Xenoestrogens are a type of xenohormone that imitates estrogen. They can be either synthetic or natural chemical compounds.  Synthetic xenoestrogens include some widely used industrial compounds, such as PCBs, BPA, and phthalates, which have estrogenic effects on a living organism even though they differ chemically from the estrogenic substances produced internally by the endocrine system of any organism.  Natural xenoestrogens include phytoestrogens which are plant-derived xenoestrogens.  Because the primary route of exposure to these compounds is by consumption of phytoestrogenic plants, they are sometimes called "dietary estrogens".  Mycoestrogens, estrogenic substances from fungi, are another type of xenoestrogen that are also considered mycotoxins.

Xenoestrogens are clinically significant because they can mimic the effects of endogenous estrogen and thus have been implicated in precocious puberty and other disorders of the reproductive system.

Xenoestrogens include pharmacological estrogens (in which estrogenic action is an intended effect, as in the drug ethinylestradiol used in contraceptive pills), but other chemicals may also have estrogenic effects. Xenoestrogens have been introduced into the environment by industrial, agricultural and chemical companies and consumers only in the last 70 years or so, but archiestrogens exist naturally. Some plants (like the cereals and the legumes) are using estrogenic substances possibly as part of their natural defence against herbivore animals by controlling their fertility.

The potential ecological and human health impact of xenoestrogens is of growing concern.  The word xenoestrogen is derived from the Greek words ξένο (xeno, meaning foreign), οἶστρος (estrus, meaning sexual desire) and γόνο (gene, meaning "to generate") and literally means "foreign estrogen".  Xenoestrogens are also called "environmental hormones" or "EDC" (Endocrine Disrupting Compounds).   Most scientists that study xenoestrogens, including The Endocrine Society, regard them as serious environmental hazards that have hormone disruptive effects on both wildlife and humans.

Mechanism of action
The onset of puberty is characterized by increased levels of hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). GnRH triggers the secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) from the anterior pituitary gland, which in turn causes the ovaries to respond and secrete estradiol.  Increases in gonadal estrogen promote breast development, female fat distribution and skeletal growth.  Adrenal androgen and gonadal androgen result in pubic and axillary hair. Peripheral precocious puberty caused by exogenous estrogens is evaluated by assessing decreased levels of gonadotrophins.

Xenoestrogens in plastics, packaged food, drink trays and containers, (more so, when they've been heated in the Sun, or an oven), may interfere with pubertal development by actions at different levels – hypothalamic-pituitary axis, gonads, peripheral target organs such as the breast, hair follicles and genitals.  Exogenous chemicals that mimic estrogen can alter the functions of the endocrine system and cause various health defects by interfering with synthesis, metabolism, binding or cellular responses of natural estrogens.

Although the physiology of the reproductive system is complex, the action of environmental exogenous estrogens is hypothesized to occur by two possible mechanisms. Xenoestrogens may temporarily or permanently alter the feedback loops in the brain, pituitary, gonads, and thyroid by mimicking the effects of estrogen and triggering their specific receptors or they may bind to hormone receptors and block the action of natural hormones.  Thus it is plausible that environmental estrogens can accelerate sexual development if present in a sufficient concentration or with chronic exposure. The similarity in the structure of exogenous estrogens and the estrogens has changed the hormone balance within the body and resulted in various reproductive problems in females. The overall mechanism of action is binding of the exogenous compounds that mimic estrogen to the estrogen binding receptors and cause the determined action in the target organs.

Effects

Xenoestrogens have been implicated in a variety of medical problems, and during the last 10 years many scientific studies have found hard evidence of adverse effects on human and animal health.

There is a concern that xenoestrogens may act as false messengers and disrupt the process of reproduction. Xenoestrogens, like all estrogens, can increase growth of the endometrium, so treatments for endometriosis include avoidance of products which contain them. Likewise, they are avoided in order to prevent the onset or aggravation of adenomyosis. Studies have implicated observations of disturbances in wildlife with estrogenic exposure.  For example, discharge from human settlement including runoff and water flowing out of wastewater treatment plants release a large amount of xenoestrogens into streams, which lead to immense alterations in aquatic life.  With a bioaccumulation factor of 105 –106, fish are extremely susceptible to pollutants.  Streams in more arid conditions are thought to have more effects due to higher concentrations of the chemicals arising from lack of dilution.

When comparing fish from above a wastewater treatment plant and below a wastewater treatment plant, studies found disrupted ovarian and testicular histopathology, gonadal intersex, reduced gonad size, vitellogenin induction, and altered sex ratios.

The sex ratios are female biased because xenoestrogens interrupt gonadal configuration causing complete or partial sex reversal.  When comparing adjacent populations of white sucker fish, the exposed female fish can have up to five oocyte stages and asynchronously developing ovaries versus the unexposed female fish who usually have two oocyte stages and group-synchronously developing ovaries.  Previously, this type of difference has only been found between tropical and temperate species.

Sperm concentrations and motility perimeters are reduced in male fish exposed to xenoestrogens in addition to disrupt stages of spermatogenesis.  Moreover, xenoestrogens have been leading to vast amounts of intersex in fish.  For example, one study indicates the numbers of intersex in white sucker fish to be equal to the number of males in the population downstream of a waste water treatment plant.  No intersex members were found upstream from the plant.  Also, they found differences in the proportion of testicular and ovarian tissue and its degree of organization between the intersex fish.  Furthermore, xenoestrogens expose fish to CYP1A inducers through inhibiting a putative labile protein and enhancing the Ah receptor, which has been linked to epizootics of cancer and the initiation of tumors.

The induction of CYP1A has been established to be a good bioindicator for xenoestrogen exposure.  In addition, xenoestrogens stimulate vitellogenin (Vtg), which acts as a nutrient reserve, and Zona readiata proteins (Zrp), which forms eggshells.  Therefore, Vtg and Zrp are biomarkers to exposure for fish.

Another potential effect of xenoestrogens is on oncogenes, specifically in relation to breast cancer. Some scientists doubt that xenoestrogens have any significant biological effect, in the concentrations found in the environment. However, there is substantial evidence in a variety of recent studies to indicate that xenoestrogens can increase breast cancer growth in tissue culture.

It has been suggested that very low levels of a xenoestrogen, Bisphenol A, could affect fetal neural signalling more than higher levels, indicating that classical models where dose equals response may not be applicable in susceptible tissue. As this study involved intra-cerebellar injections, its relevance to environmental exposures is unclear, as is the role of an estrogenic effect compared to some other toxic effect of bisphenol A.

Other scientists argue that the observed effects are spurious and inconsistent, or that the quantities of the agents are too low to have any effect. A 1997 survey of scientists in fields pertinent to evaluating estrogens found that 13 percent regarded the health threats from xenoestrogens as "major," 62 percent as "minor" or "none," and 25 percent were unsure.

There has been speculation that falling sperm counts in males may be due to increased estrogen exposure in utero. Sharpe in a 2005 review indicated that external estrogenic substances are too weak in their cumulative effects to alter male reproductive functioning, but indicates that the situation appears to be more complex as external chemicals may affect the internal testosterone-estrogen balance.

Impact

The ubiquitous presence of such estrogenic substances is a significant health concern, both individually and for a population. Life relies on the transmission of biochemical information to the next generation, and the presence of xenoestrogens may interfere with this transgenerational information process through "chemical confusion" (Vidaeff and Sever), who state: "The results do not support with certainty the view that environmental estrogens contribute to an increase in male reproductive disorders, neither do they provide sufficient grounds to reject such a hypothesis."

A 2008 report demonstrates further evidence of widespread effects of feminizing chemicals on male development in each class of vertebrate species as a worldwide phenomenon. Ninety-nine percent of over 100,000 recently introduced chemicals are underregulated, according to the European Commission.

Agencies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization International Programme on Chemical Safety are charged to address these issues.

Precocious puberty

Puberty is a complex developmental process defined as the transition from childhood to adolescence and adult reproductive function. The first sign of female puberty is an acceleration of growth followed by the development of a palpable breast bud (thelarche). The median age of thelarche is 9.8 years. Although the sequence may be reversed, androgen dependent changes such as growth of axillary and pubic hair, body odor and acne (adrenarche) usually appears 2 years later. Onset of menstruation (menarche) is a late event (median 12.8 years), occurring after the peak of growth has passed.

Puberty is considered precocious (precocious puberty) if secondary sex characteristics occur before the age of 8 in girls and 9 years in boys. Increased growth is often the first change in precocious puberty, followed by breast development and growth of pubic hair.  However, thelarche, adrenarche, and linear growth can occur simultaneously and although uncommon, menarche can be the first sign. Precocious puberty can be classified into central (gonadotropin-dependent) precocious puberty or peripheral (gonadotropin-independent) puberty. Peripheral precocious puberty has been linked to exposure to exogenous estrogenic compounds.

Age of onset of puberty is influenced by many factors such as genetics, nutritional status, ethnicity and environmental factors including socio-economic conditions and geographical location. A decline of age at onset of puberty from 17 years of age to 13 years of age has occurred over a period of 200 years until the middle of the 20th century. Trends toward earlier puberty have been attributed to improved public health and living conditions. A leading hypothesis for this change toward early puberty is improved nutrition resulting in rapid body growth, increased weight and fat deposition. However, many opponents believe that chemical exposure may play a role. Two recent epidemiologic studies in the United States (PROS and NMANES III) highlighted a recent unexpected advance in sexual maturation in girls. American, European and Asian studies suggest breast development in girls occurs at a much younger age than a few decades ago, irrespective of race and socioeconomic conditions. Environmental chemical exposure is one of the factors implicated in the recent downward trend of earlier sexual maturation.

Thelarche in Puerto Rico
Since 1979, pediatric endocrinologists in Puerto Rico recognized an increase in number of patients with premature thelarche. The presence of phthalates were measured in the blood of 41 girls experiencing early onset breast development and matched set of controls.  The average age of girls with premature thelarche was 31 months.  They found high phthalate levels in the girls suffering from premature thelarche compared to the controls. Not all cases of premature thelarche in the study sample contained elevated levels of phthalate esters and there was concern whether artificial contamination from vinyl lab equipment and tubing invalidated the results, hence weakening the link between exposure and causation.

Tuscany precocious puberty cases
Dr. Massart and colleagues from the University of Pisa studied the increased prevalence of precocious puberty in a region of northwest Tuscany. This region of Italy is represented by a high density of navy yards and greenhouses where exposures to pesticides and mycoestrogens (estrogens produced by fungi) are common.   Although unable to identify a definitive cause of the high rates of precocious puberty, the authors concluded environmental pesticides and herbicides may be implicated.

Dairy contamination
Animal feed was contaminated with several thousand pounds of polybrominated biphenyl in Michigan in 1973 resulting in high exposures of PBB in the population via milk and other products from contaminated cows.  Perinatal exposure of children was estimated by measuring PBB in serum of mothers some years after exposure.  Girls that had been exposed to high PBB levels through lactation had an earlier age of menarche and pubic hair development than girls who had less perinatal exposure.  The study noted there no differences found in the timing of breast development among the cases and controls.

Fish contamination
The Great Lakes have been polluted with industrial wastes (mainly PCBs and DDT) since the beginning of the 20th century.  These compounds have accumulated in birds and sports fish.  A study was designed to assess the impact of consumption of contaminated fish on pregnant women and their children.  Concentrations of maternal serum PCB and DDE and their daughters' age at menarche were reviewed.  In multivariate analysis, DDE but not PCB was linked with a lowered age of menarche. Limitations of the study included indirect measurement of the exposure and self reporting of menarche.

Implications

Precocious puberty has numerous significant physical, psychological and social implications for a young girl. Unfortunately, premature pubertal growth spurt and accelerated bone maturation will result in premature closure of distal epiphysis which causes reduced adult height and short stature. In 1999, US Food and Drug Administration has recommended to not take estrogen in food of more than 3.24 ng per day for females. Precocious puberty has also been implicated in pediatric and adult obesity. Some studies have suggested precocious puberty places girls at a higher risk of breast cancer later in life. Precocious puberty is linked with other gynecologic disorders such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome and infertility. Precocious puberty can lead to psychosocial distress, a poor self-image, and poor self-esteem.  Girls with secondary sex characteristics at such a young age are more likely to be bullied and suffer from sexual abuse.  Studies indicate that girls who become sexually mature at earlier ages are also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors such as smoking, alcohol or drug use, and engage in unprotected sex.

The current literature is inadequate to provide the information we need to assess the extent to which environmental chemicals contribute to precocious puberty. Gaps in our knowledge are the result of limitations in the designs of studies, small sample sizes, challenges to conducting exposure assessment and the few number of chemicals studied. Unfortunately exposure is inferred and not actually measured in available studies. The ability to detect the possible role of chemicals in altering pubertal development is confounded by many nutritional, genetic and lifestyle factors capable of affecting puberty and the complex nature of the reproductive endocrine system. Other research challenges include shifts in exposure levels among populations over time and simultaneous exposures to multiple compounds. Overall the literature does not with certainty support the contention that environmental chemicals or dietary factors are having widespread effects on human sexual development.  However data does not refute such a hypothesis either.  Accelerated sexual development is plausible in individuals exposed to high concentration of estrogenic substances.  There is a concerning steady increase in exposure to a wide variety of xenoestrogens in the industrial world.  Further research is needed to assess the impact of these compounds on pubertal development.

In other animals

Non-human animal studies have shown that exposure to environmental contaminants with estrogenic activity can accelerate the onset of puberty.  A potential mechanism has been described in rats exposed to DDT or beta-estradiol in which GnRH pulsatile secretion was found to be increased. Oral exposure of female rats to xenoestrogens has been shown to cause pseudo precocious puberty (early vaginal opening and early first estrus). A study of dioxin in immature female rats induced early follicular development and phthalates are known to decrease the anogenital distance in newborn rats. Although this article focuses on the effects of xenoestrogens and reproductive function in females, numerous animal studies also implicate environmental estrogens' and androgens' adverse effects on the male reproduction system. Administration of estrogens to developing male animals reduces testicular weight and decreases sperm production. The small phallus size of male alligators has been linked to contamination of their natural Florida habitat with DDT. Data from animal research is abundant demonstrating the adverse effects on reproduction of hormonally active compounds found in the environment.

Common environmental estrogens

Atrazine
Atrazine is widely used as an herbicide to control broad-leaf weed species that grow in crops such as corn, sugarcane, hay and winter wheat. Atrazine is also applied to Christmas trees, residential lawns, golf courses, and other recreational areas. Atrazine is the second largest selling pesticide in the world and estimated to be the most heavily used herbicide in the United States. Atrazine has been implicated in interfering with the neuroendocrine system, blocking the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) which in turn reduces luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels.

BPA
BPA (Bisphenol A) is the monomer used to manufacture polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins used as a lining in most food and beverage cans.  BPA global capacity is in excess of  per year and thus is one of the highest-volume chemicals produced worldwide.  The ester bonds in the BPA-based polycarbonates could be subject to hydrolysis and leaching of BPA.  But in the case of epoxypolymers formed from bisphenol A, it is not possible to release bisphenol A by such a reaction.  It is also noteworthy that, of the bisphenols, bisphenol A is a weak xenoestrogen.  Other compounds, such as bisphenol Z, have been shown to have stronger estrogenic effects in rats.

It has been suggested that biphenol A and other xenoestrogens might cause disease to humans and animals. BPA exposure is linked to dysfunctions in human systems including the immune, neuroendocrine, and excretory systems. The damage that results in these dysfunctions is via the mechanisms of enzyme interference, cellular oxidation, epigenetic changes, and the breaking of DNA strands.

Bisphenol S (BPS), an analog of BPA, has also been shown to alter estrogenic activity. One study demonstrated that when cultured rat pituitary cells were exposed to low levels of BPS, it altered the estrogen-estradiol signaling pathway and led to the inappropriate release of prolactin.

DDT
DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was widely used in pesticides for agricultural purposes until it was banned in 1972 in the United States. DDT's hazardous effects on the environment include being linked to the production of fragile eggshells in birds and showed a 90% decline in the birth rates of alligators. Though it is banned in the United States, DDT continues to be used in many parts of the world for agricultural use, insect control, and to fight the spread of malaria.

DDT and its metabolites DDE and DDD are persistent in the environment and accumulate in fatty tissues. In vertebrates, DDT is unable to be broken down and remains within the organism. There is little risk of DDT causing an increase in health risk upon exposure in adulthood, but in key developmental periods prenatally and in adolescence, there has been evidence to suggest an increased risk of breast cancer.

Dioxin
Dioxin, a group of highly toxic chemicals are released during combustion processes, pesticide manufacturing and chlorine bleaching of wood pulp.  Dioxin is discharged into waterways from pulp and paper mills.  Consumption of animals fats is thought to be the primary pathway for human exposure. The connection between dioxin and dioxin-like compound (DLC) exposure and human disease is one not well established. Bioassays performed in animals does not show a strong connection between the two.

Endosulfan
Endosulfan is an insecticide used on numerous vegetables, fruits, cereal grains and trees. Endosulfan can be produced as a liquid concentrate, wettable powder or smoke tablet. Human exposure occurs through food consumption or ground and surface water contamination. Endosulfan exposure is known to cause seizures that are the result of hyper-stimulation of the central nervous system (CNS). Upon significant exposure and accumulation in the system, toxicity of the major organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys has been reported and can lead to death within hours

Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs)
Both PBBs and PBDEs belong to the same class of chemicals known as brominated flame retardants. PBBs (Polybrominated biphenyls) are chemicals added to plastics used in computer monitors, televisions, textiles and plastics foams to make them more difficult to burn. Manufacturing of PBBs in the United States stopped in 1976, however because they do not degrade easily. PBBs continue to be found in soil, water and air. PBDEs (Polybrominated biphenyl ethers) behave similarly to PBBs in that they are also a flame retardant. PBDEs are not chemically bound to the items they are attached to, and thus can leech into the environment.

PCBs
PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) are man made organic chemicals known as chlorinated hydrocarbons.  PCBs were manufactured primarily for use as insulating fluids and coolants given their chemical stability, low flammability and electrical insulating properties.  PCBs were banned in 1979 but, like DDT, continue to persist in the environment. The effects of PCBs are not limited to the environment. There have been associations revealed between maternal PCB levels and conditions such as asthma, eczema, roseola, and upper respiratory infections.

Phthalates
Phthalates are plasticizers providing durability and flexibility to plastics such as polyvinyl chloride. High molecular weight phthalates are used in flooring, wall coverings and medical device such as intravenous bags and tubing.  Low molecular weight phthalates are found in perfumes, lotions, cosmetics, varnishes, lacquers and coatings including timed releases in pharmaceuticals. Exposure to phthalates can have varying effects in humans depending on maturity. In adults, phthalate exposure has been linked to conditions like asthma, metabolic disorders like type II diabetes and insulin resistance, allergies, and asthma. In children, exposure to phthalates has a marked difference when compared to adults, having been associated with disrupted reproductive hormone levels and thyroid function.

Zeranol
Zeranol is currently used as an anabolic growth promoter for livestock in the US and Canada. It has been banned in the EU since 1985, but is still present as a contaminant in food through meat products that were exposed to it.

Miscellaneous

See also

References

External links
 "Our Stolen Future" book about endocrine disruption
 How to avoid xenoestrogens
 S. Safe on lack of evidence for any effect

Xenoestrogens
Endocrinology
Water pollution
Pollutants

Xenoestrogen


The tube-dwelling anemones (Ceriantharia) are a subclass of the Anthozoa. They resemble sea anemones. Sea anemones have a base plate, tube-dwelling anemones do not.

Most tube-dwelling anemones reproduce sexually.  About 100 species have been described; most live in a depth of less than . Unlike sea anemones, tube-dwelling anemones live in soft sediments. The name "tube-dwelling anemone" comes from the fact that these animals build a tube out of the sandy sediments. In the case of danger, they retract into the tube.

Cnidarians

Ceriantharia


An intergenerational conflict is either a conflict situation between teenagers and adults or a more abstract conflict between two generations, which often involves prejudices against another generation.

Furthermore, intergenerational conflict describes cultural, social or economic discrepancies between generations. These can be caused by value shift or conflict of interest between younger and older generations. An example are changes to an intergenerational contract that may be necessary to reflect a change in demographics.

For examples of intergenerational conflict, Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia is a good novel to take a look at.

Sociology

en:Intergenerationality#Conflict

Intergenerational conflict


In Norse mythology, Nanna is the goddess of joy and peace. She is a wife of Baldur.

Nanna is also the Norse goddess of the Moon. She dies of a broken heart after Baldur is killed because of Loki convincing Höðr to kill him.

Norse gods and goddesses

Nanna (Norse deity)


Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture, in Japan also known as Moyashimon (もやしもん), is a manga series created by Masayuki Ishikawa. It won the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Grand Prize and the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.

It is said that the setting is based on Tokyo University of Agriculture. However, the author has said that it is just any agricultural college, and is unrelated to a real university.

Plot
Moyasimon follows the life of Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university.

He can see and communicate with microorganisms and bacteria.

Characters

Human
 Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki
 Kei Yūki
 Keizō Itsuki
 Haruka Hasegawa
 Kaoru Misato
 Takuma Kawahama
 Aoi Mutō
 Hazuki Oikawa

Bacteria
 A.Orize (Aspergillus oryzae)
 A.Sōe (Aspergillus sojae)
 C.torikoidesu (Cladosporium trichoides)
 E.Kori (Escherichia coli)
 P.kurisogenumu (Penicillium chrysogenum)
 S.Serebishie (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)

Other websites
 Moyasimon official website
 Telecom Animation Film's official Moyasimon website
 Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture  Funimation Channel on YouTube

References

Comedy anime and manga

Moyashimon


"Break a leg" is an  expression from  Britain. (Here, an "expression" means a particular way of saying something.)

It can mean about the same as "good luck".

This expression was used in theaters  by actors. Before an actor went on stage, other actors could wish that he or she had good luck in their work. Then, a co-worker could say "Break a leg!".

When the expression is used like this, it is a form of irony.

Theater
Luck

Break a leg


The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a territory belonging to the British Crown in the Channel Islands. The bailiwick includes the islands of Guernsey, Alderney and Burhou, Herm and Jethou as well as Sark, Little Sark and Brecqhou.

A bailiwick is a territory governed by a bailiff. The Bailiff of Guernsey is the head of the parliament, the States of Guernsey, which makes the laws for the Bailiwick. Sark and Alderney also have their own parliaments and pass some of their own laws.

Other rocks and islets

The Casquets (49°43.′4″N, 2°22.′7″W) are a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other rocks which appear above the water are the islets of Burhou and Ortac. Not many plants grow on them.

Lihou is a small tidal island (95 vergees; 7ha) that is part of the Channel Islands. It lies off the west coast of Guernsey and is the most westerly point in the Channel Islands. Coordinates: 49°27′38.16″N, 2°40′4.44″W. The island was bought by the States of Guernsey in January 1995. Lihou is joined to Guernsey at low tide by an ancient stone path between the island and L'Eree headland. It is part of the Parish of St. Peter's.

The country code (also used for internet) is GG.

Other websites
 "History of Little Lihou"
 Archeology on Lihou

Bailiwick of Guernsey


Injury means a harm or hurt.

Usually an injury is when the body or a part of the body is damaged by something outside of the body. Another word for injury to a body is trauma.

Injury can be by:
Environmental – Burns from heat or injury from cold
Penetrating injury – when a sharp object like a knife pierces the body
Blunt injury – when something hits the body (like punching someone or falling from a tree)
Chemical – being hurt by chemicals like burns from acid

Injury can be accidental or intentional. In an intentional injury a person tries to hurt another. (Intentional injury is also called non-accidental injury). Accidental injury is without meaning to hurt someone. A traffic collision for example may injure someone accidentally.

Injury


Pendleton is a town on the southern edge of Niagara County, New York, United States. It is east of the city of Niagara Falls and southwest of the city of Lockport. The population was 6,397 at the 2010 census.

History

The town of Pendleton was set apart in 1827 from part of the town of Niagara. Sylvester Pendleton Clark, one of the first settlers, gave his name to several locations in the town and eventually to the town itself. Clark served in the American Revolution and became an innkeeper and postmaster.

Starpoint Central school was established in 1956. It was named Starpoint because the new school system serviced the entire area of Pendleton, parts of Cambria, Lockport, Wheatfield and Royalton. Starpoint is at the center of the 5 point star of municipalities. It is located on Mapleton Road and provides education for grades K to 12. It currently services about 5300 families over a  area. Expansion of the schools has taken place in recent years to accommodate an increase of school population.

Up until recently, Pendleton has been primarily an agricultural community. It now is rezoning much of its land area for residential subdivisions and business. The population of Pendleton continues to grow as more residential development takes place.

Pendleton has an all-volunteer fire company serviced by Wendelville Fire company.

In March 2010, Sir Benjamin Ruppert, Esq., of the Western New York Residency Evaluation Committee, nominated Pendleton for "Best Place to Grow Up in America."

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which  is land and  (0.95%) is water.

The south border of the town is Tonawanda Creek, which forms the border between Niagara County and Erie County. The Erie Canal passes through the eastern part of the town, where it connects to Tonawanda Creek.

Communities and locations in Pendleton
Beach Ridge – A hamlet by the western town line.
Hoffman – A hamlet on the western town line near Tonawanda Creek.
Mapleton – A small hamlet in the northwest corner of the town.
North Buffalo Suburban Airport (0G0) – A small general aviation airport on the west side of Route 78 (Transit Road) and south of Lockport. It was formerly known as "Transit Airport."
Pendleton – A small hamlet located by the southern town line.
Pendleton Center – A hamlet centrally located in the town on NY-270.
Wendelville – A hamlet near Tonawanda Creek on NY-270.

Adjacent cities and towns
Town of Wheatfield – west
Erie County, Town of Amherst – south
Town of Lockport – east
City of Lockport – northeast
Town of Cambria – north

Major highways

 New York State Route 78 (Transit Rd.), north–south highway that marks the east town line.
 New York State Route 93 (Robinson Rd.), east–west highway that borders the north corner of the town from Transit Rd. (NY 78) to the Lockport Bypass which takes NY 93 north of the town.
 New York State Route 270 (Campbell Blvd.), north–south highway through the town from the Amherst town line to the Cambria town line.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,050 people, 2,116 households, and 1,724 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 2,162 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 98.5% White, 0.4% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.03% from other races, and 0.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.6% of the population.

There were 2,116 households, out of which 39.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 72.4% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.5% were non-families. 14.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.19.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 27.6% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 25.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $60,625, and the median income for a family was $63,342. Males had a median income of $46,175 versus $33,466 for females. The per capita income for the town was $23,651. About 3.9% of families and 4.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.5% of those under age 18 and 2.8% of those age 65 or over.

Town parks
Pendleton has three town parks.

Depeau Park – located on Tonawanda Creek Road North at the end of Irish and Oakwood Rds.
Nine Mile Island – located in Amherst but owned by Pendleton.
Pendleton Town Park – located in Pendleton Center.  This park is located behind Pendleton Town Hall and the Pendleton Historic Society.  Baseball diamonds, picnic shelters, and a playground are also located here.  On the Fourth of July, the park hosts a popular fireworks show.

Notable people
Sylvester Pendleton Clark, founder of Pendleton
Richard Crowley, former US Congressman
Patrick Higgins, UTEP Miners offensive coordinator
Walter Koppisch, former NFL player
Timothy McVeigh, domestic terrorist who was convicted for the Oklahoma City bombing. He attended Starpoint High School.
Joyce Carol Oates, famous writer who was also a resident of Pendleton.
Ed O'Neil, retired NFL player, current football coach

References

External links

Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area
Towns in Niagara County, New York
Towns in New York (state)

Pendleton, New York


People have lived in Australia for over 65,000 years. The first people who arrived in Australia were the Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander people's. They lived in all parts of Australia. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering.

Aboriginal peoples invented tools like the boomerang and spear. There is also evidence that the Aboriginal people used farming methods.  Tradition was very important in their lives. Their religion is called the Dreamtime, which has lots of stories about the creation of the world by spirits. Aboriginal art started at least 30,000 years ago and there are lots of Dreaming stories painted on walls and cut in rocks all around Australia. Aboriginal music has songs about the Dreamtime, sometimes with special instruments like the didgeridoo.

In 1606 the first European, Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (1571–1639), visited the west. Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the water between Australia and New Guinea later that year.
Only after Dirk Hartog chanced upon the west coast in 1616 did other European vessels visit and map the coast. After sixty more ships visited the coast, enough was known for a map to be published in 1811. The land was dry because of not much rain; some was a desert. The explorers thought no crops could be grown and so it would be difficult for people to live there. They decided there would be no economic reasons to stay.

In 1642, Dutchman Abel Tasman, working for the Dutch East Indies Company reached Tasmania, which he called Antony van Diemenslandt. He then called the continent he charted the north coast of on his second visit in 1644 New Holland. In 1688, William Dampier became the first Englishman to reach Australia. But in 1770 a British sailor, Captain James Cook, found the fertile east coast of Australia. He called it New South Wales, and claimed it for Britain.
Englishman Matthew Flinders published his map of the coast in 1814, calling it Australia for the first time, a name later formally adopted by the authorities.

Colonial Australia

The British decided to use the land visited by Captain Cook as a prison colony. Britain needed a place to send its convicts (people who had been sent to jail for theft and other crimes) because its gaols were full and it had just lost its American colonies in the American War of Independence. In 1788 the British First Fleet of 11 ships, carrying about 1500 people arrived at Botany Bay (Sydney). Arthur Phillip led them as the first Governor of New South Wales. About 160 000 convicts were brought to Australia from 1788 until 1868. Free immigrants began arriving in the 1790s.

For the first few years they did not have much food, and life was very hard. But soon they began to farm, and more people came. Sydney grew, and new towns were started. Wool brought good money. By 1822, many towns had been set up and people from the towns often visited Sydney for additional economic resources.

Soon people from Sydney found other parts of Australia. George Bass and Matthew Flinders sailed south to Tasmania and a colony was started at Hobart in 1803. Hamilton Hume and William Hovell went south from Sydney by land. They found the Murray River, and good land in Victoria. Thomas Mitchell went inland, and found more rivers. In 1826, the first British military outpost was set up at King George Sound in Western Australia. The Swan River Colony was started in 1829, with townsites at Fremantle and Perth. In 1836, a free-settler colony was started in South Australia, where no convicts were ever sent. Queensland became a separate colony in 1859. As the towns and farms spread across Australia, the Aboriginal people were pushed off their land. Some were killed, and many died from illness and hunger. Soon, Australia's Aborigines were outnumbered by Europeans, and many were made to live on reserves.

The goldrushes of New South Wales and Victoria started in 1851 leading to large numbers of people arriving to search for gold. The population grew across south east Australia and made great wealth and industry. By 1853 the goldrushes had made some poor people very rich.

Convict transportation ended in the 1840s and 1850s and more changes came. The people in Australia wanted to run their own country, and self-govern. The first governments in the colonies were run by Governors chosen by London. Soon the settlers wanted local government and more democracy. The New South Wales Legislative Council, was created in 1825 to advise the Governor of New South Wales, but it was not chosen by voters. William Wentworth established the Australian Patriotic Association (Australia's first political party) in 1835 to demand democratic government for New South Wales. In 1840, the Adelaide City Council and the Sydney City Council were started and some people could vote for them (but only men with a certain amount of money). Then, Australia's first parliamentary elections were held for the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1843, again with some limits on who could vote. The Australian Colonies Government Act [1850] allowed constitutions for New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. In 1850 elections for legislative councils were also held in the colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

In 1855, limited self-government was granted by London to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. A new secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 1856, allowing people to vote in private. This system was copied around the world. In 1855, the right to vote was given to all men over 21 in South Australia. The other colonies soon followed. Women were given the vote in the Parliament of South Australia in 1895 and they became the first women in the world allowed to stand in elections. In 1897, Catherine Helen Spence became the first female political candidate.

Australians had started parliamentary democracies all across the continent. But voices were getting louder for all of them to come together as one country with a national parliament.

References

Other websites

 History of the Australian nation – State Library of NSW
 The Australian History page at Project Gutenberg of Australia
 Bush Poetry a source of Australian History
 An Aborigine on his understanding of tradition

History of Australia


Consumption is a major concept from economics. Consumers spend all their income. Some of this income is spent on buying the products and services they need - this is called consumption. John Maynard Keynes talked about consumer spending and a consumption function which expresses how households spend their income. Different schools of economics define this consumption function differently, but they agree on the basic mechanism how consumption works.

Economics

Consumption (economics)


Giuliano Carmignola (born 7 July 1951, in Treviso) is an Italian violinist. Born in Treviso, he studied with his father, then with Luigi Ferro at the Venice Conservatory and afterwards with Nathan Milstein and Franco Gulli at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy and Henryk Szeryng at the Geneva Conservatory. In 1973, he was awarded a prize in the International Paganini Competition in Genoa.

Career

He began his career as a soloist under the direction of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Eliahu Inbal, Peter Maag and Giuseppe Sinopoli, performing in prestigious concert halls. He then collaborated with Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Daniele Gatti, Andrea Marcon, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Frans Brüggen, Paul McCreesh, Giovanni Antonini and Ottavio Dantone. Significant was his collaboration with the Virtuosi of Rome during the '70s and later with the Sonatori della gioiosa Marca, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the Mozart Orchestra, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Kammerorchester Basel, Il Giardino Armonico, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of Ancient Music.

His recording has led him to collaborate with labels like Erato, Divox Antiqua, Sony and Deutsche Grammophon, with whom currently has an exclusive contract. His recording releases have won many important awards such as Diapason d'Or and Choc du Monde. Among the most recent recordings, the concertos for two violins by Vivaldi with Viktoria Mullova and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the complete Mozart concertos with Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart and Haydn violin concertos with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées. He has taught courses at Siena's Accademia Musicale Chigiana and Lucerne's Hochschule. He was awarded the title of "Academician of the Royal Philharmonic Academy of Bologna" and "Academician of Santa Cecilia."

He plays the Stradivarius Baillot of 1732 granted him by Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna because of his stature and artistic engagement with the Orchestra Mozart.

References

External links
 Biography at Weigold & Boehm, International Artists and Tours
 Biography at Bach-Cantatas.com

1951 births
Living people
Italian classical violinists
Male classical violinists
Baroque-violin players
Concertmasters
Paganini Competition prize-winners
People from Treviso
Italian performers of early music
21st-century classical violinists
21st-century Italian male musicians

Giuliano Carmignola


The sidestroke is a swimming stroke, so named because the swimmer lies on one's side with asymmetric arm and leg motion. It is helpful as a lifesaving technique and is often used for long-distance swimming. The sidestroke allows the swimmer increased endurance because instead of working both arms and legs simultaneously in the same way, the side stroke uses them simultaneously but differently. A swimmer tired of exercising one side can turn over and use the other, the change of action helping the limbs to recover.

The hands act like oars, and do not waste any power by oblique action. In ordinary swimming on the right side, the left arm moves gently in the water, almost at rest. Then, when the used arm becomes tired, the swimmer turns on the other side, and the left arm works while the right arm rests.

The legs move in opposite directions with legs bent, and straighten as they come together. The kicking motion is exaggerated and slow, opening the legs wide to provide more thrust rather than the small, fast movement of flutter kick.

History

Sidestroke evolved in ancient times from swimmers who discovered that it was painful to swim breaststroke with the head above the water. The head naturally turned onto its side, which led to the shoulder dropping. The scissor kick became natural in this situation.

Modification
A modification of swimming on the side is the Trudgen stroke.

See also
 Combat sidestroke,  a variation of the side stroke that was developed by and taught to the United States Navy SEALs.

References

Swimming styles

Sidestroke


Strange quarks are the third lightest quarks, which are subatomic particles that are so small, they are believed to be the fundamental particles, and not further divisible. Like down quarks, strange quarks have a charge of -1/3. Like all fermions (which are particles that can not exist in the same place at the same time), strange quarks have a spin of 1/2. What makes strange quarks different from down quarks–apart from having 25 times the mass of down quarks–is that they have something that scientists call "strangeness." Strangeness is basically a resistance to decay against strong force and electromagnetism. This means that any particle that contains a strange quark can not decay due to strong force (or electromagnetism), but instead with the much slower weak force. It was believed that this was a 'strange' method of decay, which is why the scientists gave the particles that name.

Strange quarks can be found in particles such as kaons and some hyperons. Scientists began noticing strangeness when these particles did not decay as quickly as their masses would have suggested they would have. However, it took them a long time to even guess strangeness was the answer because it took over 16 years to predict it after the discovery of kaons.

Quarks

Strange quark


Dr. Kavita "Vita" Rao is a fictional character, a geneticist appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is part of the X-Men Series.

Shohreh Aghdashloo portrayed the role in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Publication history
Dr. Kavita Rao first appeared and featured prominently in the first story arc of the monthly series Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #1 in 2004 and was created by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.

Fictional character biography

Hope
Dr. Kavita Rao is a world-renowned geneticist from India who developed a serum (later called "Hope") which could "cure" mutants, turning them into normal humans. She explains that she regards the mutant gene as a 'corruption' of healthy tissue, and justifies her research by looking at mutants who committed suicide or hurt others because of their powers, such as a female mutant with a butterfly-like appearance or Tildie Soames (a child whose nightmares can manifest into monsters).

Hundreds of mutants immediately signed up for the procedure at Benetech (the corporate backer of her research). The X-Men debated the merits of the cure and the significance of labelling the mutant condition a disease.  The chance at shedding his "beastly" appearance and avoiding any further secondary mutations held significant appeal for Hank McCoy (aka Beast) and he considered taking the serum for a time, although Wolverine objected by saying that an X-Man taking the serum would be the equivalent of admitting that there was something to 'cure' in the first place.

It was later revealed that Rao had been working for the alien Ord of the Breakworld, who also had in his custody Colossus (who was, at that time, thought to be dead, but had been resurrected by Ord's technology). The X-Men defeated Ord and Benetech, and Ord was delivered into the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dr. Rao's work was destroyed by Wolverine, leaving Hank with the last sample of "Hope", although he remains uncertain whether or not he will use it at some point.

Endangered Species
Kavita Rao was pictured alongside several super-villains to whom Beast offers to 'sell his soul' for a means to un-do the effects of M-Day. With her old research into 'curing' the mutant gene now irrelevant after so many mutants lost their powers, she agrees to aid Beast in his quest and is now looking for more info that might help him.

X-Club
After Beast has finished gathering his science squad, they head back to base where he introduces them to their final member, Kavita Rao. Together they hold a meeting where he explains everything about how the Decimation occurred. When Beast proposes they go back in time to obtain the DNA sample of the parents of a mutant, Kavita questions why they must all go when Beast says it's one of the perks of the job. She travels back with the rest of the X-Club and Psylocke to the year 1906. There she helps look over Catherine Bradley after injuring herself during the Hellfire Club's assassination attempt. During the events of Utopia, she helps raise Asteroid M from the bottom of the ocean and attends the funeral of Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi when he passes away.

In the aftermath of Utopia, Karma and Magik are requested to see Kavita Rao to inform her of their foray into Legion's mind. When Kavita mistakes Marci, a young girl who was absorbed into Legion's mind, for one of his personalities, Karma corrects her and reveals that Marci was a real person but that Legion revealed Marci doesn't have a body to return to and explains how his powers work.

Second Coming
When Cable and Hope Summers return to the present, Bastion begins to set his plan in motion in exterminating the mutant race. Thanks to the New Mutants, they discover he has erected towers in certain points around San Francisco. Cyclops sends the X-Club to investigate. Upon arriving on one of his oil platforms where one of these towers is located, they come across a timer which goes off.

Kavita's life flashes before her eyes and when the timer hits zero they end up transported to a dystopian future where they meet a now human Hank McCoy, who warns them to keep Kavita safe at all costs. Hank reveals that Hope Summers powers grew out of control and he needs Kavita to recreate her Hope serum to stop her from creating the future they see before them. After some convincing, Kavita reveals she kept an encrypted copy of the formula on her Mala bracelet and they go to Utopia to take out Hope.

Arriving on Utopia it is revealed that the dystopian future is a lie created by Graydon Creed using holographic hard-light technology.  Kavita revealing she knew of the deception, didn't recreate the Hope serum but instead an unstable pyrovirus instead which causes the oil platform to explode. The X-Club get out in time only to see the dome envelope Utopia and the citizens of San Francisco. Later they work with the Avengers and Fantastic Four in trying to bring the dome down.<ref>Uncanny X-Men #525</ref>

Curse of the Mutants
Following the events of Second Coming, Kavita is seen with Doctor Nemesis checking on Jubilee after a vampire suicide bomber infects her with a virus manufactured to turn her into a vampire. While the rest of the X-Men meet to discuss the vampire problem, Kavita goes to check on Jubilee only to be knocked unconscious. The X-Science team, in a later attempt to fight the encroaching threat of vampirism, get locked down in the labs with a vampire and five people infected at the same time as Jubilee. With the assistance of the White Queen, the Science Team and some of the infectees survive. Madison kills the vampire.

Other versions
Age of X
In the "Age of X" reality, Kavita Rao is branded as a traitor to humanity for allying with the mutants, helping Wolverine eliminate an anti-mutant toxin.

In other media
Television
 Kavita Rao appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Battle Lines". She has been watching over a box containing Tildie Soames before being knocked out by Mystique disguised as Colonel Moss.

Film
 In the 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand'', Kavita Rao was played by Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo. As she signed without a completed script, in an interview shortly after signing Aghdashloo mistakenly said she would instead be playing Dr. Cecilia Reyes. In the film, Rao helps with the invention of the mutant cure — although Angel's father is the one who delivers the speech justifying the cure as a corruption of healthy tissue — which she created with the DNA of Leech. Toward the end of the movie, she alongside Dr. Worthington are targeted by a trio of Omegas consisting of Kid Omega, Arclight, and Psylocke. As Worthington is dragged off, Kid Omega grabs her in a bear hug, says everything will be all right and pierces her with his body spikes.

References

Fictional geneticists
Comics characters introduced in 2004
Fictional female scientists
Marvel Comics female characters
Marvel Comics film characters
Marvel Comics scientists
Fictional Indian people
Female characters in film
Characters created by Joss Whedon

Kavita Rao


The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, commonly referred to as The Chimes, is a novella written by Charles Dickens and first published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books," five novellas with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. In addition to A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, the Christmas books include The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848).

Development history
The book was written in late 1844, during Dickens's year-long visit to Italy.  John Forster, his first biographer, records that Dickens, hunting for a title and structure for his next contracted Christmas story, was struck one day by the clamour of the Genoese bells audible from the villa where they were staying.

Two days later Forster received a letter from Dickens which read simply: "We have heard THE CHIMES at midnight, Master Shallow!", and the writing of the book began. Forster describes Dickens's intentions in writing The Chimes as striking "a blow for the poor".
Dickens returned to London for a week in December 1844 and gave readings of the finished book to friends prior to publication, to judge its impact. The artist Daniel Maclise, who had contributed two illustrations to The Chimes and attended two of these events, portrayed the reading of 3 December 1844 in a well-known sketch.

Explanation of the novel's title
The chimes are old bells in the church on whose steps Trotty Veck plies his trade. The book is divided into four parts named "quarters", after the quarter chimes of a striking clock. (This parallels Dickens naming the parts of A Christmas Carol "staves" – that is "stanzas" – and dividing The Cricket on the Hearth into "chirps".)

Plot summary
On New Year's Eve, Trotty, a poor elderly "ticket-porter" or casual messenger, is filled with gloom at the reports of crime and immorality in the newspapers, and wonders whether the working classes are simply wicked by nature. His daughter Meg and her long-time fiancé Richard arrive and announce their decision to marry next day. Trotty hides his misgivings, but their happiness is dispelled by an encounter with the pompous Alderman Cute, plus a political economist and a young gentleman with a nostalgia, all of whom make Trotty, Meg and Richard feel they hardly have a right to exist, let alone marry.

Trotty carries a note for Cute to Sir Joseph Bowley MP, who dispenses charity to the poor in the manner of a paternal dictator. Bowley is ostentatiously settling his debts to ensure a clean start to the new year, and berates Trotty because he owes a little rent and ten or twelve shillings to his local shop which he cannot pay off. Returning home, convinced that he and his fellow poor are naturally ungrateful and have no place in society, Trotty encounters Will Fern, a poor countryman, and his orphaned niece, Lilian. Fern has been accused of vagrancy and wants to visit Cute to set matters straight, but from a conversation overheard at Bowley's house, Trotty is able to warn him that Cute plans to have him arrested and imprisoned. He takes the pair home with him and he and Meg share their meagre food and poor lodging with the visitors. Meg tries to hide her distress, but it seems she has been dissuaded from marrying Richard by her encounter with Cute and the others. When the others have gone to bed, Trotty sits up with a newspaper and is reinforced in his belief that the poor are naturally wicked by reading of a mother who has drowned herself and her baby.

In the night, the bells seem to call Trotty. Going to the church, he finds the tower door unlocked and climbs to the bellchamber, where he discovers the spirits of the bells and their goblin attendants who reprimand him for losing faith in man's destiny to improve. He is told that he fell from the tower during his climb and is now dead, and Meg's subsequent life must now be an object lesson for him: he must "learn from the creature nearest to [his] heart" what pressures there are on the poor. There follows a series of visions which he is forced to watch, helpless to interfere with the troubled lives of Meg, Richard, Will and Lilian over the subsequent years. Richard descends into alcoholism; Meg eventually marries him in an effort to save him, but he dies ruined, leaving her with a baby. Will is driven in and out of prison by petty laws and restrictions; Lilian turns to prostitution and dies of grief. In the end, destitute, Meg is driven to contemplate drowning herself and her child, thus committing the mortal sins of murder and suicide. The chimes' intention is to teach Trotty that, far from being naturally wicked, mankind is formed to strive for nobler things, and will fall only when crushed and repressed beyond bearing. Trotty breaks down when he sees Meg poised to jump into the river, cries that he has learned his lesson and begs the Chimes to save her, whereupon he finds himself able to touch her and prevent her from jumping.

At the end of the book, Trotty finds himself awakening at home as if from a dream as the bells ring in the New Year of the day Trotty originally climbed the tower. Meg and Richard have chosen to wed, Will discovers that their kind landlady is the old family friend he was in search of and thus presumably he and Lilian will now be all right, and all of their friends have spontaneously chosen to provide a wedding feast and celebration. The author explicitly invites the reader to decide if this "awakening" is a dream-within-a-dream. The reader must choose between the harsh consequences of the behaviour of the upper classes in Trotty's vision, or the happiness of the wedding.

Main characters
 Toby "Trotty" Veck, the protagonist, a poor elderly messenger or "ticket-porter."
 Margaret "Meg" Veck, Toby's 21-year-old daughter
 Mrs. Anne Chickenstalker, the local shopkeeper
 Alderman Cute, a Justice of the Peace
 Mr. Filer, a political economist in the Utilitarian mould
 Sir Joseph Bowley, a rich paternalist MP
 Will Fern, a countryman
 Lilian Fern, Will's orphaned niece

Major themes
This is a campaigning story like its predecessor A Christmas Carol, written with the intention of swaying readers towards Dickens's moral message. The chimes represent time, and the main themes of the story are summarised in the three wrongs they accuse Trotty of committing:

 Harking back to a golden age that never was, instead of striving to improve conditions here and now.
 Believing that individual human joys and sorrows do not matter to a higher power.
 Condemning those who are fallen and unfortunate, and offering them neither help nor pity.

'Who turns his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind; abandons them as vile; and does not trace and track with pitying eyes the unfenced precipice by which they fell from good—grasping in their fall some tufts and shreds of that lost soil, and clinging to them still when bruised and dying in the gulf below; does wrong to Heaven and man, to time and to eternity. And you have done that wrong!'

Literary significance and reception
A Christmas Carol had been extremely well received the previous year, and The Chimes aroused public interest and anticipation. Five different stage productions of the book were running within weeks of publication and nearly 20,000 copies were sold in the first three months. It had a high media profile, and was widely reviewed and discussed. Critical opinion was divided; those sympathetic to its social and political message liked the book, but others thought it dangerously radical. The Northern Star reviewer called Dickens "the champion of the poor"; John Bull rejected his unflattering caricatures of philanthropy. It was certainly a financial success for Dickens, and remained popular for many years, although in the long term its fame was eclipsed by that of A Christmas Carol.

Allusions and references

Allusions to other works
Asking the upper classes to stop interfering with his life and leave him to die, Will Fern makes a bitter reference to the biblical Book of Ruth, deliberately misquoting Ruth's "Whither thou goest, I will go" speech.

Allusions to actual history, geography and current science
The novel's setting is contemporary and the 1840s (the "Hungry Forties") were a time of social and political unrest.

Trotty's conviction that poor people are naturally wicked is influenced by an article in his newspaper about a young woman who has tried to drown herself and her child, and this motif returns at the climax of the book, when Meg is driven to contemplate the same course of action. This is a reference to Mary Furley, a destitute young woman sentenced to death in 1844 for infanticide after her desperation not to return to the workhouse led to a suicide attempt in which her child drowned. This case caused great public debate in the late spring of 1844. Dickens took part in the general outcry against the sentence, which was eventually commuted to transportation. Among other works inspired by the Furley case is Thomas Hood's poem The Bridge of Sighs.

Alderman Cute is a parody of Sir Peter Laurie, a Middlesex magistrate, alderman and former Lord Mayor of London, known for his determination to "put down" the lower classes and their antisocial behaviour. His remarks on the 1844 Mary Furley case have been cited as one inspiration to Dickens to write The Chimes.

The unnamed young man who harks back to the "good old times" is a reference to the Young England movement. Dickens removed many of these references prior to publication.

Adaptations
In 1914, the book was made into a silent film, The Chimes, directed by Thomas Bentley.

A musical adaptation of The Chimes was created in 1992 by Lisa Kofod and Gay Donat Reed, with music by Paul Johnson. A staged reading of this work was produced at The Workhouse Theatre in New York City.

The Chimes was adapted into a 24-minute clay-animated film in 2000 by Xyzoo Animation. It won a Cine Special Jury award in 2002.

The Colonial Radio Theatre in Boston produced a full cast radio production of The Chimes in 2000. This was released on CD by Blackstone Audio in 2007, and re-released by Brilliance Audio in 2011.

In 2004, a stage adaptation by Les Smith premiered at the Southwark Playhouse.

In 2015, Audible issued The Chimes as a free audible book with Christmas well wishes from the company to its subscribers.

In 2022, Average Romp released The Chimes as a full-cast audio dramatisation starring Toby Jones as Toby Veck.

See also
 List of Christmas-themed literature

References

External links

Online editions
The Chimes at Internet Archive.

Film
Official film website
Theatre
 "The-Chimes.com"

1844 British novels
British novels adapted into films
British novels adapted into plays
Chapman & Hall books
Christmas novels
English novels
Fictional goblins
New Year celebrations
New Year novels
Novels adapted into radio programs
Novels by Charles Dickens
Novels set in London
Victorian novels

The Chimes


A bustle rack is a type of storage bin mounted on combat vehicles, usually on the sides and/or rear of the turret. These racks are used to carry extra gear and supplies for the vehicle in the field, as well as give the crew a place to store their belongings so that they don't take up the already cramped space inside the vehicle.

On the U.S. Abrams Main Battle Tank

The original rack design for the XM1 and first production M1 Abrams tanks was blueprinted by then 1LT John A. Baker III, XO and Company Maintenance Officer, H Co, 2/6 CAV, Ft. Knox, KY. Baker had previously developed the standard combat load plan for M60A1 tanks for the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), 194th Armored Brigade in the early 1980s. Upon joining the Army's first XM1/M1 unit, H Co, 2/6 CAV, Baker and his platoon tested every aspect of the XM1 seven days a week for months on end, putting the Army's newest battle tank through its paces. Baker and his men became painfully aware that the vehicle's stowage would be significantly inadequate to support crew operations during combat. This motivated the lieutenant to take his platoon's field experiences and draft a simple solution.

Following his stint as platoon leader and the subsequent XO for H Co, Baker began working with the Armor and Engineering Board to draft blueprints of a prototype rack. The advantages of the rack's unique "quick disconnect" design featured the use of standard quick disconnect pins already in use as fasteners on the tank's armored skirts. These pins enabled the easy removal of the bustle rack should it become damaged during combat or training operations.

Removing the handful of lower mounting pins allowed the rack to be "pivoted" onto the blowout panels located on top and to the rear of the turret. Pivoting the rack eliminated interference between the rack and the back deck panel, providing unobstructed access to the tank's power plant during maintenance operations. The rack became widely known around the Army's Armor community as "The Baker Bustle". The rack quickly gained popularity among M1 tankers and the fielded design, though slightly modified by General Dynamics Land Systems, is still the rack seen on M1 series tanks in combat today.

During the Iraq War, some M1 Abrams tanks were fitted with a second bustle rack on the rear of the existing one at the back of the turret. This additional rack is often referred to as a bustle rack extension, or BRE. Some M113s, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and the Stryker family of APCs were fitted with similar stowage racks on the sides of the hull.

The bustle rack extensions on the Abrams come in two versions: one with provisions for mounting jerrycans on either end originally used by US Marine Corps Abrams (as seen in the image) and one without, used by U.S. Army Abrams, though the former has begun to replace the latter on Army tanks. M109 self-propelled howitzers in Israeli service have used bustle racks on their front turrets for carrying crewmens' personal equipment for decades.

Main battle tanks with bustle racks
Al-Zarrar
AMX 30
Centurion
FV4030/4 Challenger 1
FV4201 Chieftain
K1 88-Tank
K2 Black Panther
Leopard 1
Leopard 2
M1 Abrams
MBT-70
Merkava III
Type 96

References

Armoured fighting vehicle equipment

Bustle rack


Highview is a former census-designated place in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 15,161 at the 2000 census. On January 6, 2003, the area was annexed to the city of Louisville due to a merger between the city and Jefferson County's unincorporated communities. Highview is now a neighborhood within the city limits of Louisville.

About
Highview is located in between Okolona and Ferncreek. As like Okolona and Ferncreek it began to thrive in the 1950s and 1960s, quickly becoming suburbs and neighborhoods. Highview also co-exists with Springmill and Hollow Creek, which are a part of Highview in itself as a whole. In 1969 there needed to be a high school in the Highview area. As building began the school was originally going to be named Highview High School; it was quickly changed and renamed Marion C. Moore High School after Marion C. Moore, one of the four original counselors in the Jefferson County schools and also a former teacher and principal. The school is in the Highview area and was built to relieve overcrowding at Fern Creek and Southern High School. In Highview there are three major private schools: St. Bernard, a Catholic School; St. Athanasius, a Catholic School; and Whitefield Academy, a Christian school. Highview also has a park known as Highview Park.

Geography
Highview is located at .

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 16.8 km (6.5 mi2), all land.

Demographics

At the 2000 census there were 15,161 people, 5,919 households, and 4,385 families in the CDP. The population density was 903.3/km (2,338.2/mi2). There were 6,183 housing units at an average density of 368.4/km (953.6/mi2).  The racial makeup of the CDP was 89.29% White, 7.78% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.77% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.81% from other races, and 1.13% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.02%.

Of the 5,919 households 31.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.3% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.9% were non-families. 21.7% of households were one person and 8.1% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 2.98.

The age distribution was 23.4% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% 65 or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.

The median household income was $48,734 and the median family income  was $53,225. Males had a median income of $37,862 versus $27,410 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $21,540. About 2.6% of families and 4.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 5.8% of those age 65 or over.

15.4% have a bachelor's degree or higher, 14.9% don't have a high school degree.

References

External links

Neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky
Former census-designated places in Kentucky

Highview, Louisville


Bryan Lee Cranston (born 7 Mairch, 1956) or Lee Stone; is an American actor, producer, writer, an movie director. He is best kent for his roles as Hal in Malcolm in the Middle an as Walter White in Breaking Bad. He haes won an Emmy Award for his role in Breaking Bad an a Saturn Award.

1956 births
Livin fowk
20t-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American film directors
American male film actors
American male televeesion actors
American male vyce actors
American fowk o Austrick-Jewish strynd
American fowk o German strynd
American fowk o Erse strynd
American televeesion directors
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Best Drama Actor Gowden Globe (televeesion) winners
Drama Desk Award winners
Californie Democrats
Film directors frae Californie
Gowden Globe Awaird winners
LGBT richts activists frae the Unitit States
Los Angeles Valley College fowk
Male actors frae Los Angeles
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Ootstaundin Performance bi a Lead Actor in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Awaird winners
Ootstaundin Performance bi a Cast in a Motion Pictur Screen Actors Guild Awaird winners
Primetime Emmy Awaird winners
Tony Awaird winners
Activists frae Californie

Bryan Cranston


A book is now a set of printed sheets of paper held together between two covers. The sheets of paper in a book are called pages. The pages have words written in them and maybe illustrations drawn. The first books were not printed, but written by hand in ink.

The book is a more flexible format than the earlier idea of the scroll. The change from scrolls to books began in the Roman Empire and took many centuries to become complete.

A writer of a book is often called an author. Someone who draws the pictures in a book is called an illustrator. Books can have more than one writer or illustrator.

A book can be a text that is a part of a larger collection of texts. A section of a text may be published as a book so that it only has one writer or only focuses on one subject area. Books written in this way can be understood without reading whole collection of writings. Examples are the Iliad, Odyssey, Bible, Quran and Torah. All of them consist of a number of religious books. Encyclopedias often have separate articles written by different people, and are published as separate volumes. Each volume is a book.

Hardcover books have hard covers made of cardboard that is covered in cloth or leather and sewn together. Paperback books have covers made of stiff paper that is glued together. A small book is a "booklet" and may be stapled together. The words in books can be read aloud and recorded. These are called "audiobooks".

Books may be borrowed from a library or bought from a bookstore. People can make their own books and write in them, and add family photos and drawings. Some books are empty inside, like a diary, an address book, or photo album. These books are meant to be written in. Usually, the word "book" means that the pages inside have words, and often pictures.

Some books are written just for children  Some are for entertainment, and some are textbooks for studying something in school, such as math or history.

Etymology
It is thought that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood. The Latin word , means a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves). It originally meant 'block of wood'.

Content of books
There are two main kinds of book text: fiction and non-fiction.

Fiction

These books are novels and short stories. They are stories that have not happened. They are often imagined by the writer. Many books are based on real events from history,but the writer creates imaginary characters or dialogue for the events.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction fiction are about true facts or things that have really happened. Some examples are dictionaries, cookbooks, textbooks for learning in school, or a biography (someone's life story).

Historical

Between the written manuscript and the book are several inventions. While manuscripts are hand-made, books are now industrial products.

Manuscripts
A common type of manuscript was the scroll. It is a long sheet that is rolled up. The sheet could have been made of papyrus (made by the Egyptians, by weaving the inner stems of the papyrus plant and then hammering them together), or parchment or vellum (very thin animal skin, first used by the ancient Greeks), or paper (made from plant fibers, invented by the Chinese). Manuscripts of this kind lasted to the 16th century and beyond. Turning the manuscript into a book required several developments.

Other systems
In Roman Britain we have examples of a message system which was widespread. It was wax on boards, reusable. Waxed boards could be scratched with messages such as (from one woman to another) "Dear, please come to my birthday party, it won't be the same without you". Many examples have been found near Roman encampments on the border with Scotland.

The codex
The Romans were the first people to put separate pieces of manuscript between covers, to form a codex. This was more convenient to handle and store than scrolls, but was not yet a book as we understand it.

Printing
Scrolls and codices were written and copied by hand. The Chinese invented woodblock printing, where shapes are carved out of a block of wood, then ink is applied to the carved side, and the block is pressed onto paper. This woodcut method was slow because the symbols and pictures were made by cutting away the surrounding wood.

Johannes Gutenberg was the first person to invent a machine for printing, called the printing press. He made it in the 15th century. This involved more than just a press because it involved the production of a movable metal type that was suitable for the machine process.

Initially, the machines were slow, and needed a muscle power to work. The Industrial Revolution brought steam power, and later electrification.

Paper and ink
Paper had been invented in China in the 8th century, but it was kept secret for a long time. In Europe hand-made paper was available from about 1450. It was cheaper than parchment but still expensive, and the early printing was a slow process. Therefore, books remained rare. In 1800 the first machines for making paper from wood pulp were invented. New kinds of inks were also invented for various purposes, and machines were driven by steam engines and later by electricity.

The common cheap supply of paper fed the faster printing machines, and books became cheaper. At the same time, in America, Britain and continental Europe, more people learnt to read. So, in the 19th century, many ordinary people could afford to buy books and could actually read them. Also in the 19th century came public libraries, so poorer people could get access to the best books.

Binding
Printing was done on large sheets of paper, which were then folded, guillotined (cut) and sewn into the covers. Bookbinding and all the other processes have been done by machines since the 19th century.

Now
Today, some of the technologies have been changed, especially those involving illustration and typography. However, books look much the same as they did, with more illustration in color, but basically the same. That is because experience has shown that readers need certain things for pleasurable reading. Graphic design and typography are the practical arts used to make books attractive and useful to readers.

Related pages
 Author
 Literature
 Notebook
 Page
 Reading

References

Other websites

 WikiHow article on How to read a Book
 Google Book Search (Beta)
 Bestseller list of all times
 Book -Citizendium

Basic English 850 words

History of printing

Book


An orbital plane is the geometric plane of an orbit. It is described by its difference from a reference plane.

The reference plane for the Solar System is usually the Earth's orbital plane. This defines the ecliptic, the path on the celestial sphere that the Sun appears to follow over a year.

For example, suppose a planet is orbiting around a star in an elliptical orbit. The area within the path is the 'orbital plane' of that planet. The plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun is called the ecliptic plane.

Sometimes the invariable plane is used instead.

Orbits

Orbital plane (astronomy)


Lādol or Ladol is a village of the Mehsana district in Gujarat, India.
Ladol has a population of more than 25000. There is a temple of harsiddhmataji. It is 7 km away from Vijapur. Archaeologically Ladol has many things to search.
Archaeologically Ladol is very old village. Previously it was known as "Latpalli". There is a Harsiddh Mataji temple in Ladol, which is built by Sidharaj Jaysinh., in Ladol also two more temple Shri Ranchodray (Krishna) & Gayatrimataji temple. Ladol village is popular farm for Potato.

Sculptures
The Museum has a number of marble sculptures and other fragments from the site of Ladol, a village near Vijapur, Mehsana district, North Gujarat. At least about 9 pithas, the base of Tirthankara images, have inscriptions between the dates V.S.1313-1337 = 1256-1280 A.D. These are presumably the dates of installation of seated Tirthankara images. As many as 5 standing Tirthankara images in Kāyotasarga posture also belong to this site. One of the inscriptions mentions the name of the temple Kanhuvasahika and the name of donor 'Shreshthi Kanhu'. One of standing Tirthankara images, Śāntināth, is intact, along with its inscription, which was installed in V.S.1326 = 1269 A.D. The name of the village in the inscriptions is mentioned as Lātāpalli. However, no ruined medieval period temple is recorded from Ladol village in recent surveys. From the inscriptions it is clear that the temple was dedicated by Shresthi Kanhu, and therefore given the nomenclature of Kanhuvasahika. His sons and grandsons continued to donate further icons namely Jasahad and Punamāl. They belonged to Ukesaval caste, and their religious preceptor (guru) was Dharmachandrasuri of Shri Chaitragaccha.

The large number of sculptures collected from this site confirms that a temple was erected during the 11th century, when the Solanki King Kumarpala was the ruler. A set of four finished but unpolished standing Tirthankaras are datable to this period. Rest of the sculptures belong to the 13th century. The seated Tirthankaras were installed in niches called khattaka, along with phamsana (above) and pitha below (M.A. Dhaky). It has been suggested that the temple might have been renovated during this period at the same time when major renovations were being carried out at Girnar and at Dilwara temples in Mount Abu, sponsored by the Minister Vastupala. Because of the stylistic similarity with the Mount Abu sculptures, we think that Ladol temple sculptures represent Mount Abu school in the Gujarat region, along with the set of 9 portrait statues from the site of Harij (in the vicinity of Patan) dated V.S.1285 = 1228 A.D. Another group of sculptures from Ladol is housed in Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai. They contain three inscriptions, two of which are dated in the year V.S.1356 (1299 A.D.) mentioning repairs carried out to the image of Tirthankara Ādināth, by the son and wife of Ratna. This name is already recorded in the inscriptions mentioned earlier from the L.D. Museum pithas.
In the Madhuri Desai Gallery, we have placed four of the standing Tirthankaras in Sarvatobhadra or Chaumukha arrangement to give the ambiance of the Jaina shrine as well as to impart them the significance they deserve. The polished Śāntināth icon dated 1269 A.D. is facing the west side. Three other unpolished Tirthankaras are placed on the rest of the three cardinal directions. The unpolished image of standing Pārśvanāth is displayed independently in order to focus on the majestic Tirthankara in Kāyotsarga posture.

References
http://blog.ldmuseum.co.in/index.php?post=sculptures-from-ladol-mehsana-district-north-gujarat

Villages in Mehsana district

Ladol, Gujarat


Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site—a self-proclaimed "sinister cabal of superior writers"—was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn. Blogcritics features hundreds of original articles every week, and keeps an archive of all their published content.

References

Internet

Blogcritics


Elizabeth Jane Rucker Hadley Barkley (September 23, 1911 – September 6, 1964, known as Jane Hadley Barkley) was second lady of the United States from 1949 to 1953. She was the second wife of Vice President Alben W. Barkley.

Early life
Barkley was born in Keytesville, Missouri. Her father was a lawyer. Her mother was a pianist who had studied in Europe. She married her first husband, Carleton Hadley, in 1931. She met him at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He became a prominent railroad attorney. They had two daughters. He died in 1944 at the age of 42.

Marriage to Alben Barkley
She married Vice President Alben Barkley, a widower, on November 18, 1949. She was his second wife, and he was her second husband. He was 71 and she was 37. Barkley's first wife Dorothy had died in 1947. Until her courtship with Barkley, Jane Rucker Hadley had been a devoted Republican. In 1940, Mrs. Hadley was working in the St. Louis office of Grand Old Party presidential nominee Wendell Willkie. When her milkman said his favorite president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she left a note saying, "No Willkie, no milkie".

Death
After Barkley's death, Jane Barkley started work as a secretary at George Washington University. Mrs. Barkley published a memoir in 1954 with Vanguard publishers of New York. It was called I Married the Veep. When she died in 1956 from a heart attack, she was still working at the university.

References

1911 births
1964 deaths
Deaths from myocardial infarction
People from St. Louis, Missouri
Second Ladies of the United States

Jane Hadley Barkley


Heaven Razah is a solo album by rapper Hell Razah, released on September 28, 2010 through Nature Sounds Records. Razah is most famed as a member of Wu-Tang Clan affiliate groups Sunz of Man and Black Market Militia. The album features production from Dev 1, Rainmayqah, Jordan River Banks, Kevlaar 7, Ayatollah, Shroom, St. Peter, Blastah Beatz, Havoc and Wu-Tang affiliate producers Bronze Nazareth, Allah Mathematics and 4th Disciple. Album guests include Timbo King, R.A. the Rugged Man, Shabazz the Disciple and Darnell McClain.

Track listing

Album singles

2010 albums
Hell Razah albums
Nature Sounds albums
Albums produced by Bronze Nazareth
Albums produced by Ayatollah

Heaven Razah


A song cycle in classical music is a group of songs that belong together.  Although each song may be sung separately, the composer really imagined that they would be performed together as one work.  Sometimes they tell a story, but sometimes they just belong together because they are about the same idea (e.g. the sadness that can be caused by love).  They are often for solo voice and piano accompaniment, but they can also be without accompaniment, or with several instruments or even a whole orchestra. The words of a cycle are often by the same poet, but this is not always the case.

Song cycles started to become popular with composers in the Romantic period. Although there were examples of song cycles written before that, it was the German composers of the 19th century who are most often thought of as writers of song cycles. Their songs are called "Lieder".

The great composer Franz Schubert wrote about 600 songs. These include two long song cycles: Winterreise (Winter's Journey) and Die schöne Müllerin (The beautiful miller's daughter).  Each of these song cycles is long enough for a whole concert. Robert Schumann wrote song cycles including two which he simply called Liederkreise (Song Cycles), and his well-known Dichterliebe (Poet's Love) and Frauenliebe und -Leben (Women's Love and Life).  Brahms wrote Vier ernste Gesänge (Four Serious Songs), and Gustav Mahler, who became very interested in folk song, wrote several song cycles with orchestra accompaniment, including Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth).

French composers who wrote song cycles include Jules Massenet, Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy.  Russian composers include Modest Mussorgsky and Dmitri Shostakovich, and English and American composers in the 20th century include Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland as well as the South American Alberto Ginastera, Juan María Solare and Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Related pages
Lied

Song forms

Song cycle


In Xanadu: A Quest is a 1989 travel book by William Dalrymple.

Overview
In Xanadu traces the path taken by Marco Polo from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to the site of Shangdu, famed as Xanadu in English literature, in Inner Mongolia, China.

The book begins with William Dalrymple taking a vial of holy oil from the burning lamps of the Holy Sepulchre, which he is to transport to Shangdu, the summer seat of the King Kubla Khan. It has been mentioned that Kubla Khan wanted a hundred learned men armed with Christian knowledge to come to his Khanate and spread the knowledge of Christianity. However, that plan was abandoned, and Marco Polo, along with his uncle, set out from Jerusalem on the Silk Route to Shang-du, to deliver a vial of the holy oil, which was rumoured to be inexhaustible, and therefore kept the lamps at the Sepulchre constantly burning. The rest of the journey is outlined with descriptions of most of the ancient sites along the Silk Route, through which Marco Polo was supposed to have passed.

The author compares the old time splendour of the cities on the Silk Route to their present physical and political conditions, and thereby illustrates the changes. Of special note is the part on his passage through the then revolution-torn Iran. He also describes the bureaucratic tangle he got into while getting a permit for China via the Northern Areas in Pakistan, and spending a couple of days in the Kohistan valley near Besham, on the banks of the river Indus in Pakistan, which is supposedly the last area where Alexander the Great might have stopped during his conquests.

People of different ethnicities are also mentioned in the book, mainly the present-day Central Asians and the Gujars from Kohistan and Swat valleys, although various scholars in Pakistan have doubted the veracity of many of these accounts. The author also describes a primitive rite of the Gujars which he claims he accidentally stumbled upon while exploring the area. Dalrymple speculates that the rite is a 'shin' ritual, apparently a throwback to the ancient pagan religion of the Gujars, which they followed before converting to Islam; whereas Pakistani scholars opine that the incident simply depicts a wedding feast in Kohistan, in Northern Pakistan, where a goat is ritually slaughtered for the guests and is typical of a festive banquet of the area, and that Dalrymple is making much out of his rather hurried and uninformed passage through these parts. These scholars throw a skeptical light on the portions of this book connected to Dalrymple's travels from Mansehra town until his passage into China.

Reception
The journey was taken on a multitude of types of transport and lasted for four months. The book, which was written when the author was only 22, received rapturous reviews and won numerous awards, and established Dalrymple as a major new arrival on the British literary scene. Eminent travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor chose In Xanadu as his book of the year in the Spectator and wrote, "William Dalrymple's In Xanadu carries us breakneck from a predawn glimmer in the Holy Sepulchre right across Asia... It is learned and comic, and a most gifted first book touched by the spirits of Kinglake, Robert Byron and E. Waugh." Sir Alec Guinness agreed, and in the Sunday Times called the book "The delightful, and funny, surprise mystery tour of the year."

References

1989 non-fiction books
British travel books
Scottish non-fiction books
Books about Central Asia

In Xanadu


A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It does this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal. A harpoon can also be used as a weapon.

Typically, a harpoon for fishing has backwards-pointing barbs which stop the fish getting free.

Weapons
Fishing

Harpoon


Lu Xun (183-254) was a general in Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China.

He showed his skills by helping defeat Guan Yu with the Wei army. Sun Quan saw his potential and promoted him to main strategist in the Wu army after the death of Lu Meng. He showed his talents  at Yiling where his tactics and fire attack lead Wu to victory. He soon developed a name for himself when at Hefei castle his tactics crushed Wei and Cao Pi leaving only Shu and Liu Bei's son Liu Chan alive, who retreated and Wu gained full control of the land.

183 births
254 deaths
Three Kingdoms generals

Lu Xun (Three Kingdoms)


William Bullock (1813 – April 12, 1867) was an American inventor whose 1863 improvements to Richard March Hoe's rotary printing press helped revolutionize the printing industry due to its great speed and efficiency. A few years after his invention, Bullock was accidentally killed by his own web rotary press.

Biography
William Bullock was born in Greenville, New York in 1813. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his brother. In his youth, he worked with his brother as a machinist and iron-founder.  His fascination with books led him to acquire much knowledge of mechanics. At age 21, he was running his own machinery shop in Savannah, Georgia. At this time, Bullock invented a shingle-cutting machine, but his business went broke when he was unable to market it.

While in Georgia, Bullock married Angeline Kimball and had seven children with her. When his wife died in 1850, he married Angeline's sister Emily, who bore him six children.

Bullock returned to New York and designed such devices as a cotton and hay press, a seed planter, and a lathe cutting machine. He also invented a grain drill, which won him a prize from the Franklin Institute in 1849. Shortly after this, he became involved in the newspaper world, and began working as an editor for a Philadelphia newspaper, The Banner of the Union.

The paper later moved to Catskill, New York. In 1853, Bullock began working on a hand-turned wooden printing press that had a self-feeder, an idea that laid the foundation for his later presses, one of which he designed in 1860 for the national publication Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly.

Bullock moved to Pittsburgh, and in a couple of years, perfected a printing press called the web rotary press. Richard March Hoe had invented the rotary press in 1843, but Bullock's press was an improvement over Hoe's design. Bullock's press allowed for continuous large rolls of paper to be automatically fed through the rollers, eliminating the laborious hand-feeding system of earlier presses. The press was self-adjusting, printed on both sides, folded the paper, and a sharp serrated knife that rarely needed sharpening cut sheets with rapid precision. The press could print up to 12,000 sheets an hour; later improvements raised the speed to up to 30,000 sheets an hour.

Death
In a bizarre accident, Bullock was killed by his own invention. On April 3, 1867 he was making adjustments to one of his new presses that was being installed for the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper. Bullock tried to kick a driving belt onto a pulley. His leg was crushed when it became caught in the machine. After a few days, he developed gangrene. On April 12, 1867, Bullock died during an operation to amputate the leg.  He is buried in Union Dale Cemetery on Pittsburgh's North Side.

U.S. Patents
38,200 April 14, 1863 Printing press to use a continuous web or roll of paper, the first machine built especially for curved stereotype plates. It printed both sides of the sheet and cut it either before or after printings.

61,996 February 12, 1867 Improvement in Printing Presses, for discharging sheets. "... removing of sheets of printed paper from rotary presses and piling them rapidly."

100,367 March 1, 1870 (posthumous) Improvement in Rotary Paper-Cutting Machines. "... for cutting paper from a continuous roll into sheets"

100,368 March 1, 1870 (posthumous) Improved Machine for Planing and Squaring the ends of Segmental Stereotype Plates "... Improved Machine for Shaving and Squaring Circular Stereotype Plates"

171,093 Dec 14, 1875 (posthumous; Filing date June 20, 1866) Improvement in Machines for Damping Paper "... useful Machine for Dampening Paper"

References

1813 births
1867 deaths
19th-century American inventors
People from Greenville (town), New York
People from Pittsburgh
Inventors killed by their own invention
Accidental deaths in Pennsylvania

William Bullock (inventor)


Dice are objects used in games when something random needs to be done, such as moving a game piece a random number of places on a board. Most dice are cubes that have the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on the faces. Dice are sometimes made in other polyhedral shapes than cubes, but the six-sided die (die is the singular of "dice") is the most common. A die is usually rolled by the player's hand. When adding together opposite sides of typical cubical dice, the sum is always 7.

Some games are played with two or more dice and some use only one. Some games that use dice are Monopoly, Yahtzee, Risk, and many more.

Weights can be put inside a die to make it only land on a certain number once it is rolled. This is sometimes used as a way of cheating.

Types of dice

There are many different types of dice. Some dice have different numbers of sides. These are called polyhedral dice. They are used in some games like Dungeons & Dragons.

Some dice do not have numbers on them at all. Instead, they have letters, pictures, or other symbols on them. Some games use these when they need something random that is not a number. For example, some word games use dice with letters to give the players random letters they have to use in the game.

Related pages
Alea iacta est

Dice