1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Aegean Sea
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The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i. e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was known as Archipelago, but in English this words meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, a possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = waves, hence wavy sea, cf. also αἰγιαλός, hence meaning sea-shore. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, in some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, the seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos, many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows, On the South. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles, the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature. The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC, before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared c.7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that, the subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese, later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean like frogs around a pond, the Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays, in ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland
3.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
4.
Shipwreck
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A shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, which are found either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be deliberate or accidental, UNESCO estimates that worldwide over 3 million shipwrecks, some thousands of years old, lie on seabeds. Military wrecks, caused by a skirmish at sea, are studied to find details about the historic event, they reveal much about the battle that occurred. Discoveries of treasure ships, often from the period of European colonisation, some contemporary wrecks, such as the oil tankers Prestige or Erika, are of interest primarily because of their potential harm to the environment. Other contemporary wrecks are scuttled in order to spur growth, such as Adolphus Busch. Well known shipwrecks include the catastrophic Titanic, Britannic, Lusitania, Estonia, Empress of Ireland, Andrea Doria, there are also thousands of wrecks that were not lost at sea but have been abandoned or sunk. These abandoned, or derelict ships are smaller craft, such as fishing vessels. They may pose a hazard to navigation and may be removed by port authorities, poor design, improperly stowed cargo, navigation and other human errors leading to collisions, bad weather, fire, and other causes can lead to accidental sinkings. Intentional reasons for sinking a ship include forming a reef, due to warfare, piracy, mutiny or sabotage, as part of target practice. A ship can be used as breakwater structure. The stratification not only creates another challenge for marine archaeology but also a challenge to its primary state, stratification includes several different types of sand and/or silt, as well as tumulus and encrustations. These sediments are tightly linked to the type of currents, depth, and the type of water, besides this geological phenomenon, wrecks also face the damage of marine creatures that create a home out of them, primarily being octopuses and crustaceans. All the above offers great challenges to the marine archaeologist when attempting to bind the pieces of a certain shipwreck together, despite these challenges, if the information retrieved does not appear to be sufficient, or a poor preservation is achieved, authors like J. A. Parker claim that it is the value of the shipwreck that counts. Often the only parts of ships that remain after a century are those that were buried in silt or sand soon after the sinking. An example of this is the Mary Rose, steel and iron, depending on their thickness, may retain the ships structure for decades. As corrosion takes place, sometimes helped by tides and weather, thick ferrous objects such as cannons, steam boilers or the pressure vessel of a submarine often survive well underwater in spite of corrosion. Propellers, condensers, hinges and port holes were made from non-ferrous metals such as brass and phosphor bronze
5.
Sponge diving
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Sponge diving is the oldest known form of the original art of underwater diving. Its purpose is to retrieve natural sponges for human use, most sponges are too rough for general use due to their structural spicules composed of calcium carbonate or silica. But two genera, Hippospongia and Spongia, have soft, entirely fibrous skeletons and these two genera are most commonly used by humans. It is unknown when exactly the sponge became an article of use, in Ancient Greek writings, Homer and Plato mentioned the sponge as an object used for bathing. Through trading, Europeans used soft sponges for many purposes including padding for helmets, portable drinking utensils, until the invention of synthetic sponges, they were used as cleaning tools, applicators for paints and ceramic glazes, and discreet contraceptives. However, by the century, over-fishing had brought both the animals and the industry close to extinction. Many objects with sponge-like textures are now made of substances not derived from poriferans, synthetic sponges include, personal and household cleaning tools, breast implants, and contraceptive sponges. In Kalymnos, only 18% of the volcanic land could be cultivated, so the main occupations were trading, boat building and sponge fishing. Diving for sponges brought social and economical development to the island, when sponge diving, the crew went out into the Mediterranean Sea in a small boat, and used a cylindrical object with a glass bottom to search the sea floor for sponges. When one was found, a diver went overboard to get it, free diving, he was usually naked and carried a 15 kilograms skandalopetra, a rounded stone tied on a rope to the boat, to take him down to the bottom quickly. The diver then cut the sponge loose from the bottom and put a net around it. Depth and bottom time depended on the lung capacity. They often went down about 30 metres for up to 5 minutes, natural Sea Sponges and sponge diving history. Natural Sea Sponges and sponge diving history, – Blog, but has interesting images and some useful information
6.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
7.
Antikythera
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Antikythera or Anticythera is a Greek island lying on the edge of the Aegean Sea, between Crete and Peloponnese. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Kythera island, Antikythera may also refer to the Antikythera Strait, through which modified Mediterranean water enters the Sea of Crete. Its land area is 20.43 square kilometres, and it lies 38 kilometres south-east of Kythira and it is the most distant part of the Attica region from its heart in the Athens metropolitan area. It is lozenge-shaped,10.5 km NNW to SSE by 3.4 km ENE to WSW and it is notable for being the location of the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism and for the historical Antikythera wreck. Its main settlement and port is Potamós, the only other settlements are Galanianá, and Charchalianá. Antikythera is sporadically visited by the LANE Lines ferry Vitsentzos Kornaros on its route between Piraeus and Kissamos-Kastelli on Crete, the earliest known inhabitants were likely seasonal hunters who traveled there to exploit the presence of migratory birds. The population of the island changed frequently as it was settled and abandoned several times. In antiquity, the island of Antikythera was known as Aigila or Ogylos, between the 4th and 1st centuries BC, it was used as a base by a group of Cilician pirates until their destruction by Pompey the Great. Their fort can still be seen atop a cliff to the northeast of the island, the archaeology of the island has been thoroughly surveyed and the data made openly available for further study. Antikythera is most famous for being the location of the 1900 discovery of the Antikythera wreck, from which the Antikythera Ephebe, the Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions which has been dated to about 205 BC. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not appear until a thousand years later, Antikythera is a very important stop-over site for migratory birds during their seasonal movements, due to its geographical position and certain features. Furthermore, the hosts the largest breeding colony of Eleonoras falcon in the world. The importance of Antikythira for studying bird migration led to the creation of Antikythera Bird Observatory by the Hellenic Ornithological Society, the island also has a large population of wild goats
8.
Analog computer
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An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities symbolically, as their values change. As an analog computer does not use values, but rather continuous values, processes cannot be reliably repeated with exact equivalence. Unlike digital signal processing, analog computers do not suffer from the quantization noise, Analog computers were widely used in scientific and industrial applications where digital computers of the time lacked sufficient performance. Analog computers can have a wide range of complexity. Slide rules and nomographs are the simplest, while naval gunfire control computers, systems for process control and protective relays used analog computation to perform control and protective functions. More complex applications, such as synthetic aperture radar, remained the domain of analog computing well into the 1980s, setting up an analog computer required scale factors to be chosen, along with initial conditions—that is, starting values. Another essential was creating the network of interconnections between computing elements. Sometimes it was necessary to re-think the structure of the problem so that the computer would function satisfactorily, no variables could be allowed to exceed the computers limits, and differentiation was to be avoided, typically by rearranging the network of interconnects, using integrators in a different sense. Running an electronic computer, assuming a satisfactory setup, started with the computer held with some variables fixed at their initial values. Moving a switch released the holds and permitted the problem to run, in some instances, the computer could, after a certain running time interval, repeatedly return to the initial-conditions state to reset the problem, and run it again. This is a list of examples of early computation devices which are considered to be precursors of the modern computers, some of them may even have been dubbed as computers by the press, although they may fail to fit the modern definitions. The south-pointing chariot can be considered the earliest analog computer and it was a mechanical-geared wheeled vehicle used for to discern the southern cardinal direction. The Antikythera mechanism was an orrery and is claimed to be the earliest known mechanical analog computer. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions and it was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to circa 100 BC. Devices of a level of complexity comparable to that of the Antikythera mechanism would not reappear until a thousand years later, many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century, the astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BC and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog computer capable of working out different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy
9.
Antikythera mechanism
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Found housed in a 340 millimetres ×180 millimetres ×90 millimetres wooden box, the device is a complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears. Its remains were found as one lump, later separated in three fragments, which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation works. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others, the largest gear is approximately 140 millimetres in diameter and originally had 223 teeth. The artefact was recovered probably in July 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Believed to have designed and constructed by Greek scientists, the instrument has been dated either between 150 and 100 BC, or, according to a more recent view, in 205 BC. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, in Athens, the Antikythera mechanism was discovered in 45 metres of water in the Antikythera shipwreck off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera. All were transferred to the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens for storage, merely a lump of corroded bronze and wood at the time, the mechanism went unnoticed for two years while museum staff worked on piecing together more obvious statues. On 17 May 1902, archaeologist Valerios Stais was examining the finds, investigations into the object were soon dropped until British science historian and Yale University professor, Derek J. de Solla Price became interested in it in 1951. In 1971, both Price and Greek nuclear physicist Charalampos Karakalos made X-ray and gamma-ray images of the 82 fragments, Price published an extensive 70-page paper on their findings in 1974. Generally referred to as the first known computer, the quality and complexity of the mechanisms manufacture suggests it has undiscovered predecessors made during the Hellenistic period. Its construction relied upon theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers, in 1974, Derek de Solla Price concluded from gear settings and inscriptions on the mechanisms faces that it was made about 87 BC and lost only a few years later. Jacques Cousteau and associates visited the wreck in 1976 and recovered coins dated to between 76 and 67 BC, though its advanced state of corrosion has made it impossible to perform an accurate compositional analysis, it is believed the device was made of a low-tin bronze alloy. All its instructions are written in Koine Greek, and the consensus among scholars is that the mechanism was made in the Greek-speaking world, syracuse was a colony of Corinth and the home of Archimedes, which might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes. With its many scrolls of art and science, it was second in only to the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period. A busy trading port in antiquity, Rhodes was also a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering, home to the astronomer Hipparchus and that the mechanism uses Hipparchuss theory for the motion of the moon suggests the possibility he may have designed, or at least worked on it. He regarded the Antikythera mechanism as more valuable than the Mona Lisa, in 2014, a study by Carman and Evans argued for a new dating of approximately 200 BC. Moreover, according to Carman and Evans, the Babylonian arithmetic style of prediction fits much better with the devices predictive models than the traditional Greek trigonometric style, further dives are being undertaken in the hope of discovering more of the mechanism. The original mechanism apparently came out of the Mediterranean as a single encrusted piece, soon afterward it fractured into three major pieces
10.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
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The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world, the first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum and it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museums curator, during World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos. The south wing of the houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the designs of Patroklos Karantinos. The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures, the building has undergone many expansions. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum more than 1.5 years to complete. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005, on May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. Today, there is a discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan has made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum. The museums collections are organised in sections, The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era, Early and Mid-Bronze age, objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia, Attica, some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are also on display. Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist, of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull
11.
Sponge
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Sponges are the basalmost clade of animals of the phylum Porifera. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems, instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges are similar to animals in that they are multicellular, heterotrophic, lack cell walls. Unlike other animals, they lack true tissues and organs, and have no body symmetry, the shapes of their bodies are adapted for maximal efficiency of water flow through the central cavity, where it deposits nutrients, and leaves through a hole called the osculum. Many sponges have internal skeletons of spongin and/or spicules of calcium carbonate or silicon dioxide, all sponges are sessile aquatic animals. Although there are species, the great majority are marine species. A few species of sponge that live in food-poor environments have become carnivores that prey mainly on small crustaceans, most species use sexual reproduction, releasing sperm cells into the water to fertilize ova that in some species are released and in others are retained by the mother. The fertilized eggs form larvae which swim off in search of places to settle, sponges are known for regenerating from fragments that are broken off, although this only works if the fragments include the right types of cells. A few species reproduce by budding, the mesohyl functions as an endoskeleton in most sponges, and is the only skeleton in soft sponges that encrust hard surfaces such as rocks. More commonly, the mesohyl is stiffened by mineral spicules, by spongin fibers or both, demosponges use spongin, and in many species, silica spicules and in some species, calcium carbonate exoskeletons. Demosponges constitute about 90% of all known species, including all freshwater ones. The fragile glass sponges, with scaffolding of silica spicules, are restricted to polar regions, fossils of all of these types have been found in rocks dated from 580 million years ago. In addition Archaeocyathids, whose fossils are common in rocks from 530 to 490 million years ago, are now regarded as a type of sponge, the single-celled choanoflagellates resemble the choanocyte cells of sponges which are used to drive their water flow systems and capture most of their food. This along with studies of ribosomal molecules have been used as morphological evidence to suggest sponges are the sister group to the rest of animals. Some studies have shown that sponges do not form a group, in other words do not include all. Recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that comb jellies rather than sponges are the group to the rest of animals. By the 1950s, though, these had been overfished so heavily that the industry almost collapsed, sponges and their microscopic endosymbionts are now being researched as possible sources of medicines for treating a wide range of diseases
12.
Symi
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Symi, also transliterated as Syme or Simi, is a Greek island and municipality. It is mountainous and includes the town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller localities, beaches. Symi is part of the Rhodes regional unit, the economy of Symi was traditionally based on the shipbuilding and sponge industries. The population reached 22,500 at its peak during that period, symis main industry is now tourism, and its permanent population has declined to 2,500, with a larger population during the summer. Geographically, Symi is part of the Dodecanese island chain, located about 41 kilometres north-northwest of Rhodes and its nearest land neighbors are the Datça and Bozburun peninsulas of Muğla Province in Turkey. Its interior is dotted with valleys, and its coastline alternates between rocky cliffs and beaches, and isolated coves. Its main town, located on the northeast coast, is also named Symi and consists of the town around the harbour, typically referred to as Yialos. Other inhabited localities are Pedi, Nimborio, Marathounda and Panormitis, Panormitis is the location of the islands famous monastery which is visited by people from all over the world, and many Greeks pay homage to St Michael of Panormitis each year. The island has 2,580 inhabitants, mostly engaged in tourism, fishing, in the tourist season which lasts from Easter until Panormitis Day in early November, tourists and day-trippers increase the number of people on the island to as much as 6000. In addition to its historical sites, the islands isolated beaches. The Municipality of Sými includes the offshore islets of Gialesíno, Diavátes, Kouloúndros, Marmarás, Nímos, Sesklío. Its total land area is 65.754 square kilometres, in Homers Iliad the island is mentioned as the domain of King Nireus, who fought in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks. Little was known about the island until the 14th century, but archaeological evidence indicates that it was continuously inhabited and it was first part of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire, until its conquest by the Knights of St. John in 1309. The island was conquered from the Knights by the Ottoman Empire in 1522 but it was allowed to many of its privileges. Under the Ottomans the island was called Sömbeki, Symi was noted for its sponges which provided much of its wealth. It attained the height of its prosperity in the mid 19th century, although Symiots took part in the Greek War of Independence of 1821–1829, it was left out of the new Greek state when its borders were drawn up and so remained under Ottoman rule. The island was ceded to Italy in 1923, and on 12 October 1943 it was occupied by the Nazis. At the end of World War II, the surrender of German forces in the region took place on Symi to the British, Symi was finally rejoined with Greece in 1948
13.
Standard diving dress
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Later models were equipped with a divers telephone for voice communications with the surface. Divers could be deployed directly by lowering or raising them using the lifeline, most diving work using standard dress was done heavy, with the diver sufficiently negatively buoyant to walk on the bottom. Standard diving dress is sometimes known in the US as a Diver Dan outfit from the television show of the same name. In 1405, Konrad Kyeser described a diving dress made of a leather jacket, the jacket and helmet were lined by sponge to retain the air and a leather pipe was connected to a bag of air. A diving suit design was illustrated in a book by Vegetius in 1511, borelli designed diving equipment that consisted of a metal helmet, a pipe to regenerate air, a leather suit, and a means of controlling the divers buoyancy. In 1690, Thames Divers, a short lived London diving company, klingert designed a full diving dress in 1797. This design consisted of a metal helmet and similarly large metal belt connected by leather jacket. The first successful diving helmets were produced by the brothers Charles, inspired by a fire accident he witnessed in a stable in England, he designed and patented a Smoke Helmet to be used by firemen in smoke-filled areas in 1823. The apparatus comprised a helmet with an attached flexible collar. A long leather hose attached to the rear of the helmet was to be used to supply air – the original concept being that it would be pumped using a double bellows, a short pipe allowed breathed air to escape. The garment was constructed from leather or airtight cloth, secured by straps, the brothers had insufficient funds to build the equipment themselves, so they sold the patent to their employer, Edward Barnard. It was not until 1827 that the first smoke helmets were built, in 1828 they decided to find another application for their device and converted it into a diving helmet. They marketed the helmet with an attached diving suit so that a diver could perform salvage work but only in a full vertical position. In 1829 the Deane brothers sailed from Whitstable for trials of their new underwater apparatus, in 1834 Charles used his diving helmet and suit in a successful attempt on the wreck of Royal George at Spithead, during which he recovered 28 of the ships cannon. In 1836, John Deane recovered from the discovered Mary Rose shipwreck timbers, guns, longbows, in the 1830s the Deane brothers asked Siebe to apply his skill to improve their underwater helmet design. Expanding on improvements made by another engineer, George Edwards, Siebe produced his own design. The real success of the equipment was a valve in the helmet that meant that it could not flood no matter how the diver moved and this resulted in safer and more efficient underwater work. This was soon improved to become a three-bolt helmet supported by a corselet, later versions were fitted for free-flow air supply
14.
Canvas
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Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also used by artists as a painting surface. It is also used in such objects as handbags, electronic device cases. The word canvas is derived from the 13th century Anglo-French canevaz, both may be derivatives of the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus for made of hemp, originating from the Greek κάνναβις. Modern canvas is made of cotton or linen, although. It differs from other cotton fabrics, such as denim. Canvas comes in two types, plain and duck. The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven, the term duck comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek. In the United States, canvas is classified in two ways, by weight and by a number system. The numbers run in reverse of the weight so a number 10 canvas is lighter than number 4, canvas has become the most common support medium for oil painting, replacing wooden panels. One of the earliest surviving oils on canvas is a French Madonna with angels from around 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, however, panel painting remained more common until the 16th century in Italy and the 17th century in Northern Europe. Mantegna and Venetian artists were among those leading the change, Venetian sail canvas was readily available, as lead-based paint is poisonous, care has to be taken in using it. Early canvas was made of linen, a sturdy brownish fabric of considerable strength, linen is particularly suitable for the use of oil paint. In the early 20th century, cotton canvas, often referred to as cotton duck, linen is composed of higher quality material, and remains popular with many professional artists, especially those who work with oil paint. Cotton duck, which stretches more fully and has an even, mechanical weave, the advent of acrylic paint has greatly increased the popularity and use of cotton duck canvas. Linen and cotton derive from two different plants, the flax plant and the cotton plant, respectively. Gessoed canvases on stretchers are also available and they are available in a variety of weights, light-weight is about 4 oz or 5 oz, medium-weight is about 7 oz or 8 oz, heavy-weight is about 10 oz or 12 oz. They are prepared with two or three coats of gesso and are ready for use straight away, artists desiring greater control of their painting surface may add a coat or two of their preferred gesso
15.
Hellenic Navy
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The Hellenic Navy is the naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy has its roots in the forces of various Aegean Islands. During the periods of monarchy it was known as the Royal Navy, the total displacement of all the navys vessels is approximately 150,000 tons. The motto of the Hellenic Navy is Μέγα το της Θαλάσσης Κράτος from Thucydides account of Pericles oration on the eve of the Peloponnesian War and this has been translated as The rule of the sea is a great matter. Pericles words are written across the top of the emblem, the navy, as it represents a necessary weapon for Greece, should only be created for war and aim to victory. The history of the Hellenic Navy begins with the birth of modern Greece, the fleet was of crucial importance to the success of the revolt. Its goal was to prevent as much as possible the Ottoman Navy from resupplying the isolated Ottoman garrisons, although Greek crews were experienced seamen, the light Greek ships, mostly armed merchantmen, were unable to stand up to the large Turkish ships of the line in direct combat. So the Greeks conducted the equivalent of modern-day naval special operations, resorting to the use of fireships and it was in the use of such ships that courageous seamen like Constantine Kanaris won international renown. Under the leadership of capable admirals, most prominently Andreas Miaoulis of Hydra, however, as Greece became embroiled in a civil war, the Sultan called upon his strongest subject, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, for aid. Despite victories at Samos and Gerontas, the Revolution was threatened with collapse until the intervention of the Great Powers in the Battle of Navarino in 1827. There the Egypto-Ottoman fleet was defeated by the combined fleets of the Britain, France. When Ioannis Capodistrias became governor of newly liberated Greece in 1828, the Greek fleet consisted of few remaining ships, which had participated in the war for independence. The first minister of Naval affairs was Constantine Kanaris, and the most powerful ship of the fleet at that time, the frigate Hellas, had been constructed in the United States in 1825. The Hellenic Navy established its headquarters at the island of Poros, furthermore, continuous efforts towards the education of officers were initiated. Young people were trained at the military school of Scholi Evelpidon and afterwards they were transferred to the navy. In 1831, Greece descended into anarchy with numerous areas, including Mani and Hydra and it was during this revolt that the flagship Hellas, docked at Poros, was set on fire by Admiral Andreas Miaoulis. Capodistrias was assassinated a few months after, the first Naval School was founded in 1846 on the Corvette Loudovikos and Leonidas Palaskas was assigned as its director. During the 1850s, the progressive elements of the navy won out
16.
Antikythera Ephebe
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The wreck site, which is dated about 70–60 BC, also yielded the Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical calculating device, a characterful head of a Stoic philosopher, and a hoard of coins. The Ephebe, which measures 1.94 meters, slightly over lifesize, was retrieved in numerous fragments, the Ephebe does not correspond to any familiar iconographic model, and there are no known copies of the type. It has also suggested that the youth is a depiction of Perseus holding the head of the slain Gorgon. It is, perhaps, the work of the famous sculptor Euphranor, trained in the Polyclitan tradition and this work is specially admired, because the eye can detect in it at once the judge of the goddesses, the lover of Helen, and yet the slayer of Achilles. The Antikythera Ephebe is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, die Skulpturen des Schiffsfundes von Antikythera. Fraser, A. D.1928. The Antikythera Bronze Youth, a Roman therm head of similar type, bibliography of early publications. National Archaeological Museum Collection of Sculpture, A Catalogue, the Antikythera Youth in its context Masters thesis, Louisiana State University. Stais, V. Tsountas, C. and Kourouniotis, K.1902, Τὰ εὑρήματα τοῦ ναυαγίου τῶν Ἀντικυθήρων, Archaiologike Ephemeris, 145-148. Τὸ ἐν Ἀθήναις Ἐθνικὸν Μουσεῖον, vol, illustration of the Ephebe Bronzes at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens
17.
Hercules
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Hercules is the Roman adaptation of the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures, the Romans adapted the Greek heros iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name Hercules. In later Western art and literature and in culture, Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as the name of the hero. Hercules was a figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick. This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later tradition, Hercules is known for his many adventures, which took him to the far reaches of the Greco-Roman world. One cycle of these adventures became canonical as the Twelve Labours, one traditional order of the labours is found in the Bibliotheca as follows, Slay the Nemean Lion. Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis, clean the Augean stables in a single day. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon. Steal the apples of the Hesperides, Hercules was a favorite subject for Etruscan art, and appears often on bronze mirrors. The Etruscan form Herceler derives from the Greek Heracles via syncope, a mild oath invoking Hercules was a common interjection in Classical Latin. Hercules had a number of myths that were distinctly Roman, one of these is Hercules defeat of Cacus, who was terrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the Aventine Hill through his son Aventinus, Mark Antony considered him a personal patron god, as did the emperor Commodus. Roman brides wore a belt tied with the knot of Hercules. The comic playwright Plautus presents the myth of Hercules conception as a sex comedy in his play Amphitryon, during the Roman Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locally from Hispania through Gaul. Tacitus records a special affinity of the Germanic peoples for Hercules, in chapter 3 of his Germania, Tacitus states. They say that Hercules, too, once visited them, and they have also those songs of theirs, by the recital of this barditus as they call it, they rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm, some have taken this as Tacitus equating the Germanic Þunraz with Hercules by way of interpretatio romana. In the Roman era Hercules Club amulets appear from the 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the empire, mostly made of gold, a specimen found in Köln-Nippes bears the inscription DEO HER, confirming the association with Hercules
18.
Odysseus
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Odysseus, also known by the Latin name Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homers epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homers Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility and he is most famous for the Odyssey, ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War. The name has several variants, in Greek the character was called Olysseus, Oulixeus, Oulixes, hence, there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality. The etymology of the name is unknown, ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai to be wroth against, to hate, or to oduromai to lament, bewail. Homer in references and puns, relates it to various forms of this verb and it has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, probably not even Indo-European, with an unknown etymology, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseuss early childhood is recounted, Euryclea tries to guide him to naming the boy Polyaretos, for he has much been prayed for. Autolycus apparently in a sardonic mood, decided to give the child a name that would commemorate his own experience in life. Because I got odium upon myself before coming here, let the childs name be Odysseus to signify this. The pun was prophetic as well as commemorative, Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades, son of Laërtes. In the Iliad and Odyssey there are several epithets used to describe Odysseus and his name and stories were adopted into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze. Hence, Odysseus was the great-grandson of the Olympian god Hermes, according to the Iliad and Odyssey, his father is Laertes and his mother Anticlea, although there was a non-Homeric tradition that Sisyphus was his true father. The rumor went that Laertes bought Odysseus from the conniving king, Odysseus is said to have a younger sister, Ctimene, who went to Same to be married and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus, whom she grew up alongside, in Book 15 of the Odyssey. Homers Iliad and Odyssey portray Odysseus as a hero, but the Romans. In Virgils Aeneid, written between 29 and 19 BC, he is referred to as cruel Odysseus or deceitful Odysseus. Turnus, in Aeneid ix, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring, You shall not find the sons of Atreus here, nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear. While the Greeks admired his cunning and deceit, these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Romans, who possessed a rigid sense of honour. His attempts to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus and Helen offended Roman notions of duty, the majority of sources for Odysseus pre-war exploits—principally the mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus—postdate Homer by many centuries
19.
Diomedes
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Diomedes or Diomede is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, in Homers Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans. Later, he founded ten or more Italian cities, after his death, Diomedes was worshipped as a divine being under various names in Italy and also in Greece. Diomedes was, on his father’s side, an Aetolian, and this is because his father Tydeus left Calydon and fled to Argos in order to avoid being persecuted by his uncle Agrius. He married King Adrastuss daughter Deipyle, Tydeus was one of the Seven Against Thebes. This expedition failed and all leaders, including Tydeus were killed, Tydeus was Athena’s favourite warrior at the time, and when he was dying she wanted to offer him a magic elixir that would make him immortal. However, she withdrew the privilege in apparent disgust when Tydeus gobbled down the brains of the hated enemy who had wounded him. According to some, Diomedes was four years old when his father was killed, at the funeral of their fathers, the sons of Seven Against Thebes met and vowed to vanquish Thebes one day. They called themselves Epigoni because they were born after everything has happened, ten years later, the Epigoni appointed Alcmaeon as their commander in chief and gathered an army. They added to their forces from Argos contingents from Messenia, Arcadia, Corinth and this army, however, was a small one compared to the forces of Thebes. The Epigoni war is remembered as the most important expedition in Greek Mythology before the Trojan War and it was a favorite topic for epics, but, unfortunately, all of these epics are now lost. The main battle took place at Glisas where the warrior Aegialeus was slain by King Laodamas, Diomedes was fifteen years old by then and was considered the mightiest of all. Vanquished by the Epigoni, the Thebans followed the counsel of Tiresias, Epigoni took the city, and most Argive commanders returned rich to their countries after having sacked Thebes, but the city they handed over to Thersander. Adrastus died of grief when he learned that his son Aegialeus had perished in the battle at Glisas, Aegialeus was married to Comaetho, daughter of Tydeus. Diomedes, in turn, married Aegialeuss daughter Aegialia when he returned from battle and he was then appointed as the King of Argos and thus became one of the most powerful rulers of Hellas at such a young age. According to some, Diomedes ruled Argos for more than five years and brought much wealth and he was a skilled politician and was greatly respected by other rulers. He still kept an eye on Calydonian politics, and when the sons of Agrius put Oeneus in jail and their own father on the throne, Diomedes attacked and ceded the kingdom, slaying all the traitors except Thersites, Onchestus and Agrius restoring his grandfather to the throne. Later, Oeneus passed the Kingdom to his son-in-law Andraemon and headed for Argos to meet Diomedes and he was assassinated on the way by Thersites and Onchestus
20.
Hermes
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Hermes is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods. Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundaries and he is described as quick and cunning, moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. He is also portrayed as an emissary and messenger of the gods and he has been viewed as the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves, oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade, roads, boundaries and travelers. In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind and his attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, winged sandals, and winged cap. His main symbol is the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus, which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a staff with carvings of the other gods. The earliest form of the name Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek *hermāhās, most scholars derive Hermes from Greek ἕρμα herma, prop, heap of stones, boundary marker, from which the word hermai also derives. The etymology of ἕρμα itself is unknown, R. S. P. Beekes rejects the connection with herma and suggests a Pre-Greek origin. Scholarly speculation that Hermes derives from a primitive form meaning one cairn is disputed. In Greek, a find is a hermaion. It is also suggested that Hermes is a cognate of the Vedic Sarama, homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the Iliad, he is called the bringer of luck, guide and guardian. He was an ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector and he also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey, Hermes helps his son, the protagonist Odysseus, by informing him about the fate of his companions. Hermes instructed Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb, when Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes led their souls to Hades. Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus, aesop featured him in several of his fables, as ruler of the gate of prophetic dreams, as the god of athletes, of edible roots, and of hospitality. He also said that Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence, Hermes, as an inventor of fire, is a parallel of the Titan Prometheus. In addition to the lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sports of wrestling and boxing, in 1820 Shelley translated this hymn
21.
Apollo
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Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros, Apollo has been recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the gods custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, as the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became an attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans, Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE. The name Apollo—unlike the related older name Paean—is generally not found in the Linear B texts, the etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era and it probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios, and the offerings apellaia at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai. According to some scholars the words are derived from the Doric word apella, apella is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia. R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai, several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollos name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι, in the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα means stone, and some toponyms may be derived from this word, Πέλλα and Πελλήνη. The role of Apollo as god of plague is evident in the invocation of Apollo Smintheus by Chryses, the Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων. A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo The One of Entrapment, Apollos chief epithet was Phoebus, literally bright. It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollos role as the god of light, like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a number of appellations in Greek myth. Aegletes, from αἴγλη, light of the sun Helius, literally sun Lyceus light, the meaning of the epithet Lyceus later became associated with Apollos mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia and who was identified with the wolf
22.
Lyre
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The lyre is a string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences, the word comes via Latin from the Greek, the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning lyrists and written in the Linear B script. The lyres of Ur, excavated in ancient Mesopotamia, date to 2500 BC, the earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous sarcophagus of Hagia Triada. The sarcophagus was used during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete, the recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. However, later lyres were played with a bow in Europe, one example from Wales that has been resurrected recently is the crwth. In organology, lyres are defined as yoke lutes, being lutes in which the strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the plane as the sound-table. A classical lyre has a body or sound-chest, which. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke, an additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge, according to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which forced them to walk backwards, Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all, from the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre, hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself, locales in southern Europe, western Asia, or north Africa have been proposed as the historic birthplace of the genus. The instrument is played in north-eastern parts of Africa. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia bordering the Lydian empire, some mythic masters like Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization
23.
Astrolabe
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An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers and navigators, to measure the inclined position in the sky of a celestial body, day or night. It can thus be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time and vice versa, to survey and it was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and the Renaissance for all these purposes. While the astrolabe is effective for determining latitude on land or calm seas, the mariners astrolabe was developed to solve that problem. OED gives the translation star-taker for the English word astrolabe and traces it, through medieval Latin, to the Greek word astrolabos from astron star, in the medieval Islamic world the word asturlab was given various etymologies. In Arabic texts, the word is translated as akhdh al-kawakib which corresponds to an interpretation of the Greek word, al-Biruni quotes and criticizes the medieval scientist Hamzah al-Isfahani who had stated, asturlab is an arabization of this Persian phrase. In medieval Islamic sources, there is also a fictional and popular etymology of the words as lines of lab, in this popular etymology, Lab is a certain son of Idris. This etymology is mentioned by a 10th-century scientist named al-Qummi but rejected by al-Khwarizmi, Lab in Arabic also means sun and black stony places. An early astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world by Apollonius of Perga, a marriage of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog calculator capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. Theon of Alexandria wrote a treatise on the astrolabe. Some historians attribute the invention to Hypatia, the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, noting that Synesius. Astrolabes continued in use in the Greek-speaking world throughout the Byzantine period, about 550 AD the Christian philosopher John Philoponus wrote a treatise on the astrolabe in Greek, which is the earliest extant Greek treatise on the instrument. In addition, Severus Sebokht, a bishop who lived in Mesopotamia, Astrolabes were further developed in the medieval Islamic world, where Muslim astronomers introduced angular scales to the astrolabe, adding circles indicating azimuths on the horizon. It was widely used throughout the Muslim world, chiefly as an aid to navigation and as a way of finding the Qibla, the first person credited with building the astrolabe in the Islamic world is reportedly the 8th-century mathematician Muhammad al-Fazari. The mathematical background was established by the Muslim astronomer Albatenius in his treatise Kitab az-Zij, the earliest surviving dated astrolabe is dated AH315. In the Islamic world, astrolabes were used to find the times of sunrise and the rising of fixed stars, to help schedule morning prayers. In the 10th century, al-Sufi first described over 1,000 different uses of an astrolabe, in areas as diverse as astronomy, astrology, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, prayer, Salat, Qibla, etc. The spherical astrolabe, a variation of both the astrolabe and the sphere, was invented during the Middle Ages by astronomers and inventors in the Islamic world. The earliest description of the spherical astrolabe dates back to Al-Nayrizi, in the 12th century, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī invented the linear astrolabe, sometimes called the staff of al-Tusi, which was a simple wooden rod with graduated markings but without sights
24.
Jacques Cousteau
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Jacques-Yves Cousteau AC was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française, Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme dor at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme dOr for a documentary film, Cousteau was born on 11 June 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. Cousteau completed his studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he entered the École Navale and graduated as a gunnery officer, after an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea. The accident caused him to both his arms and could have even killed him. This caused Cousteau to have to change his plans in becoming a naval pilot, Cousteau also belonged to the information service of the French Navy, and was sent on missions to Shanghai and Japan and in the USSR. On 12 July 1937 he married Simone Melchior, with whom he had two sons, Jean-Michel and Philippe and his sons took part in the adventures of the Calypso. In 1991, one year after his wife Simones death from cancer and they already had a daughter Diane Cousteau and a son Pierre-Yves Cousteau, born during Cousteaus marriage to his first wife. The years of World War II were decisive for the history of diving, after the armistice of 1940, the family of Simone and Jacques-Yves Cousteau took refuge in Megève, where he became a friend of the Ichac family who also lived there. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Marcel Ichac shared the desire to reveal to the general public unknown and inaccessible places — for Cousteau the underwater world. In 1943, they made the film Épaves, in which used two of the very first Aqua-Lung prototypes. These prototypes were made in Boulogne-Billancourt by the Air Liquide company, following instructions from Cousteau, at that time, he kept his distance from his brother Pierre-Antoine Cousteau, a pen anti-semite who wrote the collaborationist newspaper Je suis partout and who received the death sentence in 1946. However, this was commuted to a life sentence. During the 1940s, Cousteau is credited with improving the design which gave birth to the open-circuit scuba technology used today. In 1943 Cousteau tried out the first prototype aqua-lung which finally made extended underwater exploration possible, a little later it became the GERS, then the COMISMER, and finally more recently the CEPHISMER. In 1947, Chief Petty Officer Maurice Fargues became the first diver to die using an aqualung while attempting a new record with the GERS near Toulon. The small team also undertook the exploration of the Roman wreck of Mahdia and it was the first underwater archaeology operation using autonomous diving, opening the way for scientific underwater archaeology
25.
Philitas of Cos
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Philitas of Cos, sometimes spelled Philetas, was a scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. A Greek associated with Alexandria, he flourished in the half of the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Ptolemaic Egypt. He was thin and frail, Athenaeus later caricatured him as an academic so consumed by his studies that he wasted away, Philitas was the first major Greek writer who was both a scholar and a poet. His reputation continued for centuries, based on both his pioneering study of words and his verse in elegiac meter and his vocabulary Disorderly Words described the meanings of rare literary words, including those used by Homer. His poetry, notably his elegiac poem Demeter, was respected by later ancient poets. However, almost all his work has since been lost, little is known of Philitas life. Ancient sources refer to him as a Coan, a native or long-time inhabitant of Cos and his student Theocritus wrote that Philetas father was Telephos and his mother, assuming the manuscript is supplemented correctly, Euctione. From a comment about Philitas in the Suda, a 10th-century AD historical encyclopedia, it is estimated he was born c. 340 BC, and that he might have established a reputation in Cos by c. It was a favorite retreat for men of letters weary of Alexandria. Philetas was appointed Philadelphus tutor, which suggests he moved to Alexandria c. 297/6 BC and he may also have tutored Arsinoe II, Philadelphus older sister and eventual wife. Later tutors of royal offspring in Ptolemaic Egypt generally headed the Library of Alexandria, Hermesianax wrote of Philitas, singing of nimble Bittis, and Ovid twice calls her Battis. Philitas was thin and frail, and may have suffered and died from a wasting disease and he seems to have died in Cos sometime in the 280s BC. His pupil Hermesianax wrote that a statue of him was erected under a tree by the people of Cos. His contemporary Posidippus wrote that Philadelphus commissioned a bronze of Philitas in old age from the sculptor Hecataeus, no. he cast the old man full of cares. The 3rd century AD Roman author Aelian skeptically passed along a story that Philitas was so thin that he put weights in the soles of his shoes to avoid being blown away by a stiff wind. The vocabulary, called Disorderly Words, has been lost, with only a few fragments quoted by later authors. One example, quoted in Athenaeus, is that the word πέλλα meant wine cup in the ancient Greek region of Boeotia, hermeneia, another scholarly work, probably contained Philitas versions and critical interpretations of Homer and other authors. About thirty fragments of Philitas poetry are known, along with four titles, Demeter, Philitas most famous work, consisted of elegiac couplets. Its few surviving fragments suggest that it narrated the grain goddess Demeters hunt for her daughter Persephone and it is also possible that Hermes was a collection of such stories, with the patronage of Hermes himself as the common thread
26.
Sulla
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Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, Sulla was a skillful general, achieving numerous successes in wars against different opponents, both foreign and Roman. He was awarded a crown, the most prestigious Roman military honor. Sullas dictatorship came during a point in the struggle between optimates and populares, the former seeking to maintain the Senates oligarchy, and the latter espousing populism. In a dispute over the army command Sulla unconstitutionally marched his armies into Rome. Sullas ascension was also marked by purges in proscriptions. After seeking election to and holding a second consulship, he retired to private life, later leaders like Julius Caesar would follow his precedent in attaining political power through force. In Plutarchs Parallel Lives Sulla is paired with the Spartan general, in older sources, his name may be found as Sylla. This is a Hellenism, like sylva for classical Latin silva, lacking ready money, Sulla spent his youth amongst Rome’s comics, actors, lute-players, and dancers. It seems certain that Sulla received a good education, sallust declares him well-read and intelligent, and he was fluent in Greek, which was a sign of education in Rome. Rome declared war on Jugurtha in 111 BC, but for five years Roman legions under Quintus Caecilius Metellus were unsuccessful, Gaius Marius, a lieutenant of Metellus, saw an opportunity to usurp his commander and fed rumors of incompetence and delay to the publicani in the region. These machinations caused calls for Metelluss removal, despite delaying tactics by Metellus, Marius was elected consul and took over the campaign while Sulla was nominated quaestor to him. He had persuaded Jugurthas father-in-law, King Bocchus I of Mauretania and it was a dangerous operation from the first, with King Bocchus weighing up the advantages of handing Jugurtha over to Sulla or Sulla over to Jugurtha. The publicity attracted by this feat boosted Sullas political career, a gilded equestrian statue of Sulla donated by King Bocchus was erected in the Forum to commemorate his accomplishment. Although Sulla had engineered this move, as Sulla was serving under Marius at the time, in 104 BC, the migrating Germanic-Celtic alliance headed by the Cimbri and the Teutones seemed to be heading for Italy. As Marius was the best general Rome had, the Senate allowed him to lead the campaign against them, Sulla served on Marius staff as tribunus militum during the first half of this campaign. Finally, with those of his colleague, proconsul Quintus Lutatius Catulus, Marius forces faced the enemy tribes at the Battle of Vercellae in 101 BC. Sulla had by this time transferred to the army of Catulus to serve as his legatus, victorious at Vercellae, Marius and Catulus were both granted triumphs as the co-commanding generals
27.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
28.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
29.
Lucian
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Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language during the Second Sophistic. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature, Lucian wrote exclusively in ancient Greek. He wrote mainly in the Attic dialect, but On the Syrian Goddess, few details of Lucians life can be verified with any degree of accuracy, though clues can be found in writings attributed to him. In several works he claims to have born in Samosata, in the former kingdom of Commagene. His depictions of the processes involved in the diverse and dynamic cult have many significant parallels to Syrias material culture. On the Syrian Goddess parodies the Greek view of foreigners as barbarous, while the narrator concludes that the Syrians, throughout the account, the narrator often conflates the terms Assyrian and Syrian. In The Syrian Goddess, the claims to be an Assyrian himself. In the final paragraph of the work, the describes a ritual in which initiates would dedicate a lock of their hair to Hippolytus as part of a pre-marital coming-of-age ritual. The narrator comments, as rendered in Strong and Garstangs 1913 translation, I performed this act myself when a youth, Lucians claim in Double Indictment to be a native speaker of a barbarian tongue has been suggested to refer Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic. A more likely interpretation is that he is referring to speaking a variety of Greek. It has been suggested that in referring to himself as a barbarian, he was from the Semitic and his name added lustre to any entertaining and sarcastic essay, more than 150 surviving manuscripts attest to his continued popularity. The first printed edition of a selection of his works was issued at Florence in 1499 and his best known works are A True Story, and Dialogues of the Gods and Dialogues of the Dead. Lucian was trained as a rhetorician, a vocation whose practitioners pleaded in court, composed pleas for others, Lucians practice was to travel about, giving amusing discourses and witty lectures improvised on the spot, somewhat as a rhapsode had done in declaiming poetry at an earlier period. In this way Lucian travelled through Ionia and mainland Greece, to Italy and even to Gaul, there are 80 surviving works attributed to Lucian. He wrote in a variety of styles which included comic dialogues, rhetorical essays, Lucian was also one of the earliest novelists in Western civilization. In A True Story, a narrative work written in prose, he parodies some of the fantastic tales told by Homer in the Odyssey. He anticipated modern fictional themes like voyages to the moon and Venus, extraterrestrial life and his novel is widely regarded as an early, if not the earliest science fiction work. Lucians On Dance is important for the history of dance as it is one of very few literary discussions of dance - specifically pantomime - that treats Roman dance in detail
30.
Amphora
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An amphora is a type of container of a characteristic shape and size, descending from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products and they are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. The amphora complements the large container, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 100 pounds, the bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access, the necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. The handles might not be present, the size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed, the amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle. Neck amphorae were used in the early history of ancient Greece. Most were produced with a base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers. If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops, the base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines. Amphorae are of use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck. They are occasionally so well preserved that the content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, amphora is a Greco-Roman word developing in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic, cato is the first known literary person to use it
31.
Roman triumph
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He rode in a four-horse chariot through the streets of Rome in unarmed procession with his army, captives, and the spoils of his war. At Jupiters temple on the Capitoline Hill, he offered sacrifice, inevitably, the triumph offered extraordinary opportunities for self-publicity, besides its religious and military dimensions. From the Principate onwards, the reflected the Imperial order. The triumph was consciously imitated by medieval and later states in the royal entry, in Republican Rome, truly exceptional military achievement merited the highest possible honours, which connected the vir triumphalis to Romes mythical and semi-mythical past. In effect, the general was close to being king for a day and he was drawn in procession through the city in a four-horse chariot, under the gaze of his peers and an applauding crowd, to the temple of Capitoline Jupiter. The spoils and captives of his victory led the way, his armies followed behind, once at the Capitoline temple, he sacrificed two white oxen to Jupiter and laid tokens of his victory at Jupiters feet, dedicating his victory to the Roman Senate, people, and gods. Triumphs were tied to no particular day, season, or religious festival of the Roman calendar, most seem to have been celebrated at the earliest practicable opportunity, probably on days that were deemed auspicious for the occasion. Tradition required that, for the duration of a triumph, every temple was open, the ceremony was thus, in some sense, shared by the whole community of Roman gods, but overlaps were inevitable with specific festivals and anniversaries. Some may have been coincidental, others were designed, Pompey postponed his third and most magnificent triumph for several months to make it coincide with his own dies natalis. Religious dimensions aside, the focus of the triumph was the general himself, the ceremony promoted him – however temporarily – above every mortal Roman. This was an opportunity granted to very few, from the time of Scipio Africanus, the triumphal general was linked to Alexander and the demi-god Hercules, who had laboured selflessly for the benefit of all mankind. His sumptuous triumphal chariot was bedecked with charms against the possible envy, in some accounts, a companion or public slave would remind him from time to time of his own mortality. This is probably so for the earliest legendary and later semi-legendary triumphs of Romes regal era, as Romes population, power, influence, and territory increased, so did the scale, length, variety, and extravagance of its triumphal processions. The procession mustered in the space of the Campus Martius probably well before first light. Triumphal processions were notoriously long and slow, the longest could last for two or three days, and possibly more, and some may have been of greater length than the route itself, some ancient and modern sources suggest a fairly standard processional order. First came the captive leaders, allies, and soldiers walking in chains. Next in line, all on foot, came Romes senators and magistrates, followed by the generals lictors in their red war-robes, their fasces wreathed in laurel, then the general in his four-horse chariot. A companion, or a slave, might share the chariot with him or, in some cases
32.
Elm
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Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The genus first appeared in the Miocene geological period about 20 million years ago, Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests. Some individual elms reached great size and age, however, in recent decades, most mature elms of European or North American origin have died from Dutch elm disease, caused by a microfungus dispersed by bark beetles. In response, disease-resistant cultivars have been developed, capable of restoring the elm to forestry, eight species are endemic to North America, and a smaller number to Europe, the greatest diversity is found in Asia. The classification adopted in the List of elm species, varieties, cultivars, a large number of synonyms have accumulated over the last three centuries, their currently accepted names can be found in the list List of elm Synonyms and Accepted Names. Botanists who study elms and argue over elm identification and classification are called pteleologists, as part of the sub-order urticalean rosids they are distant cousins of cannabis, hops, and nettles. The name Ulmus is the Latin name for these trees, while the English elm, the genus is hermaphroditic, having apetalous perfect flowers which are wind-pollinated. Elm leaves are alternate, with simple, single- or, most commonly, doubly serrate margins, usually asymmetric at the base, the fruit is a round wind-dispersed samara flushed with chlorophyll, facilitating photosynthesis before the leaves emerge. All species are tolerant of a range of soils and pH levels but, with few exceptions. The elm tree can grow to height, often with a split trunk creating a vase-shape profile. Dutch elm disease devastated elms throughout Europe and much of North America in the half of the 20th century. It derives its name Dutch from the first description of the disease and its cause in the 1920s by the Dutch botanists Bea Schwarz, DED is caused by a micro-fungus transmitted by two species of Scolytus elm-bark beetle which act as vectors. The disease affects all species of elm native to North America and Europe, fungal spores, introduced into wounds in the tree caused by the beetles, invade the xylem or vascular system. The tree responds by producing tyloses, effectively blocking the flow from roots to leaves, woodland trees in North America are not quite as susceptible to the disease because they usually lack the root-grafting of the urban elms and are somewhat more isolated from each other. In France, inoculation with the fungus of over three hundred clones of the European species failed to find a single variety possessed of any significant resistance. The second, far more virulent strain of the disease Ophiostoma novo-ulmi was identified in Europe in the late 1960s, Elm phloem necrosis is a disease of elm trees that is spread by leafhoppers or by root grafts. This very aggressive disease, with no cure, occurs in the Eastern United States, southern Ontario in Canada. It is caused by phytoplasmas which infect the phloem of the tree, infection and death of the phloem effectively girdles the tree and stops the flow of water and nutrients
33.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
34.
Radiocarbon dating
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Radiocarbon dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed by Willard Libby in the late 1940s, Libby received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1960. The radiocarbon dating method is based on the fact that radiocarbon is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting radiocarbon combines with oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and from that point onwards the amount of 14C it contains begins to decrease as the 14C undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of 14C in a sample from a plant or animal such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The idea behind radiocarbon dating is straightforward, but years of work were required to develop the technique to the point where accurate dates could be obtained. Research has been ongoing since the 1960s to determine what the proportion of 14C in the atmosphere has been over the past fifty thousand years. The resulting data, in the form of a curve, is now used to convert a given measurement of radiocarbon in a sample into an estimate of the samples calendar age. Other corrections must be made to account for the proportion of 14C in different types of organisms, additional complications come from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and from the above-ground nuclear tests done in the 1950s and 1960s. Conversely, nuclear testing increased the amount of 14C in the atmosphere, measurement of radiocarbon was originally done by beta-counting devices, which counted the amount of beta radiation emitted by decaying 14C atoms in a sample. The development of dating has had a profound impact on archaeology. In addition to permitting more accurate dating within archaeological sites than previous methods, histories of archaeology often refer to its impact as the radiocarbon revolution. Radiocarbon dating has allowed key transitions in prehistory to be dated, such as the end of the last ice age, and they synthesized 14C using the laboratorys cyclotron accelerator and soon discovered that the atoms half-life was far longer than had been previously thought. This was followed by a prediction by Serge A. Korff, then employed at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and it had previously been thought that 14C would be more likely to be created by deuterons interacting with 13C. At some time during World War II, Willard Libby, who was then at Berkeley, learned of Korffs research, in 1945, Libby moved to the University of Chicago where he began his work on radiocarbon dating. He published a paper in 1946 in which he proposed that the carbon in living matter might include 14C as well as non-radioactive carbon, by contrast, methane created from petroleum showed no radiocarbon activity because of its age. The results were summarized in a paper in Science in 1947, Libby and James Arnold proceeded to test the radiocarbon dating theory by analyzing samples with known ages
35.
Derek J. de Solla Price
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Derek John de Solla Price was a physicist, historian of science, and information scientist, credited as the father of scientometrics. Price was born in Leyton, England, to Philip Price, a tailor, and Fanny de Solla and he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in experimental physics from the University of London in 1946. Price worked as a teacher of applied mathematics at Raffles College, after three years, Price returned to England to work on a second Ph. D. in the history of science, this time at the University of Cambridge. During his Ph. D. studies, he accidentally discovered Equatorie of the Planetis, a written in Middle English. Around 1950, Price adopted his mothers Sephardic name, de Solla, in 1984, Price received, posthumously, the ASIS Research Award for outstanding contributions in the field of information science. An ancient Greek computer, in Scientific American 200, 60-67. Nations can Publish or Perish, in International Science and Technology 70 84-90 Citation Measures of Hard Science, Soft Science, Technology, communication among Scientists and Engineers, Lexington, MA, D. C. The Antikythera Mechanism, A Calendar Computer from ca.80 B. C, transactions of the American Philosophical Society New Series. A general theory of bibliometric and other cumulative advantage processes, journal of the American Society for Information Science. An Old Palmistry Being the Earliest Known Book of Palmistry in English,1953, W. Heffer & Sons, edition, ASIN-B000PIYKBW The Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass, FQ Books, July 6, 2010), ASIN, B003YMNPOE. With D. J. Wang, Ling Heavenly Clockwork, The Great Astronomical clocks of Medieval China by Joseph Needam, measuring the Size of Science,1969, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, ASIN-B007EMQHT0. An International Checklist of Astrolabes,1955, Peyronnet, ASIN- B0007JKDJ2, the Differences between Science and Technology,1968, Thomas Alva Edison Foundation, ASIN- B0007HNK3U. Scientific Humanities, An Urgent Program,1957, ASIN-B0007KAV84, portable Sundials in antiquity, Including an account of a new example from Aphrodisias,1969, ASIN- B0007K65O8. The Little Ship of Venice, A Middle English instrument tract,1960, contra-Copernicus,1952, Royal Institution of Great Britain, ASIN- B0007KCWS6. Equatorie of Planetis,1955, 1st ed, Cambridge University Press, planetary equatorium A Treatise on the Astrolabe Works by Derek John de Solla Price at Project Gutenberg Derek de Solla Price This Weeks Citation Classic, Little Science, Big Science. Derek John de Solla Price Medal of the journal Scientometrics, International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics
36.
Maritime archaeology
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A specialty within maritime archaeology is nautical archaeology, which studies vessel construction and use. As with archaeology as a whole, maritime archaeology can be practised within the historical, industrial, an associated discipline, and again one that lies within archaeology itself, is underwater archaeology, which studies the past through any submerged remains be they of maritime interest or not. An example from the era would be the remains of submerged settlements or deposits now lying under water despite having been dry land when sea levels were lower. The study of submerged aircraft lost in lakes, rivers or in the sea is an example from the historical, industrial or modern era, many specialist sub-disciplines within the broader maritime and underwater archaeological categories have emerged in recent years. This fact has led to shipwrecks often being described in the media, archaeological material in the sea or in other underwater environments is typically subject to different factors than artifacts on land. However, as with terrestrial archaeology what survives to be investigated by modern archaeologists can often be a fraction of the material originally deposited. There are those in the community who see maritime archaeology as a separate discipline with its own concerns. Others value an integrated approach, stressing that nautical activity has economic and social links to communities on land, all that is required is the mastering of skills specific to the environment in which the work occurs. Before the industrial era, travel by water was often easier than over land, as a result, marine channels, navigable rivers and sea crossings formed the trade routes of historic and ancient civilisations. For example, the Mediterranean Sea was known to the Romans as the sea because the Roman empire spread around its coasts. The historic record as well as the remains of harbours, ships and cargoes, later, nations with a strong maritime culture such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Spain were able to establish colonies on other continents. Wars were fought at sea over the control of important resources, of late maritime archaeologists have been examining the submerged cultural remains of China, India, Korea and other Asian nations. Saltwater is particularly inimical to iron artefacts including metal shipwrecks, an example of such a collection is the Mary Rose. Where it remains even after the passage of time, the iron or steel hull is often fragile with no remaining metal within the layer of concretion and corrosion products. Even in deep water, commercial activities such as pipe-laying operations, such a wreck is the Mardi Gras shipwreck sunk in the Gulf of Mexico in 4,000 feet of water. The shipwreck lay forgotten at the bottom of the sea until it was discovered in 2002 by an inspection crew working for the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company. Large pipelines can crush sites and render some of their remnants inaccessible as pipe is dropped from the surface to the substrate thousands of feet below. Trawl nets snag and tear superstructures and separate artifacts from their context, the wrecks, and other archaeological sites that have been preserved have generally survived because the dynamic nature of the sea bed can result in artifacts becoming rapidly buried in sediments
37.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it is the largest independent oceanographic research institution in the U. S. with staff and students numbering about 1,000. Its shore-based facilities are located in the village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States and a mile, the bulk of the Institutions funding comes from grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation and other government agencies, augmented by foundations and private donations. WHOI scientists, engineers, and students collaborate to develop theories, test ideas, build seagoing instruments, ships operated by WHOI carry research scientists throughout the world’s oceans. A new ship, Neil Armstrong was delivered to the Navy on September 23,2015, the RV Neil Armstrong will also replace the R/V Knorr, which had previously been used by WHOI since 1970 and was transferred to the Mexican Navy in March 2016. WHOI offers graduate and post-graduate studies in marine science, there are several fellowship and trainee-ship programs, and graduate degrees are awarded through a joint program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or by the Institution itself. WHOI also offers outreach programs and informal public education through its Exhibit Center and summer tours. The Institution has a program and a membership program, WHOI Associate. In 1927, a National Academy of Sciences committee concluded that it was time to consider the share of the United States of America in a program of oceanographic research. WHOI grew substantially to support significant defense-related research during World War II, and later began a growth in staff, research fleet. Over the years, WHOI scientists have made discoveries about the ocean that have contributed to improving US commerce, health, national security. In 1977 the institute appointed the influential oceanographer John Steele as director, in February 2008, Dr. Susan K. Avery became the new president and director of the institution, avery, an atmospheric physicist, is the ninth director in WHOIs 77-year history, and the first woman to hold the position. The B H Ketchum award, established in 1983, is presented for innovative research and is named in honor of oceanographer Bostwick H. Buck Ketchum. The first recipient was Edward D. Goldberg in 1984, the Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal in Oceanography was established in 1960 in honor of the first Director, biologist Henry Bryant Bigelow. 1974 Henry M. Stommel 1970 Frederick J. Vine – In recognition of his “imaginative, all are owned by the Institution itself
38.
Lund University
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Lund University is one of northern Europes oldest, largest and most prestigious universities, consistently ranking among the worlds top 100 universities. After Sweden won Scania from Denmark in the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde, the studium generale had not survived the Lutheran Reformation of 1536. The university founded in 1666 was thus a new institution. Lund University has eight faculties, with campuses in the cities of Malmö and Helsingborg. The University has some 600 partner universities in over 70 countries, the city of Lund has a long history as a center for learning and was the ecclesiastical centre and seat of the archbishop of Denmark. A cathedral school for the training of clergy was established in 1085 and is today Scandinavias oldest school, a studium generale was founded in 1425, and in 1438 education was started by the Franciscan order for a baccalaureus degree. The university was named Academia Carolina after Charles X Gustav of Sweden until the late 19th century and it was the fifth university under the Swedish king, after Uppsala University, the University of Tartu, the Academy of Åbo, and the University of Greifswald. The university was at its founding granted four faculties, law, theological, medicine and they were the cornerstones, and for more than 200 years this system was in effect. Towards the end of the 17th century, the number of students hovered around 100, some notable professors in the early days were Samuel Pufendorf, a juridical historian, and Canutus Hahn and Kristian Papke in philosophy. The Scanian War in 1676 led to a shut-down, which lasted until 1682, the university was re-opened largely due to regional patriots, but the university was not to enjoy a high status until well into the 19th century. Lecturing rooms were few, and lectures were held in the Lund Cathedral, in 1713, Charles XII of Sweden entered Lund. He stayed in Lund for three years, in between his warlike expeditions, Lund and the university attracted a temporary attention boost. The most notable lecturer during this time was Andreas Rydelius, peace was finally restored with the death of Charles XII in 1718, and during the first half of the 18th century the university was granted added funds. The number of students was now well around 500, despite not being on par with Uppsala University, it had still built a solid reputation and managed to attract prominent professors. Around 1760 the university reputation dropped as the number of students fell below 200, however, by 1780 its reputation was largely restored, and continued to rise through the 1820s. This was largely owing to popular and well-educated lecturers particularly in philology and he, in turn, attracted others towards Lund. One of these was the young theological student C. G. Brunius, with time he was to devote himself to architectures and he redesigned several of Lunds buildings, as well as churches of the province. In 1845 and 1862 Lund co-hosted Nordic student meetings together with the University of Copenhagen, a student called Elsa Collin was the first woman in the whole of Sweden to take part in a spex
39.
Rebreather
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Oxygen is added to replenish the amount metabolised by the user. This differs from a breathing apparatus, where the exhaled gas is discharged directly into the environment. Mine rescue and other industrial applications – where poisonous gases may be present or oxygen may be absent, crewed spacecraft and space suits – outer space is, effectively, a vacuum without oxygen to support life. Hospital anaesthesia breathing systems – to supply controlled concentrations of gases to patients without contaminating the air that the staff breathe. High altitude reduces the pressure of oxygen in the ambient air. Mountaineering rebreathers provide a partial pressure of oxygen to the climber. Submarines, underwater habitats, and saturation diving systems use a scrubber system working on the principles as a rebreather. Gas masks which filter contaminants from ambient air which is then breathed, the recycling of breathing gas comes at the cost of mass, bulk, technological complexity and specific hazards, which depend on the specific application and type of rebreather used. As a person breathes, the body consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide, exhaled air at sea level still contains roughly 16% oxygen. A high ventilation rate is necessary to eliminate the metabolic product carbon dioxide. By adding sufficient oxygen to compensate for the usage, removing the carbon dioxide. Around 1620, in England, Cornelius Drebbel made an early oar-powered submarine, to re-oxygenate the air inside it, he likely generated oxygen by heating saltpetre in a metal pan to emit oxygen. Heating turns the saltpetre into potassium oxide or hydroxide, which carbon dioxide from the air. That may explain why Drebbels men were not affected by carbon dioxide build-up as much as would be expected, if so, he accidentally made a crude rebreather more than two centuries before Saint Simon Sicards patent. The first basic rebreather based on carbon dioxide absorption was patented in France in 1808 by Sieur Touboulic from Brest and this early rebreather design worked with an oxygen reservoir, the oxygen being delivered progressively by the diver and circulating in a closed circuit through a sponge soaked in limewater. There is no evidence of a prototype having been manufactured, a prototype rebreather was built in 1849 by Pierre Aimable De Saint Simon Sicard, and in 1853 by Professor T. Schwann in Belgium. It had a back mounted oxygen tank with working pressure of about 13.3 bar. The first commercially practical closed-circuit scuba was designed and built by the diving engineer Henry Fleuss in 1878, Fleuss continually improved his apparatus, adding a demand regulator and tanks capable of holding greater amounts of oxygen at higher pressure
40.
University of Sydney
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The University of Sydney is an Australian public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is Australias first university and is regarded as one of the leading universities. The university comprises 16 faculties and schools, through which it offers bachelor, master, in 2011 it had 32,393 undergraduate and 16,627 graduate students. The university is known as one of Australias sandstone universities. Five Nobel and two Crafoord laureates have been affiliated with the university as graduates and faculty, the university has educated six prime ministers and 24 justices of the High Court of Australia, including four chief justices. Sydney has produced 24 Rhodes Scholars and several Gates Scholars and it would take two attempts on Wentworths behalf, however, before the plan was finally adopted. The university was established via the passage of the University of Sydney Act, two years later, the university was inaugurated on 11 October 1852 in the Big Schoolroom of what is now Sydney Grammar School. The first principal was John Woolley, the first professor of chemistry, by 1859, the university had moved to its current site in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown. Most of the estate of John Henry Challis was bequeathed to the university and this was thanks in part due to William Montagu Manning who argued against the claims by British Tax Commissioners. The following year seven professorships were created, anatomy, zoology, engineering, history, law, logic and mental philosophy, the New England University College was founded as part of the University of Sydney in 1938 and later separated in 1954 to become the University of New England. During the late 1960s, the University of Sydney was at the centre of rows to introduce courses on Marxism and feminism at the major Australian universities, prior to 1981, the Sydney Institute of Education was the Sydney Teachers College. In January 2005, the University of Sydney transferred the OAC to Charles Sturt University, in February 2007, the university agreed to acquire a portion of the land granted to St Johns College to develop the Sydney Institute of Health and Medical Research. This caused concern among some groups, who argued that it would interfere with scientific medical research, at the start of 2010, the university controversially adopted a new logo. It retains the same university arms, however it takes on a modern look. The original Coat of Arms from 1857 continues to be used for ceremonial and other formal purposes, concerns about public funding for higher education were reflected again in 2014 following the federal governments proposal to deregulate student fees. In order to enhance its competitiveness locally and internationally, the university has introduced plans to consolidate existing degrees to reduce the overall number of programs. In 2001, the University of Sydney chancellor, Dame Leonie Kramer, was forced to resign by the governing body. In 2005, the Public Service Association of New South Wales, action initiated by Spence to improve the financial sustainability of the university has alienated some students and staff
41.
Human skeleton
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The human skeleton is the internal framework of the body. It is composed of around 300 bones at birth – this total decreases to 206 bones by adulthood after some bones have fused together, the bone mass in the skeleton reaches maximum density around age 20. The human skeleton can be divided into the skeleton and the appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton is formed by the column, the rib cage. The appendicular skeleton, which is attached to the skeleton, is formed by the shoulder girdle, the pelvic girdle. The human skeleton performs six major functions, support, movement, protection, production of cells, storage of minerals. The human skeleton is not as sexually dimorphic as that of other primate species. In general, female skeletal elements tend to be smaller and less robust than corresponding male elements within a given population, the human female pelvis is also different from that of males in order to facilitate child birth. Unlike most primates, human males do not have penile bones, the axial skeleton is formed by the vertebral column, a part of the rib cage, and the skull. The upright posture of humans is maintained by the skeleton, which transmits the weight from the head, the trunk. The bones of the spine are supported by many ligaments, the erector spinae muscles are also supporting and are useful for balance. The appendicular skeleton is formed by the pectoral girdles, the limbs, the pelvic girdle or pelvis. Their functions are to make locomotion possible and to protect the organs of digestion, excretion and reproduction. The skeleton serves six major functions, support, movement, protection, production of cells, storage of minerals. The skeleton provides the framework which supports the body and maintains its shape, the pelvis, associated ligaments and muscles provide a floor for the pelvic structures. Without the rib cages, costal cartilages, and intercostal muscles, the joints between bones allow movement, some allowing a wider range of movement than others, e. g. the ball and socket joint allows a greater range of movement than the pivot joint at the neck. Movement is powered by muscles, which are attached to the skeleton at various sites on bones. Muscles, bones, and joints provide the principal mechanics for movement and it is believed that the reduction of human bone density in prehistoric times reduced the agility and dexterity of human movement
42.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
43.
PubMed Identifier
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PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez system of information retrieval, from 1971 to 1997, MEDLINE online access to the MEDLARS Online computerized database primarily had been through institutional facilities, such as university libraries. PubMed, first released in January 1996, ushered in the era of private, free, home-, the PubMed system was offered free to the public in June 1997, when MEDLINE searches via the Web were demonstrated, in a ceremony, by Vice President Al Gore. Information about the journals indexed in MEDLINE, and available through PubMed, is found in the NLM Catalog. As of 5 January 2017, PubMed has more than 26.8 million records going back to 1966, selectively to the year 1865, and very selectively to 1809, about 500,000 new records are added each year. As of the date,13.1 million of PubMeds records are listed with their abstracts. In 2016, NLM changed the system so that publishers will be able to directly correct typos. Simple searches on PubMed can be carried out by entering key aspects of a subject into PubMeds search window, when a journal article is indexed, numerous article parameters are extracted and stored as structured information. Such parameters are, Article Type, Secondary identifiers, Language, publication type parameter enables many special features. As these clinical girish can generate small sets of robust studies with considerable precision, since July 2005, the MEDLINE article indexing process extracts important identifiers from the article abstract and puts those in a field called Secondary Identifier. The secondary identifier field is to store numbers to various databases of molecular sequence data, gene expression or chemical compounds. For clinical trials, PubMed extracts trial IDs for the two largest trial registries, ClinicalTrials. gov and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Register, a reference which is judged particularly relevant can be marked and related articles can be identified. If relevant, several studies can be selected and related articles to all of them can be generated using the Find related data option, the related articles are then listed in order of relatedness. To create these lists of related articles, PubMed compares words from the title and abstract of each citation, as well as the MeSH headings assigned, using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. The related articles function has been judged to be so precise that some researchers suggest it can be used instead of a full search, a strong feature of PubMed is its ability to automatically link to MeSH terms and subheadings. Examples would be, bad breath links to halitosis, heart attack to myocardial infarction, where appropriate, these MeSH terms are automatically expanded, that is, include more specific terms. Terms like nursing are automatically linked to Nursing or Nursing and this important feature makes PubMed searches automatically more sensitive and avoids false-negative hits by compensating for the diversity of medical terminology. The My NCBI area can be accessed from any computer with web-access, an earlier version of My NCBI was called PubMed Cubby
