By , on November 6th, 2010%
A Point of View 1
A point of view
By Andy Cox
A philosophy
Happiness is the vivid bloom
of lives lived in a rich loam.
Our humanity a humus for those to come,
but we too are the beneficiaries of
others amongst us or gone.
So, death is undone through life’s legacy,
ceaselessly so in our common soil,
our commonweal in which the passing of one
seemingly brings forth others.
- No reincarnation :
Only others informing us as we inform others -
from which we can pick precious purpose.
Dark weeds there may be amongst us
that would forswear our mutuality and leech,
as there are some who would set themselves apart
in manicured beds corrupted with sterile soil.
Neither acknowledges the give and take.
Yet it is our bonds that set us free -
knowing what binds us unbinds us.
And when one day, this becomes religion,
then may we find a capacity to rejoice
every time a bud opens
2002
It’s like this: For a good many years, my head has been a pot for a sort of intellectual stew, the ingredients of which have managed to retain their separate identities, even if they’ve become a little soggy over time. A splash of good wine has surely enhanced the flavour: (In vino veritas, no doubt). And many a good argument has provided the spice, adding nuance to the creation. I say creation, but, in fact, none of these ingredients is novel: One or two of these old roots have been around since antiquity. What interests me, however, is their interrelationship, the alluring possibility that they may, so to speak, enhance each other. Their integration into something bigger, a worldview if you like, is the thesis of this polemical exercise. Five of the larger entities in this stew, which I intend to slice apart, are:
Analogy as a spurious source of knowledge. The non-survivalist notion that we have no identity or existence after death. Atheism The idea and ideal of a moneyless, stateless, propertyless world in which each has free access to the products of humanity, and contributes according to his or her ability and inclination.
These, I would contend, contribute to a fifth ingredient, namely:
An ethic which enjoins one to better the lives of others.
But before I begin to ladle this out, there is something I feel which needs to be said: Man, I believe, is doomed to be a philosopher. No one bar those devoid of abstract thought can escape this fate. Beneath all the internalised trivia, beneath the layers of received knowledge that crowds one‘s mind, there lies a philosophical construction addressing the very nub of one’s existence, whether this is acknowledged or not, whether this construction is fashioned on the hard anvil of critical thought or represents merely a concatenation of conventional responses to the big questions of life. In other words, everyone has a worldview. In presenting my own, I am merely laying bare a philosophical construction that seems to make sense to me. To be honest, I am not unquestionably certain about it: It tilts in places and contains many a threadbare rivet. But it coheres sufficiently to satisfy my own need to understand the world around me.
So here’s a taste of that intellectual stew: I have no idea at all why we are here on this earth, or, indeed why earth should be here in the first place. Any suggestion that our existence and that of the universe serve some purpose begs more than a few questions. What I think draws people into this sort of thinking is a deep-seated, almost reflexive, propensity for analogical thinking in which one phenomenon is explained by comparing it and drawing parallels with another. It seems to me that in our ordinary lives – when not engaged in philosophical discourse – we are sometimes implicitly informed by all manner of delusions, as well as truths, which we do not pause to consider, and which are extracted from the mud of our mundane existence, primarily, through the mechanism of analogy. Our ordinary world is the base from which we peregrinate on philosophical excursions. One might argue that this base itself occupies philosophical terrain. But the philosophical grounding of our everyday existence is necessarily implicit and ‘out of mind’: When we engage with the ordinary, we are rarely impelled towards philosophical reflection. Philosophy, in any case, competes with many other disciplines – psychology, biology, and economics, amongst others – in respect of our proclivity for abstraction. I am not suggesting that analogical thinking is without use: All I am suggesting is that if you scratch beneath many of the taken for granted notions that have taken up residence in our minds, you may well come across analogies that don’t stand up to scrutiny. Sometimes one is not even aware that an analogy is being drawn, let alone that an analogical fallacy is committed in assuming somehow that the comparison proves something to be the case rather than merely suggests – usually in a graphic or picturesque manner - how the phenomenon in question could be explained. Moreover, in some cases, the analogy is plainly flawed. Nothing exemplifies this better than certain arguments purporting to prove the existence of God. The Argument from Design, for example, has it that the order and beauty of the universe demonstrate that it must have been designed. Not only is the premise of this argument debatable – order and beauty are clearly not universally present and could be attributed rather to the eye of the beholder, but the conclusion is simply a non sequitur: It relies, of course, on an implicit analogy with, say, a craftsman creating a beautiful artefact – a microcosmic event which is thought somehow to serve as a parallel for a macrocosmic event, the creation of the universe. But,
(a) It simply does not follow that what holds good in the microcosmic situation – namely that the artefact has self-evidently been made by someone – holds good in the macrocosmic situation, where one is confronted with an infinite universe. At most, one might allow that an inference is being made. But this requires comparability between these situations, which is simply not the case: In the microcosmic situation, the craftsman is responsible for just a limited number of products in a world of innumerable objects, including other craftsmen. The putative God in the macroscopic situation is deemed to have created everything on his own.
(b) The analogy is thus flawed for that reason, but also because in the microcosmic situation, the craftsman produces the artefact from materials to hand, for example, wood. God, however, is believed by the religious apologist to create the universe ex nihilo, from nothing.
For these and other reasons – such as attributing certain manifestations of order instead to evolutionary forces – The Argument from Design is totally unconvincing. But it is important to observe that it is basically the unwarranted drawing of conclusions on the basis of an analogy, as well as the flawed nature of the analogy, which undermine this argument. Moreover, as is the case with all philosophical arguments, there is a meaning problem which needs to be addressed even before the logic is questioned: What exactly do we mean when we say that God created everything ex nihilo? I would venture to suggest that the whole idea is incomprehensible, and that any attempt to clarify what is meant by this is likely to rely on yet more unwarranted inferences drawn from yet more flawed analogies. Simply stringing together a number of words in a grammatically correct sentence, as in ‘God created everything’, may create the illusion of meaning, but grammatically-generated meaning is no substitute for conceptual clarity. Anyway, such is the nature of analogical thinking, which pervades our language and reasoning. Unsurprisingly, it characterizes much discussion on the dreaded subject of death.
Death is personal: To us in the West, it is something which can consume our inner lives as surely as it consumes the husks we call our bodies. It is the raison dêtre for so much in life, a rallying point, a border post of the everyday world. It is a concept shot through with powerful emotions: fear, anger, revulsion, sadness, love. And it too is something which is conceived in terms of analogies. Already I have unwittingly resorted to analogical thinking in my references to our inner lives and outer husks: I have evoked the ghost in the machine. I might also have suggested that death is like a sleep, adding the corollary that in the ’sleep of death, dreams may come’, that a life of sorts awaits us ’when we have shuffled off this mortal coil’. But on what basis would I have arrived at this conclusion? The rub of the matter is that this belief is founded primarily on analogy, and that below it may lie a deeply entrenched fear of losing one’s ego, a fear that is particularly conditioned by the individualistic ethos of so-called advanced societies. I would like to propose instead that we calmly consider the alternative; namely, that there is no afterlife. I would like to suggest that when we die no heaven or hell awaits us, because, to put it simply, we shall no longer be. This being the case, we can have no cause to fear death, because it carries no implications for us beyond our complete annihilation. I am aware, of course, that, to someone like me, the product of a Catholic upbringing, a faint angst haunts this
By , on November 6th, 2010%
An Argentine Gem Hidden No More
EVERY August, the people of Jujuy pay tribute to the earth goddess Pachamama. Families prepare elaborate dishes — tamales, stews, llama or lamb — and then bury the food in a backyard or field, along with abundant hard liquor, coca leaves and even cigarettes. They believe that these offerings will satisfy . . . → Read More: An Argentine Gem Hidden No More
By , on November 5th, 2010%
How does both the Marxist and capitalist philosophical crisis get stimulus from the each other? (5 of 10)
How does both the Marxist and capitalist philosophical crisis get stimulus from the each other? (5 of 10)
How does play the role of the state in balancing from alienation to participation in the productive forces in the socialist state for winning the hearts of the common people and killing the adverts through its influential nearest of productive and non-productive forces on the name religion, region, welfare, democracy, socialism, and terrorism in the world, without sharing in the affairs of the state and leaving it free to rule in the hands of political parties in democratic and secular India and in all global states?
In the list of non-productive forces, religion occupied the first place from the ancient period; the Egyptian gods had their origin in nature. The belief of the people was and is the internal matter of every body in the world. The belief as an idea is a matter of the individual and how it was taken place in his mind and how it would be replaced with another belief is unanswerable question to anybody in the world. Belief, thought, and feelings of everybody could be identified with the acts of the same individuals in the society on a particular reactions or actions on few occasions that could be identified by everybody. But the sources all these beliefs, thoughts, and feelings could be identified through more than three to four ways that were taken place in the minds of the people in general and a person in particular.
Particular ideas of a bunch of the people could be identified with its available sources in any country and in any society. The history of the different regions in the world could be identified with the popular religions of past and present days in the world. There were the traditions and practices of the gods prior to the days of Abraham. After the Old Testament the ideas and traditions of the people were changed. The practices of the faith and the feeling on the creations of world were changed. And in later times, Jesus Christ, upon who’s preaching and practice all most the beliefs of the region were further changed in the place of old ideas in their minds in a massive way.
The ideas, beliefs, and thoughts are different from issue to issue, subject to subject, action to action, need to need, and to the time to time. So no idea of any individual is permanent and could never be expected on expected lines by anybody.
However, the sources of ideas, thoughts and beliefs are concerned that the sources could be identified from childhood of any individual to the time of his death, from the surroundings at the early child hood of anybody, and the period of growth through the parents, teachers, and in the adult period friends and the society where he is a member. After finding the living source, while education, or after the education, the another new place would add to know about all that things what were he saw and understood about its reasons, caused, effects and its needs during the lifetime.
If I say exactly every one have to learn a lot and his whole life is not enough to understand the whole things of the history of thousands and thousands of years of the past and it is ever changing from minute to minute. So the whole life is not enough to understand the drop of the ocean. In essence it is impossible to understand the whole things of the globe. So the branches of all the subjects which were in the past originated and developed from time to time on the broad line of the non-productive section and are treated as the knowledge about the things of the past present and of the future. The book on the social sciences, engineering, bio sciences and arts are the sources of the knowledge in the field of education and useful to those who are engaged in these subjects have to learn through these theory works. If these books are weighted it goes to the waste paper market without any validity.
Hence it is listed in the non-productive section of the society and those who are engages in the teaching profession should be counted as the members of the non-productive forces and the total cost and the payments of them through the federal or central governments in any country are treated as burden on the society and its productive forces. Because these educational instituted and universities with its maintenance are the part of the state affair and the social productive forces have to bear it through the taxes or levies on the people whose who live in the state.
It is another question for the rulers of Indian government to think over about non-refunding of the amount spent on education of medicine in making the students as doctors and after getting the degree at the cost of one million rupees of the government, simply constructing their own clinics and hospitals for changing thousands of rupees for simple stomach pains like complaints by the poor and down trodden in rural and in urban areas in India.
1)Hence the subjects of the all political and governmental sections have been developed from the main source of the social productions by the productive relations whom were and are ever changing from time to time. Consequently the basic spirit of the progress and development in this field is entirely depended upon itself only. Because the players in its development need material, tools, (subject knowledge) skilled labor, basic need of its further development and its sustainability in the society itself.
2) Productive field’s requirements for further progress and development, the skilled labor, productive instruments, and productive relation in which the masters and slaves or the lords or the slaves or the masters and the slaves were to work for the progress of the society. This filed was and is the important and potential enough to feed the whole members of society including its depended field of non-productive including its service related works of them men of those who were engages in such fields
3) The common differences within these sections were the regular business of the society from the past to the present. It means the different and number of sections in the non-productive fields were to live with differences each against each whenever the interests of any section was suspected by the other within these fields, the protective measures were initiated from all those who were in its supervisory power. The struggles within itself and their unity were continued because they are not the losers and gainers of the economical benefits and losses. These sections were the depended sections of the society and were under control of the state. So that the state or the king at that time had to take care of these sections to go smoothly in their regular affairs until and unless sees that no effect could be suspected to the other sections of the society. The same continuation from the period of master slave relations to the present state and its machinery level of treatment was and is continuing in the present capitalist system too. a brief history of the state from its date of origin to present state of capitalism, how had it become strong and potential in dominating the social productions and catalyzing the equations of the social transitions through its magnificent formulas and logics if we understand the complete picture of the society in an organized form it would be beneficial to replace the present social system upon which the system of capitalizing the resources for more benefit of the poor and oppressed classes of the societies in the world.
The origin of the state was an essential and greater need at the time when the people began to feel it as their need what I stated about it from the ancient period of the history, that had made the society to sustain it as unavoidable thing to come into being to serve as a savior and protector of the societies and due to its widened subjects it was completely alienated from the work of the social productive field and settled in the non-productive field and have given an indication to the remained people of the society that its field and its subsections were and are very beneficial and easy to resume with an assurance to have the wealth unceasingly.
So the state, religion, entire organs of the state, education, arts, technical trainings etc, which could not produce any article, or commodity for the society and keeps its functions going in smooth way through its subjects, of laws, security personnel Prisons and judiciary. To feed all its branches it had taken so many steps from warring and annexing the others societies and its states to feed its depended people of all its branches from it origin to the present state.
However war and winning the territories, with gaining of the wealth from the defeated territories was the game of the kings and warriors from the history of Sumerians. Gilgamesh’s urr city was constructed by 3000bc as par one claim, but it’s the fact the king and history of the kings could be ascertained with a little of deference in the lengthy period of the state’s history. Here the state’s city and the name of the king and their contributions are different from each other till the reports and evidences are proved about their works in such remote history of past
They invented the Sumerian cuneiform script first in 3200 BC, due the relationship and living together as a civilization they were already in practice of agriculture in the year of 10000 BC. It is not easy to conclude about the past happenings without evidence on the developmental phases of the state. Ubaid culture and their civilization was claimed to be existed there prior to the Sumerians. In India, it is appeared that the city state Kashi was stated to be the first state and it had Varanasi as its capital city. In the thin picture to locate the
By admin, on November 3rd, 2010%
Budget Traveling Around East Coast Australia
There are lots of ways to save money when budget traveling around East Coast Australia. I will show you the main ways you can save your Aussie dollars on accommodation, shopping, transport and much more so you can come home with more souvenirs and more happy memories without an empty pocket. I have lived in Sydney and Brisbane as well many other towns and cites on the east coast, hopefully my experience will save you lots of money!
Australian money
Money in Australia is called the Australian dollar. We have 0, , $ 20, $ 10 and $ 5 notes, and , ,.50 cent,.20 cent,.10 cent and 5 cent coins. Many shops will charge for items something like AU$ 10.99 for a product, just for marketing effect, but in the end you will pay AU$ 11.00. Capital cities expenses are usually more than country areas but sometimes it is the reverse. For example fuel can be more expensive in the country areas but not by too much. The list below is an estimate average of the prices charged in Australia, to be referred to as a guide only. It is all based on 33 years experience…
Accommodation
Budget tip: Use the Internet to get bargains and save loads of money. Some of my favourite sites are on the links page. If you’re travelling on a shoestring budget then I would suggest staying in hostels or caravan parks. They vary in price based on quality and location. A word of warning caravan parks especially along the coast are not what they used to be. These days they have almost resort style facilities so they can be just as expensive as staying in a motel.
Getting around
By air: Australia has 4 main airlines to choose from: Qantas: Usually the most expensive VirginBlue: Basic service at cheaper rates JetStar: Similar to VirginBlue TigerAirways: No frills basic budget service. Some of these don’t fly to certain parts of the country so you need to do your homework.
Public transport
A great way to save money on a tight budget. Queensland Rail or QR mainly covers south east Queensland (Brisbane, Ipswich, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast) now offers a goCard which is valid for train, bus and ferry services mainly in Brisbane. It is cheaper than paying by cash. I am a big fan of getting the train around Brisbane. It is convenient, safe and cheap. You can also purchase daily, weekly or monthly QR passes. The longer the pass the more money you save. QR also offers concessions for pensioners and students. City Rail (New South Wales): covers Sydney, Wollongong, Central Coast and Newcastle): Has loads of different tickets to save you money.
I used CityRail all the time when I was living in Sydney. Sometimes the trains run late but for the most part it is a good safe service. For families consider the Funday Sunday pass where currently (2009) you will pay just .50 per person you just need a minimum of one adult and one child. City Rail also offers other discounted tickets Cityhopper (for Syndey only), day tripper and the Sydneypass (Sydney only for 3, 5 or 7 days for travel within a 8 day period) which gets you unlimited train, bus and ferry around Sydney. Concessions are available for students and pensioners.
Getting to or from the international airports
Avoid taxis. These will cost you a small fortune mainly because of traffic congestion. The price of a ticket from the Domestic Airport to the City is .60 and from the International Airport to the City is .20. And sometimes the cabbies get lost.
SUPER BUDGET HINT:
Instead consider airport shuttle services. Do a Google search for Airport transfers in the city you are landing in. For example ‘Airport transfers Sydney airport’. Sydney New South Wales: Usually price range for shuttle services will be return to major CBD locations but may be cheaper if you book online. Brisbane Queensland: Airport transfers by Rail. These are privately owned companies that don’t usually offer concessions. They are an excellent way to save money though. Brisbane Airtrain: This is a rail service that will get you from Brisbane International or Domestic terminals to Brisbane CBD, Brisbane suburban areas or Gold Coast. The price shouldn’t be more than one way to most destinations. Check out the Airtrain interactive map on their website to give you an idea Airport Link Sydney: Similar to Brisbane. As of 2009 a one way ticket to the CBD from the Domestic or International airport terminals will be a little under . Check out the FAQ section on their webpage for details.
Hiring a car
East Coast Australia has all the major hire companies Hertz, Budget, Avis and independents which may be better for budget travelling. There are all types of cars and vans to choose from, the bigger the car the more you will pay. They’re a few websites out there that allow you to compare hire car prices. Use them, they will save you lots of money! If you will be here for a bit longer then consider hiring a van. There are lots of options for you. In Queensland a popular choice is Wicked. In NSW they have depots in Sydney and Byron bay. In Queensland their depots are in Brisbane, Hervey Bay and Cairns.
Grocery Shopping
Australian grocery shopping is dominated by 2 big ‘players’ in the market namely Woolworths and Coles. If you spend over a certain amount your sales docket will get you cheaper fuel (see below) You will find Woolworths and Coles in most bigger towns and they are of course in every capital city. They now use ‘price per weight’ tickets so you can compare and save whilst browsing the shelves. Australia also has Aldi stores in most regional towns and all capital cities down the Australian East Coast. These are my favourite for budget shopping especially if you are travelling and you only need basic items along the way.
SUPER BUDGET TIP:
Cheaper items are usually below eye level. That’s right the more expensive items will be on the middle shelves so look down and grab a bargain. Australia’s generic brands such as Home Brand, Black and Gold and Woolworths and Coles own varieties are just as good in value as the bigger name brands. Aldi are cheaper than Woolworths and Coles and the quality is just as good. You will though have to take your own bags to pack your items or buy bags at Aldi. There are other supermarkets in Australia such as Foodowrks and IGA and they are great if you just need a few items in your travels.
Fuel (Gas)
We call a gas station a service station. Australia has all the major fuel companies available (BP, Caltex, Ampol, Shell etc). Some offer 4c off your fuel if you present a supermarket docket. Caltex accepts Woolworths dockets and Shell accepts Coles dockets. I highly recommend using these especially if you are doing most of your traveling by car. Fuel prices go up and down through the week. Anecdotal research indicates the cheapest day to buy fuel is now either on a Tuesday or Wednesday. To save on fuel drive smoothly, limit using the air conditioner and don’t speed, this chews the fuel (and it is dangerous too!) A special word on Service station stops: All service stations want you to buy something else while you’re in the store such as drinks, chocolates, lollies, CDs etc. Avoid the temptation, as you will be paying extremely high prices for doing so. Instead plan your trip by buying drinks and food at a supermarket for your travels. Some service stations even offer 4c off your fuel if you buy worth of food. This means you are worse off then if you didn’t buy the food or drinks. Don’t be fooled!
Phone calls
Cell phones are called ‘mobile’ phones in Australia. AVOID USING YOUR MOBILE (CELL) PHONE. INTERNATIONAL ROAMING RATES WILL STING YOU.Of course mobile phones are useful for emergency situations. Cheapest option when on a budget to save money when travelling is using international telephone cards. With one AUD 10 card, you can talk to the USA for longer than 2 hours. Keep in mind that making a lot of shorter calls will costs you more than a 1 longer call. For instance 6 calls of 10 minutes will cost you more than 1 call of an hour. There are lots of telephone cards available. Including: Ozcall, Daybreak and Gotalk. There are also lots of online sites to compare prices; just do a Google search such as ‘International telephone cards Australia.’ You can buy the cards from Newsagents or online and for a range of prices. To make it easy though buy them in even amounts of AUD 10, AUD 20 or AUD50 and use them from your home phone and also public phones.
Food and drink.
Eating out and drinking lots of alcohol can be very expensive. Depending on the bar or restaurant beer can cost from AUD 2.50 up to AUD 7.00.
SUPER BUDGET HINT:
Size of glass will determine the price. The Beer names given to different beer glass sizes varies from city to city in Australia and generally from state to state. For example asking for a Schooner in most Victorian or Western Australian Pubs will earn you a confused or annoyed look, as the don’t serve that size. Ordering a ‘Beer’ in Victoria will get you a 285ml (10 oz) ‘Pot’ however if you said the same thing in a Queensland Pub you might find yourself with a smaller 200ml (7 oz) glass. In other words a Pot (in Qld) is the same thing as a Middie (in NSW) and usually is a comfortable size to enjoy a beer. A schooner is larger and a pint is larger again. A jug of beer is (literally a jug of beer) is 1140ml or 40oz is the largest of all. Careful though, you’re not meant to drink straight from the jug, pour it into a pot (middie) and enjoy! Ordering spirit drinks (rum, bourbon, vodka etc) at a bar will normally cost you from about AUD 7.
SUPER BUDGET
By , on November 3rd, 2010%
Andy Warhol
Childhood
Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the fourth child of Ondrej Warhola and Ulja, whose first child was born in their homeland and died before their migration to the U.S. His parents were working-class immigrants from Mik (now called Mikov), in northeastern Slovakia, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Warhol’s father immigrated to the US in 1914, and his mother joined him in 1921, after the death of Andy Warhol’s grandparents. Warhol’s father worked in a coal mine. The family lived at 55 Beelen Street and later at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The family was Byzantine Catholic and attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. Andy Warhol had two older brothers, Jn and Pavol, who were born in today’s Slovakia. Pavol’s son, James Warhola, became a successful children’s book illustrator.
In third grade, Warhol had chorea, a nervous system disease that causes involuntary movements of the extremities, which is believed to be a complication of scarlet fever and causes skin pigmentation blotchiness. He became a hypochondriac, developing a fear of hospitals and doctors. Often bed-ridden as a child, he became an outcast among his school-mates and bonded strongly with his mother. At times when he was confined to bed, he drew, listened to the radio and collected pictures of movie stars around his bed. Warhol later described this period as very important in the development of his personality, skill-set and preferences.
Early career
Warhol showed early artistic talent and studied commercial art at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (now Carnegie Mellon University). In 1949, he moved to New York City and began a successful career in magazine illustration and advertising. During the 1950s, he gained fame for his whimsical ink drawings of shoe advertisements. These were done in a loose, blotted-ink style, and figured in some of his earliest showings at the Bodley Gallery in New York. With the concurrent rapid expansion of the record industry and the introduction of the vinyl record, Hi-Fi, and stereophonic recordings, RCA Records hired Warhol, along with another freelance artist, Sid Maurer, to design album covers and promotional materials.
Campbell’s Soup I (1968)
1960s
His first one-man art-gallery exhibition as a fine artist was on July 9, 1962, in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles. The exhibition marked the West Coast debut of pop art. Andy Warhol’s first New York solo Pop exhibit was hosted at Eleanor Ward’s Stable Gallery November 6-24, 1962. The exhibit included the works Marilyn Diptych, 100 Soup Cans, 100 Coke Bottles and 100 Dollar Bills. At the Stable Gallery exhibit, the artist met for the first time John Giorno who would star in Warhol’s first film, Sleep, in 1963.[citation needed]
It was during the 1960s that Warhol began to make paintings of iconic American products such as Campbell’s Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles, as well as paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Troy Donahue, Muhammad Ali and Elizabeth Taylor. He founded “The Factory”, his studio during these years, and gathered around himself a wide range of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities. He began producing prints using the silkscreen method. His work became popular and controversial.
Among the imagery tackled by Warhol were dollar bills, celebrities and brand name products. He also used as imagery for his paintings newspaper headlines or photographs of mushroom clouds, electric chairs, and police dogs attacking civil rights protesters. Warhol also used Coca Cola bottles as subject matter for paintings. He had this to say about Coca Cola:
What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.
New York’s Museum of Modern Art hosted a Symposium on pop art in December 1962 during which artists like Warhol were attacked for “capitulating” to consumerism. Critics were scandalized by Warhol’s open embrace of market culture. This symposium set the tone for Warhol’s reception. Throughout the decade it became more and more clear that there had been a profound change in the culture of the art world, and that Warhol was at the center of that shift.[citation needed]
Campbell’s Tomato Juice Box (1964)
A pivotal event was the 1964 exhibit The American Supermarket, a show held in Paul Bianchini’s Upper East Side gallery. The show was presented as a typical U.S. small supermarket environment, except that everything in it from the produce, canned goods, meat, posters on the wall, etc. was created by six prominent pop artists of the time, among them the controversial (and like-minded) Billy Apple, Mary Inman, and Robert Watts. Warhol’s painting of a can of Campbell’s soup cost ,500 while each autographed can sold for . The exhibit was one of the first mass events that directly confronted the general public with both pop art and the perennial question of what art is (or of what is art and what is not).[citation needed]
As an advertisement illustrator in the 1950s, Warhol used assistants to increase his productivity. Collaboration would remain a defining (and controversial) aspect of his working methods throughout his career; in the 1960s, however, this was particularly true. One of the most important collaborators during this period was Gerard Malanga. Malanga assisted the artist with producing silkscreens, films, sculpture, and other works at “The Factory”, Warhol’s aluminum foil-and-silver-paint-lined studio on 47th Street (later moved to Broadway). Other members of Warhol’s Factory crowd included Freddie Herko, Ondine, Ronald Tavel, Mary Woronov, Billy Name, and Brigid Berlin (from whom he apparently got the idea to tape-record his phone conversations).
During the ’60s, Warhol also groomed a retinue of bohemian eccentrics upon whom he bestowed the designation “Superstars”, including Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Ultra Violet, and Candy Darling. These people all participated in the Factory films, and some like Berlin remained friends with Warhol until his death. Important figures in the New York underground art/cinema world, such as writer John Giorno and film-maker Jack Smith, also appear in Warhol films of the 1960s, revealing Warhol’s connections to a diverse range of artistic scenes during this period.
Attempted assassination
On June 3, 1968, Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and art critic and curator Mario Amaya at Warhol’s studio. Before the shooting, Solanas had been a marginal figure in the Factory scene. She founded a “group” called S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men) and authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a separatist feminist attack on patriarchy. Over the years, Solanas’ manifesto has found a following. Solanas appears in the 1968 Warhol film I, A Man. Earlier on the day of the attack, Solanas had been turned away from the Factory after asking for the return of a script she had given to Warhol. The script, apparently, had been misplaced.
Amaya received only minor injuries and was released from the hospital later the same day. Warhol however, was seriously wounded by the attack and barely survived (surgeons opened his chest and massaged his heart to help stimulate its movement again). He suffered physical effects for the rest of his life. The shooting had a profound effect on Warhol’s life and art.
Solanas was arrested the day after the assault. By way of explanation, she said that “He had too much control over my life,” following which she was eventually sentenced to three years under the control of the department of corrections. After the shooting, the Factory scene became much more tightly controlled, and for many this event brought the “Factory 60s” to an end. The shooting was mostly overshadowed in the media due to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy two days later.
Warhol had this to say about the attack: “Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it’s the way things happen in life that’s unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it’s like watching television you don’t feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it’s all television.”
1970s
Andy Warhol and Jimmy Carter in 1977
Compared to the success and scandal of Warhol’s work in the 1960s, the 1970s proved a much quieter decade, as Warhol became more entrepreneurial. According to Bob Colacello, Warhol devoted much of his time to rounding up new, rich patrons for portrait commissions including Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, his wife Empress Farah Pahlavi, his sister Princess
By , on October 28th, 2010%
Culture Of Malta
The temple complex of Mnajdra (4th mi-3200 BC)
The earliest inhabitants of the Maltese Islands are believed to have been Sicani from nearby Sicily who arrived on the island sometime before 5000 BC. They grew cereals and raised domestic livestock and, in keeping with many other ancient Mediterranean cultures, formed a fertility cult represented in Malta by statuettes of unusually large proportions. Pottery from the earliest period of Maltese civilization (known as the Gar Dalam phase) is similar to examples found in Agrigento, Sicily. These people were either supplanted by, or gave rise to a culture of megalithic temple builders, whose surviving monuments on Malta and Gozo are considered the oldest standing stone structures in the world. The temples date from 40002500 BC and typically consist of a complex trefoil design.
Little is known about the temple builders of Malta and Gozo; however there is some evidence that their rituals included animal sacrifice. This culture disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC and was replaced by a new influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that is known to have cremated its dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta.
The development of modern Maltese culture
Main article: History of Malta
See also: Timeline of Maltese history
The culture of modern Malta has been described as a “rich pattern of traditions, beliefs and practices,” which is the result of “a long process of adaptation, assimilation and cross fertilization of beliefs and usages drawn from various conflicting sources.” It has been subjected to the same complex, historic processes that gave rise to the linguistic and ethnic admixture that defines who the people of Malta and Gozo are today.
Maltese culture has both Semitic and Latin European origins and a British legacy is also evident. The Latin European element is more readily apparent in modern Malta because of virtually continuous cultural impact on Malta over the past eight centuries and the fact that Malta shares the religious beliefs, traditions and ceremonies of its Sicilian and Southern European neighbors.
Sources of Semitic influence
Phoenicians
The Phoenicians inhabited the Maltese Islands from around 700 BCE, and made extensive use of their sheltered harbours. By 480 BCE, with the ascendancy of Carthage in the western Mediterranean, Malta became a Punic colony. Phoenician origins have been suggested for the Maltese people and their customs since 1565. A genetic study carried out by geneticists Spencer Wells and Pierre Zalloua of the American University of Beirut demonstrated that more than 50% of Y-chromosomes from Maltese men may have Phoenician origins.
Algerian legend claims that the ancestors of the present Maltese, together with the first Algerians, fled from their original homeland of Aram, with some choosing to settle in Malta and others in North Africa, which would suggest that the prototypical Maltese culture had Aramaean origins. Another tradition suggests that the Maltese are descended from shepherd tribes who fled Bethlehem in the face of an advancing enemy, set sail from Jaffa, and settled in Malta. There is also some evidence that at least one North African tribe, the Oulad Said, claim that they share common ancestry with the Maltese.
Fatimid conquest
This period coincided with the golden age of Moorish culture and included innovations like the introduction of crop rotation and irrigation systems in Malta and Sicily, and the cultivation of citrus fruits and mulberries. Then capital city Mdina, originally called Maleth by the Phoenicians, was at this time refortified, surrounded with a wide moat and separated from its nearest town, Rabat. This period of Arabic influence followed the conquest of Malta, Sicily and Southern Italy by the Fatimids. It is presently evident in the names of various Maltese towns and villages and in the Maltese language, a genetic descendant of Siculo-Arabic.
It is difficult to trace a continuous line of cultural development during this time. A proposed theory that the islands were sparsely populated during Fatimid rule is based on a citation in the French translation of the Rawd al-mi’r f khabar al-aqr (“The Scented Garden of Information about Places”). Al-Himyari describes Malta as generally uninhabited and visited by Arabs solely for the purpose of gathering honey and timber and catching fish. No other chronicles make similar descriptions and this claim is not universally accepted.
Kufic gravestone of the girl Majmuna who died on Thursday, 21st March 1174
Up to two hundred years after Count Roger the Norman conquered the island, differences in the customs and usages of the inhabitants of Malta were distinct from those in other parts of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies: moribus d’aliis de vivunt d’ipsarum d’insularum de homines et constitutionibus, nostri Sicilie.
The marble gravestone of a Saracen girl named Majmuna (pr. My-moona), found in a pagan temple in the Xewkija area of Gozo dates back to 1173. Written in Kufic, it concludes saying, “You who read this, see that dust covers my eyelids, in my place and in my house, nothing but sadness and weeping; what will my resurrection be like?”
The population of Malta at that time amounted to no more than 1,119 households, of whom 836 were described as Saracens, inhabiting the island following the Norman invasion and before their ultimate expulsion.
Jewish presence
Main article: History of the Jews in Malta
A number of Jewish families resided in Malta almost consistently from approximately 1500 BCE to the 1492 Edict of Expulsion, and again from the time of the Knights of Malta through to the present. This is yet another source of Semitic influence in Maltese culture.
According to local legend, the earliest Jewish residents arrived in Malta some 3,500 years ago, when the seafaring tribes of Zebulon and Asher accompanied the ancient Phoenicians in their voyages across the Mediterranean. The earliest evidence of a Jewish presence on Malta is an inscription in the inner apse of the southern temple of gantija (3600-2500 BC) in Xagra, which says, in the Phoenician alphabet: “To the love of our Father Jahwe”. There is evidence of a Jewish community on Malta during the Roman period, in the form of carved menorahs the catacombs in Malta. Members of the Malta’s Jewish community are known to have risen to the highest ranks of the civil service during the period of Arab occupation, including the rank of Vizier. By 1240, according to a report prepared for Emperor Frederick II, there were 47 Christian and 25 Jewish families on Malta, and 200 Christian and 8 Jewish families on Gozo.
Unlike the Jewish experience in the rest of Europe, throughout the Middle Ages the Jews of Malta generally resided among the general population rather than in ghettos, frequently becoming landowners. The Jewish population of Malta had flourished throughout the period of Norman rule, such that one third of the population of Malta’s ancient capital, Mdina, is said to have been Jewish.
Alhambra Decree
In 1492, in response to the Alhambra Decree the Royal Council had argued – unsuccessfully – that the expulsion of the Jews would radically reduce the total population of the Maltese Islands, and that Malta should therefore be treated as a special case within the Spanish Empire. Nonetheless, the decree of expulsion was signed in Palermo on June 18, 1492, giving the Jewish population of Malta and Sicily three months to leave. Numerous forced conversions to Catholicism, or exile, followed. Evidence of these conversions can be found in many Maltese family names that still survive today, such as the families Abela, Ellul, Salamone, Mamo, Cohen, and Azzopardi.
A much smaller Jewish community developed under the rule of the Knights of Malta, but this consisted primarily of slaves and emancipated slaves. Under the rule of certain Grandmasters of the Order, the Jews were made to reside in Valletta’s prisons at night, while by day they remained free to transact business, trade and commerce among the general population.
Local place names around the island, such as Bir Meyru (Meyer’s Well), nien il-Lhud (The Jew’s Garden) and al-Muxi (Mosh’s Farm) attest to the endurance of Jewish presence in Malta.
Slaves in Malta
Semitic influences over Maltese customs and traditions continued during the 268-year rule of the Knights of St. John over Malta, due in part to trade between the Knights and North Africa, but primarily due to the large numbers of slaves present in Malta during the 17th and 18th centuries: upwards of 2,000 at any given time (or about 5 per cent of the population of Malta), of whom 40-45 per cent were Moors, and the remainder Turks, Africans and Jews. There were so many Jewish slaves in Malta during this time that Malta was frequently mentioned for its large enslaved Jewish population in Jewish literature of the period.
The slaves were engaged in various activities, including construction, shipbuilding and the transportation of Knights and nobles by sedan-chair. They were occasionally permitted to engage in their own trades for their own account, including hairdressing, shoe-making and woodcarving, which would have brought them into close contact with the Maltese urban population. Inquisitor Federico Borromeo (iuniore) reported in 1653 that:
[slaves] strolled along the street of Valletta under the pretext of selling merchandise, spreading among the women and simple-minded persons any kind of superstition, charms, love-remedies and other similar vanities.
A significant number of
By , on October 27th, 2010%
Australian pubs – PVC accessory system – Wood texture manufacturer
Origin
The Australian pub is a direct descendant of the English Public house. The production and consumption of alcoholic drinks has long played a key role in Western commerce and social activity, and this is reflected in the importance of pubs in the British colonisation of Australia after 1788. However, in the nineteenth century the local version evolved a number of distinctive features that set it apart from the classic British pub.
In many cases, pubs were the first structures built in newly-colonised areas (especially on the goldfields) and new towns often grew up around them. Pubs typically served multiple functions, simultaneously serving as hostelry, post office, restaurant, meeting place and sometimes even general store.
Nineteenth century development
Pubs proliferated during the nineteenth century, especially during the Gold Rush that began in the 1850s, and many fine examples were built in the state capitals and major regional cities and towns. Some of the best colonial-era pubs in Australia’s major cities have fallen victim to urban re-development, which has destroyed a significant portion of Australia’s nineteenth-century architectural heritage. State capitals like Melbourne and Adelaide, and large regional cities and towns such as Kalgoorlie in Western Australia still boast some examples, and many other nineteenth century pubs survive in country towns.
Among the colonial-era hotels, now lost to development, were the Bellevue Hotel in Brisbane (demolished in 1979) and two of Sydney’s pub-hotels the Hotel Australia, which formerly stood on the corner of Castlereagh St and Martin Place (demolished ca. 1970 to make way for the MLC Centre) and the Tattersall’s Hotel in Pitt St. Its marble bar was dismantled and reinstalled in a basement under the Sydney Hilton Hotel, which was built on the site of the Tattersall’s Hotel in the early 1970s.
The development that solidified the characteristic style of the modern Australian pub was the introduction of the American-style bar counter in the early nineteenth century. Customers began to sit apart from the publicans, the atmosphere became commercial rather than home-like and the pub became a distinctly public, Australian male-dominated establishment.
Beer drinking culture in Australia
Australia’s beer-drinking culture is descended from the northern European tradition, which favoured grain-derived beverages like beer and spirits, whereas in southern European countries like Italy and Greece wine was the drink of choice. Beer was for many years the largest-selling form of alcoholic drink in Australia, and Australia has long had one of the highest per capita rates of beer consumption in the world.
Australia did not develop a significant wine-making industry until the twentieth century and while the wine industry grew steadily, wine did not become a major consumer drink until the late twentieth century. Therefore for the period between 1800 and 1950 alcohol production and consumption in Australia was dominated by beer and spirits, with Australian pubs becoming synonymous with ice-cold pilsener beer.
Effect of licensing laws
Liquor licensing policies in early colonial Australia were relatively liberal, but in the late nineteenth century there was growing pressure from conservative Christian groups, known as the Temperance Leagues, to restrict the sale of alcohol. In 1916 after drunken soldiers rioted in Sydney new licensing laws restricted alcohol in all Australian states, in most cases banning sales after 6 pm. The new legislation also forced publicans seeking a spirits licence to also obtain a beer licence and to provide accommodation. This set Australian pubs apart from the British model, where each pub had a specific and legally limited role to sell either beer or spirits.[dubious discuss]
The licensing laws restricted the sale and service of alcohol almost exclusively to pubs for decades. Alcohol could usually only be purchased in pubs, and many states placed restrictions on the number of bottles per customer that could be sold over the counter. It was not until the late twentieth century that “bottle-shops” and chain-store outlets (where liquor was sold but not served) became common and restaurants and cafes were more widely licensed to serve liquor or to allow customers to “bring their own”.
Opening hours were generally heavily restricted, and pubs were usually only from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday. Some pubs were granted special licences to open and close earlier e.g. opening at 6 am and closing at 3 pm in areas where there were large numbers of people working night shifts. Pubs were invariably closed on Sundays, until the various state Sunday Observance Acts were repealed during the 1950s and early 1960s.
These restrictions created a small but lucrative black market in illegal alcohol, leading to the proliferation of illegal alcohol outlets in many urban areas; the so-called “sly grog shop”. After the Federation of Australia in 1901, Australia’s new constitution ruled that the Commonwealth of Australia had no power to legislate in this area, so each state enacted and enforced its own liquor licensing regulations. This meant the Prohibition lobby in Australia had to lobby each individual state government, and was unable to achieve any nationwide ban on the sale of alcohol. Although liquor sales remained heavily restricted for many years, Australia did not experience the many social ills, including the vast expansion of organised crime that resulted from Prohibition in the United States in the 1920s.
Types of beer
Perhaps because of the generally hot, dry climate, Australian beer drinkers soon came to favour chilled pilsener style beers. This trend was reinforced with the expansion and consolidation of the Australian brewing industry, and by the development of hop growing, especially in Tasmania.
The dominance of chilled pilsener beer was further reinforced by invention of refrigeration. Australia was one of the first countries to adopt the new technology on a wide scale and pubs were among the first local businesses to use refrigeration, to keep beer ice-cold.
Another notable feature of Australian beer is its relatively high alcohol content, which for many years has typically ranged between 4 percent and 6 percent alcohol somewhat higher than their British and American counterparts.
Beer production in Australia began with small private breweries supplying local pubs. The industry rapidly became both larger in scale and more centralised as brewers adopted mass-production techniques during the late nineteenth century and new modes of transport came into operation.
By the 1900s the major brewing firms had become very large vertically integrated businesses. They owned the breweries and ran truck fleets and distribution networks, and the major brewers owned chains of pubs across the country. The premises were typically operated on a leasehold basis by licensed publicans.
As they grew, the larger and more successful firms began to take over smaller breweries, although they often retained the older brand names and the loyal clientele of those brands, such as Tooheys continuing to distribute “Tooth’s KB Lager” and “Resch’s Pilsener” and “DA” (“Dinner Ale”) after they had bought and eventually closed the Reschs and Tooths breweries. By the mid-1900s the brewing industry was dominated by a handful of large and powerful state-based companies; the Tooth’s and Toohey’s in Sydney, Carlton United in Melbourne, Castlemaine in Brisbane, West End and Coopers in Adelaide and Swan in Perth. These brands effectively became unofficial mascots for their respective states.
In the late 20th century these beer empires began to expand overseas; Carlton’s Fosters Group and Castlemaine-Tooheys empires now control significant segments of the brewing and beverage industry in Australasia, the UK, Europe and many other regions.
Pubs and licensing laws
Each Australian state has its own set of liquor licensing laws which regulate the times that pubs could open and close. Until recently these laws were relatively strict, a legacy of the influence of the ‘reformist’ Christian Temperance groups in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The concerns of these groups were in some areas well-founded. Alcohol abuse was an endemic social problem in most western countries and, as the local brewing and distilling industry expanded, it quickly became a serious problem in Australia. However, the Temperance movements were driven by a dogmatic Christian world view, and the main agenda of the larger “Christian Morality” movement at this time was to outlaw all forms of social behaviour which went against Christian teaching this included the consumption of alcohol, all forms of gambling and animal racing, prostitution and recreational (non-alcohol) drug use.
Temperance advocates feared with some justification that workers would spend all their time and money in the pub if they were permitted to stay there throughout the evening, and that children and families would suffer as a result (which they often did). Pubs were seen as a nexus for all kinds of immoral activity, including illegal “SP betting”, and the Temperance movement lobbied long and hard to have public houses tightly regulated and their opening hours severely restricted.
In this area, the “Wowsers” (as they were dubbed) were very successful but these high moral concerns backfired, at least in terms of liquor licensing, and the new laws led to the evolution of what was a new phenomenon in Australian 20th century pub culture.
From the advent of the Eight-hour day until the late 1970s, most Australian blue-collar workers were tied to a 9am-5pm, Monday-to-Friday work schedule. Because most pubs were only permitted to stay open until
By , on October 25th, 2010%
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE Pt. VI
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LAWYER AND A BARRISTER?
A lawyer is a person who practises law; one who conducts lawsuits for clients or advises clients of their legal rights and obligations. A barrister is a legal practitioner whose main function is to practice advocacy in court. They often have less interaction with clients. Barristers spend their working hours in chambers where they prepare their cases.
WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT THE KEW GARDEN?
Kew Gardens in Thames, London is best known for being the home of the Royal Botanical Gardens (now a world heritage site). Other points of interest-include the Kew Palace and the National Archives (previously known as the Public Records Office) The Kew Gardens is special because it is an important international botanical research and education institution with a staff of over 700 people.
WHAT IS THE ‘COOL BIZ’ CAMPAIGN?
This is a campaign introduced by Japan. In order, to save energy, it asks office goers and politicians to remove their ties and jackets to minimise the use of air conditioners and thereby reduce consumption of electricity and also the emission of greenhouse gases. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel who is currently visiting Japan to discuss, among other things, ways to tackle global warming, had a taste of the ‘cool biz’ campaign when the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed her that his entourage wouldn’t be wearing their ties to adhere to the ‘cool biz’ campaign.
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM POCKET MONEY?
Before the advent of pockets in shirts and trousers, money was kept in bags and sachets. Later, a smart tailor made a pocket on a garment and it became so useful, further innovations made a pocket suitable to safely keep money From then on, money kept in pockets for expenses came to known as pocket money
WHAT IS ENTABLATURE?
It is the horizontal upper part of a wall or storey of a building designed on the principles of classical architecture. It is usually supported on columns, and consists of three parts. These are the architrave, the lowermost part; the frieze, the decorative band in the middle; and the cornice, the crowning ornamental projection. Entablature was originally conceived by Vitruvius, an ancient Roman architect.
WHICH IS THE WORLD’S FIRST AIR SHOW?
The world’s first air show was the International Air Meet held at Rheims, Franceheld in 1909. India’s first air show, AVIA-93 was held in December, 1993 in Bangalore. The world’s biggest air show was the 47th Paris Air Show. However, the world’s largest military air show the RoyalInternational Air Tattoo (RAF Fairford, United Kingdom), held annually in July.
WHAT IS A CIRCUIT FILTER?
A circuit filter is used in trading of shares in stock exchange. It’s applied to all the shares, to supposedly safeguard the interest of general investors from the extreme volatilities in markets by preventing any unexpected fall or rise of share price in a single day beyond a limit. If the limit is crossed by any of the shares in a single trading day it is frozen for trade.
WHAT IS THE GINI COEFFICIENT?
The Gini Coefficient is a measure of inequality of income distribution or inequality of wealth distribution. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1: the numerator is the area between the Lorenz curve of the distribution and the uniform distribution line; the denominator is the area under the uniform distribution line. Thus, a low Gini Coefficient indicates more equal income or wealth distribution, while a high Gini Coefficient indicates more unequal distribution.
WHAT IS THE TRIPLE FINGER SALUTE?
The three-finger salute is used by members of Scouts and Guides organisations around the world when greeting other Scouts and Guides and at some ceremonies. The salute is made with the palm face out, the thumb holding down the little finger, and the fingertips on the brow. In computer parlance, the triplefmger salute refers to describe the three-key sequence — Alt + Ctrl + Del — developed by David Bradley This term became popular after IBM PC compatible users continually hold down these keys each time their computers froze or had other problems.
WHAT IS REFERRED TO AS THE WELL-COME COLLECTION?
The Wellcome Collection traces The development of medicine through history and spanning several cultures. Located in central London, it is a combination of exhibitions, libraries and cafes where people can learn more about the development of medicine. Part of the Well-come Trust, it was founded by Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmacist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector, who garnered a unique collection of articles relating to medicine and health. Recently, a British heart transplant patient, Jennifer Sutton, donated her old heart to the Well-come Collection, after receving a new one.
WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE BAUDHAYAN THEOREM?
Baushayan Sulv Sutra (1000 BC) is today known as the Pythogorus theorem, which states that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. In Baudhayan theorem, this has been expressed as follows: in a Deerghchatursh (triangle), the chetra (square) of rajju (hypotenuse) is equal to the sum of squares of the parshvamani (base) and triyangmani (perpendicular line). It is amazing to note that the pythagorus theorem was known in our country as far back as 1000 BC.
WHY IS THE NUMBER 1 NOT CONSIDERED A PRIME NUMBER THOUGH IT FITS THE DEFINITION?
The number 1, in fact, does not fit the definition of a prime number. A positive integer is called a prime number only if there are exactly two divisors of that number. Since 1 has exactly one divisor (which is 1 itself), it does not fit this definition. Another equivalent definition of a prime number is this prime number’s only positive divisor should be less than 1 and itself. Again, 1 does not fit this definition either— there are no positive divisors of 1 which are less that 1.
WHICH NATION HAS THE SMALLEST ARMY IN THE WORLD?
Vatican City, the world’s smallest country, has the smallest army. This army of 110 men, is also known as the Swiss Guard. Last year, the Vatican celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Swiss Guard. The celebration commemorated the 150 Swiss Helvetian mercenaries who came to Rome to serve Pope Julius II, on January 22,1506. The mercenaries covered a distance of 723 km in 27 days to enter Rome from Bellinzona, Switzerland. Swiss Helvetian mercenaries, famous for their courage, die-hard attitude and loyalty to their employers, were part of the regular armies of various countries at that time. As allies of the Pope, they helped to shape Italy’s destiny and thus they were granted the title ^Defenders of the Church’s freedom’ by the Pope. During the Sack of Rome on May 6, 1527, the Swiss Guard, comprising 189 personnel at that time, resisted a Spanish attack on Rome and the Vatican. But they had to retreat after suffering heavy casualties. Only 42 men survived the attack. However, the Guard was able to ensure Pope Clement VII’s escape to safety.
WHERE WAS WINE FIRST MADE?
Wine is the fermented juice of grapes. Probably, the first people to make wine were Persian farmers living near the Caspian Sea. The Egyptians learned how to make wine from them as long back as 3000 BC. In the fourth century BC., the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great carried grapevines and the knowledge of wine-making to Central Asia. Roman invaders probably took vines to northern France and Germany in later centuries. Wine was common in the everyday lives of the early Greeks and Romans. It was important to their religious ceremonies. The God of wine was called Bacchus by the Romans and Dionysus by the Greeks.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARXISM AND SOCIALISM?
Socialism is a modern doctrine and is Western in origin, emerging with the development of industrial capitalism at the start of the nineteenth century. Socialism denotes a broad system of ideas. Marxism is a materialistic conception of history which seeks to explain the development of all societies and furthermore, make predictions about future social change. Marxists consider the material world, nature and society as constantly moving. Whereas, the socialists emphasise the organic unity of society. Marxists consider the material world as an integrated whole in which all things and phenomena are interconnected and interdependent. Whereas, socialists believe in equality and abolition of private enterprise. Marxism provides a scientific explanation of nature and society and hence, was a powerful instrument for revolutionary transformation. The society envisaged by socialists rests on certain values: redistribution of wealth to get rid of inequality, cooperative production to get rid of selfish competitors and new patterns of work and education to promote the growth of well-rounded individuals.
WHAT IS A HYPERCUBE?
Hypercube is the generalization in n-dimensions of a square in two dimensions and a cube in three dimensions. A square has four vertices (22), a cube, 8 vertices (23). Similarly, an n-dimensional hypercube has 2n vertices. In the famous painting ‘Christus Hypercubus’, Salvador Dali depicted Christ crucified on an unfolded four-dimensional hypercube. Examining the shadow of a cube reveals a square within a square. Similarly, the shadow of a four-dimensional hypercube will be a cube within a cube.
WHY IS THE ALPHABET WRITTEN IN A SPECIFIC ORDER?
The alphabet has often been described as an arbitrary collection of
By , on October 24th, 2010%
Influence Of Drinking Coffee Today
Coffee is a drink produced from the coffee grains. It is stimulating, because it contains caffeine. The use of the drink of the coffee had its origin in Kaffa, Abyssinia, today Ethiopia, when a shepherd called Kaldi observed that his goats were smarter and hopping around when eating the leaves and fruits . . . → Read More: Influence Of Drinking Coffee Today
By , on October 23rd, 2010%
Riverside Paradise – Xong river in Vangvieng, Laos
A small and beautiful town surrounded by mountains and rivers, Vangvieng is a place of delight and wonder for visitors from around the world.
The city is about 150 km north of Vientiane, situated between the capital city and the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang. The main attractions are . . . → Read More: Riverside Paradise – Xong river in Vangvieng, Laos
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