The Polar Express (film)

The Polar Express is a 2004 American computer-animated adventure film co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, who also served as one of the executive producers. The film features human characters animated using live-action motion capture animation. It tells the story of a young boy who, on Christmas Eve, sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor. The boy joins several other children as they embark on a journey to visit Santa Claus preparing for Christmas. The film stars Tom Hanks, who was also one of the film's executive producers, in multiple distinct roles, with Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett and Eddie Deezen in supporting roles.
Castle Rock Entertainment produced the film in association with Shangri-La Entertainment, ImageMovers, Playtone and Golden Mean Productions for Warner Bros. Pictures, as Castle Rock's first animated film. Its visual effects and performance capture were done at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The film was made with a production budget of $165 million, a record-breaking sum for an animated feature at the time.
"The Polar Express" was released in both conventional and IMAX 3D theaters on November 10, 2004. The film grossed $286 million worldwide during its initial run, and $314 million with subsequent re-releases, and was later listed in the 2006 "Guinness World Records" as the first all-digital capture film. It also marks Michael Jeter's last acting role before his death, and the film was thus dedicated to his memory.
Plot.
On the night of Christmas Eve, 1957, a boy, who is skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus, notices a steam locomotive riding on the street while on his bed during the night. Named the Polar Express, the train is on its way to the North Pole. Initially reluctant, the boy jumps aboard and meets a spirited girl and a smart know-it-all boy. The train then picks up a boy named Billy, who sits alone in the train's observation car and is provided hot chocolate by the girl.
The ride to the North Pole involves a dance sequence where the passengers are served hot chocolate; the girl losing her ticket and the boy saving it; and the boy encountering a hobo that skis with him on the top of the train and tells him stories about Santa Claus and ghosts. There are obstacles to the ride, including a herd of caribou cleared by the conductor pulling Smokey's beard, causing him to let out animal-like noises; and the throttle's split pin coming off and accelerating the train uncontrollably while on a block of ice that nearly breaks, which the split pin is replaced by Smokey's hair pin.
The train arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the passengers will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa himself. Discovering Billy still alone in the observation car, the girl and boy persuade him to come along. However, the boy accidentally uncouples the car; sending it back along a route towards a railway turntable in Santa's workshop. The children make their way through an elf command center and a gift sorting office before sliding down a massive slide that leads them to a funnel before being dumped into a giant sack of presents, where they discover that the know-it-all has stowed away. The elves escort them out before Santa and his reindeer arrive.
A bell flies loose from the galloping reindeer's reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He shows the bell to Santa, who selects him to receive the first gift of Christmas. Santa agrees to let him keep the bell, and the boy places it in his robe pocket. The rear car is returned to the train as the children board to return home, but the boy discovers that he lost the bell through a hole in his pocket he unconsciously ripped while entering the Polar Express. He returns home and awakens on Christmas morning to find a present containing his lost bell. He and his younger sister Sarah joyfully ring the bell, while their parents, not believing in Santa, do not hear the bell and say that the bell is broken. The boy reflects on his friends and sister eventually growing deaf to the bell over the years as their belief faded. However, despite his now old age, the bell still rings for him, as it does "for all who truly believe".
Production.
Development.
Hanks optioned the book in 1999 with the hopes of playing the conductor and Santa Claus. One of the conditions of the sale was that the resulting film not be animated. Zemeckis, however, felt that a live-action version was unfeasible, claiming that it "would look awful, and it would be impossible – it would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million." Zemeckis felt that such a version would rob the audience of the art style of the book which he felt was "so much a part of the emotion of the story". The two acquired the rights to the book the following year. In order to keep his vision a new process was created by which actors would be filmed with motion capturing equipment in a black box stage which would then be animated to make the resulting film. Hanks stated that this method of working was "actually a return to a type of acting that acting in films does not allow you to do", comparing the process to performing a play in the round. The idea of a Scrooge puppet was conceived when Zemeckis looked at his toys he used to have, one of which was a puppet.
Hanks plays five roles in the film including that of a small child (whose voice would later be dubbed in by Daryl Sabara). Initially Zemeckis considered having him play every role, but after trying this, Hanks grew exhausted, and they whittled down the number.
Filming.
Principal photography of the motion-captures sequences began in June 2003, and wrapped in May 2004.
Architecture.
The buildings at the North Pole refer to a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the city's center are loosely based on the Pullman Factory in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood.
Polar Express Locomotive.
The locomotive featured in the film is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive modeled after the Pere Marquette 1225, which had spent many years on static display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan on the campus of Michigan State University, where Chris Van Allsburg recalled playing on the engine when attending football games as a child. The engine in the movie, however, is noticeably different from the real Pere Marquette 1225, and somewhat closer to looking like an S-1 from the Erie Railroad. These include the headlight being mounted into the smokebox, like many Delaware & Hudson steam locomotives, instead of being on a platform or the cow catcher, and the whistle being mounted on the upper right hand side of the boiler mounted upright, instead of on top of the boiler, mounted horizontally. It also lacks the feedwater heater, marker lights, number boards, and builders plates the real Pere Marquette 1225 has. The cow catcher is also bigger than it is in real life, with slats extending to the pilot beam, and it also lacks a coupler.
In July 2002, Warner Bros. approached the locomotive's owner, the Steam Railroading Institute, to study the engine. The engine in the film is modeled from the PM No. 1225's drawings and the sounds from recordings made of the 1225 operating under steam. The whistle, however, was taken from Sierra Railway No. 3.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack of the film was released on November 2, 2004, through Warner Sunset Records.
Release.
IMAX 3D version.
In addition to standard theatrical 35mm format, a 3D version for IMAX was also released, generated from the same 3D digital models used for the standard version.
Home media.
The film was released on DVD as separated widescreen and full-screen versions in single and two-disc special editions (with bonus features) and on VHS on November 22, 2005, one year after the film originally came out in theaters. It was released on HD-DVD with bonus features in 2006 and on Blu-ray with bonus features on October 30, 2007, both presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio.
Reception.
Box office.
The film opened at #2 behind "The Incredibles", and earned $23,323,463 from approximately 7,000 screens at 3,650 theaters, for a per-theater average of $6,390 and a per-screen average of $3,332 in its opening weekend. It also brought in a total of $30,629,146 since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2,100,000 from 59 IMAX theaters, for an IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday. In its second weekend, the film dropped 33%, and grossing $15,668,101, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative gross to $51,463,282. In its third weekend, which was Thanksgiving weekend, the film increased by 24%, earning $19,389,927, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative gross to $81,479,861. The film has made $187,224,490 domestically, and $126,275,943 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $313,500,433 (including all re-releases). It appeared at No. 3 in the "25 Highest-Grossing Christmas Movies of All Time at the U.S. Box Office" list by "Forbes", placed after "Home Alone" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
The film had its network television premiere on ABC on December 1, 2006. The airing brought in 13.2 million viewers, winning its timeslot and ranking 20th in the Nielsen ratings that week, according to TVTango.com.
Critical response.
According to review aggregator Metacritic, which reports a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 36 critics, "The Polar Express" received "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 208 critics gave the film a positive review, and an average rating of 6.42/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though the movie is visually stunning overall, the animation for the human characters isn't lifelike enough, and the story is padded." "The Independent" reported in 2011 that the film "is now seen by many as a classic". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.
Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, saying, "There's a deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie", and "it has a haunting, magical quality". Acknowledging comments by other reviewers, Ebert said, "It's a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen." Richard Roeper and Mick LaSalle also gave highly positive reviews to the film, with the former saying that it "remains true to the book, right down to the bittersweet final image" and the latter giving it his highest rating of five stars, calling it, "an enchanting, beautiful and brilliantly imagined film that constitutes a technological breakthrough." James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, stating that it is "a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages", and ranked it as the 10th best film of 2004, tying with "The Incredibles". Ian Nathan of "Empire Magazine" gave the film three out of five stars, and said, "For all the fairy-lit wonder, some will rail at the idea of "Back to the Future"s director dabbling with such a schmaltzy tale. Cynics will sneeze in shock; children will cuddle up and dream along." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" also gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "After a promising and distinctive start, a railway adventure to meet Santa runs off the rails."
The character design and animation were criticized for dipping into the uncanny valley. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film one out of four stars, and called it "a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong". Stephanie Zacharek of "Salon" gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of "The Polar Express" if the look of it didn't give me the creeps." Geoff Pevere of the "Toronto Star" stated, "If I were a child, I'd have nightmares. Come to think of it, I did anyway." Paul Clinton from CNN called it "at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying". Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" wrote, "There's no way of knowing whether they drank the company Kool-Aid. Still, from the looks of "The Polar Express" it's clear that, together with Mr. Zemeckis, this talented gang has on some fundamental level lost touch with the human aspect of film."
Accolades.
In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated "The Polar Express" for its Top 10 Animated Films list. The film was nominated at the 77th Academy Awards in the categories of Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Dennis Leonard), Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan), and Best Original Song for "Believe" (music and lyrics by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri). The film was nominated at the 3rd Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture."
Train trips.
The film has also spawned multiple real-world holiday train-travel experiences based loosely on the film's train journey all over the United States, as well as Canada, and even the United Kingdom under license from Rail Events Inc.
These include the Polar Express train ride held at the Grand Canyon Railway, the Polar Express Train Ride of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, the Polar Express Train Ride of the Texas State Railroad, and The Polar Express Train Ride at Aspen Crossing. The Pere Marquette 1225 itself pulls a similarly-themed Christmas train, albeit under the name of the North Pole Express.
The UK's first Polar Express train rides were hosted on the Dartmoor Railway and the Weardale Railway which were both owned by the company British American Railway Services. These services were all diesel hauled, however in 2016, Telford Steam Railway became the first UK line to run the Polar Express with steam, powered by one of two American-built S160 2-8-0 locomotive's No's. 5197 & 6046 courtesy of Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire. The only other known steam operated Polar Express train rides in the UK are by Vintage Trains, which operated Great Western 4-6-0 Hall class No. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall for the ride, albeit being renamed Polar Star, and PNP Events' Polar Express Train Rides in the Yorkshire Dales and South Devon. The Polar Express Train Ride also operates on the Mid-Norfolk Railway, Wensleydale Railway, South Devon Railway and the Seaton Tramway operate the "Polar Express Tram Ride".
The "Polar Express" Experience.
In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the "Polar Express" Experience, a motion simulator ride based on the film. The attraction was a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until January 1, 2008, and was open annually during the Christmas season. 2015 was the final year of operation for the "Polar Express" Experience and Wild Arctic has since operated on a year-round schedule.
The 4D film, distributed by SimEx-Iwerks, has been shown at other amusement parks around the world including Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Stone Mountain, Dollywood (during the annual Smoky Mountain Christmas event), Vancouver Aquarium (2009—2010), and Warner Bros. Movie World (during the White Christmas events in 2010 and 2011).
Video game.
A video game based on the film was released on November 2, 2004 for GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 and Windows, developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by THQ. The plot of the game is somewhat different than the film version. Within the game, the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet—who is set as the main antagonist of the game—attempts to prevent the children from believing in Santa Claus by stealing their tickets and trying to stop the children from making it to the North Pole.
Toy trains.
Model railroad builder Lionel continues to make Polar Express train sets and equipment, including locomotives, traincars, and trackside buildings.


2795 Lepage


2038 Bistro

2038 Bistro (), provisional designation , is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 24 November 1973, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at the Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland. It was named for the Bistro restaurant.
Orbit and classification.
"Bistro" orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,388 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.09 and an inclination of 15° with respect to the ecliptic. The asteroid's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Zimmerwald.
Physical characteristics.
In the SMASS classification, "Bistro" is a Sa-type asteroid, which transitions from the common S-types to the A-type asteroids.
Lightcurves.
In April 2013, a rotational lightcurve of "Bistro" was obtained from photometric observations at the Bassano Bresciano Observatory in Italy. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 17.051 hours with a brightness variation of 0.12 magnitude ().
The results supersede three previously published results from fragmentary lightcurves that gave a much shorter period between 7.88 and 8 hours ().
Diameter and albedo.
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, "Bistro" measures between 10.55 and 13.52 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.1342 and 0.25.
The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" derives an albedo of 0.1739 and a diameter of 12.69 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.0.
Naming.
This minor planet was named Bistro, the small type of restaurant that originated from Paris. As with the precedingly numbered 2037 Tripaxeptalis, the name may also alludes to a numbers game, this time to 1019 Strackea, as . The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 June 1980 ().


Staalplaat

Staalplaat is an independent record label that is located in Amsterdam with a separate store in Berlin. Founded in 1982, the company's mission was to create a sound forum for sound artists, who write and perform new and experimental music.


348 May

May (minor planet designation: 348 May) is a large Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 28 November 1892 in Nice.


New standard tuning

New standard tuning (NST) is an alternative tuning for the guitar that approximates all-fifths tuning. The guitar's strings are assigned the notes C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4 (from lowest to highest); the five lowest open strings are each tuned to an interval of a perfect fifth {(C,G),(G,D),(D,A),(A,E)}; the two highest strings are a minor third apart (E,G).
All-fifths tuning is typically used for mandolins, cellos, violas, and violins. On a guitar, tuning the strings in fifths would mean the first string would be a high B, something that was impractical until recently. NST provides a good approximation to all-fifths tuning. Like other regular tunings, NST allows chord fingerings to be shifted from one set of strings to another.
NST's C-G range is wider, both lower and higher, than the E-E range of standard tuning in which the strings are tuned to the open notes E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. The greater range allows NST-guitars to play repertoire that would be impractical, if not impossible, on a standard-tuned guitar.
NST was developed by Robert Fripp, the guitarist for King Crimson. Fripp taught the new standard tuning in Guitar-Craft courses beginning in 1985, and thousands of Guitar Craft students continue to use the tuning. Like other alternative tunings for guitar, NST provides challenges and new opportunities to guitarists, who have developed music especially suited to NST.
NST places the guitar strings under greater tension than standard tuning. Standard sets of guitar strings do not work well with the tuning as the lowest strings are too loose and the highest string may snap under the increased tension. Special sets of NST strings have been available for decades, and some guitarists have assembled NST sets from individual strings.
History.
New standard tuning (NST) was invented by Robert Fripp of the band King Crimson in September 1983. Fripp began using the tuning in 1985 before beginning his Guitar Craft seminars, which have taught the tuning to three thousand guitarists.
The tuning is (from low to high): C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4. The original version of NST was all-fifths tuning.
However, in the 1980s, Fripp never attained the all-fifth's high B. While he could attain A, the string's lifetime distribution was too short. Experimenting with a G string, Fripp succeeded. "Originally, seen in 5ths all the way, the top string would not go to B. so, as on a tenor banjo, I adopted an A on the first string. These kept breaking, so G was adopted." In 2012, Fripp suggested that Guitar Circle members experiment with an A String (0.007) from Octave4Plus of Gary Goodman; if successful, the experiment could lead to "the NST 1.2", C2G2D3A3E4-A4, according to Fripp. In 2010, Fripp suggested renaming the tuning as "Guitar Craft Standard Tuning or C Pentatonic tuning".
Properties.
The lowest five strings are tuned in perfect fifths from a low C. The first string is a minor third up from the E to a G. Since the lowest five strings are tuned in fifths, guitars with NST can be played with the fingerings for chords and scales used on the violin, cello, and mandolin.
The first five strings of NST have all-fifths tuning, and so its all-fifths chords are movable around the fretboard. In contrast, standard tuning has an irregular major-third interjected among its perfect fourths, which complicates the learning of chords by beginners.
The distinct open-notes {C,G,D,A,E} are the notes of the major pentatonic scale on C, which contains only consonant intervals. The C-pentatonic scale omits the open B of standard tuning and all-fifths tuning, which forms a dissonant second-interval with C. With the 1980s King Crimson, Fripp had used pentatonic harmony in "Discipline", "Thela Hun Ginjeet", and "Sartori in Tangier".
Harmonics: Overtones.
New standard tuning lists four notes (C,G,E,G) from the harmonic sequence (overtones) for the note C. When the low open-note C-string is struck, its harmonic sequence begins with the notes
To strengthen a given chord, Vincent Persichetti's "Twentieth-century harmony" recommends adding perfect fifths above the initial overtones, rather than adding higher overtones, such as B and the higher C. Persichetti's book influenced Fripp. In new standard tuning
Range.
Like all-fifths tuning, NST has a greater range than the standard tuning, a perfect fifth greater (a major third lower and a minor third higher).
Chords: Perfect intervals rather than thirds.
Asked whether NST facilitates "new intervals or harmonies that aren't readily available in standard tuning", Fripp responded, "Yes, that's part of it. It's more effective. It's a more rational system, but it's also better sounding—better for chords, better for single notes." To build chords, Fripp uses "perfect intervals in fourths, fifths and octaves", so avoiding minor and major thirds. Quartal and quintal harmony was stressed from the beginning of Fripp's teaching of Guitar Craft. Fripp began a 1986 course with these directions: "Now, pick a note from the following series—[it was a series of fourths or fifths]. "When you are ready"—do not be in any hurry, but "when you are ready" play your note, then pick others and play them as the situation demands it. Your first note will be the first "intentional" note you have played in a week."
It is a challenge to adapt conventional guitar chords to new standard tuning. NST has wider intervals between consecutive strings than standard tuning.
Historical background.
Modern quartal and quintal harmony revives the polyphonic traditions of medieval Europe. Before the common practice period, European polyphony emphasized unison intervals and octaves and also perfect fifths. From the Renaissance to 1900, Western symphonic music was diatonic, emphasizing the tertian harmony of major and minor scales, keys, and chords. Much popular music, especially rock, retains diatonic harmony.
String gauges.
With traditional guitar strings, the low C may be loose and the high G may be too tight. Special gauges are therefore more suitable for NST. For steel-stringed acoustic-guitars, many Guitar-Craft participants use either an .011–.058 inch set or an .011–.059 inch set; string-sets may be purchased as a set from a manufacturer or purchased singly and assembled by the guitarist.
In 2012, a 0.007 inch gauge was being evaluated by Fripp and other members of Guitar Circle, who are considering replacing the first string's G note with an A note, the better to approximate the B note of all-fifths tuning. The 0.007 inch gauge was produced by Octave4Plus of Gary Goodman. Robert Fripp uses lighter strings for electric guitar.
Artists who use NST.
Robert Fripp has used the New Standard Tuning since 1984.
Fripp has taught NST in his Guitar-Craft courses. In Guitar Craft and since 2010 in the successor Guitar Circles, students use only New Standard Tuning. Having to use a new tuning, the students are challenged to approach their playing with greater mindfulness, putting to rest their habitual use of automatic chords or licks. With the new tuning, guitarists have to find new ways of musical expression.
The tuning is used by students of Guitar Craft, of which there have been three thousand. Guitar-Craft alumni who continue to practice NST are called "crafty guitarists" or "crafties". Some crafty guitarists formed The League of Crafty Guitarists (LCG), which toured with Robert Fripp and released several albums. The Guitar-Craft experience and the League of Crafty Guitarists trained guitarists who went on to form new bands, such as the California Guitar Trio and Trey Gunn; the California Guitar Trio and Gunn toured with Fripp as The Robert Fripp String Quintet. Other alumni of the League of Crafty Guitarists include members of Los Gauchos Alemanes, such as U.S. guitarist Steve Ball; Ball is associated with the Seattle Guitar Circle, along with LCG alumnus Curt Golden.
The collection "A Plague of Crafty Guitarists" features the following Guitar-Craft alumni, who were listed in a review by Barry Cleveland: Tobin Buttram, Nigel Gavin, Geary Street Quartet, Bill Hibbits, Janssen and Jensen, Alejandro Miniaci and From Power Trio /Project , Sur Pacifico, Playmovil, and Santos Luminosos.
NST has been adapted for instruments besides guitar. Trey Gunn (Crimson's warr guitar player from 1994 to 2003) and Markus Reuter (TUNER with Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto) have adapted NST for their 8- and 10-string instruments; in 2007 Reuter used a B-F-C-G-D-A-C-D tuning. Finnish musician Heikki Malmberg uses a 7-string guitar tuned in NST with an additional low F. Additionally, British musician Michael Linden West plays the oud in NST.


Paraguayan harp

The Paraguayan harp is the national instrument of Paraguay, and similar instruments are used elsewhere in South America, particularly Venezuela.
It is a diatonic harp with 32, 36, 38 or 40, 42 or 46 strings, made from tropical wood, pine and cedar, with a rounded neck-arch, played with the fingernail. It accompanies traditional songs in the Guarani language. It stands 4.5–5 feet tall and weighs 8–10 pounds.
Construction.
The Paraguayan harp is constructed in three parts which are never glued or attached in fixed form; the head (also called the neck) the arm and the body. Characterized by a long cone shaped sound box constructed in three parts with face attached and with a flat oval base and two to three sound oval holes on the backside ranging 3–4 inches in diameter each. It has two legs on the bottom which are 4  inches long. The Paraguayan Harp weighs approximately 8 pounds and is carried via the “arm” the center pole which creates tension between the sound box and the “head”.
Traditionally, in harps older than 50 years, the strings were made of catgut tightly twisted. However, modern harps made within the last 50 years are strung with nylon strings. The harmonic curve encompasses four ranges from brilliant at top to clear to soft to muted. The head is made mostly from native Palo Santo wood. The strings are strung up through the center of the head, a defining feature distinguishing Paraguayan Harps from other South American Harps, whose strings are strung on the side of the head. Tuning pegs were traditionally hand carved, but newer harps employ guitar levers. High-end harps use sharping levers, which raise the tone of the affected string by a half step, allowing the harp to be played in a variety of keys.
The strings are made from single strand imported nylon of varying dimension in the high octaves and double wrapped nylon in the lower octaves. The harps range from 4+ to nearly 8 octaves depending on the maker. There are 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42, 46 strings, depending on the maker. Each maker creates a proprietary and immediately recognizable variant to the exterior hand carvings or lack thereof on the head and body sides as well as the quantity of strings. Harps from other parts of the world universally use red to denote C strings and blue to denote F strings, but placement of the red or blue strings and what note (high C or F) they represent varies among Paraguayan harp makers. Dedicated players play only their variant of tuned string color codes, thereby creating two schools of harps, those with the red C and the ones with the blue C.
History.
In Brazil and Uruguay Portuguese Capuchin missions produced harps, guitars, and violins, based on 16th- and 17th-century Portuguese and Spanish models, for import to European royal courts. These were handcrafted by native Tupi-Guarani workers who became widely respected in Europe for their fine woodworking skills.
The Spanish Franciscan friars who established missions in Paraguay were less successful in subjugating the Tupi Guarani Indians to forced labor source so that the Guarani they became a more powerful culture in Paraguay, and Guaraní became the country's official second language, making Paraguay the only nation in the Americas with an indigenous official national language. Guaraní and Mestizo instrument makers were entrepreneurs in Paraguay and the local music came to reflect Guarani folklore and legends and appreciation of their environment in songs largely about birds, women and Guarani lore. The Paraguayan harp, the dominant instrument for "campesinos" (country folk), became the national instrument of Paraguay, its historical roots associated with liberation from the missionary systems of the more repressive neighboring countries. It is the national symbol of Paraguay.
Between the 1930s to late 1950s Paraguayan had influence across the world and many famous Paraguayan performers began with the Paraguayan harp and guitar. Paraguayan harp is played solo or in duet with another Paraguayan harp, a guitar or rarely (until 50 years ago) a violin. It often accompanies singing in Guarani or Spanish or a mixture of the two and is played mostly by men. Traditionally women did not play at all until the late 20th century: Guarani traditions prohibited women from playing music for religious reasons. There is no traditional percussive accompaniment.
Accomplished male harpists ventured out of Paraguay in the 20th century, mostly to Europe, Japan and, on occasion, the Middle East, greatly modifying musical styles to include western influences including classical harp, jazz and “elevator music”. Modern Paraguayan harpists consider themselves more accomplished if they can play popular hits, while the true measure of accomplishment requires performance of a handful of national harp pieces; "La Missionera" ("The Missionary Woman"), "El Tren Lechero" ("The Milk Train", based on lore about the first national train with a steam engine – the first in South America and a source of great national pride), "Pajaro Campana" ("Bell bird", a small, very loud bird, the national bird of Paraguay) and "Cascada" ("The Waterfall", referring to the Iguazu Falls).
Technique.
The Paraguayan harp, like all Latin American harps, is played with the fingernails, which are kept long. The right hand is used for the upper octaves and the left is used for the lower octaves. The right thumb is used for percussive rhythmic "thumping” on the bass strings and glissando on the upper strings. The left hand carries the rhythm on the bass strings. Players in all Latin American harp styles except the Venezuelan traditionally only use the first four fingers of each hand, starting with the thumb, although newer generation harpists are using all 10 fingers. Trademark fingering techniques are passed down from master to student only. The music is largely unwritten, and is passed from master to student through oral tradition only. It is played mostly by ear. Tuning for each octave is a seven-note natural diatonic scale. The intricate rhythms played are ¾ beat to 2 beat creating an attractive “lilt” compared in oral tradition to the gait of a horse missing a leg. Minor keys are employed to express the soul of the Guarani.


350 Ornamenta

Ornamenta (minor planet designation: 350 Ornamenta) is a relatively large main-belt asteroid, measuring 118 km in diameter. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of carbonaceous material.
Ornamenta was discovered by Auguste Charlois on December 14, 1892, in Nice, France. It was named in 1905 after Antoinette Horneman, who was a member of the Société astronomique de France.
This object is the namesake of a family of 14–93 asteroids that share similar spectral properties and orbital elements; hence they may have arisen from the same collisional event. All members have a relatively high orbital inclination.


Costa Rican units of measurement

A number of units of measurement were used in Costa Rica to measure measurements in length, mass, area, capacity, etc. In Costa Rica, metric system has been adopted since 1910, and has been compulsory since 1912, by a joint convention among Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador.
Pre-metric units.
Before the metric system, a number of modified Spanish (i.e., Spanish Castilian), English and local units were used.
Length.
A number of units were used to measure length. One vara was equal to 0.8393 m. Some other units are given below:
1 cuarta = vara
1 tercia = vara
1 mecate = 24 varas.
Mass.
Several units were used to measure mass in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Some units are given below:
1 caja = 16 kg
1 fanega = 92 kg
1 carga = 161 kg.
As a typical coffee measure, fanega was equal to 46 kg of coffee.
Area.
Several units were used to measure area in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. One manzana was equal to 10,000 square varas or 6960.5 m2. One caballeria was equal to 64 manzanas.
Capacity.
Several units were used to measure capacity in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. One botella was equal to 0.63 to 0.67 l. One cajuela was equal to 16.6 l. The capacity of one cuartillo is very variable.


Opportunity class

Opportunity Classes (OC classes) in New South Wales, Australia are government primary school classes operated by the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities for gifted and talented children.
History.
Opportunity classes have a long history in NSW, with the first ones established in 1932. The impact of attending Opportunity classes varies with individual students, with some reporting negative experiences, while others report a strong sense of community and wellbeing.
Opportunity classes have been regarded by some parents as feeder schools for selective schools; however, not all students in opportunity classes successfully gain admission to selective schools. The reality is that entry to both OC and Selective High School classes is via standardized testing that focuses on ability in mathematics, english and general ability (basically an IQ-style test), and that there are fewer places available for entry to OC (~1800) than to Selective High School (4214 places in 2015), so in theory it is 'harder' to gain entry into OC than Selective High School and a large percentage of students attending OC classes gain entry to Selective High School, or gain a scholarship to a private high school.
Admission.
Parents of prospective applicants for opportunity classes complete an "Intention to Apply" form provided by the school, then complete an online application. Prospective applicants undertake an aptitude test, consisting of mathematics and English literacy components, the marks for which are sent with assessment scores based on the student's performance in Years 3 and 4 by the applicant's school principal.
List of schools with opportunity classes.
The following schools offer admission to opportunity classes in Year 5 & 6.


Cavity ring-down spectroscopy

Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is a highly sensitive optical spectroscopic technique that enables measurement of absolute optical extinction by samples that scatter and absorb light. It has been widely used to study gaseous samples which absorb light at specific wavelengths, and in turn to determine mole fractions down to the parts per trillion level. The technique is also known as cavity ring-down laser absorption spectroscopy (CRLAS).
A typical CRDS setup consists of a laser that is used to illuminate a high-finesse optical cavity, which in its simplest form consists of two highly reflective mirrors. When the laser is in resonance with a cavity mode, intensity builds up in the cavity due to constructive interference. The laser is then turned off in order to allow the measurement of the exponentially decaying light intensity leaking from the cavity. During this decay, light is reflected back and forth thousands of times between the mirrors giving an effective path length for the extinction on the order of a few kilometers.
If a light-absorbing material is now placed in the cavity, the mean lifetime decreases as fewer bounces through the medium are required before the light is fully absorbed, or absorbed to some fraction of its initial intensity. A CRDS setup measures how long it takes for the light to decay to 1/"e" of its initial intensity, and this "ringdown time" can be used to calculate the concentration of the absorbing substance in the gas mixture in the cavity.
Detailed description.
Cavity ring-down spectroscopy is a form of laser absorption spectroscopy. In CRDS, a laser pulse is trapped in a highly reflective (typically R > 99.9%) detection cavity. The intensity of the trapped pulse will decrease by a fixed percentage during each round trip within the cell due to absorption , scattering by the medium within the cell, and reflectivity losses. The intensity of light within the cavity is then determined as an exponential function of time.
The principle of operation is based on the measurement of a decay rate rather than an absolute absorbance. This is one reason for the increased sensitivity over traditional absorption spectroscopy, as the technique is then immune to shot-to-shot laser fluctuations. The decay constant, τ, which is the time taken for the intensity of light to fall to 1/e of the initial intensity, is called the ring-down time and is dependent on the loss mechanism(s) within the cavity. For an empty cavity, the decay constant is dependent on mirror loss and various optical phenomena like scattering and refraction:
where "n" is the index of refraction within the cavity, "c" is the speed of light in vacuum, "l" is the cavity length, "R" is the mirror reflectivity, and "X" takes into account other miscellaneous optical losses. This equation uses the approximation that ln(1+"x") ≈ "x" for "x" close to zero, which is the case under cavity ring-down conditions. Often, the miscellaneous losses are factored into an effective mirror loss for simplicity. An absorbing species in the cavity will increase losses according to the Beer-Lambert law. Assuming the sample fills the entire cavity,
where α is the absorption coefficient for a specific analyte concentration at the cavity's resonance wavelength. The decadic absorbance, "A", due to the analyte can be determined from both ring-down times.
Alternatively, the molar absorptivity, ε, and analyte concentration, "C", can be determined from the ratio of both ring-down times. If "X" can be neglected, one obtains
When a ratio of species' concentrations is the analytical objective, as for example in carbon-13 to carbon-12 measurements in carbon dioxide, the ratio of ring-down times measured for the same sample at the relevant absorption frequencies can be used directly with extreme accuracy and precision.
Advantages of CRDS.
There are two main advantages to CRDS over other absorption methods:
First, it is not affected by fluctuations in the laser intensity. In most absorption measurements, the light source must be assumed to remain steady between blank (no analyte), standard (known amount of analyte), and sample (unknown amount of analyte). Any drift (change in the light source) between measurements will introduce errors. In CRDS, the ringdown time does not depend on the intensity of the laser, so fluctuations of this type are not a problem. Independency from laser intensity makes CRDS needless to any calibration and comparison with standards.
Second, it is very sensitive due to its long pathlength. In absorption measurements, the smallest amount that can be detected is proportional to the length that the light travels through a sample. Since the light reflects many times between the mirrors, it ends up traveling long distances. For example, a laser pulse making 500 round trips through a 1-meter cavity will effectively have traveled through 1 kilometer of sample.
Thus, the advantages include:


Minute (angle)


Kellie Archer

Kellie Jo Archer (born 1969) is a biostatistician specializing in microarray analysis techniques. She is a professor of biostatistics and chair of the biostatistics department at the Ohio State University.
Education and career.
Archer graduated summa cum laude from Franklin College in 1991.
After earning a master's degree at the Ohio State University in 1993, she worked for several years as a medical data analyst before completing her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in 2001. Her dissertation, "Goodness-of-Fit for Logistic Regression Models Developed Using Data Collected from a Complex Sampling Design", was supervised by Stanley Lemeshow.
She became an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002, earning tenure there in 2009, becoming director of the VCU Massey Cancer Center Biostatistics Shared Resource in 2011, and being promoted to full professor in 2015. She moved to Ohio State in 2016, and continues to hold an affiliate position at Virginia Commonwealth University.


2428 Kamenyar


2234 Schmadel


FitNesse

FitNesse is a web server, a wiki and an automated testing tool for software. It is based on Ward Cunningham's Framework for Integrated Test and is designed to support acceptance testing rather than unit testing in that it facilitates detailed readable description of system function.
FitNesse allows users of a developed system to enter specially formatted input (its format is accessible to non-programmers). This input is interpreted and tests are created automatically. These tests are then executed by the system and output is returned to the user. The advantage of this approach is very fast feedback from users. The developer of the system to be tested needs to provide some support (classes named "fixtures", conforming to certain conventions).
FitNesse is written in Java (by Micah Martin with help from Robert C. Martin and others). The program first supported only Java, but versions for several other languages have been added over time (C++, Python, Ruby, Delphi, C#, etc.).
Principles of FitNesse.
FitNesse as a testing method.
FitNesse was originally designed as a highly usable interface around the Fit framework. As such its intention is to support an agile style of black-box testing acceptance and regression testing. In this style of testing the functional testers in a software development project collaborate with the software developers to develop a testing suite.
FitNesse testing is based around the notation of black-box testing, in which a system under test is considered to be a black box and is tested in terms of the outputs generated in response to predetermined inputs. A functional tester is responsible for designing the tests in a functional sense and expressing them within the FitNesse tool, whereas the software developer is responsible for connecting the FitNesse tool to the system under test so that FitNesse can execute the test and compare the actual output to the expected output.
The idea behind this testing method, as described in "Fit for Developing Software", is that the forced collaboration of testers and developers will improve mutual understanding of the system and requirements by forcing the two groups to develop a common language as they learn to communicate together.
FitNesse as a testing tool.
Tests are described in Fitnesse as couplings of inputs and expected outputs. These couplings are expressed variations of a decision table. The FitNesse tool supports several of these variations, ranging from literal decision tables to tables that execute queries to tables that express testing scripts (i.e. a literal ordering of steps that must be followed to reach a result). The most generic form is a fully free-form table that can be interpreted in any way the test designers like. All tests are expressed in the shape of some sort of table, however.
FitNesse is focused entirely on easily creating tests, allowing testers and developers to focus on creating high-quality tests rather than getting lost in the mechanics of executing a test. Given the way FitNesse works, creating tests easily involves three factors:
In order to meet these requirements, FitNesse leverages the wiki mechanism. Wikis classically allow for the easy and rapid creation of HTML pages and particularly simplify the expression of tables. These qualities make the basic WikiWiki language an ideal choice for a "user interface" for FitNesse: on the one hand it allows for the simple expression of very free-form tables, on the other hand it limits the contents of those tables to rather simple text. This means that the WikiWiki language can handle whatever shape of table is required for a particular test and at the same time limits the contents of those tables to alphanumeric text that can easily be mapped into a call to a piece of software. Finally, since each test in FitNesse is a wiki page it is possible to embed each testing table within wiki text; this allows a functional tester to include descriptive text with a reasonable layout quickly.
FitNesse as a software tool.
FitNesse is a tool developed in Java and shipped as a single, executable jar file. The executable includes a wiki engine, an embedded web server, a testing engine and all the resources (images, stylesheets and so on) required to create a web site in FitNesse's own style.
FitNesse is focused very much on ease of use as a testing tool. As such it ships with all required components on board: upon execution the tool launches an embedded web server which allows test pages to be exposed locally or across the Internet with equal ease. The embedded server is quite lightweight and can be run from a laptop as well as full server machine.
Upon launch the tool deploys its own Wiki engine into its embedded server. This Wiki engine is similarly focused on simplicity, meaning that it does not require a backing database to run — it simply creates a file-based collection of Wiki pages which are interpreted by the Wiki engine and served by the embedded web server. The default wiki created by the tool includes the FitNesse user guide and some examples. The default document repository is created complete with everything needed to publish a default wiki in the FitNesse style (that is, all the images, stylesheets, JavaScript files and so on are created together with the basic wiki page repository).
The wiki engine is quite basic, but does offer all the basic facilities common among wiki engines: a search engine, revision history per page and a file overview. It also offers some refactoring operations that allow for deleting, moving and renaming files. In addition the wiki engine offers some test-specific facilities, such as standard buttons to run tests, ways of defining individual test pages and suites of tests and a historic overview of test results for trend analysis. Finally the engine offers some minor security facilities for locking pages and securing access to the wiki.
Test execution.
Testing within the FitNesse system involves four components per test:
Of these components the software development team produces two: the wiki page and the fixture (of course it also produces the system under test, but from the point of view of the black-box test only two). The wiki page includes some form of decision table which expresses a test. For example, it might express tests for a component that performs division (the example is based on the one given in the FitNesse Two Minute Example):
The link between the generic testing engine and the system under test is made by a piece of Java code called a fixture. In the case of the table above this code might look like this:
public class DivisionComponentTest extends ColumnFixture {
 private double num;
 private double denom;
 public void setNumeratorValue (double numerator) {
 num = numerator;
 public void setDenominatorValue (double denominator) {
 denom = denominator;
 public double result() {
 return SystemUnderTest.divide (num, denom);
The mapping between the wiki page and the fixture is a straightforward convert-to-camel case mapping. This mapping applies to all table headings and is used to identify the name of the fixture class as well as the methods of the fixture. A heading ending in a question mark is interpreted as a value to be read from the fixture, other headers are considered inputs to the fixture. Methods of the fixture are called in column order of the decision table, from left to right.
Testing engines.
The actual mapping as described above (as well as the invocation of fixture methods) is done by a testing engine. FitNesse supports two of these engines: the Fit engine and the SLIM engine.
Fit.
More than an engine, Fit is a testing framework unto itself. It combines functionality to invoke tests, interpret wiki pages and generate output pages. FitNesse was originally built around Fit as a user interface, which inspired the name of the tool.
Fit is a framework that combines many responsibilities in testing rather than separating responsibilities neatly. The software developer pays a price for this fact in that fixtures for the Fit engine must inherit from Fit framework base classes. This can be inconvenient in Java, as it means that the framework claims a developer's one chance at class inheritance. It also means that a fixture, by its nature, is a heavyweight construct. These considerations have prompted the FitNesse team in recent years to move to the SLIM testing engine.
SLIM.
SLIM (Simple List Invocation Method) is an alternative to Fit.
The SLIM engine is an implementation of the Slim Protocol. Rather than combining all the elements of wiki-based testing, the SLIM engine concentrates only on invoking the fixture; it runs as a separate server which is invoked remotely by the FitNesse wiki engine. The interpretation of the wiki page and the generation of the result page is now part of the wiki engine.
The SLIM engine allows for far more light-weight fixtures which are simple POJOs. These fixtures are not required to extend or use any framework classes, which simplifies their design and allows the fixture designer to concentrate on calling the system under test properly and in the simplest way possible. It also keeps the inheritance route open, allowing fixture developers to create fixture hierarchies if necessary.


2762 Fowler


358 Apollonia

Apolonia (minor planet designation: 358 Apolonia) is a large Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 8 March 1893 in Nice.


Dial (measurement)

A dial is generally a flat surface, circular or rectangular, with numbers or similar markings on it, used for displaying the setting or output of a timepiece, radio, clock, watch, or measuring instrument. There are many instruments used in scientific and industrial applications that use dials with pointers as indicators of a specific physical property. Typical examples include pressure and vacuum gauges, fluid-level gauges (for fuel, engine oil, and so on), voltmeters and ammeters, thermometers and hygrometers, speedometers and tachometers, and indicators (distance amplifying instruments).
Traditionally these have been mechanical devices, but with the advent of electronic displays, analog dials are often simulated from digital measurements.
The term may also refer to a movable control knob used to change the settings of the controlled instrument, for example, to change the frequency of the radio, or the desired temperature on a thermostat.
Styles of dials:
Examples of dial usage:
"Mirror dials" are designed to reduce or eliminate the effect of parallax. They usually consist of a small mirrored strip running parallel to the graduations of the scale under the pointer. When the observer moves his position so that the pointer obscures the pointer's reflection in the mirror, an accurate reading may be taken.


(357439) 2004 BL86

 is a bright sub-kilometer asteroid and binary system, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 30 January 2004 by astronomers of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico. Its moon was discovered during the asteroid's close approach to the Earth in January 2015.
2015 Earth approach.
On 26 January 2015 at 16:20 UTC, passed , or 3.1 lunar distances, from Earth. The asteroid briefly peaked around apparent magnitude 9 and was near the celestial equator. The asteroid was visible in telescopes with objectives of or larger; high-end binoculars under a dark sky may also have worked. Near closest approach the asteroid was moving about 2.5 degrees per hour (2.5 arcseconds per second). The asteroid came to opposition (furthest elongation in the sky from the Sun) on 27 January 2015 at 04:37 UTC. Around 5:00 UTC, the asteroid was near M44 (the Beehive Cluster).
The 26 January 2015 approach of 3.1 lunar distances was the closest approach of for at least the next 200 years. For comparison, , about twice the size of , passed , or 1.3 lunar distances, from Earth on 31 October 2015.
Satellite.
A minor-planet moon, provisionally designated , was first detected by ground-based telescopes by Joe Pollock and Petr Pravec. Observations by the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex and Green Bank Telescope confirmed that it is a binary asteroid with a secondary roughly across. The secondary is estimated to orbit at least from the primary. About 16% of asteroids over in diameter are thought to be binaries.
Numbering and naming.
This minor planet was numbered on 27 March 2013 (). As of 2020, it has not been named.


Vogelsang Military Training Area

Vogelsang Military Training Area () lay in the German North Eifel hills between the villages of Simmerath, Heimbach and Schleiden in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was established in 1946 and handed back at the end of 2005, and consisted of the grounds of the former Nazi leadership training centre in the fort of Vogelsang ("Ordensburg Vogelsang") on the Erpenscheid hill plus additional terrain including the so-called Dreiborn Plateau. In the north and east it was bounded by the Urft Reservoir. The training area had an area of around 45 km2 and since 1 January 2006 has been fully incorporated into the Eifel National Park.
Until 1950 the training area was run by the British armed forces and thereafter until 31 December 2005 by the Belgian military.
History.
Origins.
The basis of the subsequent military training area was the Nazi Ordensburg Vogelsang. This training centre is the second largest relic of Nazi infrastructure in Germany by area after their party congress site in Nuremberg and covered an area of some 100 hectares. The buildings under heritage conservation alone cover a gross floor area of more than 50,000 square metres.
British use from 1946.
After the end of the Second World War, in early 1946, the British Military Government considered for a while tearing down this prominent symbol of Nazism. In September 1946 the British commandeered 42 square kilometres of land around the fort as a military training area, ejecting the population of the nearby village of Wollseifen in doing so. In 1950 the British handed over the Vogelsang Training Area to the Belgian Armed Forces.
Belgian use from 1950.
From 1950 the Belgian forces used the terrain as a military training area, establishing, extending and equipping the original Nazi fort to create the Van Dooren Barracks. In 1989 the site came under heritage conservation protection.
The Belgian military left Vogelsang Camp in late 2005.
Use since 2006.
At the beginning of 2006, ownership of the land was transferred from the Federal Republic of Germany to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The federation swapped, as part of a land consolidation process, the mainly forested land of the Vogelsang Military Training Area, which covered roughly 3,300 hectares, for an equivalent area of forest in the Eifel. However the risk of contamination left by the training area usage remains with the Federation, as in comparable cases, as part of the change-of-use agreement.
Since 1 January 2006, the area and its solid stone buildings have been open to the public and may be visited during the day. Part of the land is crossed by hiking trails, but walkers must not leave the paths (mainly due to uncleared munitions and for nature conservation reasons).
Nature conservation.
For decades large areas of Vogelsang Training Area were only used by the military, but were otherwise largely untouched, and have therefore become natural wilderness. Today they are elementary components of the Eifel National Park and its conservation concept. As a result of very low human intervention since the 1950s, especially the lack of agriculture and forestry, a valuable range of flora and fauna has developed. For example, the wildcat occurs in the woods on the training area and, around the outer edges, the strictly protected red-backed shrike.
In addition to the open land and woods of the Dreiborn Plateau, small stream valleys with tall, herbaceous vegetation, accompanying alder woods and underwater vegetation are of ecological interest. The slopes are covered in places by species-rich spignum meadows and there are also unspoilt spring bogs with willow moss. The red deer is especially important in keeping the meadows clear of bushes.
Pollution is however still a problem, not only due to the use of the area after the war as a firing range and its more general use as a military camp, but also to a great extent due to spent ammunition, blinds and shrapnel left behind by firing carried out during the Second World War. Uncleared areas remain out of bounds to the public.
Tourism.
As well as the Nazi fort of Vogelsang, that is now the main attraction after being out of bounds to the general public for decades, the National Park and nature tourism also play a role in drawing visitors to the former training area terrain. One special place of interest is the abandoned village of Wollseifen, once a small hamlet on the Dreiborn Plateau that had to be evacuated when the training area was established in 1946.
Other places of interest are viewing points with wide views of the Urft Reservoir and valley, various military installations scattered over the out of bounds area and several ruined settlements like the former village of "Vogelsang" and other small hamlets. For example, at "Jägersweiler" there are several old farms and cottages ("Kotten"); the family of European champion aerobatic flyer, Liesel Bach, lived in one of the empty houses before it was cleared.


Walking Piano

The Walking Piano, also called the Big Piano by its creator, Remo Saraceni, is an oversized synthesizer. Merging dance, music, and play, it is played by the user's feet tapping the keys to make music. Versions of the piano have been installed in museums, children's hospitals, and other public places around the world.
History.
Remo Saraceni created a musical daisy for the Bicentennial Celebration in Philadelphia (Design for Fun). From there the concept grew. It took shape with an intermediate stop at an interactive futon, and the first "Big Piano" was built in 1982.” The piano was on display at the F.A.O. Schwartz toy store in New York City when famed movie producer/director Steven Spielberg’s sister saw it and told her brother all about it.
Versions.
An early, one-octave version of the Walking Piano was installed at FAO Schwarz in New York City in 1982. A new three-octave version was specifically created for the 1988 Tom Hanks movie "Big" at the request of director Penny Marshall. That piano was housed in the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until about 2013.
Reception.
The BIG Piano has had continued to enjoy media success, appearing in movies such as "The Night Before" starring Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It has also featured in TV Series such as "Dancing With The Stars", "Puttin' On the Ritz ", and "The Voice Season Premier Feat John Legend". It was also named as one of the most iconic movie props ever.


7336 Saunders

7336 Saunders, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Amor group, approximately 0.5 kilometers in diameter.
The asteroid was discovered on 6 September 1989, by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in California, United States. It was named for JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders.
Orbit and classification.
"Saunders" orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.2–3.4 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.48 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic.
A first precovery was taken at the Australian Siding Spring Observatory in 1982, extending the body's observation arc by 7 years prior to its official discovery at Palomar. It has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of , which corresponds to 74.3 lunar distances.
Physical characteristics.
In the SMASS classification, "Saunders" is a Sq-type, which transitions from the common S-type to the Q-type asteroids. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 467 meters, based on an absolute magnitude of 19.02.
Lightcurve.
In October 1989, the first photometric observations of "Saunders" were made with the ESO 1-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile. It gave a rotation period of 6 hours with a brightness variation of 0.3 magnitude (). Another rotational lightcurve was obtained by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in August 2003, giving a period of and an amplitude of 0.2 magnitude ().
Naming.
This minor planet was named in honor of JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders (born 1940), director of the RPIF and head scientist of the "Solar System Exploration Office". He worked on the Mars Surveyor 2001/03 program and on the Magellan spacecraft, that visited and mapped Venus in 1990. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 26 July 2000 ().
External links.


New Haven Underground Film Festival

The New Haven Underground Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Connecticut, United States. Despite its name, the event itself has never been held in New Haven; instead, it has been held in other Connecticut cities while carrying the slogan "So underground that it's not even in New Haven."
This festival has hosted premieres and screenings of independent, underground and experimental productions from around the world, including a mix of narrative and non-fiction features and shorts. Among the more notable films presented at the festival were "My Big Fat Independent Movie", "Flatland" and "Plan 9 from Syracuse".


4F (music)


Chronograph

A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand and a minute sub-dial; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive pressure on the stem. More complex chronographs use additional complications and can have multiple sub-dials to measure seconds, minutes, hours and even tenths of a second. In addition, many modern chronographs use moveable bezels as tachymeters for rapid calculations of speed or distance. Louis Moinet invented the chronograph in 1816 for use in tracking astronomical objects. Chronographs were also used heavily in artillery fire in the mid to late 1800s. More modern uses of chronographs involve aircraft piloting, auto racing, diving and submarine maneuvering.
Since the 1980s, the term "chronograph" has also been applied to all digital watches that incorporates a stopwatch function.
History.
The term "chronograph" comes from the Greek ( 'time recording'), from ( 'time') and ( 'to write'). Early versions of the chronograph are the only ones that actually used any "writing": marking the dial with a small pen attached to the index so that the length of the pen mark would indicate how much time had elapsed.
The first modern chronograph was invented by Louis Moinet in 1816, solely for working with astronomical equipment. It was Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec who developed the first marketed chronograph at the behest of King Louis XVIII in 1821. The King greatly enjoyed watching horse races, but wanted to know exactly how long each race lasted, so Rieussec was commissioned to invent a contraption that would do the job: as a result he developed the first ever commercialized chronograph. Rieussec was considered the inventor of the chronograph until the Louis Moinet pocket chronograph discovery in 2013 when history was rewritten. In addition to inventing the chronograph, Louis Moinet is also the father of High Frequency. In 1816, his Compteur de Tierces timepiece beat at a rhythm of 216,000 vibrations per hour (30 Hz). This frequency record stood for exactly one century, before eventually being broken in 1916 – after which standard chronometer frequencies returned to present-day levels (generally 4-5 Hz). Still in perfect working order, the Compteur de Tierces is preserved at Ateliers Louis Moinet.
In 1915, Gaston Breitling produced the first chronograph with a central seconds hand and a 30-minute counter. Later, in 1923, Gaston Breitling introduced the first chronograph with a separate pusher at 2 o'clock. In 1934 Willy Breitling further developed the concept of the chronograph with the addition of the second pusher at 4 o'clock. Since then the 3-pusher chronograph design has been adopted by the entire industry.
In 1844 Adolphe Nicole's updated version of the chronograph was the first to include a re-setting feature which now allowed successive measurements, unlike the constantly moving needle in the original chronograph.
In the early part of the 20th century, many chronographs were sold with fixed bezels marked in order to function as a tachymeter. In 1958 the watch company Heuer introduced a model with a rotating bezel tachymeter for more complex calculations.
Chronographs were very popular with aviators as they allowed them to make rapid calculations and conduct precise timing. The demand for chronographs grew along with the aviation industry in the early part of the 20th century. As the US exploration of outer space initially involved only test pilots, by order of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, chronographs were on the wrists of many early astronauts. Chronograph usage followed a similar trajectory for many fields that involve very precise and/or repeated timing around increasingly more complicated high performance machinery, automobile racing and naval submarine navigation being two examples. As different uses for the chronograph were discovered, the industry responded with different models introducing such features as the flyback (where the second hand could be rapidly reset to zero), minute and hour timers, Rattrapante (or multiple second hands one of which can be stopped and started independently) and waterproof models for divers and swimmers.
Although self winding watches and clockwork have been around since the late 1700s, the automatic (self winding) chronograph was not invented until the late 1960s. In 1969, the watch companies Heuer, Breitling, Hamilton, and movement specialist Dubois Dépraz, developed the first automatic chronograph in partnership. They developed this technology secretly in an effort to prevent other watchmaking houses from releasing an automatic chronograph first, namely their competition Zenith and Seiko. It was in Geneva and in New York that this partnership shared the first automatic chronograph with the world on March 3, 1969. These first automatic chronographs were labelled "Chrono-matic".
Many companies sell their own styles of chronographs. While today most chronographs are in the form of wristwatches, in the early 20th century pocket chronographs were very popular.
Uses.
The term chronograph is often confused with the term chronometer. Where "Chronograph" refers to the function of a watch, chronometer is a measure of how well a given mechanical timepiece performs: in order to be labeled a chronometer the timepiece must be certified by the COSC, the official Swiss Chronometer testing institute, after undergoing a series of rigorous tests for robustness, accuracy and precision under adverse conditions (though these requirements fall far short of the accuracy achieved by even the cheapest modern quartz watch). A simple mechanical watch, without the stopwatch functionality, can be certified a chronometer, as can a clock, for example a ship's clock be used for navigation. The terms are not mutually exclusive either, for instance the Omega Seamaster 300M Chronograph GMT Co-Axial is also a COSC certified chronometer
Originally the term chronograph was mainly used in connection with artillery and the velocity of missiles. The Chronograph's main function is to allow a comparison of observation between a time base and, before the electronic stopwatch was invented, a permanent recording of the observer's findings. For example, one of the first applications of the chronograph was to record the time elapsed during horse races.
Some more important uses of the chronograph include the Langley Chronograph, which is used by the US Navy to record, calculate, and analyse data given off by aeroplane launching catapults. Another famous usage of the chronograph was during all of NASA's Apollo missions to the moon, each astronaut was equipped with a fully functioning chronograph, the Omega Speedmaster. Chronographs are routinely used to record heart beats within hospitals, calculate speed and/or distance on athletic fields, or even as simple timers in kitchen.
Function.
Chronographs can be extremely complicated devices, but they all have the basic function of telling time, as they are watches, and of displaying elapsed time. Rieussec's chronograph was fairly simple. It was composed of two faces, a top and bottom face. The bottom face held a pool of ink, while the upper had a pen-like needle attached to it. When activated, the upper face pushed down on the lower face, while revolving around a central axis, which pulled the needle. This dragged the ink, in a circular fashion, recording the time elapsed by the line of ink that the motion created. There was room left for improvement, because Rieussec's chronograph was not easily ready for multiple uses.
This paved the way for the hundreds of patents that have been handed out to people for updating and upgrading this device. Automatic, non-digital chronographs do not require a battery, because the arm or wrist of the wearer creates kinetic energy, which results in the total energy source needed for this device to work. Throughout the day, while the wearer of the watch is walking, the swinging motion of his arm forces a semicircular rotor to turn on a pivot within the watch. The rotor is attached to a ratchet that winds the mainspring in the watch, so that it is ready for use at all times.
The modern day chronograph works by pushing a start button, normally located at the two o'clock position, to begin recording time, and by pushing the same button to stop the recording. When the button is pushed to start the recording, a series of three (in more complicated and more precise chronographs there are more wheels) train wheels start turning. The smallest has a revolution time of one second, the next sixty seconds, and the final one has a revolution time of sixty minutes. The three train wheels interact with one another and record how long it has been since the start button has been activated.
In addition to the start button, it also features a reset button normally located at the four o'clock position. When the reset button is pushed the chronograph hand will reset back to zero.
Tachymeter bezels are a complication that allows rapid calculations of speed or distance. Rotating bezels allow for more complex calculations or repeated calculations without requiring a reset of the timer.
Types.
The original chronographs that Rieussec invented were called tape chronographs. They consisted of a tape that was constantly being dragged along at a controlled speed. When activated, a pen would be pushed onto the tape and begin recording until deactivated.
Specialized chronographs are used by deep sea and scuba divers. While basic functionality is the same as other chronographs, diving models have longer and more practical straps to wear over equipment, are made to be waterproof to deeper depths, have more rounded corners to prevent catching and luminous dials for reading in the murky depths. Also divers chronographs are fitted with large bezels that have at least one luminous marking: at the start of a dive the bezel is rotated to place the marking at the extent of time allowed by the air supply giving the ability to very quickly determine how much time remains for safe diving. Surface supplied divers can use the same to make quick calculations of distance traveled over time.
Metered bezels: Many chronographs have a bezel, that is either fixed or can rotate, around the outside of the dial that is marked to specific scales to allow rapid calculations. While any wristwatch can have a bezel, the chronograph stop start feature, as well as the rotation of the bezel, allows more complex calculations or repeated measurements for a series of calculations. The most popular meter is for Tachymeter readings: a simple scale that allows rapid calculations of speed. Other bezels feature Telemeter scale, for distance. The watchmaking company Breitling offers a model with a rotating bezel, in conjunction with another, fixed, meter on the dial, scaled for use as a slide rule for more complex calculations.
Flyback chronographs have a timing hand that can be rapidly reset, or "flyback", to zero. Ordinarily the sweep second hand is stopped to record the time and started again at that spot on the dial, or reset by spinning the second hand all the way to zero again, clockwise. The flyback allows a reading and a quick reset—a counterclockwise flyback—for the next measurement to start at zero.
A "rattrapante", sometimes called a "double chronograph", has multiple second hands, at least one of which can be stopped and started independently. When not activated, the second hands travel together, one under the other, to appear as just one second hand.
A "tourbillon", although not strictly limited to chronographs, is an escapement set in a cage and placed in a rotating balance in order to minimize the effects of gravity on the escapement and increase precision. Because chronograph escapements are generally larger and connect with more complications, a tourbillion in a chronograph will differ from a tourbillion in a more simple timepiece.
Other types of modern-day chronographs are the "automatic chronograph" and the "digital chronograph". The automatic chronograph depends solely on kinetic energy as its power source, while the digital chronograph is much like the common stopwatch and uses a battery to gain power, as well as quartz for timing.
Other, more specific, types of chronographs include split second chronographs, tide chronographs, and asthometer chronographs. Each of these chronographs has an added feature that sets them apart.
Telemeter.
The "telemeter chronograph" allows the user to approximately measure the distance to an event that can be both seen and heard (e.g. a lightning bolt or a torpedo strike) using the speed of sound. The user starts the chronograph (stopwatch) at the instant the event is seen, and stops timing at the instant the event is heard. The seconds hand will point to the distance measured on a scale, usually around the edge of the face. The scale can be defined in any unit of distance, but miles or kilometers are most practical and commonplace.


Calls per second


Vernier spectroscopy

Vernier spectroscopy is a type of cavity enhanced laser absorption spectroscopy that is especially sensitive to trace gases. The method uses a frequency comb laser combined with a high finesse optical cavity to produce an absorption spectrum in a highly parallel manner. The method is also capable of detecting trace gases in very low concentration due to the enhancement effect of the optical resonator on the effective optical path length.
Overview of method.
Understanding of the principle of operation of Vernier spectroscopy requires an understanding of frequency comb lasers. The oscillating electric field of a laser (or any time dependent signal) can be represented by a sum of sinusoidal signals in the frequency domain using the Fourier series. The oscillating electric field of a coherent, continuous-wave (cw) laser is represented as a single narrow peak in the frequency domain representation. If the laser is amplitude-modulated to produce a stable train of very short pulses (usually through mode-locking), the equivalent frequency domain representation is a series of narrow frequency peaks centered around the laser's original cw frequency. These frequency peaks are separated by the frequency of the time domain pulses. This is called the repetition rate of the frequency comb.
Since the sensitivity of absorption spectroscopy depends on the path length of the light in the test sample, cavity enhanced spectroscopy attains high sensitivity by creating multiple passes through the sample, effectively multiplying the path length. Vernier spectroscopy uses a high finesse cavity to produce a large enhancement. A high finesse optical cavity will also produce a sharp resonance condition, where only light that is coupled into it with frequencies coinciding with a harmonic of the free spectral range of the cavity will produce constructive interference and an appreciable output of the cavity.
There will only be appreciable output from the optical resonator when a frequency peak from the frequency-comb laser coincides with a harmonic of the free spectral range of the cavity. In Vernier spectroscopy, the ratio of the repetition rate of the frequency comb to the free spectral range of the cavity is N/(N-1), where N is an integer, so that only every N peak of the frequency comb will satisfy the resonance condition of the optical cavity and propagate through it and the sample. This is chosen so that the two sets of resonances form a Vernier scale, giving the name to the technique. This is essential because a typical frequency comb repetition rate is on the order of radio frequencies, making the task of resolving and detecting individual frequency components difficult. If N is made to be large, then the frequency separation of the resonator output peaks will be large enough to be resolved by a simple grating spectrometer. If the length of the cavity is changed slightly, usually by a piezoelectric actuator, then the free spectral range of the cavity will also change. This changing FSR develops a new set of resonances with the frequency comb as the scan proceeds, effectively scanning through the sets of 'filtered out' peaks of the frequency comb.
The individual frequency components of the transmitted light are spatially separated using a simple spectrometer, usually a diffraction grating. In order to achieve a highly parallel measurement of the individual frequency components transmitted through the sample and out of the cavity, a CCD camera capable of operating in the spectral range of the laser light is used. In the case of the diffraction grating, the frequency components are separated in one spatial direction and focused into the CCD camera. In order to take advantage of the other spatial direction of the CCD, the light is scanned across the perpendicular direction of the CCD at the same time that the cavity length is scanned using an actuator. This produces a grid of peaks on the CCD image corresponding to a mode matching condition between the frequency comb and optical cavity.
Example apparatus.
A simple realization of the Vernier spectroscopy setup has five basic components: a frequency comb, a scannable high finesse optical cavity, a diffraction grating, rotating mirror, and a CCD camera. The trace gas to be measured is put between the mirrors of the optical cavity to allow for optical path enhancement. The frequency comb is coupled into the resonator and made to form a Vernier ratio with the response function. The output of the cavity is reflected off a diffraction grating, providing angular separation of the frequency components of the beam. The diffracted beam is then reflected off the rotatable mirror and then focused onto the CCD camera. Three things must then happen in synchronization. The optical cavity scans through a free spectral range of the cavity while the rotating mirror simultaneously scans the direction perpendicular to the diffraction grating's diffraction plane. These two actions can be synchronized by means of a periodic ramp voltage which controls both the cavity scan (accomplished by a piezoelectric actuator) and mirror rotation (controlled by a stepper motor). If the CCD camera's exposure time is also set equal to the ramp voltage period, the resulting CCD image is a two dimensional matrix of approximately Gaussian peaks. In this manner, an entire spectrum is produced in the period of the ramp voltage. The time it takes to obtain a spectrum is limited by the cavity scan time, rotating mirror response, and minimum camera exposure time. This particular Vernier spectroscopy scheme is capable of producing an absorption spectrum of a trace gas (<1 ppmV) with tens of thousands of data points in less than a second.
Vernier spectroscopy produces a kind of 2-dimensional spectral pattern on the CCD image, a matrix of approximately Gaussian peaks. The integrated intensity of each Gaussian peak gives the transmitted intensity through the test gas, while the position of the peak also gives information about the relative frequency of the peak. Additional information about the phase shift of the light transmitted by the test gas can be extracted from the shape of the individual peaks present on the image. Although all of the spectral information is contained in the images produced by the CCD, some amount of image processing is required to convert the CCD image into a traditional one-dimensional spectrum


Nancy Geller

Marilyn Nancy Lorch Geller (born 1944) is an American biostatistician, the director of biostatistics research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and a former president of the American Statistical Association.
Education.
Geller studied mathematics at the City College of New York, graduating in 1965. She then went to Case Western Reserve University for graduate study in mathematics, earning a master's degree in 1967 and completing her doctorate in 1972. Although she had enjoyed probability theory as an undergraduate, and entered graduate school intending to study the same subject, she ended up doing her graduate work in statistics.
Her dissertation, supervised by Lajos Takács, was "On distribution of Some Kolmogrov-Smirnov Type Statistics".
Career.
Geller took faculty positions in statistics at the University of Rochester from 1970 to 1972 and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1972 to 1978. Uninterested in economics, she moved again to do biostatistics at the Medical College of Pennsylvania from 1978 to 1979 and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 1979 to 1990, when she took her position at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
She served as president of the American Statistical Association for 2011.
Awards and honors.
Geller became a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1993.
She is the 2009 winner of the Janet L. Norwood Award For Outstanding Achievement By A Woman In The Statistical Sciences.


2996 Bowman


4824 Stradonice


Responsions

Responsions was the first of the three examinations formerly required for acceptance for an academic degree at the University of Oxford. It was nicknamed Little Go and was normally taken by students prior to or shortly after matriculation, on the basis that without standardised qualifications from school examinations, the University had to verify for itself the quality of the students that colleges were accepting. The examination consisted of comparatively simple questions on Latin, Ancient Greek, and mathematics. It was abolished in 1960. John Henry Newman wrote to his father on 29 May 1818: "I go up for my Little tomorrow", and records in his journal for the following day that he had 'passed Responsions'.
"Responsions" derives from Anglo-French "responsion" from Latin "responsio" "a reply or an answer", from the Latin verb "respondeo", to answer, or give a response.
Similar examinations.
University of Cambridge.
The equivalent at Cambridge to Responsions at Oxford was the Previous Examination, so called because it was taken a year previous to graduation; it was often called the 'Little Go'. Says one writer of the Cambridge 'Little Go':
Brewer (1894) defines Little Go as:
"The examination held in the Cambridge University in the second year of residence. Called also "the previous examination", because it precedes by a year the examination for a degree. In Oxford the corresponding examination is called The Smalls."
However the 1996 edition of Brewer gives:
"A nickname for the former Previous (Entrance) Examination for undergraduates at Cambridge, unless excused on account of successes at other examinations. It ceased to operate after 1961, owing to new regulations."
Other sources also suggest that at some point the Little-Go came to refer to the entrance examination.
Karl Pearson's obituary of Raphael Weldon (p. 8) refers to Weldon "preparing (c. 1877) for Little-Go and the London Preliminary Scientific. For the classical part of the former he seems to have worked by himself." Pearson also refers to 'Little-Go' in Cambridge in 1842 in his biography of Francis Galton. Taking the examination was called 'having a little go' and the counterpart of taking Part II examinations (final year) was 'having a great go'. Both are not now used.
University of Dublin.
The Final Freshman examination at the University of Dublin was also termed 'Little-go', which all students whether Honours or Pass had to pass till 1959 if they were to rise to Sophister standing. The ordinary undergraduate course in Arts itself (along with the Little Go examination) was abolished in 1979.
In Literature.
H.G. Wells references the 'Little-go' in his novella The Time Machine:


Saxophonics

Saxophonics is the creation of sounds (both musical and non-musical) through the use of a saxophone and one or more electronic effects units, often altering the acoustic sound of the horn beyond recognition. Additionally, saxophonics often entails the use of altissimo, overtones, growling, and other extended techniques. The electronic effects may include distortion, doublers, loops, wah-wah, and tone generators.
Saxophonics is a recent term for techniques developed by saxophonists such as Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt, who both began using the Varitone system to electrically amplify their saxophones during the late 1960s. In addition to playing the Varitone, Eddie Harris had experimented with looping techniques on his 1968 album "Silver Cycles". David Sanborn and Traffic member Chris Wood employed effects such as wah-wah and delay on various recordings during the 1970s.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk often played several saxophones at once (though this technique has earlier roots in Wilbur Sweatman's vaudeville performances.), Kirk was also a notable practitioner of circular breathing, allowing him to play lengthy passages without pause.
Recent practitioners of saxophonics include Dana Colley (of Morphine) who, like Kirk, plays multiple saxophones simultaneously (tenor and baritone saxophone in Colley's case) and Skerik (Critters Buggin', "et al.") who employs numerous effects with tenor and baritone saxophone; Ben Ellman, who plays tenor and baritone saxophone in Galactic; and Cochemea Gastelum, who plays alto saxophone with Robert Walter's 20th Congress.
Saxophonics is also the name of at least one saxophone ensemble, such as one based in Wiltshire, and another in Newcastle upon Tyne.


SAT Subject Test in Mathematics Level 2

In the U.S., the SAT Subject Test in Mathematics Level 2 (formerly known as Math II or Math IIC, the "C" representing the sanctioned use of a calculator) was a one-hour multiple choice test. The questions covered a broad range of topics. Approximately 10-14% of questions focused on numbers and operations, 48-52% focused on algebra and functions, 28-32% focused on geometry (coordinate, three-dimensional, and trigonometric geometry were covered; plane geometry was not directly tested), and 8-12% focused on data analysis, statistics and probability. Compared to Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2 was more advanced. Whereas the Mathematics 1 test covered Algebra II and basic trigonometry, a pre-calculus class was good preparation for Mathematics 2. On January 19 2021, the College Board discontinued all SAT Subject tests, including the SAT Subject Test in Mathematics Level 2. This was effective immediately in the United States, and the tests were to be phased out by the following summer for international students. This was done as a response to changes in college admissions due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education.
Format.
The test had 50 multiple choice questions that were to be answered in one hour. All questions had five answer choices. Students received 1 point for every correct answer, lost ¼ of a point for each incorrect answer, and received 0 points for questions left blank.
Calculator use.
The College Board stated that a calculator "may be useful or necessary" for about 55-60% of the questions on the test. The College Board also encouraged the use of a graphing calculator over a scientific calculator, saying that the test was "developed with the expectation that most students are using graphing calculators."
For the Mathematics Level Two test, students were not permitted to use calculators that have a QWERTY format keyboard, require an electrical outlet, make noise, use paper tape, have non-traditional methods of input (such as a stylus), or are part of a communication device (such as PDAs, laptops, or cell phones).
Preparation.
The College Board suggested as preparation for the test four years of mathematics, including two years of algebra, one year of geometry, and one year of either precalculus or trigonometry.
While the precalculus or trigonometry course may have been good preparation for this test, students could have needed to buy extra resource materials if they want to score beyond a 700. The exam covered several years of mathematics, and students were expected to work quickly and efficiently.
Scoring.
For each of the 50 multiple choice questions, students received 1 point for every correct answer, lost ¼ of a point for each incorrect answer, and received 0 points for questions left blank. This created a "raw score", which was then converted into a "scaled score". The conversion between these numbers varied depending on the difficulty of a particular test administration. The "scaled score" was the only score reported to either students or colleges, and ranged from 200 to 800, with 800 being the best possible score. The standard deviation of the test scores in 2006 was 105.
15 percent of the 2012 college-bound seniors taking the test received a perfect score of 800.


Christiane Bonnelle

Christiane Bonnelle (, died 21 August 2016) was a French physicist and pioneering spectroscopist, who served as professor emeritus at Pierre and Marie Curie University.
Career and Education.
Bonnelle studied at the Sorbonne, from which she received Bachelor of science and Doctor of science degrees. After completing her degree, Bonnelle worked at CNRS in 1955 where she worked as an intern and then researcher. In 1960 she started working as an assistant professor at the Sorbonne, becoming a professor in 1967. She moved to Pierre and Marie Curie University in 1974, where she became director of the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry in 1979. Bonnelle worked in this role until 1990.
Research.
Bonnelle's research on solid-solid interfaces produced developments in the measurement of the nanometre, which facilitated developments in electron probes produced by CAMECA.
Awards.
In 1967 she received a CNRS bronze medal. She is also a chevalier of the "Ordre des Palmes Académiques".


Kate Calder

Catherine A. "Kate" Calder is an American statistician who works as chair of Statistics and Data Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She was previously a professor of statistics at Ohio State University. Calder earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Northwestern University in 1999, and completed her Ph.D. in statistics from Duke University in 2003 under the joint supervision of David Higdon and Michael L. Lavine. She joined the Ohio State faculty in 2003, and was promoted to full professor in 2015.
In 2013 she won the Young Investigator Award of the American Statistical Association (ASA), and in 2014 she was elected as a Fellow of the ASA "for outstanding contributions to the development of Bayesian statistical methodology for spatial and spatiotemporal data; for significant multidisciplinary collaborations; for excellence in teaching and mentoring graduate students both in statistics and in other disciplines; and for service to the profession."


Fahrenheit hydrometer

The Fahrenheit hydrometer is a device used to measure the density of a liquid. It was invented by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), better known for his work in thermometry.
Operation.
The Fahrenheit hydrometer is a constant-volume device that will float in water. In the figure shown here, the hydrometer is floating vertically in a cylinder containing a liquid. At the bottom of the hydrometer is a weighted bulb and at the top is a pan for small weights. To use the hydrometer, one first accurately determines its weight (W) while it is dry. Next, the device is placed in water, and a weight (w) sufficient to sink a marked point on the rod to the water-line is placed on the pan. At that point, the weight of water displaced by the instrument equals W + w. The hydrometer is then removed, wiped dry, and placed in the liquid whose density is to be determined. A weight (x) sufficient to sink the hydrometer to the same marked point is placed in the pan. The density (D) of the second liquid is then given by D = (W + x) / (W + w).
The Fahrenheit hydrometer can be made of either glass or metal.
The Nicholson hydrometer is similar in design, but instead of a weighted bulb at the bottom there is a small container ("basket") into which a sample can be placed.


Stadiometer

A stadiometer is a piece of medical equipment used for measuring human height. It is usually constructed out of a ruler and a sliding horizontal headpiece which is adjusted to rest on the top of the head. Stadiometers are used in routine medical examinations and also clinical tests and experiments.
Devices with similar concept, although with higher resolutions, are used in industrial metrology applications, where they are called height gauges.


Jie Chen (statistician)

Jie Chen is a statistician who works as a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the Medical College of Georgia. As well as biostatistics, her research interests include change detection.
Chen earned a bachelor's degree in statistics from Chongqing University in China in 1985, and became a lecturer at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics from 1985 to 1988. She returned to graduate school for a master's degree from the University of Akron in 1990, and a Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University in 1995, under the supervision of Arjun Kumar Gupta.
She joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City in 1995, and was department chair from 2008 until 2014, when she moved to Georgia.
In 2014 she was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association "for significant contributions to change point problems and their applications to genomics data; for high-impact collaborative research in biological research; for excellence in teaching and mentoring students; and for dedicated service to the profession."