In classical antiquity, the cornucopia called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers or nuts. Baskets or paniers of this form were traditionally used in western Asia and Europe to hold and carry newly harvested food products; the horn-shaped basket would be worn on the back or slung around the torso, leaving the harvester's hands free for picking. Mythology offers multiple explanations of the origin of the cornucopia. One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father Kronus. In a cave on Mount Ida on the island of Crete, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by a number of divine attendants, including the goat Amaltheia, who fed him with her milk; the suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and strength, in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her horns, which had the divine power to provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.

In another myth, the cornucopia was created when Heracles wrestled with the river god Achelous and wrenched off one of his horns. This version is represented in the Achelous and Hercules mural painting by the American Regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton; the cornucopia became the attribute of several Greek and Roman deities those associated with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications of Earth. In Roman Imperial cult, abstract Roman deities who fostered peace and prosperity were depicted with a cornucopia, including Abundantia, "Abundance" personified, Annona, goddess of the grain supply to the city of Rome. Hades, the classical ruler of the underworld in the mystery religions, was a giver of agricultural and spiritual wealth, in art holds a cornucopia. In modern depictions, the cornucopia is a hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive fruit and vegetables. In most of North America, the cornucopia has come to be associated with Thanksgiving and the harvest.

Cornucopia is the name of the annual November Food and Wine celebration in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Two cornucopias are seen in the state seal of Idaho; the Great Seal of North Carolina depicts Liberty Plenty holding a cornucopia. The coat of arms of Colombia, Panama and Venezuela, the Coat of Arms of the State of Victoria, Australia feature the cornucopia, symbolizing prosperity. In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels, the witch Tiffany Aching was in possession of the Cornucopia, badge of office of Summer, when she contracted avatarism as well as ped fecundis during the events of Wintersmith; this causes problems including a massive flock of chickens. The motif of the cornucopia is used in the book series The Hunger Games. In the eponymous gladiatorial games described in the series, a large horn-like cache filled with weapons and equipment is placed at the starting point: this cache serves as the focal point of fighting during the games' first minutes, is called the "Cornucopia".

In the film adaptation, the national anthem of Panem, the series' primary setting, is called "the Horn of Plenty", mentioned several times in the lyrics. The horn of plenty is used for body art and at Halloween, as it is a symbol of fertility and abundance. Media related to Cornucopia at Wikimedia Commons

An Ames room is a distorted room that creates an optical illusion. Influenced by the writings of Hermann Helmholtz, it was invented by American scientist Adelbert Ames, Jr. in 1946, constructed in the following year. An Ames room is viewed with one eye through a peephole. Through the peephole the room appears to be an ordinary rectangular cuboid, with a back wall, vertical and at right angles to an observer's line of sight, two vertical side walls parallel to each other, a horizontal floor and ceiling; the true shape of the room, however, is that of a six-sided convex polyhedron: depending on the design of the room, all surfaces can be regular or irregular quadrilaterals so that one corner of the room is farther from an observer than the other. The illusion of an ordinary room is because most information about the true shape of the room does not reach the observer's eye; the geometry of the room is designed, using perspective, so that, from the peephole, the image projected onto the retina of the observer's eye is the same as that of an ordinary room.

Once the observer is prevented from perceiving the real locations of the parts of the room, the illusion that it is an ordinary room occurs. One key aspect of preventing the observer from perceiving the true shape of the room is the peephole, it has at least three consequences: It forces the observer to be at the location where the image projected into his eye is of an ordinary room. From any other location, the observer would see the room's true shape, it forces the observer to use one eye to look into the room, preventing him from getting any information about the real shape the room from stereopsis, which requires two eyes. It prevents the observer from moving his eye to a different location, preventing him from getting any information about real shape of the room from motion parallax. Other sources of information about the true shape of the room are removed by its designer. For example, by strategic lighting, the true far corner is as bright as the true near corner. For another example, patterns on the walls and floor can be made consistent with its illusory geometry.

The illusion is powerful enough to overcome other information about the true locations of objects in the room, such as familiar size. For example, although the observer knows that adults are all about the same size, an adult standing in the true near corner appears to be a giant, while another adult standing in the true far appears to be a dwarf. For another example, although the observer knows that an adult cannot change size, he sees an adult who walks back and forth between the true far and true near corners appear to grow and shrink. Studies have shown that the illusion can be created without using a ceiling; the Ames room has as a predecessor, from as early as the 15th century, the movement in art called Trompe-l'œil, in which the artist creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. Ames's original design contained a groove, positioned such that a ball in it appears to roll uphill, against gravity. Richard Gregory regarded this apparent "anti-gravity" effect as more amazing than the apparent size changes, although today it is not shown when an Ames room is exhibited.

Gregory speculated. For a magic mountain in Ayrshire, Scotland, he found that a row of trees form a background similar to the setting of an Ames room, making the water in a creek appear to flow uphill. For Gregory, this observation raised interesting questions about how different principles for understanding the world compete in our perception; the "anti-gravity effect" is a much stronger paradox than the "size change" effect, because it seems to negate the law of gravity, a fundamental feature of the world. In contrast, the apparent size change is not such a strong paradox, because we do have the experience that objects can change size to a certain degree. A type of selective perceptual distortion known as the Honi phenomenon causes some married persons to perceive less size distortion of the spouse than a stranger in an Ames room; the effect was related to the strength of love and trust of the spouse being viewed. Women who were high positive in this area perceived strangers as being more distorted than their partners.

Size judgments by men did not seem to be influenced by the strength of their feeling toward their spouse. Further study has concluded that the Honi phenomenon does not reliably exist as first thought, but may be explained as sex difference influencing perception, with women interpreting a larger reading as a more meaningful or valuable perception of things than men's; the Ames room principle has been used in TV and movie productions for special effects when it was necessary to show actors in giant size next to actors in small size. For example, production of The Lord Of The Rings film trilogy used several Ames room sets in Shire sequences to make the heights of the diminutively-sized hobbits correct when standing next to the taller Gandalf; when used for special effects, the viewers will not see. However, a few times an Ames room has been shown explicitly. An Ames room is used in the 1965 TV Special My Name Is Barbra, it enabled the star to shrink before singing a little girl medley, return to normal size to sing adult songs.

An Ames roo

Green Mountain or Green Mountains may refer to: Green Mountains, the range of mountains in the middle of Vermont Green Mountain, the main peak on Ascension Island Green Mountain, a forested upland area in Cyrenaica in eastern Libya Green Mountain, part of the Al Hajar mountain range in Oman Green Mountain, a mountain in Boulder, Colorado Green Mountain, a mountain in the western suburbs of Denver Green Mountain, a mountain in the Pike National Forest of Jefferson County, Colorado Green Mountain, a mountain near Mount Si Green Mountain, a mountain on the Kitsap Peninsula in Western Washington Green Mountain, a mountain in the Cascade Mountains of Washington A nickname of Mount Carmel Green Mountain, New Brunswick, a rural community in York County, New Brunswick, Canada Green Mountain Falls, Green Mountain, Iowa, an unincorporated community in Marshall County, United States Green Mountain, North Carolina, an unincorporated community in Yancey County, North Carolina, United States Green Mountain Boys, a militia in 18th-century Vermont Green Mountain College a private liberal arts college in Poultney, Vermont Green Mountain Transit, the regional public transit system based in Burlington, Vermont Green Mountain Energy, a producer of electricity that originated in Vermont but is now headquartered in Texas Green Mountain Anarchist Collective, a former political organization in Vermont Green Mountain Lookout Heritage Protection Act, a law affecting the Glacier Peak Wilderness in Washington Green Mountain Railroad, a railroad operating in Vermont Green Mountains Review, a literary journal published biannually at Johnson State College in Vermont Green Mountain Reservoir, in Colorado along the Blue River Green Mountain Reservoir Trail, along the shore of Green Mountain Reservoir in Colorado NatureShare, a community website called Green Mountain Digital Green Mountain, a summit in the Blue Hills in Washington state Green Mountain Film Festival in Vermont Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, Colorado Green Mountain Wind Energy Center a wind power plant in Pennsylvania Green Mountain Line, a light rail line in Taiwan Green Mountain Giant, one of the largest glacial erratics in New England, in Whitingham, Vermont Green Mountain Flyer, former named train of the Rutland Railroad Green Mountain Lake, a lake in Minnesota Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont Green Mountain Coffee, a brand of coffee All pages with titles beginning with Green Mountain Mountain Green, Utah Monte Verde, an archaeological site in southern Chile