Mátyás György Seiber (, sometimes given as Matthis Seyber; 4 May 190524 September 1960) was a Hungarian-born British composer who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1935 onwards.  His work linked many diverse musical influences, from the Hungarian tradition of Bartók and Kodály, to Schoenberg and serial music, to jazz, folk song, and lighter music.

Early life
Seiber was born in Budapest. His mother, Berta Patay was a reputed pianist and teacher, so the young Seiber gained considerable skill with that instrument first. At the age of ten, he began to learn to play the cello. After attending grammar school, where he was regarded as "outstanding" in mathematics and Latin according to the almanacs of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, he studied the cello and composition from 1918 to 1925, and composition with Zoltán Kodály from 1921 to 1925. For his degree, he wrote his String Quartet No. 1 (in A minor). Pieces composed at this time, such as the Serenade for Six Wind Instruments of 1925, show him combining traditional Hungarian folk tunes with the forms of Western art music. He toured Hungary with Zoltán Kodály, collecting folk songs, and built on the research of Kodály and Béla Bartók. He also developed an interest in medieval plainchant.

Career
In 1925, Seiber accepted a teaching position at a private music school. In 1926, he took a position to play the cello in the orchestra of a ship from to North and South America. This was where became acquainted with jazz.

In 1928 he became director of the jazz department at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, which offered the first academic jazz courses anywhere. His text book Schule für Jazz-Schlagzeug was written in 1929, as a practical summary of his theoretical requirements. Two of his articles of great importance were published in the journal Melos: "Jazz als Erziehungsmittel" (1928) and "Jazz-Instrumente, Jazz-Klang und Neue Musik" (1930). After the jazz department was closed by the Nazis in 1933, Seiber left Germany.

He returned to Hungary but did not settle there; he accepted a position of music referent in the Soviet Union for two years, but his employment was ended after that.

Seiber emigrated to England in 1935 and settled in London, after his marriage in Caterham, Surrey at 169 Stafford Road. He only became a British citizen after the war. Seiber taught composition and cello privately while working as a consultant for the subsidiary of Schott in London and composed film music. Michael Tippett invited him to be a professor of composition at Morley College in London, and from 1942 he was on the staff there; he became a teacher of composition, music aesthetics, and music theory. His students included Don Banks, John Exton, Peter Racine Fricker, Anthony Gilbert, Barry Gray, Karel Janovický, Malcolm Lipkin, Anthony Milner, Wally Stott (who later became Angela Morley), John McCarthy, and Hugh Wood. During this period, he created and trained his choir, the Dorian Singers.

His friendships and work associations embraced many soloists, including Tibor Varga, Norbert Brainin, guitarists Julian Bream and John Williams, percussionist Jimmy Blades, folk singer Bert Lloyd, and tenor Peter Pears.

He was a founder member of the Society for Promotion of New Music, actively promoting new music throughout his life. He was married to ballet dancer Lilla Bauer (1912–2011), another Hungarian émigré. In 1960 he was invited to do a lecture tour in South Africa, but he died there in Kruger National Park as the result of a car accident. Kodály dedicated his choral work titled Media vita in morte sumus to the memory of his former student.

Music
Seiber's music is eclectic in style, showing the influences of Bartók, Kodály, Schoenberg, serialism, jazz, and Hungarian folk song, and his output includes film and lighter music. Often, individual pieces use a combination of these influences. For instance, the two Jazzolettes for wind and percussion (1929 and 1932, composed in Frankfurt) make liberal use of jazz effects and rhythms that displace the bar lines, but also show his first explorations of twelve-note techniques.  His wartime,  Fantasia concertante for violin and orchestra, premiered in 1945 and recorded by Andre Gertler, and the later work Permutationi a Cinque (1948) for wind ensemble, illustrate Seiber's very free use of serialism. Permutationi a Cinque explicitly uses permutations of motifs that eventually come together to reveal a twelve-tone series - but it is all done with lightness and humour.

Seiber's vocal output includes the large scale cantata Ulysses (1947) on words by James Joyce, another Joyce-related work, Three Fragments from "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", and choral arrangements of Hungarian and Yugoslav folk songs. He also wrote one opera, Eva spielt mit Puppen (1934), and the ballet The Invitation. Other works include the two orchestral Besardo suites, a clarinet concertino, three strings quartets, and scores to animated films produced by Halas & Batchelor, including Animal Farm (1954). The substantial Sonata for violin and piano, a commission for the Cheltenham Festival, was completed just before his death in 1960.

Two comic operas, A Palágyi Pekek and Balaton, were composed for the Hungarian theatre in London, the "Londoni Pódium". A Palágyi Pékek, (libretto, György Mikes) (1943), was the first collaboration of Mátyás Seiber and George Mikes. Balaton, (libretto, György Mikes) (1944), as George Mikes has reported, was aired during the war by the BBC and, after the end of the war even made it to Budapest.

A setting of the Scottish "poet and tragedian" William McGonagall's work, The Famous Tay Whale was written for the second of Gerard Hoffnung's music festivals in 1958.

Seiber used a pseudonym for his jazz works and popular music: G. S. Mathis or George Mathis (a rearrangement of his name using Anglicised forms); under this name, he wrote for John Dankworth, most notably 1959's Improvisations for Jazz Band and Orchestra. In 1956 he was awarded the inaugural Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "By the Fountains of Rome," which was a hit that year in the UK Single Charts, making it to the Top Twenty. (The lyrics were by Norman Newell, and it was sung by David Hughes).

Compositions (selected)

Orchestral
 Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1925/1964) (from String Quartet No 1, transcribed for string orchestra by Antal Doráti)
 Besardo Suite No. 1 (1940)
 Besardo Suite No. 2 for strings (1942; 14 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Fantasia Concertante for violin and string orchestra (1943; 17 mins.; Ars Viva Verlag, Mainz ; BL)
 Notturno for horn and string orchestra (1944) (8.5 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Concertino for clarinet and string orchestra (1951; 15 mins.)
 Elegy for viola and small orchestra (1954; 8 mins.)
 Tre Pezzi for cello and orchestra (1957; 20 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Improvisations for Jazz Band and Orchestra (with John Dankworth) (1959; 10 min.; BL)

Instrumental and chamber music
 Divertimento for Clarinet and string Quartet ( 1925; Schott)
 Serenade for six wind instruments (1925; Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen ; BL )
 String Quartet No. 1 (1925; 18 mins.; BL)
 Two Jazzolettes for 2 saxophones, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, and drums (1929 and 1932; Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen ; BL )
 String Quartet No. 2 (1935; 22 mins.; BL)
 Sonata da Camera (c1948, 15 mins.)
 String Quartet No. 3, Quartettolirico (1951; 23 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Concert Piece for violin and piano (1954; 8 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Fantasia per Flauto, Corno e Quartetto d'archi (1956; Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milano)
 Permutazioni a Cinque for wind quintet (1958; 6.5 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Violin Sonata (1960; 20mins; Schott; BL)

Vocal works with orchestra
 Ulysses : cantata for tenor solo, choir and orchestra (1947; 45 mins.; Schott; BL)
 Cantata Secularis: the Four Seasons (text from the Carmina Burana) (1949-1952; 20 mins. Schott; BL)
 Three Fragments from the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: chamber cantata for speaker, wordless chorus, orchestra ( 18 min.; Schott; BL)

A cappella choral music
 Missa Brevis (1924, revised 1950; 14 mins.; Curwen; BL)
 Three Nonsense Songs (lyrics by Edward Lear; 1956)

Songs for solo voice/choral and accompaniment
 Three Morgenstern Songs (1929) for voice and clarinet
 To Poetry (1952; 18 mins.; BL)
 The Famous Tay Whale (text by William McGonagall)( BL)
 The Greek Folk Songs (11 mins.)
 The French Songs (7 mins.)
 Medieval French Songs
 Petőfi Songs (4 Hungarian Folk Songs) (12 m ins.)
 The Yugoslav Folk Songs
 Three Hungarian Folk Songs
 The Owl and the Pussycat (1957) for voice, violin and guitar

Stage/ballet
 Eva spielt mit Puppen (1934)
 The Invitation (1960; BL)

Selected filmography
 Figurehead (1952, short film)
 The Fake (1953)
 Animal Farm (1954)
 The Diamond (1954)
 A Town Like Alice (1956)
 Robbery Under Arms (1957)
 Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)

References

Further reading
Hair, Graham. "Matyas Seiber's Improvisations for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra". n-ISM (Network for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science, Technology, and Music) website (accessed 26 January 2019).
 Karolyi, Otto. Modern British Music.: The Second British Musical Renaissance, from Elgar to P. Maxwell Davies. Associated University Presses, 1994.
 Leach, Gerald. British Composer Profiles. A Biographical Dictionary and Chronology of Past British Composers 1800–1979. British Music Society, 1980.
 Lyman, Darryl. Great Jews in Music. J. D. Publishers, 1986.
 Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980.
 List of émigré composers in Britain

External links

 Online recordings of Mátyás Seiber's music (British Library)
 Mátyás Seiber 2005 centenary website
 The early reception of jazz in Germany: Mátyás Seiber and the Jazz Orchester of the Hoch Conservatory in a radio recording from 1931
 The first jazz theory class at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany

1905 births
1960 deaths
20th-century classical composers
Twelve-tone and serial composers
British film score composers
British male film score composers
Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Hungarian classical composers
Hungarian male classical composers
Hungarian folk-song collectors
Hungarian Jews
British jazz composers
Jewish classical composers
British opera composers
Male opera composers
British ballet composers
Composers from Budapest
Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism
Road incident deaths in South Africa
20th-century British composers
Male jazz composers
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century jazz composers
Animated film score composers

Mátyás Seiber


The 2007 Zhani-Vedeno ambush occurred on 7 October when a convoy of vehicles carrying local Russian interior ministry soldiers and policemen was ambushed in the volatile Vedeno region of Chechnya. The ambush resulted in the deaths of at least four soldiers and the hospitalisation of 10 to 16. It was carried out under the command of Amir Aslambek, and was one of the deadliest attacks in several months.

According to an article by Kommersant, the convoy of a dozen armored military trucks and armored personnel carriers carrying detachments of local police officers and servicemen from the Akhmad Kadyrov Patrol Police Regiment-2 and the South (Yug) Battalion of Internal Troops (both composed of Kadyrovtsy) was reinforcing forces involved in the clearance operation in the village of Dargo, a bastion of the resistance to Russian rule for 300 years.

According to the separatist website Chechenpress, the ambush and subsequent fighting resulted in the deaths of 25 soldiers (10 to 16 from the ambush) and one rebel. The Russian sources also said a body of fighter was found in Dargo.

References

External links
 Convoy Ambushed in Vedeno The Jamestown Foundation, October 11, 2007
 4 Dead, 10 Injured in Chechen Ambush The Moscow Times, October 9, 2007
 Four Killed, At Least 10 Wounded in Chechnya Attack Voice of America, 8 October 2007

21st-century mass murder in Russia
Ambushes
Battles of the Second Chechen War
Battles involving Chechnya
October 2007 events in Russia
Operations of the Second Chechen War
Terrorist incidents in Russia in 2007

2007 Zhani-Vedeno ambush


"The Night Is Still Young" is a song by rapper Nicki Minaj, released as the sixth single from her third studio album The Pinkprint (2014), by Cash Money and Republic. It was written by Minaj, Ester Dean, Theron Thomas and Cirkut; and produced by Cirkut. It is a dance pop song.

Many critics viewed the song as single material and commended the production, but criticized the composition and lyrical content. The song debuted at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached number 31. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA for selling 1,000,000 units.

Composition
"The Night is Still Young" is written by Minaj, Ester Dean, Lukasz Gottwald, Donnie Lewis, Theron Thomas and Henry Walter, with additional production by Gottwald and Cirkut. Lyrically, the song is about partying and having fun; the verses revolve around a routine night out at a club. Writing for Consequence of Sound, Michael Madden felt the composition was "unadulterated pop." Garvey compared the composition to Minaj's tracks on her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. Tyler Kane from Paste Magazine commented "[The Night is Still Young"] sounded like a song hand-penned for Ke$ha, so it wasn't a surprise to discover the person behind the track was her estranged collaborator Dr. Luke, reigning king of themes like "tonight is the last night we will exist in human form, so let's party it away at the club." Nick Levine from Time Out labelled it "digital disco" music. Niki McGloster from Billboard said it was the "lovechild" of Minaj's 2010 single "Moment 4 Life" and her 2012 single "Starships". Shee commented "Minaj packs this club record with verses about seizing the night and enjoying the ride." "The Night Is Still Young" is written in the key of C♯ minor with a tempo of 124 beats per minute, and Minaj's vocals range from C♯3 to C♯5.

Release
Preparing for her world tour, Minaj's label Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money Records released the fifth single "Truffle Butter" from the parent album in January 2015 due to heavy airplay. Originally, Republic Records wanted to release "The Night is Still Young" as the next single but after agreement with Young Money and Cash Money, they scrapped it as the fifth single

Young Money and Cash Money intended to commission a music video for "Truffle Butter" to promote it, however, Republic refused because plans for "The Night is Still Young" had been set. The single was released in the UK on April 6 through contemporary radio. It was officially sent to contemporary radio in the US on April 28, 2015. The official cover was released via Minaj's Instagram, on May 16, 2015.

Critical reception
Stereogum's writer Tom Briehan found the lyrics and Minaj's input as "bland" and "character-free." Madden felt the songwriting was "plain" but commented "melodically, it does sound like the soundtrack to a massive evening, especially once that second vocal track kicks in during the chorus [...]" The Rolling Stone'''s Jon Dolan favored the track, calling it "victory lap-pop." Levine said that the song "proves Minaj still knows how to party." However, Katherine St. Asaph from Time Magazine was heavily critical on Dr. Luke's production on both this and "Only". She commented "They're not only unwelcome — they feel tired, as if they'd have been dated years ago. They're necessary intrusions of commercialism that belie [Minaj's] claim she 'ain't gotta rely on top 40' and undermine what's presumably meant to be a classic." McGloster favored the song as single-worthy by commenting "It's safe to say she'll be adding this to her vast collection of chart-topping hits."

Despite calling it "catchy pop", Jon Caramanica from The New York Times felt the song was a "poor fit" to the album. Paste Magazine Tyler Kane criticized the song's inclusion to the album, alongside album tracks "I Lied" and "Bed of Lies". He refereed the songs by saying "There's a lot to wade through, though, and for every good moment, there's another that should have ended on the cutting room floor." Alex Macpherson from The Guardian commented "This perfunctory nod to that style is like revisiting the sites of your drunkenness through a hungover fug the following night in a doomed attempt to recapture the magic. No one's heart is in this, [...]" Breihan criticized the composition, feeling that Minaj " doesn't always understand what she's good at." He concluded "There's subtext, sure, but the subtext doesn't stop the song from being boring bottle-service music."

Music video
During her interview with reporters from Capital FM, Minaj confirmed that she would appear in the single's accompanying music video. The music video was shot in Downtown Los Angeles, California in March 2015.

A lyric video was published on Minaj's Vevo account, featuring visuals of drinking and colorful lights. Madeline Roth from MTV praised the visuals of the lyric video, commenting "The clip gives the song a kaleidoscopic visual treatment that's bursting with electric colors as Nicki assures us, "the night is still young and so are we." She also felt the song was "catchy."
The music video (directed by Hannah Lux Davis) was released on May 22, 2015, on Tidal. On May 26, 2015, the video was uploaded to Minaj's Vevo. Minaj's then-boyfriend  Meek Mill makes a cameo appearance in the video. The music video has more than 197 million views, as of July 2023.

Live performances
Minaj has performed the song on her third world tour The Pinkprint Tour in 2015. The song was in the segment of "dance bangers" alongside her collaboration single "Turn Me On" with French disc jockey David Guetta and her single "Starships". Levine, reporting the publication NME, commented "Ending with a succession of dance bangers including her David Guetta EDM hit 'Turn Me On', underrated 'The Pinkprint' cut 'The Night Is Still Young' and a gloriously raucous 'Starships', Nicki has 20,000 people raising their hands to the line 'We're higher than a motherf**ker', and this vast arena feels like a New York basement sweatbox." She also performed the song at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. On May 30, 2015, Minaj performed the song on the iHeartRadio Summer Pool Party 2015 in Las Vegas. On July 24, 2015, Minaj performed the song on Good Morning America''s Summer Concert Series. Minaj also opened the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards with a performance of "Trini Dem Girls", followed by a performance of "The Night Is Still Young" and "Bad Blood" with Taylor Swift.

Charts

Weekly charts

Certifications

Release history

References

2014 songs
2015 singles
Nicki Minaj songs
Music videos directed by Hannah Lux Davis
Songs written by Nicki Minaj
Songs written by Ester Dean
Songs written by Dr. Luke
Songs written by Theron Thomas
Songs written by Cirkut
Young Money Entertainment singles
Cash Money Records singles
Republic Records singles

The Night Is Still Young (Nicki Minaj song)


Anker Boye (born 12 February 1950) is a Danish politician representing the Social Democratic Party. He is a painter by profession.

Anker Boye was elected as mayor of Odense, Denmark's third-largest city, in 1993 and served in that capacity until 2005. In 2001, he got a historic number of votes and carried almost all fourteen members of the Social Democratic group into the City Council. He was defeated in the 2005 municipal elections by the Conservative challenger, Jan Boye, county mayor of Funen (no relation). The elections were a massive defeat for the Social Democrats, losing four of their fourteen seats in Odense City Council.

The election on 15 November 2005 resulted in a tie with both wings carrying 14 of the 29 seats, the last being carried by Erik Simonsen from the Social Liberal Party. Anker Boye admitted defeat and tried to persuade Simonsen to become the new mayor with Social Democratic backing – in a live broadcast. Simonsen refused the offer and gave his support to Jan Boye from the Conservatives.

Anker Boye's administration has been criticized in several respects, including his membership of a total of 47 committees taking time from his duties as mayor. Boye has also been criticized for the low number of jobs created in Odense, compared to Copenhagen and Århus, and for a number of slips in the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen; most importantly, the huge deficit created by a charity concert starring Tina Turner.

In the municipality-election 17 November 2009 Anker Boye reclaimed his former post as mayor of Odense, by winning the municipality election. The coalition made of Enhedslisten, Socialistisk Folkeparti and the Socialdemocrats won 17 out of 29 seats in the city council, thereby winning the majority.

Anker Boye resigned as mayor by the end of 2016 and announced that he would not seek re-election. By the end of 2017 he retired from politics.

References

1950 births
Living people
Mayors of Odense
Social Democrats (Denmark) politicians

Anker Boye


Stanisław Herman Lem () (September 12, 1921 – March 27, 2006) was a Polish science fiction writer. His writings are highly philosophical and satirical. His books have been translated into 41 languages. Over 27 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. At one point he was among the most widely read science fiction authors in the world. Lem's writing is full of intelligent humor, puns, and neologisms, and Michael Kandel's translations into English have been praised by many for capturing Lem's style.

Lem is perhaps best known for his novel Solaris. This novel was published in 1961. It is set into the future. Humans have discovered what they think is intelligent life in space. They want to talk to the alien life form. The only problem they have is that the life form is the size of a planet. It is an ocean. This book has also been made into a film by Andrei Tarkowski in 1972. Steven Soderbergh made another film of the book in 2002.

Lem won various prizes for his novels.

References

Other websites

1921 births
2006 deaths
Lem, Stanislaw

Stanislav Lem


A pulverizer is a machine used to grind different types of material. This is done so that the material will be able to be used or can be easily transported. An example of a material that can be grinded is coal.

Types
There are different speeds used by pulverizers.
 Low speed
 Medium speed
 High speed

Machines

Pulverizer


Google Search or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. and is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web. Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services.
The main purpose of Google Search is to hunt for text in webpages, as opposed to other data, such as with Google Image Search. Google search was originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997, based on earlier search-engine designs.

Google Search provides at least 22 special features beyond the original word-search capability. These include synonyms, weather forecasts, time zones, stock quotes, maps, earthquake data, movie showtimes, airports, home listings, and sports results. (see below: Special features). There are special features for numbers, including ranges (70..73), prices, temperatures, money/unit conversions ("10.5 cm in inches"), calculations ( 3*4+sqrt(6)-pi/2 ), package tracking, patents, area codes, and language translation of displayed pages.

The order of search results (ghits for Google hits) on Google's search-results pages is based, in part, on a priority rank called a "PageRank". Google Search provides many options for customized search (see below: Search options), using Boolean operators such as: exclusion ("-xx"), inclusion ("+xx"), alternatives ("xx OR yy"), and wildcard ("x * x").

Search engine

PageRank

Google's rise to success was in large part due to a patented algorithm called PageRank that helps rank web pages that match a given search string.
Previous keyword-based methods of ranking search results, used by many search engines that were once more popular than Google, would rank pages by how often the search terms occurred in the page, or how strongly associated the search terms were within each resulting page.
The PageRank algorithm instead analyses human-generated links, assuming that web pages linked from many important pages are themselves likely to be important. The algorithm computes a recursive score for pages, based on the weighted sum of the PageRanks of the pages linking to them. PageRank is thought to correlate well with human concepts of importance.
In addition to PageRank, Google over the years has added many other secret criteria for determining the ranking of pages on result lists, reported to be over 200 different indicators. The details are kept secret due to spammers and in order to maintain an advantage over Google's competitors.

Search results
The exact percentage  of the total of web pages that Google indexes is not known, as it is very hard to actually calculate.
Google not only indexes and caches web pages but also takes "snapshots" of other file types, which include PDF, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Flash SWF, plain text files, and so on. Except in the case of text and SWF files, the cached version is a conversion to (X)HTML, allowing those without the corresponding viewer application to read the file.

Users can customize the search engine, by setting a default language, using the "SafeSearch" filtering technology and set the number of results shown on each page. Google has been criticized for placing long-term cookies on users' machines to store these preferences, a tactic which also enables them to track a user's search terms and retain the data for more than a year. For any query, up to the first 1000 results can be shown with a maximum of 100 displayed per page. The ability to specify the number of results is available only if "Instant Search" is not enabled. If "Instant Search" is enabled, only 10 results are displayed, regardless of this setting.

Non-indexable data
Despite its immense index, there is also a considerable amount of data available in online databases which are accessible by means of queries but not by links. This so-called invisible or deep Web is minimally covered by Google and other search engines. The deep Web contains library catalogs, official legislative documents of governments, phone books, and other content which is dynamically prepared to respond to a query.

Privacy in some countries forbids the showing of some links. For instance in Switzerland any individual can force Google Inc. to delete a link which contains their name.

Google optimization

Since Google is the most popular search engine, many webmasters have become eager to influence their website's Google rankings. An industry of consultants has arisen to help websites increase their rankings on Google and on other search engines. This field, called search engine optimization, attempts to discern patterns in search engine listings, and then develop a methodology for improving rankings to draw more searchers to their client's sites.

Search engine optimization encompasses both "on page" factors (like body copy, title elements, H1 heading elements and image alt attribute values) and Off Page Optimization factors (like anchor text and PageRank). The general idea is to affect Google's relevance algorithm by incorporating the keywords being targeted in various places "on page", in particular the title element and the body copy (note: the higher up in the page, presumably the better its keyword prominence and thus the ranking). Too many occurrences of the keyword, however, cause the page to look suspect to Google's spam checking algorithms.

Google has published guidelines for website owners who would like to raise their rankings when using legitimate optimization consultants.

Functionality

Google search consists of a series of localized websites. The largest of those, the google.com site, is the top most-visited website in the world. Some of its features include a definition link for most searches including dictionary words, the number of results you got on your search, links to other searches (e.g. for words that Google believes to be misspelled, it provides a link to the search results using its proposed spelling), and many more.

Search syntax
Google's search engine normally accepts queries as a simple text, and breaks up the user's text into a sequence of search terms, which will usually be words that are to occur in the results, but one can also use Boolean operators, such as: quotations marks (") for a phrase, a prefix such as "+", "-" for qualified terms, or one of several advanced operators, such as "site:". The webpages of "Google Search Basics" describe each of these additional queries and options (see below: Search options).

Google's Advanced Search web form gives several additional fields which may be used to qualify searches by such criteria as date of first retrieval. All advanced queries transform to regular queries, usually with additional qualified terms.

Query expansion
Google applies query expansion to the submitted search query, transforming it into the query that will actually be used to retrieve results. As with page ranking, the exact details of the algorithm Google uses are deliberately obscure, but certainly the following transformations are among those that occur:
 Term reordering: in information retrieval this is a standard technique to reduce the work involved in retrieving results.  This transformation is invisible to the user, since the results ordering uses the original query order to determine relevance.
 Stemming is used to increase search quality by keeping small syntactic variants of search terms.
 There is a limited facility to fix possible misspellings in queries.

"I'm Feeling Lucky"
Google's homepage includes a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky".  When a user clicks on the button the user will be taken directly to the first search result, bypassing the search engine results page.  The thought is that if a user is "feeling lucky", the search engine will return the perfect match the first time without having to page through the search results.  According to a study by Tom Chavez of "Rapt", this feature costs Google $110 million a year as 1% of all searches use this feature and bypass all advertising.

On October 30, 2009, for some users, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was removed from Google's main page, along with the regular search button.  Both buttons were replaced with a field that reads, "This space intentionally left blank."  This text faded out when the mouse was moved on the page, and normal search functionality is achieved by filling in the search field with the desired terms and pressing enter.  A Google spokesperson explains, "This is just a test, and a way for us to gauge whether our users will like an even simpler search interface."  Personalized Google homepages retained both buttons and their normal functions.

On May 21, 2010, the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was replaced with a button reading the words "Insert Coin". After pressing the button, the user would begin a Google-themed game of Pac-Man in the area where the Google logo would normally be. Pressing the button a second time would begin a two-player version of the same game that includes Ms. Pacman for player 2. This version can be accessed at http://www.google.com/pacman as a permanent link to the page.

Rich Snippets
On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hCard, hReview, and hProduct microformats and using them to populate search result pages with what they called "Rich Snippets".

Special features
Besides the main search-engine feature of searching for text, Google Search has more than 22 "special features" (activated by entering any of dozens of trigger words) when searching:
 weather – The weather conditions, temperature, wind, humidity, and forecast, for many cities, can be viewed by typing "weather" along with a city for larger cities or city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country for smaller cities (such as: weather Lawrence, Kansas; weather Paris; weather Bremen, Germany).
 stock quotes – The market data for a specific company or fund can be viewed, by typing the ticker symbol (or include "stock"), such as: CSCO; MSFT; IBM stock; F stock (lists Ford Motor Co.); or AIVSX (fund). Results show inter-day changes, or 5-year graph, etc. This does not work for stock names which are one letter long, such as Citigroup (C) or Macy's (M) (Ford being an exception), or are common words, such as Diamond Offshore (DO) or Majesco (COOL).
 time – The current time in many cities (worldwide), can be viewed by typing "time" and the name of the city (such as: time Cairo; time Pratt, KS).
 sports scores – The scores and schedules, for sports teams, can be displayed by typing the team name or league name into the search box.
 unit conversion – Measurements can be converted, by entering each phrase, such as: 10.5 cm in inches; or 90 km in miles
 currency conversion – A money or currency converter can be selected, by typing the names or currency codes (listed by ISO 4217): 6789 Euro in USD; 150 GBP in USD; 5000 Yen in USD; 5000 Yuan in lira (the U.S. dollar can be USD or "US$" or "$", while Canadian is CAD, etc.).
 calculator – Calculation results can be determined, as calculated live, by entering a formula in numbers or words, such as: 6*77 +pi +sqrt(e^3)/888 plus 0.45. The user is given the option to search for the formula, after calculation. The calculator also uses the unit and currency conversion functions to allow unit-aware calculations. For example, "(3 EUR/liter) / (40 miles/gallon) in USD / mile" calculates the dollar cost per mile for a 40 mpg car with gas costing 3 euros a liter. The caret "^" raises a number to an exponent power, and percentages are allowed ("40% of 300").
 numeric ranges – A set of numbers can be matched by using a double-dot between range numbers (70..73 or 90..100) to match any positive number in the range, inclusive. Negative numbers are treated as using exclusion-dash to not match the number.
 dictionary lookup – A definition for a word or phrase can be found, by entering "define" followed by a colon and the word(s) to lookup (such as, "define:philosophy")
 maps – Some related maps can be displayed, by typing in the name or U.S. ZIP code of a location and the word "map" (such as: New York map; Kansas map; or Paris map).
 movie showtimes – Reviews or movie showtimes can be listed for any movies playing nearby, by typing "movies" or the name of any current movie into the search box. If a specific location was saved on a previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters for that movie.  These listings however are sometimes totally incorrect and there is no way to ask Google to correct them; for example, on 25 July, for the El Capitan Theatre, google showtimes lists Up but according to the El Capitan website, the only movie playing that day is G-Force.
 public data – Trends for population (or unemployment rates) can be found for U.S. states & counties, by typing "population" or "unemployment rate" followed by a state or county name.
 real estate and housing – Home listings in a given area can be displayed, using the trigger words "housing", "home", or "real estate" followed by the name of a city or U.S. zip code.
 travel data/airports – The flight status for arriving or departing U.S. flights can be displayed, by typing in the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box (such as: American airlines 18). Delays at a specific airport can also be viewed (by typing the name of the city or three-letter airport code plus word "airport").
 package tracking – Package mail can be tracked by typing the tracking number of a Royal Mail, UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. Results will include quick links to track the status of each shipment.
 patent numbers – U.S. patents can be searched by entering the word "patent" followed by the patent number into the search box (such as: Patent 5123123).
 area code – The geographical location (for any U.S. telephone area code) can be displayed by typing a 3-digit area code (such as: 650).
 synonym search – A search can match words similar to those specified, by placing the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a search term, such as:  ~fast food.
 U.S. Government search – Searching of U.S. government websites can be performed from webpage: www.google.com/unclesam.

Search options
The webpages maintained by the Google Help Center have text describing more than 15 various search options.
The Google operators:
 OR – Search for either one, such as "price high OR low" searches for "price" with "high" or "low".
 "-" – Search while excluding a word, such as "apple -tree" searches where word "tree" is not used.
 "+" – Force inclusion of a word, such as "Name +of +the Game" to require the words "of" & "the" to appear on a matching page.
 "*" – Wildcard operator to match any words between other specific words.

Some of the query options are as follows:
 define: – The query prefix "define:" will provide a definition of the words listed after it.
 stocks: – After "stocks:" the query terms are treated as stock ticker symbols for lookup.
 site: – Restrict the results to those websites in the given domain, such as, site:www.acmeacme.com. The option "site:com" will search all domain URLs named with ".com" (no space after "site:").
 allintitle: – Only the page titles are searched (not the remaining text on each webpage).
 intitle: – Prefix to search in a webpage title, such as "intitle:google search" will list pages with word "google" in title, and word "search" anywhere (no space after "intitle:").
 allinurl: – Only the page URL address lines are searched (not the text inside each webpage).
 inurl: – Prefix for each word to be found in the URL; others words are matched anywhere, such as "inurl:acme search" matches "acme" in a URL, but matches "search" anywhere (no space after "inurl:").

The page-display options (or query types) are:
 cache: – Highlights the search-words within the cached document, such as "cache:www.google.com xxx" shows cached content with word "xxx" highlighted.
 link: – The prefix "link:" will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage, such as "link:www.google.com" lists webpages linking to the Google homepage.
 related: – The prefix "related:" will list webpages that are "similar" to a specified web page.
 info: – The prefix "info:" will display some background information about one specified webpage, such as, info:www.google.com. Typically, the info is the first text (160 bytes, about 23 words) contained in the page, displayed in the style of a results entry (for just the 1 page as matching the search).
 filetype: - results will only show files of the desired type (ex filetype:pdf will return pdf files)

Note that Google searches the HTML coding inside a webpage, not the screen appearance: the words displayed on a screen might not be listed in the same order in the HTML coding.

Error messages
Some searches will give a 403 Forbidden error with the text
"We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologise for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again from all of the team here at Google."
sometimes followed by a CAPTCHA prompt.

The screen was first reported in 2005, and was a response to the heavy use of Google by search engine optimization companies to check on ranks of sites they were optimizing. The message is  triggered by high volumes of requests from a single IP address. Google apparently uses the Google cookie as part of its determination of refusing service.

In June 2009, after the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson, this message appeared to many internet users who were searching Google for news stories related to the singer, and was assumed by Google to be a DDoS attack, although many queries were submitted by legitimate searchers.

January 2009 malware bug

Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. Google does this to protect users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. For approximately 40 minutes on January 31, 2009, all search results were mistakenly classified as malware and could therefore not be clicked; instead a warning message was displayed and the user was required to enter the requested URL manually. The bug was caused by human error. The URL of "/" (which expands to all URLs) was mistakenly added to the malware patterns file.

Doodle for Google
On certain occasions, the logo on Google's webpage will change to a special version, known as a "Google Doodle". Clicking on the Doodle links to a string of Google search results about the topic.  The first was a reference to the Burning Man Festival in 1998, and others have been produced for the birthdays of notable people like Albert Einstein, historical events like the interlocking Lego block's 50th anniversary and holidays like Valentine's Day.

Google Caffeine
In August 2009, Google announced the rollout of a new search architecture, codenamed "Caffeine".
The new architecture was designed to return results faster and to better deal with rapidly updated information from services including Facebook and Twitter.
Google developers noted that most users would notice little immediate change, but invited developers to test the new search in its sandbox.
Differences noted for their impact upon search engine optimization included heavier keyword weighting and the importance of the domain's age.
The move was interpreted in some quarters as a response to Microsoft's recent release of an upgraded version of its own search service, renamed Bing.
Google announced completion of Caffeine on 8 June 2010, claiming 50% fresher results due to continuous updating of its index.
With Caffeine, Google moved its back-end indexing system away from MapReduce and onto BigTable, the company's distributed database platform. Caffeine is also based on Colossus, or GFS2, an overhaul of the GFS distributed file system.

Encrypted Search
In May 2010 Google rolled out SSL-encrypted web search. The encrypted search can be accessed at: https://encrypted.google.com

Instant Search
Google Instant, an enhancement that displays suggested results while the user types, was introduced in the United States starting on September 8, 2010. One concern is that people might select one of the suggested results instead of finishing their request, and that such a practice could cause bias toward familiar businesses or other search terms. Pornographic or otherwise offensive search terms are excluded from the suggested results. The instant feature appears only on the basic Google site and not specialized iGoogle pages. Google expects Google Instant to save users 2 to 5 seconds in every search, which they say will be collectively 11 million seconds per hour. Search engine marketing pundits speculated that Google Instant would have a great impact on local and paid search.

In concert with the Google Instant launch, Google disabled the ability of users to choose to see more than 10 search results per page. Instant Search can be disabled via Google's "preferences" menu, but autocomplete-style search suggestions now cannot be disabled.  A Google representative stated, "It's in keeping with our vision of a unified Google search experience to make popular, useful features part of the default experience, rather than maintain different versions of Google. As Autocomplete quality has improved, we felt it was appropriate to have it always on for all of our users."

International
Google is available in many languages and has been localized for many countries.

Languages

 Afar
 Afrikaans
 Akan
 Albanian
 Amharic
 Arabic
 Armenian
 Assamese
 Azerbaijani
 Basque
 Belarusian
 Bengali
 Bihari
 Bosnian
 Breton
 Bulgarian
 Cambodian (Khmer)
 Catalan
 Chinese (Simplified)
 Chinese (Traditional)
 Corsican
 Croatian
 Czech
 Danish

 Dutch
 English (United Kingdom)
 English (United States)
 Esperanto
 Estonian
 Faroese
 Filipino
 Finnish
 French
 Frisian (West)
 Galician
 Georgian
 German
 Greek
 Guarani
 Gujarati
 Hausa
 Haitian Creole

 Hawaiian
 Hebrew
 Hindi
 Hungarian

 Icelandic
 Igbo
 Indonesian
 Interlingua
 Irish
 Italian
 Japanese
 Javanese
 Kannada
 Kazakh
 Kinyarwanda
 Kirundi
 Korean
 Kurdish
 Kyrgyz
 Laothian
 Latin
 Latvian
 Lingala
 Lithuanian
 Luganda
 Luo

 Macedonian
 Malagasy
 Malay
 Malayalam
 Maltese
 Māori
 Marathi
 Mauritian Creole
 Moldavian (Romanian)
 Mongolian
 Montenegrin
 Nepali
 Norwegian
 Norwegian (Nynorsk)
 Occitan
 Odia
 Oromo
 Pashto
 Persian
 Polish
 Portuguese (Brazil)
 Portuguese (Portugal)

 Punjabi
 Quechua
 Romanian
 Romansh
 Runyakitara
 Russian
 Scots Gaelic
 Serbian
 Serbo-Croatian
 Sesotho
 Setswana
 Shona
 Sindhi
 Sinhalese
 Slovak
 Slovene
 Somali
 Spanish
 Sundanese
 Swahili
 Swedish
 Tajik

 Tamil
 Tatar
 Telugu
 Thai
 Tigrinya
 Tonga
 Turkish
 Turkmen
 Twi
 Ukrainian
 Urdu
 Uyghur
 Uzbek
 Vietnamese
 Welsh
 Xhosa
 Yiddish
 Yoruba
 Zulu

The interface has also been made available in some languages for humorous purpose:
 Elmer Fudd
 Hacker
 Klingon
 Pig Latin

Domain names
In addition to the main URL Google.com, Google Inc. owns 160 domain names for each of the countries/regions in which it has been localized. As Google is an American company, the main domain name can be considered as the U.S. one.

Some domain names unregistered by Google are currently squatted, such as "Google.ua" (for Ukraine, where the correct URL is "google.com.ua").

Search products

In addition to its tool for searching webpages, Google also provides services for searching images, Usenet newsgroups, news websites, videos, searching by locality, maps, and items for sale online. In 2006, Google has indexed over 25 billion web pages, 400 million queries per day,  1.3 billion images, and over one billion Usenet messages. It also caches much of the content that it indexes. Google operates other tools and services including Google News, Google Suggest, Google Product Search, Google Maps, Google Co-op, Google Earth, Google Docs, Picasa, Panoramio, YouTube, Google Translate, Google Blog Search and Google Desktop Search.

There are also products available from Google that are not directly search-related. Gmail, for example, is a webmail application, but still includes search features; Google Browser Sync does not offer any search facilities, although it aims to organize your browsing time.

Also Google starts many new beta products, like Google Social Search or Google Image Swirl.

In 2017 the USPTO issued Microsoft a patent describing a methodology that could serve as an alternative to Google's Instant Search.

Energy consumption
Google claims that a search query requires altogether about 1 kJ or 0.0003 kW·h.

Related pages
 List of Google products
 List of search engines

References

Further reading
 Google Hacks from O'Reilly is a book containing tips about using Google effectively. Now in its third edition. .
 Google: The Missing Manual by Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest (O'Reilly, 2004).
 How to Do Everything with Google by Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, and Eric Fredricksen (McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2003).
 Google Power by Chris Sherman (McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2005).

Other websites
 Google.com
 Blogpost.com, Evolution of Google Home Page from 1998 to 2008
 Social Media And Google on Ranking Factors, Importance of Social media In google Searches
 Infotopia--A Google Alternative Safe Search Engine for Students, A Google custom search engine accessing only academic web pages selected by teachers, librarians, and consortia

Search
Search engines

Google Search


Esmerelda "Esme" Weatherwax (also Granny Weatherwax or Mistress Weatherwax) is a fictional character  from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. She is a witch and member of the Lancre coven. She is the self-appointed guardian of her small country, and frequently defends it against supernatural powers. She is one of the Discworld series's main protagonists, having major roles in seven novels.

She is a very powerful witch, and is reckoned to be more powerful than the most well-known witch on the Discworld, Black Aliss. Granny says in Lords and Ladies that she "learned my craft from Nanny Gripes, who learned it from Goody Heggety, who got it from Nanna Plumb, who was taught it by Black Aliss". The witches of the Lancre coven reflect the roles of Maiden, Mother, and Crone, with Granny being most associated with the Crone (tactfully referred to as "the other one").

Due to her prowess, Granny Weatherwax is first among equals of the Ramtops witches: "Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don't have leaders.  Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn't have." In Wyrd Sisters, the ghost of the King of Lancre addresses her as "Doyenne of Witches" ("Senior Lady of Witches"). Granny Weatherwax's reputation extends to other species: the Trolls of the Ramtops call her "Aaoograha hoa" ("She Who Must Be Avoided"; mentioned in Maskerade), the Dwarf call her "K'ez'rek d'b'duz" ("Go Around the Other Side of the Mountain"; also mentioned in Maskerade), and the Nac Mac Feegle call her "The Hag O' Hags" ("The High Witch").

Family and Background
According to Witches Abroad, Esmerelda "Esme" (later "Granny") Weatherwax is the younger of two daughters. Her father was a hunter who taught her that "a bad hunter chases, a good hunter waits" (Lords and Ladies). Little is revealed about her mother except that she had a long illness and Esme nursed her until her death.

Magical ability runs in the Weatherwax family; a distant cousin, the wizard Galder Weatherwax, is Archchancellor of Unseen University at the time of The Light Fantastic. When Esme was a child, her older sister Lily began misusing magic and behaving in a "wanton" and "wilful" manner. Lily left home as a teenager and never returned to Lancre.

By the time Esme reached her teens, she was determined to become a witch. She occasionally struggles with temptation to become a "wicked witch", but also feels obligated to be "the good one" to balance her sister. In Lords and Ladies she reveals that she was not chosen as an apprentice by an established witch, but "camped on old Nanny Gripes' garden until she promised to tell me everything she knew. Hah. That took her a week  I had the afternoons free... No  chose..."). As a young woman, Esme was involved in a summer-long romance with student wizard Mustrum Ridcully, but ultimately they were both committed to their respective paths of witchcraft and wizardry. She was also acquainted with Gytha Ogg, who is about the same age, although their friendship does not develop until they are older. Esme eventually became the witch for village of Bad Ass and the Kingdom of Lancre as a whole.

Granny, as she comes to be known, is in her 70s or 80s during the events of Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum. She dies quietly at home at the beginning of the final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown. When Death comes for her, he tells her that her candle will continue to flicker long after her passing and that she has left the world in a better condition than it was when she entered it. Author Neil Gaiman, a friend of Pratchett's, has said that Pratchett died before writing a scene he had intended for the ending of The Shepherd's Crown. According to Gaiman, this would have revealed that Granny's spirit had lingered to watch over her young successor Tiffany Aching, and that when she did finally depart with Death it was on her own terms.

Appearance
Granny Weatherwax has striking blue eyes and a penetrating gaze, a hooked nose, and a determined set to her jaw. In Equal Rites she is described as "handsome", having an excellent complexion, no warts, and all her teeth, although it is implied she finds this a bit inappropriate for a witch. Granny is thin, mentioning in Lords and Ladies that she weighs , and is described as being taller than Nanny Ogg and Magrat.

She typically wears a plain black dress, a somewhat battered black cloak (occasionally lined with dark red) and a tall, pointed witch's hat, skewered to her "iron-hard grey bun" hairstyle with multiple hatpins. Her broom is a hand-me-down from another witch, Hilta (Equal Rites), and has been repaired many times. Due to its age, it requires the user to pick up speed by running along the ground before taking off.

Personality
Granny Weatherwax has a near-unshakeable, and usually accurate, belief in her own abilities. She believes in doing what is right rather than what is easy or even what seems "nice". Granny appreciates practicality and hard work, and distrusts fiction and theater because of their powerful influence on people's minds.

The journal Gender Forum has posited that Granny Weatherwax bears some similarity to Sam Vimes and Death. All three are effectively 'good' characters, who exert a rigid control over the darkness inside themselves, which they secretly fear but (crucially to their characters) are able to conquer.

According to The Pratchett Portfolio Granny's typical saying is: "I can't be having with that kind of thing".

Powers
Granny is adept at 'Borrowing', the art of overlaying her mind on the mind of another creature so that she can see through its eyes and steer its actions. She can sense the moods of plants, animals, and even places such as the Kingdom of Lancre and Unseen University. While Borrowing, her body falls into a deathlike trance; it is revealed in Lords And Ladies that in order to prevent embarrassing accidents, she has taken to wearing a placard reading "I ATE'NT DEAD" when she does so.

Although capable of powerful magic, Granny Weatherwax prefers to avoid using it. She often relies on headology, a sort of folk-psychology that makes use of the placebo and nocebo effects. For instance, although Granny is capable of placing curses upon people who anger her, she will instead simply allow them to believe that she has cursed them. This causes the "cursed" person to worry and attribute any misfortune they experience to the "curse". Nanny Ogg has implied that this avoidance of magic prevents Granny from being tempted into becoming a very successful "bad" witch. In The Sea and Little Fishes, Nanny Ogg attribute's Granny's magical abilities more to hard work than innate talent.

Because of her reluctance to openly use magic, Granny Weatherwax is sometimes accused by others of "working by trickery alone", and of "having little or no real power". Yet when the need arises, Granny Weatherwax has demonstrated skills such as psychokinesis (Lords and Ladies) and pyrokinesis (The Sea and Little Fishes). In Wyrd Sisters she sends the entire nation of Lancre forward in time fifteen years to allow the lost heir to come of age.

Bibliography
Granny Weatherwax is one of Terry Pratchett's most prolific recurring characters. She is a major character in six Discworld novels (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum) and the short story in the short story The Sea and Little Fishes, and a supporting character in the five Tiffany Aching books (Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, and The Shepherd's Crown). She is referred to in three other Discworld novels, Mort, Thief of Time, and Going Postal, and appears in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe.

A. S. Byatt considered that Granny "became more and more complex" as she appeared in more novels, while National Public Radio considered her an "iconic" character and "one of [Pratchett]'s clear favorites".

In the Wyrd Sisters animated adaptation, Granny Weatherwax was voiced by Annette Crosbie and in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation she was played by Sheila Hancock.

Reception and legacy
A fossil species of Mesozoic ginkgo has been named Ginkgoites weatherwaxiae in Granny Weatherwax's honour.

References

External links

 Granny Weatherwax , In Discworld Wiki
 The Witches reading order - A guide to the story arc introducing and featuring Granny Weatherwax.

Discworld witches
Literary characters introduced in 1987

Granny Weatherwax


Primarily it must be understood that in Hinduism the concept of God or Goddess is unlike that of monotheistic religions. The Gods of most cultures in Asia are icons of excellence to be emulated. They are not absoluteles. They may be questioned. Each represents a strength of human character. In Hinduism there are many beliefs regarding different deities. But in most of them a god is in charge. Supreme divine power in Hinduism is Para Brahman as the sole ultimate truth, an entity that exists and gives life to all things which is formless and is referred to as Vishnu or Narayana, Adi Parashakti/Shakti or Durga and Shiva or Mahadeva among different sects of Hinduism. Different forms (Avatars) of the same entity or supreme Brahman is being worshipped depending on the versatile number of traditions and sects within Hinduism.

Hindus believe all it's devi-devas are different forms of that same formless Par bramh. Devi-Devas in Hinduism are thought as highly advanced spiritual beings and are often represented in human form or partially human and partially animal forms. Sometimes they are also represented as non-living things and plants.

The three gods who started creation: Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva are called Bhagwans (also known as Bhagavān). Yakshas are all male gods created by the three Bhagwans.

The main god in Vaishnavite sect of Hinduism is Vishnu. Vishnu is revered as supreme Paramatman in Vaishnava tradition. Shiva is the Supreme, in Shaivite Traditions while in Shakti Traditions, Adi Parashakti is supreme. Other names such as Ishvara, Bhagavan, Bhagvati, Parmeshwara and Paramatamana also means Hindu gods and all of them mainly denote Brahman. Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma are the major gods and Lakshmi, Parvati and Saraswati are the major goddesses in Hinduism. Many Hindus believe that Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva or Maheshwar is destroyer. Varuna

Supreme God
The idea of a single, widely accepted supreme God in Hinduism is not uniform and varies across different traditions. Some followers worship specific deities as the supreme being, such as Vishnu, Shakti, or Shiva, while others have a more abstract understanding of divinity. In some cases, all deities are seen as manifestations of a single ultimate reality. The cultural and linguistic diversity of India has influenced the varied interpretations of the concept of a supreme God within Hinduism.

Regional and family traditions can play a large part in influencing this choice. Through history four principal Hindu denominations arose —Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Shaivism, and Smartism.

For Vaishnavites, God Vishnu is God Of Supreme, For Shaktas, Goddess Shakti is supreme, For Shaivites, God Shiva is Supreme. For Smartas—who see all Deities as reflections of the One God—the choice of Deity is left to the devotee.

Most Hindus, in their daily devotional practices, worship some form of a personal aspect of God, although they believe in the more abstract concept of a Supreme God as well.

They generally choose one concept of God, and cultivate devotion to that chosen form, while at the same time respecting the chosen ideals of other people. The many different names given to the Supreme God in Hinduism encourage a multiplicity of paths, as opposed to conformity to just one.

The unique understanding in Hinduism is that God is not far away, living in a remote heaven, but is all-pervasive and energizes the entire universe. He is also inside each soul, waiting to be discovered. Knowing the one Supreme God in this intimate and experiential way is the goal of Hindu spirituality.

Other gods

Hindus also believe in many Gods (Devas) who perform various functions, like executives in a large corporation. These should not be confused with the Supreme God.

These deities are highly advanced beings who have specific duties and powers—not unlike the heavenly spirits, overlords or archangels that are mystical actors revered in other faiths. Each denomination worships the Supreme God and its own set of divine beings.

Devas (also called Devatās) constitute an integral part of the colorful Hindu culture. These various forms of God are represented in innumerable paintings, statues, murals, and scriptural stories that can be found in temples, homes, businesses, and other places.

In Hinduism the scriptures recommend that for the satisfaction of a particular material desire a person may worship a particular deity. For example, shopkeepers frequently keep a statue or picture of the devi Lakshmi in their shops.

Bhuvaneswari
The concept of Goddess Bhuvaneswari as the supreme goddess emerged in historical religious literature as a term to define the powerful and influential nature of female deities in India. Throughout history, goddesses have been portrayed as the mother of the universe, through whose powers the universe is created and destroyed. The gradual changes in belief through time shape the concept of Bhuvaneswari and express how the different Goddesses, though very different in personality, all carry the power of the universe on their shoulders.

References

Hindu gods


Nick Dudman is a British make-up effects and creature designer for motion pictures.

Dudman and his team have created the make-up effects and the animatronic creatures in the Harry Potter films, garnering BAFTA Award nominations for six of the eight films in the series. He was also nominated for an Academy Award. Dudman got his start working on the Jedi master Yoda as a trainee to famed British make-up artist Stuart Freeborn, on The Empire Strikes Back. After apprenticing with Freeborn for four years, Dudman was asked to head up the English makeup laboratory for Ridley Scott's Legend. He subsequently worked on the makeup and prosthetics for such films as Mona Lisa, Labyrinth, Willow, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Alien 3 and Interview with the Vampire, among others.

In 1995, Dudman's career path widened into animatronics and large-scale creature effects when he was asked to oversee the 55-man creature department for the Luc Besson film The Fifth Element, for which he won a BAFTA Award for Visual Effects. Since then, he has led the creatures/make-up effects departments on several blockbusters, including Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and consulted on the Costume effects for Batman Begins. Dudman designed the animatronics for Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men.

In 2007, he was awarded the Genie Award for Best Makeup by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television for his work on Beowulf and Grendel. In 2013 Dudman was made an honorary fellow of Arts University Bournemouth. Dudman was in March 2015 nominated for the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards in the Category Best TV Make-up/Creature SFX.

References

External links

Living people
British make-up artists
Best Visual Effects BAFTA Award winners
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Best Makeup Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
Animatronic engineers

Nick Dudman


Ambrose Swasey (December 19, 1846 – June 15, 1937) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, manager, astronomer, and philanthropist. With Worcester R. Warner he co-founded the Warner & Swasey Company.

Life and work
Swasey was born near Exeter, New Hampshire to Nathaniel and Abigail Swasey. He apprenticed as a machinist at the Exeter Machine Works and was afterwards employed at Pratt & Whitney. As his career progressed, he became a foreman in the gear-cutting section. He developed a new technique for making gear-tooth cutters. In 1880, he and Warner formed their eponymous firm, which quickly moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Swasey would perform the engineering and machine development at this company.

The close friends Warner and Swasey built their homes next to each other on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, a street that was known as "Millionaire's Row".

In addition to army ordnance contracts, the firm of Warner & Swasey became notable for their work on astronomical observatories and equipment. The founders were interested in astronomy as an avocation, and in the field's quest for better optical telescopes, which was burgeoning at the time. They also realized that obtaining contracts to build large astronomical observatories would provide publicity for their company.

In 1885, Swasey completed work at McCormick Observatory on the 45-foot dome, which was the largest in the world, and had a unique, 3 shutter design. In 1887, Swasey built the mount for the 36-inch refracting telescope at Lick Observatory. In 1898, he manufactured a dividing engine for the U.S. Naval Observatory that was used to make the meridian circles. Both the building and dome of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory were made by Warner and Swasey Co. Other observatory telescopes and components were built by the company at the Kenwood Observatory, Yerkes Observatory, Argentine National Observatory, the Swasey Observatory at Denison University, and the Case School of Applied Science Observatory.

From 1904 until 1905, he was the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Legacy

Both Warner and Swasey were amateur astronomers. In 1920, they made a joint donation to the Case School of Applied Science to fund the construction of an observatory. This was named the Warner and Swasey Observatory in their honor, and the observatory was used for research by the Case astronomy department. The observatory maintained by the department today is still known by this name today.

Swasey Hall (1917, "懷士堂"), a red brick hall, is the landmark of Sun Yat-sen University, one of the top colleges in China. It was named after Swasey for his USD$25000 donation to the then university Christian YMCA society hall. Now it serves as a conference hall.

Other donations made by Swasey include the Swasey Chapel at Denison University in Granville, Ohio (1924), a bandstand in Exeter by architect Henry Bacon (1916), a library building to Colgate Rochester Divinity School and the endowment of a chair for a professor of physics at the Case School of Applied Sciences. The chimes in the chapel were included as a memorial to his wife, Lavinia Marston Swasey.

Swasey died in Exeter. The Warner & Swasey Company he cofounded would continue until 1980, when it was acquired by Bendix Corporation.

Awards and honors
 The crater Swasey on the Moon is named after him, as is the asteroid 992 Swasey.
 At CWRU, the chair of "Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics" was named for his endowment. (Lawrence M. Krauss was named to this position in 1993.)
 In 1919 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society
 In 1922 he was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences
 In 1932 he was awarded the Franklin Medal.
 in 1933 he was awarded the ASME Medal.
 In 1936 he was awarded the Hoover Medal.
 Swasey was a member of the United States National Research Council.
 In 1982 Swasey was elected to the Machine Tool Hall of Fame of the American Precision Museum.

References

Bibliography

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External links
 Portrait of Ambrose Swasey from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections

1846 births
1937 deaths
Engineers from Ohio
19th-century American inventors
20th-century American inventors
Machine tool builders
People from Cleveland
Presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASME Medal recipients
John Fritz Medal recipients
People from Exeter, New Hampshire
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Recipients of Franklin Medal

Ambrose Swasey


Gas well deliquification, also referred to as "gas well dewatering", is the general term for technologies used to remove water or condensates build-up from producing gas wells.

When natural gas flows to the surface in a producing gas well, the gas carries liquids to the surface if the velocity of the gas is high enough. A high gas velocity results in a mist flow pattern in which liquids are finely dispersed in the gas. Consequently, a low volume of liquid is present in the tubing or production conduit, resulting in a pressure drop caused by gravity acting on the flowing fluids. As the gas velocity in the production tubing drops with time, the velocity of the liquids carried by the gas declines even faster. Flow patterns of liquids on the walls of the conduit cause liquid to accumulate in the bottom of the well, which can either slow or stop gas production altogether.

Possible solutions to this problem include the installation of a velocity string, a capillary string injecting foamers (often with corrosive effects on surface wellhead seals), or a pump to continuously or intermittently pump the water to the surface to remove the hydrostatic barrier that the water creates. A common practice is to use a device called a  plunger to lift the liquids. Improved electrical pumps coming onto the market may enhance the effectiveness of the technology.

The same concept is also applicable to oil wells when they are at the end stage of production. In this case, the reservoir pressure drops to such a low level that it cannot lift the weight of the oil/water column to the surface. By injecting a gas (such as nitrogen) into the wellbore at a specific point, the density of the fluid column can be reduced to the point that the reservoir pressure is once again able to lift fluids to the surface.

References
Gas Well Deliquification: Solutions to Gas Well Liquid Loading Problems by James Lea, Henry Nickens and Mike Wells, Gulf Professional Publishing 2003

External links
Summary of Journal of Petroleum Technology paper on gas well deliquification
Oil & Gas Journal article on low-pressure gas well deliquification

Natural gas technology

Gas well deliquification