ava_orion
New member
Arkadaşlar aşağıda sizlere İngilizce kısa hikayeler vereceğim. Eğer okuma becerinizi geliştirmek istiyorsanız, aşağıdaki parçaları okuyabilirsiniz. Aşağıdaki parçalar başka amaçlar ile de kullanılabilir. Benden size paylaşım. İyi çalışmalar hepinize...
A Tale of Two Enemies : Sun and Saturn
In astrology Sun and Saturn are considered enemies of each other. The gods or the demi-gods cannot behave like mortals. So we have to analyse the concept of enemies in a context and appropriate meanings. The Sun is truth, Sun is Knowledge; Sun is light. It is the place where our ancestors would ultimately go. After vasu and rudra , where our fathers are believed to have attained the status and receive pinda from us, the ultimate loka or state comes Aditya . Vasu rupe~, Rudra rupe~ and finally Aditya Rupe~.. The Sun is the embodiment of all gods. He is the ultimate. He is the destroyer of sins.
The concept of sin is co-terminus with the life we live in this world. The past actions which are sinful, in our past lives give the results of miseries in this present world. The miseries depend upon the degree of sins we committed in our past lives. There two gods who are attributed with the quality of destroying one’s sins. Firstly- Lord Shiva. Secondly the demi god Sun. It is easier to pray Lord Shiva and wash out our past sins. But the Second way is tougher one. Adithya is not easier to please. He is a strict disciplinarian. In the first and easier way of pleasing Lord Shiva, there are chances of we committing sins again. But the Second and tougher way is final.
It is born out of ultimate truth, knowledge and karma. It is this tough path that is chosen by the Rishis in doing tapasya. ( For detailed study – see concept of sin). Step by step one attains the state of Aditya and his material life comes to an end, which is the goal of all truth seekers. It is the freedom from bondage of birth and re-births. It is the attainment of god-hood.
The Sun burns everything. Our ignorance, our beliefs, our knowledge, which are born out of lies, images, maya , which is thrown by Rahu on our monds. The knowledge and beliefs are so strong and deep rooted in our minds, in our actions, we refuse to believe the ultimate truth. We are programmed to take shelter under clouds, false roofs, such as a frog taking a shelter under a serpent. This state of mind and our actions are created and developed by Saturn. Saturn is the representative of our false shelter. He creats maya through Rahu. All the dirt, whether in mind or in our physical presence in this world, is the abode of Saturn. He will not direct us to the path of truth, knowledge and god. He creates falls, pits and blindness, so that we eternally revolve round and round this maya. This maya is so powerful and strong, even the mighty Sun cannot escape.
So the two planes of operation of the fields are quite different. The concepts of Sun and Saturn go directly opposite to each other. Both act according to our past actions or karma. They are not enemies of each other. Because no two gods have the feelings of hatredness or love. They are above all those trivial behavior. They are above such meanness. They act according to their natures. Both are necessary embodiments of this worldly life. Sun is the enemy of ignorance, false-hood, indiscipline, and maya. The Saturn is the enemy of light, discipline, truth and knowledge. The Saturn is the creator maya.
All these qualities are the embodiments of mortal lives in this world; and definitely not the qualities of either the Sun or Saturn. In this way both are supplementary and complementary to each other. They are not enemies; But the gods acting in tandem, in harmony. One takes up where the other ends. They are the enemies of certain actions of mortals. It is the mortal to choose his action. If one sincerely attempts , penaces and disciplined it is the Saturn who is more pleased and he withdraws the curtain of Maya from one’s path of seeking truth. Then the Sun condones and destroys the earlier sins and shows the path of liberation through his light.
Sreenivasamurthy Kubatoor is an advocate by profession. He has studied Asrology as hobby and now perfected in Remedial Astrology, helping only those who are in distress.The study and remedies are based on Vedic Astrology.
A Note from Saint Valentine - A First Person Tale of This Wonderful Day
Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn't like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn't the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.
Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!
Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.
One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.
I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.
One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine." I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D.
Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can't be beaten!
Flight - History of Aeroplanes and Steps of Flying
The invention of flight by the Wright brothers has brought about a revolution in the world. The concept of speed and distance started changing. The impossible started looking possible. The perfect combination of strength, weight, and carrying capacity has been experimented and finally achieved.
The airplanes were previously called “Kites”! They did not have much power and were supplied with a lot of wing area. The streamlined aircrafts came up just before the World War I. they has cleaner aerodynamic shapes and had increased horsepower. During the First World War, the traditional wooden frames were replaced by welded steel tubing. Duraluminum was used to prepare all the assembly-wings, fuselage and tail of the flight.
Slowly metal was used to replace the use of wood in preparing the body of the flight. The revolutionary Boeing 247 combined the streamlined all-metal semi-monocoque construction, retractable landing and variable pitch propellers. Whenever there is a war, the nation tries to utilize the best technology. During World War 2, the jet fighter was developed. An all-composite design was appreciated during 1980s. The flight design by Brut Rutan made history by flying non-stop around the world without refueling.
The Voyager’s composite airframe was lightweight and circled the earth in nine days. Not only for transporting people from place to place, certain space shuttle is prepared for space flight. The various mechanical flights include aircraft, aeroplanes, helicopters, airships, balloons and spacecraft. Flying an aeroplane is no easy task. It involves various methods like taxiing; take off, climb, cruise, descent, flight planning, and landing. Some of the early flight pioneers were Abbas Ibn Firnas, Amelia Earhart, Alberto Santos Dumont, Armen Firman, Charles Lindbergh, Richard Pearse and ultimately the Wright Brothers.
A taxiway is used for flights to move from one place to another with the help of wheels, within the airport. The process when the flight, after gathering speed from the runway, leaves the ground and flies into the air is called takeoff. For light flights, usually full power is used. Climb involves getting the flight into the desired cruising altitude. Cruise involved changing the direction of the flight. The landing of the flight by decreasing its altitude is known as descent of a flight. Flight planning is an essential part in both private and commercial flights. Landing the flight to ground level is the ultimate part of safely handling a flight.
The History of Calendars
Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. Their "old new year" is a week later, on January 14. It is all Julius Caesar's fault ...
The Romans sometimes neglected to introduce an extra month every two years to amortize the difference between their lunar calendar and the natural solar year. Julius Caesar decreed that the year 46 BC should have 445 days (some historians implausibly say: 443 days) in order to bridge the yawning discrepancy that accumulated over the preceding seven centuries. It was aptly titled the "Year of Confusion".
To "reset" the calendar, Julius Caesar affixed the New Year on January 1 (the day the Senate traditionally convened) and added a day or two to a few months.
He thus gave rise to the Julian Calendar, a latter day rendition of the Aristarchus calendar from 239 BC. After his assassination, the month of Quintilis was renamed Julius (July) in his honor.
The Julian calendar estimated the length of the natural solar year (the time it takes for the earth to make one orbit of the sun) to be 365 days and 6 hours. Every fourth year the extra six hours were collected and added as an extra day to the year, creating a leap year of 366 days.
But the calendar's underlying estimate was off by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. It was longer than the natural solar year. The extra minutes accumulated to one whole day. By 325 AD, the Spring Equinox was arriving on March 21st on the Julian Calendar - instead of March 25.
The First Ecumenical Council met in Nicea in 325 and determined that the date to celebrate Pascha was on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox on March 21st. In other words, it enshrined the Julian calendar's aberration.
Thus, by 1582, the Spring Equinox was arriving on March 11. Half-hearted measures by Popes Paul III and Pius V failed to restore the essential correspondence between the calendar and the seasons.
Pope Gregory XIII decided - in his tenth year in office - to drop 3 leap years every 400 years by specifying that any year whose number ended with 00 must also be evenly divisible by 400 in order to have a 29-day February.
This would have the effect of bringing the Julian calendar closer to the natural length of the solar year - though an error of 26 seconds per year would still remain.
To calibrate the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one and to move the Spring Equinox back to March 21, 10 days were dropped from the civil calendar in October 1582. Thursday, October 4 was followed by Friday, October 15. People rioted in the streets throughout Europe, convinced that they have been robbed of 10 days.
But this was merely a convenient fiction. The Spring Equinox in the Gregorian calendar was, indeed, celebrated on March 21 in perpetuity. But, according to the Julian calendar, in the 17th century it arrived on March 11th, in the 18th century on March 10th, in the 19th century on March 9th, and in the 20th century on March 8th - 13 days earlier that even the erroneous date adopted by the Nicea Council.
The Gregorian calendar was controversial in Protestant countries. Britain and its colonies adopted it only in 1752. They had to drop 11 days from the civil calendar and move the official new year from March 25 to January 1. For centuries, dates followed by OS ("Old Style") were according to the Julian calendar and dates followed by NS ("New Style") according to the Gregorian one. Sweden adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1753, Japan in 1873, Egypt in 1875, Eastern Europe between 1912 to 1919 and Turkey in 1927. In Russia it was decreed by the (bourgeois) revolutionaries that thirteen days would be omitted from the calendar, the day following January 31, 1918 becoming February 14, 1918.
It was Pope Pius X who, in 1910, changed the beginning of the ecclesiastical year from Christmas Day to January 1, effective from 1911 onwards.
All that time, the Christian Orthodox continued to observe the Julian calendar. In 1923, a Conference of Orthodox Churches in Constantinople reduced the number of leap years every 900 years and attained a discrepancy between the calendar and the natural solar year of merely 2.2 seconds per year.
According to this calendar, the Spring Equinox will regress by one day every 40,000 years.
They, too, had to drop 13 days to bring the Spring Equinox back to March 21st. Hence the gap between December 25 (Gregorian calendar) and January 7 (revised Julian-Orthodox calendar).
The Invention of Television
The transmission of images obsessed inventors as early as 1875 when George Carey of Boston proposed his cumbersome system. Only five years later, the principle of scanning a picture, line by line and frame by frame - still used in modern television sets - was proposed simultaneously in the USA (by W.E. Sawyer) and in France (by Maurice Leblanc). The first complete television system - using the newly discovered properties of selenium - was patented in Germany in 1884, by Paul Nipkow. Boris Rosing of Russia actually transmitted images in 1907. The idea to incorporated cathode -ray tubes was proposed in 1911 by a Scottish engineer, Campbell Swinton.
Another Scot, John Logie Baird, beat American inventor C.F. Jenkins to the mark by giving the first public demonstration of - a dim and badly flickering - television in 1926 in Soho, London. Britain commenced experimental broadcasting almost immediately thereafter. Irish actress Peggy O'Neil was the first to be interviewed on TV in April 1930. The Japanese televised an elementary school baseball match in September 1931. Nazi Germany started its own broadcasting service in 1935 and offered coverage of the 1936 Olympics. By November 1936, the BBC was broadcasting daily from Alexandra Palace in London to all of 100 TV sets in the kingdom.
At the beginning there were many competing standards on both sides of the Atlantic. Baird's technological solutions were trounced by Isaac Shoenberg and his team, set up in 1931 by Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). RCA refined its own system, as did the Dutch Philips. Not until 1951 were the standards for public broadcasting set in the USA and in Europe.
But the Americans were the ones to grasp the commercial implications of television. Bulova Clock paid $9 to WNBT of New York for the first 20-seconds TV spot, broadcast during a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies in July 1941. Soap operas followed in February 1947 (DuMont TV's A Woman to Remember) and the first TV news helicopter was launched by KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles on 4 July 1958.
The first patent for color television was issued in Germany in 1904. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, the Russia-born American innovator, came up with a complete color system in 1925. Baird himself demonstrated color TV transmission in 1928. Various researchers at Bell Laboratories perfected color television in the late 1920s. Georges Valenso of France patented a series of breakthrough technologies in 1938. But color TV became widespread only in the 1960s.
Polar Bears, Rulers of the Arctic North
The polar bears (Thalarctos maritimus) live in the Arctic regions of the north near open water where they can find their main source of food which are seals. These bears are huge with adults at 7 to 8 ½ feet tall and up to 1,600 pounds. Polar bears are white to creamy white all year round which gives them excellent camouflage against the Arctic snow when hunting. Along with the Arctic fox, the polar bear is the most northerly located land mammal on earth.
Unlike other species of bears, polar bears have longer necks and smaller heads making them appear more streamlined. Despite their large sizes, they are incredibly fast being able to run up to 25 miles per hour. At speeds like this, a polar bear can outrun a reindeer. They are also excellent swimmers being able to swim at about 3 miles per hour but for considerable distances.
During winters, they spend most of their time on the ice floes hunting seals. Polar bears have rough, leathery pads on the bottoms of their feet to maintain footholds on slippery ice surfaces. Their adaptation to the cold Arctic waters is even more impressive. Their thick coats of fur traps a deep layer of insulating air around their bodies. An inner layer of fur is so compact that it is almost impossible to wet it. An outer layer of long guard hairs mat together in the water which forms another layer over the inner layer. After a polar bear leaves the water, it simply shakes its body which results in most of the water being thrown right off leaving the bear almost dry. These protective layers of fur ensure that the polar bear’s skin is kept dry most of the time, even while in the Arctic waters.
Polar bears hunt seals by waiting for seals to come through holes in the ice to breathe. They also stalk their prey utilizing their white camouflage abilities against the mounds of ice. Sometimes polar bears have been known to crawl on their bellies until they are close enough to rush their prey, particularly if no cover is available. Besides seals, polar bears will eat Arctic foxes, birds, baby walruses and even man if they are extremely hungry.
Males and females stay apart for most of the year except during the summer mating season. Females tend to breed only every other year and when they do, usually 1 to 4 cubs are born during March to April. The polar bear cubs stay with their mothers for 1 to 2 years. The life span of polar bears can be up to 34 years.
The Inuit hunt polar bears for their fat, tendons and fur. Scientists say that climate changes have been reducing the ice floes in the Arctic which has disrupted the polar bear’s feeding grounds and migration patterns. There are estimates of about 22,000 to 25,000 polar bears left in the world with 60 percent of them in the Canadian Arctic region. Their populations are thought to be stable for now but some speculate that the species is at risk. Some think that if climate changes continue at its present rate and if worldwide hunting is not adequately controlled, polar bears could face extinction in about 100 years. There is presently much debate on adjusting annual hunting quotas of polar bears, even for Inuit hunters, to further help protect these great bears.
Polar bears have become the most popular symbol of the Arctic north with representations used in everything from soft drink commercials to corporate logos of northern based companies including Canadian North airlines. Nunavut even has their license plates cut in the shape of a polar bear. Tourists can see polar bears in the wild through unique tours on specially designed tundra buggies in Churchill, Manitoba Canada. It’s also not surprising that polar bears are some of the most sought after Inuit art sculptures. Polar bears are definitely the rulers of the Arctic north.
Böyle hikayelerden daha çok var. İsteğe göre devam edebilirim...
A Tale of Two Enemies : Sun and Saturn
In astrology Sun and Saturn are considered enemies of each other. The gods or the demi-gods cannot behave like mortals. So we have to analyse the concept of enemies in a context and appropriate meanings. The Sun is truth, Sun is Knowledge; Sun is light. It is the place where our ancestors would ultimately go. After vasu and rudra , where our fathers are believed to have attained the status and receive pinda from us, the ultimate loka or state comes Aditya . Vasu rupe~, Rudra rupe~ and finally Aditya Rupe~.. The Sun is the embodiment of all gods. He is the ultimate. He is the destroyer of sins.
The concept of sin is co-terminus with the life we live in this world. The past actions which are sinful, in our past lives give the results of miseries in this present world. The miseries depend upon the degree of sins we committed in our past lives. There two gods who are attributed with the quality of destroying one’s sins. Firstly- Lord Shiva. Secondly the demi god Sun. It is easier to pray Lord Shiva and wash out our past sins. But the Second way is tougher one. Adithya is not easier to please. He is a strict disciplinarian. In the first and easier way of pleasing Lord Shiva, there are chances of we committing sins again. But the Second and tougher way is final.
It is born out of ultimate truth, knowledge and karma. It is this tough path that is chosen by the Rishis in doing tapasya. ( For detailed study – see concept of sin). Step by step one attains the state of Aditya and his material life comes to an end, which is the goal of all truth seekers. It is the freedom from bondage of birth and re-births. It is the attainment of god-hood.
The Sun burns everything. Our ignorance, our beliefs, our knowledge, which are born out of lies, images, maya , which is thrown by Rahu on our monds. The knowledge and beliefs are so strong and deep rooted in our minds, in our actions, we refuse to believe the ultimate truth. We are programmed to take shelter under clouds, false roofs, such as a frog taking a shelter under a serpent. This state of mind and our actions are created and developed by Saturn. Saturn is the representative of our false shelter. He creats maya through Rahu. All the dirt, whether in mind or in our physical presence in this world, is the abode of Saturn. He will not direct us to the path of truth, knowledge and god. He creates falls, pits and blindness, so that we eternally revolve round and round this maya. This maya is so powerful and strong, even the mighty Sun cannot escape.
So the two planes of operation of the fields are quite different. The concepts of Sun and Saturn go directly opposite to each other. Both act according to our past actions or karma. They are not enemies of each other. Because no two gods have the feelings of hatredness or love. They are above all those trivial behavior. They are above such meanness. They act according to their natures. Both are necessary embodiments of this worldly life. Sun is the enemy of ignorance, false-hood, indiscipline, and maya. The Saturn is the enemy of light, discipline, truth and knowledge. The Saturn is the creator maya.
All these qualities are the embodiments of mortal lives in this world; and definitely not the qualities of either the Sun or Saturn. In this way both are supplementary and complementary to each other. They are not enemies; But the gods acting in tandem, in harmony. One takes up where the other ends. They are the enemies of certain actions of mortals. It is the mortal to choose his action. If one sincerely attempts , penaces and disciplined it is the Saturn who is more pleased and he withdraws the curtain of Maya from one’s path of seeking truth. Then the Sun condones and destroys the earlier sins and shows the path of liberation through his light.
Sreenivasamurthy Kubatoor is an advocate by profession. He has studied Asrology as hobby and now perfected in Remedial Astrology, helping only those who are in distress.The study and remedies are based on Vedic Astrology.
A Note from Saint Valentine - A First Person Tale of This Wonderful Day
Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn't like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn't the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.
Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!
Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.
One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.
I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.
One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine." I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D.
Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can't be beaten!
Flight - History of Aeroplanes and Steps of Flying
The invention of flight by the Wright brothers has brought about a revolution in the world. The concept of speed and distance started changing. The impossible started looking possible. The perfect combination of strength, weight, and carrying capacity has been experimented and finally achieved.
The airplanes were previously called “Kites”! They did not have much power and were supplied with a lot of wing area. The streamlined aircrafts came up just before the World War I. they has cleaner aerodynamic shapes and had increased horsepower. During the First World War, the traditional wooden frames were replaced by welded steel tubing. Duraluminum was used to prepare all the assembly-wings, fuselage and tail of the flight.
Slowly metal was used to replace the use of wood in preparing the body of the flight. The revolutionary Boeing 247 combined the streamlined all-metal semi-monocoque construction, retractable landing and variable pitch propellers. Whenever there is a war, the nation tries to utilize the best technology. During World War 2, the jet fighter was developed. An all-composite design was appreciated during 1980s. The flight design by Brut Rutan made history by flying non-stop around the world without refueling.
The Voyager’s composite airframe was lightweight and circled the earth in nine days. Not only for transporting people from place to place, certain space shuttle is prepared for space flight. The various mechanical flights include aircraft, aeroplanes, helicopters, airships, balloons and spacecraft. Flying an aeroplane is no easy task. It involves various methods like taxiing; take off, climb, cruise, descent, flight planning, and landing. Some of the early flight pioneers were Abbas Ibn Firnas, Amelia Earhart, Alberto Santos Dumont, Armen Firman, Charles Lindbergh, Richard Pearse and ultimately the Wright Brothers.
A taxiway is used for flights to move from one place to another with the help of wheels, within the airport. The process when the flight, after gathering speed from the runway, leaves the ground and flies into the air is called takeoff. For light flights, usually full power is used. Climb involves getting the flight into the desired cruising altitude. Cruise involved changing the direction of the flight. The landing of the flight by decreasing its altitude is known as descent of a flight. Flight planning is an essential part in both private and commercial flights. Landing the flight to ground level is the ultimate part of safely handling a flight.
The History of Calendars
Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. Their "old new year" is a week later, on January 14. It is all Julius Caesar's fault ...
The Romans sometimes neglected to introduce an extra month every two years to amortize the difference between their lunar calendar and the natural solar year. Julius Caesar decreed that the year 46 BC should have 445 days (some historians implausibly say: 443 days) in order to bridge the yawning discrepancy that accumulated over the preceding seven centuries. It was aptly titled the "Year of Confusion".
To "reset" the calendar, Julius Caesar affixed the New Year on January 1 (the day the Senate traditionally convened) and added a day or two to a few months.
He thus gave rise to the Julian Calendar, a latter day rendition of the Aristarchus calendar from 239 BC. After his assassination, the month of Quintilis was renamed Julius (July) in his honor.
The Julian calendar estimated the length of the natural solar year (the time it takes for the earth to make one orbit of the sun) to be 365 days and 6 hours. Every fourth year the extra six hours were collected and added as an extra day to the year, creating a leap year of 366 days.
But the calendar's underlying estimate was off by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. It was longer than the natural solar year. The extra minutes accumulated to one whole day. By 325 AD, the Spring Equinox was arriving on March 21st on the Julian Calendar - instead of March 25.
The First Ecumenical Council met in Nicea in 325 and determined that the date to celebrate Pascha was on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox on March 21st. In other words, it enshrined the Julian calendar's aberration.
Thus, by 1582, the Spring Equinox was arriving on March 11. Half-hearted measures by Popes Paul III and Pius V failed to restore the essential correspondence between the calendar and the seasons.
Pope Gregory XIII decided - in his tenth year in office - to drop 3 leap years every 400 years by specifying that any year whose number ended with 00 must also be evenly divisible by 400 in order to have a 29-day February.
This would have the effect of bringing the Julian calendar closer to the natural length of the solar year - though an error of 26 seconds per year would still remain.
To calibrate the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one and to move the Spring Equinox back to March 21, 10 days were dropped from the civil calendar in October 1582. Thursday, October 4 was followed by Friday, October 15. People rioted in the streets throughout Europe, convinced that they have been robbed of 10 days.
But this was merely a convenient fiction. The Spring Equinox in the Gregorian calendar was, indeed, celebrated on March 21 in perpetuity. But, according to the Julian calendar, in the 17th century it arrived on March 11th, in the 18th century on March 10th, in the 19th century on March 9th, and in the 20th century on March 8th - 13 days earlier that even the erroneous date adopted by the Nicea Council.
The Gregorian calendar was controversial in Protestant countries. Britain and its colonies adopted it only in 1752. They had to drop 11 days from the civil calendar and move the official new year from March 25 to January 1. For centuries, dates followed by OS ("Old Style") were according to the Julian calendar and dates followed by NS ("New Style") according to the Gregorian one. Sweden adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1753, Japan in 1873, Egypt in 1875, Eastern Europe between 1912 to 1919 and Turkey in 1927. In Russia it was decreed by the (bourgeois) revolutionaries that thirteen days would be omitted from the calendar, the day following January 31, 1918 becoming February 14, 1918.
It was Pope Pius X who, in 1910, changed the beginning of the ecclesiastical year from Christmas Day to January 1, effective from 1911 onwards.
All that time, the Christian Orthodox continued to observe the Julian calendar. In 1923, a Conference of Orthodox Churches in Constantinople reduced the number of leap years every 900 years and attained a discrepancy between the calendar and the natural solar year of merely 2.2 seconds per year.
According to this calendar, the Spring Equinox will regress by one day every 40,000 years.
They, too, had to drop 13 days to bring the Spring Equinox back to March 21st. Hence the gap between December 25 (Gregorian calendar) and January 7 (revised Julian-Orthodox calendar).
The Invention of Television
The transmission of images obsessed inventors as early as 1875 when George Carey of Boston proposed his cumbersome system. Only five years later, the principle of scanning a picture, line by line and frame by frame - still used in modern television sets - was proposed simultaneously in the USA (by W.E. Sawyer) and in France (by Maurice Leblanc). The first complete television system - using the newly discovered properties of selenium - was patented in Germany in 1884, by Paul Nipkow. Boris Rosing of Russia actually transmitted images in 1907. The idea to incorporated cathode -ray tubes was proposed in 1911 by a Scottish engineer, Campbell Swinton.
Another Scot, John Logie Baird, beat American inventor C.F. Jenkins to the mark by giving the first public demonstration of - a dim and badly flickering - television in 1926 in Soho, London. Britain commenced experimental broadcasting almost immediately thereafter. Irish actress Peggy O'Neil was the first to be interviewed on TV in April 1930. The Japanese televised an elementary school baseball match in September 1931. Nazi Germany started its own broadcasting service in 1935 and offered coverage of the 1936 Olympics. By November 1936, the BBC was broadcasting daily from Alexandra Palace in London to all of 100 TV sets in the kingdom.
At the beginning there were many competing standards on both sides of the Atlantic. Baird's technological solutions were trounced by Isaac Shoenberg and his team, set up in 1931 by Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). RCA refined its own system, as did the Dutch Philips. Not until 1951 were the standards for public broadcasting set in the USA and in Europe.
But the Americans were the ones to grasp the commercial implications of television. Bulova Clock paid $9 to WNBT of New York for the first 20-seconds TV spot, broadcast during a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies in July 1941. Soap operas followed in February 1947 (DuMont TV's A Woman to Remember) and the first TV news helicopter was launched by KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles on 4 July 1958.
The first patent for color television was issued in Germany in 1904. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, the Russia-born American innovator, came up with a complete color system in 1925. Baird himself demonstrated color TV transmission in 1928. Various researchers at Bell Laboratories perfected color television in the late 1920s. Georges Valenso of France patented a series of breakthrough technologies in 1938. But color TV became widespread only in the 1960s.
Polar Bears, Rulers of the Arctic North
The polar bears (Thalarctos maritimus) live in the Arctic regions of the north near open water where they can find their main source of food which are seals. These bears are huge with adults at 7 to 8 ½ feet tall and up to 1,600 pounds. Polar bears are white to creamy white all year round which gives them excellent camouflage against the Arctic snow when hunting. Along with the Arctic fox, the polar bear is the most northerly located land mammal on earth.
Unlike other species of bears, polar bears have longer necks and smaller heads making them appear more streamlined. Despite their large sizes, they are incredibly fast being able to run up to 25 miles per hour. At speeds like this, a polar bear can outrun a reindeer. They are also excellent swimmers being able to swim at about 3 miles per hour but for considerable distances.
During winters, they spend most of their time on the ice floes hunting seals. Polar bears have rough, leathery pads on the bottoms of their feet to maintain footholds on slippery ice surfaces. Their adaptation to the cold Arctic waters is even more impressive. Their thick coats of fur traps a deep layer of insulating air around their bodies. An inner layer of fur is so compact that it is almost impossible to wet it. An outer layer of long guard hairs mat together in the water which forms another layer over the inner layer. After a polar bear leaves the water, it simply shakes its body which results in most of the water being thrown right off leaving the bear almost dry. These protective layers of fur ensure that the polar bear’s skin is kept dry most of the time, even while in the Arctic waters.
Polar bears hunt seals by waiting for seals to come through holes in the ice to breathe. They also stalk their prey utilizing their white camouflage abilities against the mounds of ice. Sometimes polar bears have been known to crawl on their bellies until they are close enough to rush their prey, particularly if no cover is available. Besides seals, polar bears will eat Arctic foxes, birds, baby walruses and even man if they are extremely hungry.
Males and females stay apart for most of the year except during the summer mating season. Females tend to breed only every other year and when they do, usually 1 to 4 cubs are born during March to April. The polar bear cubs stay with their mothers for 1 to 2 years. The life span of polar bears can be up to 34 years.
The Inuit hunt polar bears for their fat, tendons and fur. Scientists say that climate changes have been reducing the ice floes in the Arctic which has disrupted the polar bear’s feeding grounds and migration patterns. There are estimates of about 22,000 to 25,000 polar bears left in the world with 60 percent of them in the Canadian Arctic region. Their populations are thought to be stable for now but some speculate that the species is at risk. Some think that if climate changes continue at its present rate and if worldwide hunting is not adequately controlled, polar bears could face extinction in about 100 years. There is presently much debate on adjusting annual hunting quotas of polar bears, even for Inuit hunters, to further help protect these great bears.
Polar bears have become the most popular symbol of the Arctic north with representations used in everything from soft drink commercials to corporate logos of northern based companies including Canadian North airlines. Nunavut even has their license plates cut in the shape of a polar bear. Tourists can see polar bears in the wild through unique tours on specially designed tundra buggies in Churchill, Manitoba Canada. It’s also not surprising that polar bears are some of the most sought after Inuit art sculptures. Polar bears are definitely the rulers of the Arctic north.
Böyle hikayelerden daha çok var. İsteğe göre devam edebilirim...
