1.
1640s in architecture
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The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is under construction. The mosque and jawab in the complex are completed in 1643,1640 Børsen in Copenhagen, designed by Lorentz and Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger and begun in 1619, is completed. 59-60 Lincolns Inn Fields, London, probably designed by Inigo Jones,1641 Tron Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland, designed by John Mylne, is dedicated. The Mauritshuis at The Hague in the Dutch Republic, designed by Jacob van Campen, 1645–1648 - Main structure of Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, is built. 1646 The St. Mary Magdalene Chapel, Dingli, Malta, is rebuilt after the chapel had collapsed. Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan, Persia, is completed,1647 - The Changdeokgung in Seoul, Korea, is reconstructed. 1648 - Jama Masjid, Agra, is built,1642 - Giovanni Barbara, Maltese architect and military engineer c
2.
Science
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Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. The formal sciences are often excluded as they do not depend on empirical observations, disciplines which use science, like engineering and medicine, may also be considered to be applied sciences. However, during the Islamic Golden Age foundations for the method were laid by Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics. In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of physical laws, over the course of the 19th century, the word science became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself as a disciplined way to study the natural world. It was during this time that scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, Science in a broad sense existed before the modern era and in many historical civilizations. Modern science is distinct in its approach and successful in its results, Science in its original sense was a word for a type of knowledge rather than a specialized word for the pursuit of such knowledge. In particular, it was the type of knowledge which people can communicate to each other, for example, knowledge about the working of natural things was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of complex abstract thought. This is shown by the construction of calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants edible. For this reason, it is claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense and they were mainly speculators or theorists, particularly interested in astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate nature was seen by scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans. A clear-cut distinction between formal and empirical science was made by the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, although his work Peri Physeos is a poem, it may be viewed as an epistemological essay on method in natural science. Parmenides ἐὸν may refer to a system or calculus which can describe nature more precisely than natural languages. Physis may be identical to ἐὸν and he criticized the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism. He was particularly concerned that some of the early physicists treated nature as if it could be assumed that it had no intelligent order, explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter. The study of things had been the realm of mythology and tradition, however. Aristotle later created a less controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy which was teleological and he rejected many of the conclusions of earlier scientists. For example, in his physics, the sun goes around the earth, each thing has a formal cause and final cause and a role in the rational cosmic order. Motion and change is described as the actualization of potentials already in things, while the Socratics insisted that philosophy should be used to consider the practical question of the best way to live for a human being, they did not argue for any other types of applied science
3.
Technology
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Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, the human species use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The steady progress of technology has brought weapons of ever-increasing destructive power. It has helped develop more advanced economies and has allowed the rise of a leisure class, many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earths environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and raise new questions of the ethics of technology, examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics. Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the condition or worsens it. The use of the technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, the term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The term technology rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the Second Industrial Revolution, the terms meanings changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into technology. In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between technik and technologie that is absent in English, which translates both terms as technology. By the 1930s, technology referred not only to the study of the industrial arts, dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 Real World of Technology lecture, gave another definition of the concept, it is practice, the way we do things around here. The term is used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics. Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time,1, defines technology in two ways, as the pursuit of life by other than life, and as organized inorganic matter. Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems and it is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material, virtual technology, such as software and business methods. W. Brian Arthur defines technology in a broad way as a means to fulfill a human purpose
4.
Nicolaes Tulp
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Nicolaes Tulp was a Dutch surgeon and mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his moral character and as the subject of Rembrandts famous painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. Born Claes Pieterszoon, he was the son of a merchant active in civic affairs in Amsterdam. From 1611 to 1614 he studied medicine in Leiden, when he returned to Amsterdam he became a respected doctor and in 1617 he married Aagfe Van der Voegh. An ambitious young man, he adopted the tulip as his heraldric emblem and he began working in local politics as city treasurer, and in 1622, he became magistrate in Amsterdam. The career of Dr Tulp matched the success of Amsterdam, as the population of Amsterdam grew from 30,000 in 1580 to 210,000 in 1650, Dr Tulps career as a doctor and politician made him a man of influence. He drove a small carriage to visit all the patients, thanks to his connections on the city council, in 1628 Tulp was appointed Praelector Anatomiae at the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons. His wife died in the year, leaving him with five young children. In 1630 he married his wife, the daughter of the mayor of Outshoorn. In his job, Tulp was responsible for inspections of apothecary shops, chemists in Amsterdam had access to an enormous amount of herbs and spices from the East, thanks to the new shipping routes. It became a trade and in 1636 there were 66 apothecaries in Amsterdam. Shocked at the exorbitant prices asked for useless anti-plague medicines, Dr Tulp decided to do something about it and he gathered his doctor and chemist friends together and they wrote the first pharmacopoeia of Amsterdam in 1636 the Pharmacopoea Amstelredamensis. The Apothecary guild would require an exam based on Dr Tulps book in order for new chemists to set up shop in Amsterdam and this pharmacopoeia became a standard work and set an example for all the other cities of Holland. The praelector would give yearly anatomy lessons each winter, performing them on victims of public hanging, at that time the dissection of bodies was only legal if the subject was a male criminal and considered outside of the Church. The dissections were performed with the consent of the city council, all council and guild members were required to attend and pay an admission fee. Throughout Europe, these dissections were attended by prominent learned men, who exchanged ideas about anatomy, as befits a new praelector, the Guild commissioned a new group portrait of the prominent councilmen and guildmasters. Rembrandt, himself a man of 26 and new to the city, won this commission and made a famous painting of him. This painting, which now hangs in the Mauritshuis museum of the Hague, there has been much speculation as to why the dissection began on the forearm
5.
Observationes Medicae (Tulp)
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Observationes Medicae is a 1641 book by Nicolaes Tulp. Tulp is primarily famous today for his role in the 1632 group portrait by Rembrandt of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons. His book comprises 164 cases from his practise, kept in a diary from his career onwards. His book was illustrated with plates, and it is not clear who drew these or engraved them, according to various sources, he drew many of these himself. His birth name was Claes Pietersz and he adopted the name Tulp when he had a Tulip shaped sign placed outside his door when he set up shop in Amsterdam. Many of his patients could not read or write. He soon no longer needed to advertise his services, however, and his duties as Praelector. Tulp had a reputation for a moral upstanding character, and Joost van den Vondel wrote poetry extolling his virtue and he later also wrote a poem in honor of the second edition of this book. Tulps book has accounts of unusual illnesses and primarily growths or carcinomas. His drawing of a Chimpanzee is considered the first of its kind and this creature was called an Indian Satyr, since all ships cargo was considered Indonesian. However, the text claims the animal came from Angola. This drawing was copied many times and formed the basis for theories on the origin of man. Most notably, Tulps work and that of Jacob de Bondt was copied and republished by Linnaeus to show a link between apes and man, one of the interesting cases is the story of how Jan de Doot performed a bladder operation on himself. So was he no less than those whose deeds are related in the old scriptures, sometimes daring helps when reason doesnt. Observationes Medicae became so popular, that a years later a translated version was published. Professor Tulp never wanted to publish in Dutch for fear of hypochondriac behavior and he was very against quacks and self-medication and it was for this reason that he worked on the Amsterdam Pharmacopoeia. This second version therefore, would have been against his wishes and he claims to have made an accurate translation from the Latin, but the flowery language is so different from Tulps terse descriptions, that this is highly unlikely. The chapters and accompanying plates of the 1641 and 1740 editions of Book two are the same, only one extra chapter appears in the later version
6.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
7.
Thermometer
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A thermometer is a device that measures temperature or a temperature gradient. A thermometer has two important elements, a sensor in which some physical change occurs with temperature. Thermometers are widely used in industry to control and regulate processes, in the study of weather, in medicine, there are various principles by which different thermometers operate. They include the expansion of solids or liquids with temperature. Radiation-type thermometers measure the energy emitted by an object, allowing measurement of temperature without contact. Most metals are good conductors of heat and they are solids at room temperature, Mercury is the only one in liquid state at room temperature, and has high coefficient of expansion. Hence, the slightest change in temperature is notable when its used in a thermometer and this is the reason behind mercury and alcohol being used in thermometer. Some of the principles of the thermometer were known to Greek philosophers of two years ago. The modern thermometer gradually evolved from the thermoscope with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century, while an individual thermometer is able to measure degrees of hotness, the readings on two thermometers cannot be compared unless they conform to an agreed scale. Today there is a thermodynamic temperature scale. Internationally agreed temperature scales are designed to approximate this closely, based on fixed points, the most recent official temperature scale is the International Temperature Scale of 1990. It extends from 0.65 K to approximately 1,358 K, various authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Hero of Alexandria. The thermometer was not an invention, however, but a development. The expansion and contraction of the air caused the position of the interface to move along the tube. Such a mechanism was used to show the hotness and coldness of the air with a tube in which the water level is controlled by the expansion and contraction of the gas. These devices were developed by several European scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries, as a result, devices were shown to produce this effect reliably, and the term thermoscope was adopted because it reflected the changes in sensible heat. The difference between a thermoscope and a thermometer is that the latter has a scale, though Galileo is often said to be the inventor of the thermometer, what he produced were thermoscopes. The first clear diagram of a thermoscope was published in 1617 by Giuseppe Biancani and this was a vertical tube, closed by a bulb of air at the top, with the lower end opening into a vessel of water
8.
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Ferdinando II de Medici was grand duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest child of Cosimo II de Medici and Maria Maddalena of Austria and his 49-year rule was punctuated by the beginning of Tuscanys long economic decline. He married Vittoria della Rovere, with whom he had two children, Cosimo III de Medici, his successor, and Francesco Maria de Medici, Duke of Rovere and Montefeltro. Ferdinando was the eldest son of Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II died when Ferdinando was 10, because he had not yet reached maturity, his mother and paternal grandmother, Christina of Lorraine, acted as joint regents. In his seventeenth year, Ferdinando embarked on a tour of Europe, one year later, his regency ended and his personal rule began. Dowager Grand Duchess Christina was the power behind the throne until her death in 1636, ferdinand, like Christina before him, was a patron, ally, and friend of Galileo. Galileo dedicated his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems to him and this work led to Galileos second set of hearings before the Inquisition. The first calamity of Ferdinando’s reign was in 1630, when a plague swept through Florence, unlike the Tuscan nobility, Ferdinando and his brothers stayed in the city to try to ameliorate the general suffering. His mother and grandmother arranged a marriage with Vittoria della Rovere, together they had two children, Cosimo, in 1642, and Francesco Maria de Medici, in 1660. The latter was the fruit of a reconciliation, as after the birth of Cosimo. Grand Duke Ferdinando was obsessed with new technology, and had several hygrometers, barometers, thermometers, in 1654, influenced by Galileo, he is reported to have invented the sealed-glass thermometer, by sealing the glass tip of a tube filled to a certain height with colored alcohol. Small glass bubbles filled with air at varying pressures hovered trapped within the liquid, changing positions as the temperature rose or fell. Marked off with 360 divisions, like the gradations or degrees of a circle, in 1657, Leopoldo de Medici, the Grand Duke’s youngest brother, established the Accademia del Cimento. It was set up to attract scientists from all over Tuscany to Florence for mutual study, Tuscany participated in the Wars of Castro and inflicted a defeat on the forces of Urban VIII in 1643. The treasury was so empty that when the Castro mercenaries were paid for the state could no longer afford to pay interest on government bonds, the interest rate was lowered by 0. 75%. The economy was so decrepit that barter trade became prevalent in rural market places, Ferdinando died on 23 May 1670 of apoplexy and dropsy. He was interred in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medicis necropolis, at the time of his death, the population of the grand duchy was 730,594 souls, the streets were lined with grass and the buildings on the verge of collapse in Pisa. R. Florence and the Medici, Orion books, London,1977, ISBN 1-84212-456-0 Liedtke, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
9.
Alcohol
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In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which the hydroxyl functional group is bound to a saturated carbon atom. The term alcohol originally referred to the alcohol ethanol, the predominant alcohol in alcoholic beverages. The suffix -ol in non-systematic names also typically indicates that the substance includes a functional group and, so. But many substances, particularly sugars contain hydroxyl functional groups without using the suffix, an important class of alcohols, of which methanol and ethanol are the simplest members is the saturated straight chain alcohols, the general formula for which is CnH2n+1OH. The word alcohol is from the Arabic kohl, a used as an eyeliner. Al- is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the in English, alcohol was originally used for the very fine powder produced by the sublimation of the natural mineral stibnite to form antimony trisulfide Sb 2S3, hence the essence or spirit of this substance. It was used as an antiseptic, eyeliner, and cosmetic, the meaning of alcohol was extended to distilled substances in general, and then narrowed to ethanol, when spirits as a synonym for hard liquor. Bartholomew Traheron, in his 1543 translation of John of Vigo, Vigo wrote, the barbarous auctours use alcohol, or alcofoll, for moost fine poudre. The 1657 Lexicon Chymicum, by William Johnson glosses the word as antimonium sive stibium, by extension, the word came to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including alcohol of wine, the distilled essence of wine. Libavius in Alchymia refers to vini alcohol vel vinum alcalisatum, Johnson glosses alcohol vini as quando omnis superfluitas vini a vino separatur, ita ut accensum ardeat donec totum consumatur, nihilque fæcum aut phlegmatis in fundo remaneat. The words meaning became restricted to spirit of wine in the 18th century and was extended to the class of substances so-called as alcohols in modern chemistry after 1850, the term ethanol was invented 1892, based on combining the word ethane with ol the last part of alcohol. In the IUPAC system, in naming simple alcohols, the name of the alkane chain loses the terminal e and adds ol, e. g. as in methanol and ethanol. When necessary, the position of the group is indicated by a number between the alkane name and the ol, propan-1-ol for CH 3CH 2CH 2OH, propan-2-ol for CH 3CHCH3. If a higher priority group is present, then the prefix hydroxy is used, in other less formal contexts, an alcohol is often called with the name of the corresponding alkyl group followed by the word alcohol, e. g. methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol. Propyl alcohol may be n-propyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, depending on whether the group is bonded to the end or middle carbon on the straight propane chain. As described under systematic naming, if another group on the molecule takes priority, Alcohols are then classified into primary, secondary, and tertiary, based upon the number of carbon atoms connected to the carbon atom that bears the hydroxyl functional group. The primary alcohols have general formulas RCH2OH, the simplest primary alcohol is methanol, for which R=H, and the next is ethanol, for which R=CH3, the methyl group. Secondary alcohols are those of the form RRCHOH, the simplest of which is 2-propanol, for the tertiary alcohols the general form is RRRCOH
10.
Patent
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A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. An invention is a solution to a technological problem and is a product or a process. Patents are a form of intellectual property, the procedure for granting patents, requirements placed on the patentee, and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims that define the invention. A patent may include many claims, each of which defines a specific property right and these claims must meet relevant patentability requirements, such as novelty, usefulness, and non-obviousness. Nevertheless, there are variations on what is patentable subject matter from country to country, the word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means to lay open. More directly, it is a version of the term letters patent. Similar grants included land patents, which were land grants by early state governments in the USA, and printing patents, a precursor of modern copyright. In modern usage, the term patent usually refers to the granted to anyone who invents any new, useful. The additional qualification utility patent is used to distinguish the primary meaning from these other types of patents. Particular species of patents for inventions include biological patents, business method patents, chemical patents, the period of protection was 10 years. These were mostly in the field of glass making, as Venetians emigrated, they sought similar patent protection in their new homes. This led to the diffusion of patent systems to other countries, by the 16th century, the English Crown would habitually abuse the granting of letters patent for monopolies. After public outcry, King James I of England was forced to revoke all existing monopolies, the Statute became the foundation for later developments in patent law in England and elsewhere. Important developments in patent law emerged during the 18th century through a process of judicial interpretation of the law. During the reign of Queen Anne, patent applications were required to supply a complete specification of the principles of operation of the invention for public access. Influenced by the philosophy of John Locke, the granting of patents began to be viewed as a form of property right. The English legal system became the foundation for patent law in countries with a common law heritage, including the United States, New Zealand, in the Thirteen Colonies, inventors could obtain patents through petition to a given colonys legislature
11.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
12.
Massachusetts General Court
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The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name General Court is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, before the adoption of the state constitution in 1780, it was called the Great and General Court, but the official title was shortened by John Adams, author of the state constitution. The upper house is the Massachusetts Senate which is composed of 40 members, the lower body, the Massachusetts House of Representatives, has 160 members. It meets in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill in Boston, the current President of the Senate is Stan Rosenberg, and the Speaker of the House is Robert DeLeo. Democrats hold super-majorities in both chambers, State Senators and Representatives both serve two-year terms. Each Representative represents about 40,000 residents, Representative districts are named for the primary county in which they are located, and tend to stay within one county, although some districts contain portions of adjacent counties. The current composition of the House is 126 Democrats and 34 Republicans, there are 40 senatorial districts in Massachusetts, named for the counties in which they are located. The current composition of the Senate is 34 Democrats and 6 Republicans, the General Court is responsible for enacting laws in the state. The two legislative branches work concurrently on pending laws brought before them, lawmaking begins in the House or Senate Clerks office where petitions, bills, and resolves are filed and recorded in a docket book. The clerks number the bills and assign them to appropriate joint committees, there are 26 of these committees, each responsible for studying the bills which pertain to a specific area. Each committee is composed of six senators and eleven representatives, the standing committees schedule public hearings for the individual bills, which afford citizens, legislators and lobbyists the opportunity to express their views. Note that the public may still observe executive sessions, but may not participate in these meetings, the committee then issues its report, recommending that a bill ought to pass or ought not to pass and the report is submitted to the Clerks office. The first reading of a favorably reported bill is automatic and occurs when the report appears in the Journal of the House or Senate Clerk. If a bill affects the finances of the Commonwealth, it is referred to the Senate or House Committee on Ways, if it affects county finances, the bill is read and referred to the Committee on Counties of the House. Adverse reports are also referred to the Committee on Steering and Policy in the Senate or placed without debate in the Orders of the Day for the session of the House. Acceptance by either branch of a report is considered the final rejection. However, a report can be overturned. After a bill takes its second reading, it is open to debate on amendments and motions
13.
Saltmaking
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Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams of solids per litre, Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. The tissues of animals contain larger quantities of salt than do plant tissues, Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation. Salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites, Egyptians, and the Indians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, the scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt is used in ceremonies and has other cultural significance. Salt is processed from salt mines, or by the evaporation of seawater or mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools. Its major industrial products are caustic soda and chlorine, and is used in industrial processes including the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride, plastics, paper pulp. Of the annual production of around two hundred million tonnes of salt, only about 6% is used for human consumption. Other uses include water conditioning processes, de-icing highways, and agricultural use, edible salt is sold in forms such as sea salt and table salt which usually contains an anti-caking agent and may be iodised to prevent iodine deficiency. As well as its use in cooking and at the table, sodium is an essential nutrient for human health via its role as an electrolyte and osmotic solute. Excessive salt consumption can increase the risk of diseases, such as hypertension, in children. Such health effects of salt have long been studied, accordingly, numerous world health associations and experts in developed countries recommend reducing consumption of popular salty foods. The World Health Organization recommends that adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, humans have always tended to build communities either around sources of salt, or where they can trade for it. All through history the availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization, the word salary comes from the Latin word for salt because the Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt. The Natron Valley was a key region that supported the Egyptian Empire to its north, because it supplied it with a kind of salt that came to be called by its name, natron. Even before this, what is now thought to have been the first city in Europe is Solnitsata, in Bulgaria, even the name Solnisata means salt works. A very ancient salt-works operation has been discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a spring in Lunca, Neamț County
14.
Menno van Coehoorn
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Menno, Baron van Coehoorn was a Dutch soldier and military engineer. He made a number of influential weaponry innovations in siege warfare and he was also known as the Dutch Vauban, after his famous French counterpart, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. Coehoorn was born in Britsum, a north of Leeuwarden in the Dutch province of Friesland. He received an excellent military and general education, and at the age of sixteen became a captain in the Dutch army. He was promoted to the rank of colonel for his gallant conduct at the battle of Seneffe, and was present at the Battle of Cassel. The circumstances of the time and the country turned Coehoorns attention to the art of fortification, Coehoorn gained most of his knowledge and insights on the building of fortification by having to capture many of them himself. His first published work, Versterchinge de Vijfhoeks met alle syne Buytenwerken, at once aroused attention, the military authorities were much interested in his work, and entrusted Coehoorn with the reconstruction of several fortresses in the Netherlands. This task he continued throughout his career and his experience made him the rival of his great contemporary Vauban. Essential to his new approach was the ability to fight an active defence on the shores of the enveloping ditch. Throughout his career he never hesitated to depart from his own rules in dealing with exceptional cases, subsequent editions of Nieuwe Vestingbouw appeared in Dutch, English, French, and German. In the War of the Grand Alliance Coehoorn served as a brigadier, at the battle of Fleurus he greatly distinguished himself, and he defended Namur, a fortress of his own creation, when it was besieged by the French in 1692. Coehoorn became lieutenant-general and inspector-general of the Netherlands fortresses and he commanded a corps in the army of the Duke of Marlborough from 1701 to 1703, and in the constant siege warfare of these campaigns in the Low Countries his technical skill was of the highest value. The swift reduction of the fortress of Bonn and the siege of Huy in 1703 were his crowning successes, at the opening of his following campaign he was on his way to confer with Marlborough when he died of apoplexy at Wijkel. His first system was applied to places in the Netherlands, notably Nijmegen, Breda. Mannheim in Germany was also fortified in this way, while the system was applied to Belgrade. Coehoorns son, Gosewijn Theodor van Coehoorn, wrote a biography, andrzej Sapkowski, Polish fantasy writer, used Menno van Coehoorns name for one of the Nilfgaard marshalls in the five book Saga about The Witcher. Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban Erik Dahlberg This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Coehoorn, Menno
15.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
16.
Military engineering
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Military engineering is loosely defined as the art and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and communications. Military engineers are responsible for logistics behind military tactics. Modern military engineering differs from civil engineering, in the 20th and 21st centuries, military engineering also includes other engineering disciplines such as mechanical and electrical engineering techniques. According to NATO, military engineering is that engineer activity undertaken, regardless of component or service, Military engineering does not encompass the activities undertaken by those engineers who maintain, repair and operate vehicles, vessels, aircraft, weapon systems and equipment. Military engineering is a subject taught in military academies or schools of military engineering. The construction and demolition tasks related to engineering are usually performed by military engineers including soldiers trained as sappers or pioneers. In modern armies, soldiers trained to perform such tasks while well forward in battle, the word engineer was initially used in the context of warfare, dating back to 1325 when engine’er referred to a constructor of military engines. In this context, engine referred to a machine, i. e. A mechanical contraption used in war, in its place, the term military engineering has come to be used. Modern military engineering can be divided into three main tasks or fields, combat engineering, strategic support, and ancillary support, combat engineering is associated with engineering on the battlefield. Combat engineers are responsible for increasing mobility on the front lines of war such as digging trenches, strategic support is associated with providing service in communication zones such as the construction of airfields and the improvement and upgrade of ports, roads and railways communication. Ancillary support includes provision and distribution of maps as well as the disposal of unexploded warheads, Military engineers construct bases, airfields, roads, bridges, ports, and hospitals. During peacetime before modern warfare, military engineers took the role of civil engineers by participating in the construction of civil-works projects, nowadays, military engineers are almost entirely engaged in war logistics and preparedness. Combat engineers clear routes, repair airfields and harbours, bridge rivers all at top speed, the first civilization to have a dedicated force of military engineering specialists were the Romans, whose army contained a dedicated corps of military engineers known as architecti. This group was pre-eminent among its contemporaries, such military engineering feats would have been completely new, and probably bewildering and demoralizing, to the Gallic defenders. The best known of these Roman army engineers due to his writings surviving is Vitruvius, alexander the Great also used engineers in his army. In ancient times, military engineers were responsible for warfare and building field fortifications, temporary camps. The most notable engineers of ancient times were the Romans and Chinese, the Romans were responsible for constructing fortified wooden camps and paved roads for their legions
17.
Regnier de Graaf
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Regnier de Graaf, original Dutch spelling Reinier de Graaf, or Latinized Reijnerus de Graeff was a Dutch physician and anatomist who made key discoveries in reproductive biology. His first name is often spelled Reinier or Reynier, De Graaf was born in Schoonhoven and perhaps a relative to the De Graeff regent family. He studied medicine in Utrecht and Leiden, there his co-students were Jan Swammerdam, Niels Stensen and Frederik Ruysch, one of their professors was Franciscus Sylvius. He submitted his thesis on the pancreas, and went to France where he obtained his medical degree from the University of Angers. While in Paris, he turned to the study of the male genitalia. Back in the Netherlands in 1667, De Graaf established himself in Delft, since he was a Catholic in a mainly Protestant country, he was unable to follow a university career. After the early death of a son, De Graaf died in 1673 at age 32 and was buried in the Oude Kerk in Delft, the reason for his death is unknown. He was, however, affected by his controversy with Swammerdam and it has been speculated that he may have committed suicide. His friend Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in his writings attributed his death to choleric substances, De Graaf also invented a practical syringe, described in his third treatise. His eponymous legacy are the Graafian follicles and he himself pointed out that he was not the first to describe them, but described their development. From the observation of pregnancy in rabbits, he concluded that the contained the oocyte. The mature stage of the follicle is called the Graafian follicle in his honour, although others. The discovery of the egg was eventually made by Karl Ernst von Baer in 1827. De Graaf issued a rebuttal but was affected by the accusation, further, De Graaf described the anatomy of the testicles and collected secretions of the gall bladder and the pancreas. Despite his contributions, De Graaf made a number of errors in addition to believing that the ovum was the follicle and he never actually consulted the ancient texts but merely repeated the accounts of others compounding their inaccuracies. Because he observed rabbits rather than humans, he assumed fertilisation took place in the ovary and he believed that the seminal vesicles stored spermatozoa. He was not yet aware of the presence of spematozaoa as such, De Graaf, R De Virorum Organis Generationi Inservientibus, de Clysteribus et de Usu Siphonis in Anatomia De Graaf, R. De Mulierum Organis Generationi Inservientibus. De Graaf, R Alle de Wercken, Reinier De Graaf and his contribution to reproductive biology
18.
Nehemiah Grew
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Nehemiah Grew was an English plant anatomist and physiologist, known as the Father of Plant Anatomy. Grew was the son of Obadiah Grew, Nonconformist divine and vicar of St Michaels, Coventry. He graduated at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1661, and ten years later took the degree of M. D. at Leiden University, in 1672, when the essay was published, he settled in London, and soon acquired an extensive practice as a physician. In 1682 appeared his work on the Anatomy of Plants. The Anatomy is especially notable for its descriptions of plant structure, Anatomy of Plants also contains the first known microscopic description of pollen. Much of Grews pioneering work with the microscope was contemporary with that of Marcello Malpighi and this discovery is central to the field of palynology. Among his other publications were Seawater made Fresh, the Nature and Use of the Salt contained in Epsom and such other Waters, which was a rendering of his Tractatus de salis, linnaeus named a genus of trees Grewia in his honour. At Pembroke there is a stunning stained-glass representation of a page of his work in the Colleges Library, Grew is also considered to be one of the pioneers of dactyloscopy. He was the first person to study and describe ridges, furrows, in 1684, he published accurate drawings of finger ridge patterns. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Grew. Duane Isely, One hundred and one botanists, pp. 68–70 Lee, elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc.1991. Doctor Nehemiah Grew and the Epsom salts, early problems in professionalizing scientific research, Nehemiah Grew and the Royal Society with an unpublished letter to Henry Oldenburg. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. The Anatomy of Plants by Nehemiah Grew in Botanicus. org Nehemiah Grew info from the Hauck Botanical online exhibit Life and Work of Nehemiah Grew in The Public Domain Review
19.
English people
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The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England, who speak the English language. The English identity is of medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD, England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England along with the later Danes, Normans, in the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs. The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system and these and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire. The concept of an English nation is far older than that of the British nation, many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word English to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as English and it is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words English and British to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say English, I mean British. He notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of Englands dominant position with the UK and it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles. In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago and it meant indiscriminately England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so, bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as Prime Minister of England Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of England except for a geographic area brings protests and this version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al, the remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age
20.
Botany
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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock, Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546. Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
21.
Physician
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Both the role of the physician and the meaning of the word itself vary around the world. Degrees and other qualifications vary widely, but there are common elements, such as medical ethics requiring that physicians show consideration, compassion. Around the world the term refers to a specialist in internal medicine or one of its many sub-specialties. This meaning of physician conveys a sense of expertise in treatment by drugs or medications and this term is at least nine hundred years old in English, physicians and surgeons were once members of separate professions, and traditionally were rivals. Henry VIII granted a charter to the London Royal College of Physicians in 1518 and it was not until 1540 that he granted the Company of Barber/Surgeons its separate charter. In the same year, the English monarch established the Regius Professorship of Physic at the University of Cambridge, newer universities would probably describe such an academic as a professor of internal medicine. Hence, in the 16th century, physic meant roughly what internal medicine does now, currently, a specialist physician in the United States may be described as an internist. Another term, hospitalist, was introduced in 1996, to describe US specialists in internal medicine who work largely or exclusively in hospitals, such hospitalists now make up about 19% of all US general internists, who are often called general physicians in Commonwealth countries. In such places, the more general English terms doctor or medical practitioner are prevalent, in Commonwealth countries, specialist pediatricians and geriatricians are also described as specialist physicians who have sub-specialized by age of patient rather than by organ system. Around the world, the term physician and surgeon is used to describe either a general practitioner or any medical practitioner irrespective of specialty. This usage still shows the meaning of physician and preserves the old difference between a physician, as a practitioner of physic, and a surgeon. The term may be used by state medical boards in the United States of America, in modern English, the term physician is used in two main ways, with relatively broad and narrow meanings respectively. This is the result of history and is often confusing and these meanings and variations are explained below. In the United States and Canada, the term physician describes all medical practitioners holding a professional medical degree, the American Medical Association, established in 1847, as well as the American Osteopathic Association, founded in 1897, both currently use the term physician to describe members. However, the American College of Physicians, established in 1915, does not, its title uses physician in its original sense. A physician trained in the United States has either a Doctor of Medicine degree, all boards of certification now require that physicians demonstrate, by examination, continuing mastery of the core knowledge and skills for a chosen specialty. Recertification varies by particular specialty between every seven and every ten years, graduates of osteopathic medical schools in the United States should not be confused with osteopaths, who are trained in the European and Commonwealth nations. Their training is similar to physical therapy and they are not licensed to prescribe medications or perform surgeries, also in the United States, the American Podiatric Medical Association defines podiatrists as physicians and surgeons that fall under the department of surgery in hospitals
