As a verb, pronounced: ob-JECT): to make an objection, to say that one disagrees with something.

Computing
 Object (computer science), a language mechanism for binding data with methods that operate on that data
 Object-oriented programming (OOP), an object is an instance of a class
 Object file, the output of a compiler or other translator program (also known as "object code")
 Object (Information Processing), an information source for an Information Processor
 HTML object tag

Popular culture
 "Object", a song by The Cure from their 1979 album Three Imaginary Boys
 Objects from the 2006 television series The Lost Room

Object


Dead Man's Hand is a 2007 film directed by Charles Band.

Plot
After inheriting a casino from his dead uncle, Matthew Dragna, his girl friend JJ (Robin Sydney) and a group of friends take a road trip to the outskirts of Las Vegas, where they find the run-down Mysteria Casino. But the trip takes a frightening turn when the kids discover that the casino is haunted by the ghosts of Vegas mobsters Roy "The Word" Donahue (Sid Haig) and his goon Gil Wachetta (Michael Berryman), looking to settle an old score. Matthew and J.J. must fight for their very souls as the ghosts seek their gruesome vengeance, and in the vein of The Shining, this horrifying tale builds to a bloody and surprising climax.

References

External links

2007 films
American supernatural horror films
Films directed by Charles Band
2007 horror films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films

Dead Man's Hand (2007 film)


In statistics, a population is a set of things from which samples may be drawn. This allows statistical inferences to be drawn, or estimates made of the total population. For example, if we were interested in crows, then we would sample the set of crows which is of interest. The population of crows is limited to crows that exist now or in the future. Probably, geography will be a limitation in practice.  To fairly represent the whole population a sample needs to be random.

Population is also used to refer to a set of measurements or values, not only cases actually observed. Suppose, for example, we are interested in the set of all adult crows now alive in the county of Cambridgeshire, and we want to know the mean weight of these birds. For each bird in the population of crows there is a weight, and the set of these weights is called the population of weights.

Statistics

Population (statistics)


The National Language Promotion Department (  ), formerly known as the National Language Authority (or Urdu Language Authority), is an autonomous regulatory institution established in 1979 to support the advancement and promotion of Urdu, which is the national language of Pakistan. Its status now has been changed to attached department. Initially it was aimed at creating a synergy between national and provincial governments and institutions for using Urdu. However, with time, it expanded its horizons to include standardisation and linguistic aspects such as orthography and lexicography. It also provides recommendations for maximizing use of the language in all walks of life. In this respect, large amounts of legal and scientific documents are translated from English and other languages for publication into Urdu. These efforts have resulted in greater awareness of the language's potential as well as its localisation. Recently, the status and name of organization has been changed from National Language Authority to National Language Promotion Department. The National Language Promotion Department is now an attached department of Ministry of National Heritage & Integration. Renowned short-story writer and educationist Dr. Anwaar Ahmad was the last Chairman of the NLA, as the post has been converted to Director General (D.G.).

Objectives
The institution aims to facilitate the use and adoption of Urdu language through publications and other reading materials for individuals and organisations. It also provides linkages for cooperation and collaboration among various academic, research and educational institutions for use of Urdu language and native languages of the country. Over the years efforts have also been made to promote and facilitate Urdu as an official and business language, as a medium of instruction, and as a medium of expression in the country. Moreover, the development of Urdu software is also encouraged at various levels to become more distant from Hindustani.

Organisation
The organisational structure consists of six divisions that include: Dictionary section (Darul Lughaat), Translations section (Darul Tarjuma), Literature section (Darul Tasneef), and Publications section (Darul Isha'at) respectively. There is also a department of Urdu Informatics (اردو اطلاعیات) to carry out research in developing the suitable hardware and software for the use of language in electronic media. A dedicated library contains extensive resources on Urdu, and issues regular Urdu Bulletins.

Key activities

The institution has published a wide range of general, scientific and technical dictionaries and an Urdu Thesaurus. Especially, the Qaumi English-Urdu Dictionary has been based on Webster's Dictionary. A vast amount of literature has also been produced to encourage reading habits among children.

In 1980, the Authority standardised the Urdu keyboard layout for typewriters based on Naskh script. Later on, with the arrival of the digital age, the layout was improved for teleprinters and Information processing. Subsequently, in 1998 efforts were initiated to standardize Urdu encoding, which resulted in the formation of Urdu Zabta Takhti (اردو ضابطہ تختی) (UZT). This development was inline with the efforts to cope with the emerging demands of Urdu applications from word processing to mega-scale projects such as Computerised National Identity Cards by NADRA and a number of E-Governance initiatives by the national government. In July 2000, UZT 1.01 was standardised for all kinds of electronic computing, communications, and storage. Based on this version, Urdu language support was incorporated into the Versions 3.1 and 4.0 of Unicode. Localization of Microsoft applications like Windows and Office in Urdu is also done by then NLA, now NLPD.

Notes

See also
 National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language
 Urdu literature
 Urdu keyboard
 Urdu Informatics
 Urdu alphabet

References
 Afzal, M. (1997). Urdu Software Industry: Prospects, Problems and Need for Standards. 4th National Computer Conference. Islamabad.
 Afzal, M. and Hussain, S. (2002). Urdu computing standards: development of Urdu Zabta Takhti. (UZT) 1.01. Proceedings of the Multi Topic IEEE Conference (INMIC 2001) - Technology for the 21st Century. . pp. 216–22
 Ahmed, S. (1990). Library Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban: An Introduction. Pakistan Library Bulletin. Vol. 21 (3-4). Sept-Dec.
 Aziz, T. (1987). Urdu type Machine kay kaleedi Takhtay, Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban, Islamabad. (in Urdu)
 Muqtadra (2002). Akhbar-e-Urdu: Urdu Software Number. January–February. Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban, Islamabad.
 Rahman, T. (2004). Language Policy and Localization in Pakistan: Proposal for a Paradigmatic Shift. Retrieved on 3 June 2008. SCALLA 2004 Conference. Kathmandu, Nepal. 5–7 January.
 Sajjad, A. (1999). Efforts in the Standardization of Urdu code table, Akhbar-e-Urdu (Urdu News). Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban. Islamabad. June. (In Urdu).
 Zia, K. (1999). Standard Code Table for Urdu . 4th Symposium on Multilingual Information Processing, (MLIT-4), Yangon, Myanmar. CICC, Japan. Retrieved on 28 May 2008.

External links

 Urdu Wikipedia
 Urdu COMPUTING Magazine
 Download editable and offline dictionaries: urdu, english, roman urdu, persian, roman hindi

Urdu
Pakistan federal departments and agencies
Languages of Pakistan
Language regulators
1979 establishments in Pakistan
Organizations established in 1979

National Language Promotion Department