Valentine's Day
Valentines Day, called Saint Valentines Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an annual holiday celebrated on February 14. According to legend, during his imprisonment, Saint Valentine healed the daughter of his jailer, the day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery. In Europe, Saint Valentines Keys are given to lovers as a romantic symbol, Valentines Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards, Saint Valentines Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church. Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine, the Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni.
Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred in 269 and was added to the calendar of saints by Pope Galesius in 496 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The flower-crowned skull of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, other relics are found at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian in 273 and he is buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location from Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni, oruch states that abstracts of the acts of the two saints were in nearly every church and monastery of Europe. The Catholic Encyclopedia speaks of a saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, Saint Valentines head was preserved in the abbey of New Minster and venerated. February 14 is celebrated as St.
Valentines Day in various Christian denominations, it has, for example, in addition, the feast day of Saint Valentine is given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. J. C. Cooper, in The Dictionary of Christianity, contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century. The same events are found in Bedes Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century. It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person, Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead, because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the jailers daughter and his forty-six member household came to believe in Jesus and were baptized
Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patricks Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, cèilidhs, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. Saint Patricks Day is a holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially in Great Britain, the United States, Australia. Saint Patricks Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival, modern celebrations have been greatly influenced by those of the Irish diaspora, particularly those that developed in North America. In recent years, there has been criticism of Saint Patricks Day celebrations for having become too commercialised, Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.
Much of what is known about Saint Patrick comes from the Declaration and it is believed that he was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church, according to the Declaration, at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. It says that he spent six years working as a shepherd. The Declaration says that God told Patrick to flee to the coast, after making his way home, Patrick went on to become a priest. According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity, the Declaration says that he spent many years evangelising in the northern half of Ireland and converted thousands. Patricks efforts against the druids were eventually turned into an allegory in which he drove out of Ireland. Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried at Downpatrick, over the following centuries, many legends grew up around Patrick and he became Irelands foremost saint.
Todays St Patricks Day celebrations have been influenced by those that developed among the Irish diaspora. Until the late 20th century, St Patricks Day was often a celebration among the diaspora than it was in Ireland. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, Irish traditional music sessions, there are formal gatherings such as banquets and dances, although these were more common in the past. St Patricks Day parades began in North America in the 18th century, the participants generally include marching bands, the military, fire brigades, cultural organisations, charitable organisations, voluntary associations, youth groups, and so on. However, over time, many of the parades have become akin to a carnival
Economy of Russia
Russia has an upper-middle income mixed economy with state ownership in strategic areas of the economy. Market reforms in the 1990s privatized much of Russian industry and agriculture, with exceptions to this privatization occurring in the energy. Russias vast geography is an important determinant of its economic activity, the World Bank estimates the total value of Russias natural resources at $75 trillion US dollars. Russia relies on energy revenues to drive most of its growth, Russia has an abundance of oil, natural gas and precious metals, which make up a major share of Russias exports. As of 2012 the oil-and-gas sector accounted for 16% of GDP, 52% of federal budget revenues, the value of Russian arms exports totalled $15.7 billion in 2013—second only to the US. Top military exports from Russia include combat aircraft, air systems, ships. In 2015, the Russian economy was the sixth largest in the world by PPP, between 2000 and 2012 Russias energy exports fueled a rapid growth in living standards, with real disposable income rising by 160%.
In dollar-denominated terms this amounted to a more than increase in disposable incomes since 2000. In the same period and poverty more than halved and this growth was a combined result of the 2000s commodities boom, high oil prices, as well as prudent economic and fiscal policies. However, these gains have been distributed unevenly, as the 110 wealthiest individuals were found in a report by Credit Suisse to own 35% of all assets held by Russian households. Poor governance means that Russia has the second-largest volume of illicit money outflows, since 2008 Forbes has repeatedly named Moscow the billionaire capital of the world. The Russian economy risked going into recession from early 2014, mainly due to falling oil prices, the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, and the subsequent capital flight. While in 2014 GDP growth remained positive at 0. 6%, the World Bank and the IMF estimated that Russias economy will begin to recover by 2017. In January 2016, the US company Bloomberg rated Russias economy as the 12th most innovative in the world, up from 14th in January 2015, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin has said that Russia needs to reduce geopolitical tensions to improve its economic conditions.
By the 1970s the Soviet Union entered the Era of Stagnation, the complex demands of the modern economy and inflexible administration overwhelmed and constrained the central planners. The volume of decisions facing planners in Moscow became overwhelming, from 1975 to 1985, corruption and data fiddling became common practice among bureaucracy to report satisfied targets and quotas thus entrenching the crisis. Since 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to address economic problems by moving towards a market-oriented socialist economy, gorbachevs policies had failed to rejuvenate the Soviet economy, though. Instead, Perestroika set off a process of political and economic disintegration, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia had undergone a radical transformation, moving from a centrally planned economy to a globally integrated market economy
Japanese festivals
Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions. Some festivals have their roots in Chinese festivals centuries ago, but have undergone changes as they mixed with local customs. Some are so different that they do not even resemble the original festival despite sharing the same name. There are various festivals that are mostly unknown outside a given prefecture. It is commonly said that you always find a festival somewhere in Japan. In Yokohama Chinatown, Japans biggest Chinatown, tourists from all over Japan come to enjoy the festival, similar for Nagasakis Lantern Festival that is based in Nagasaki Chinatown. Festivals are often based around one event, with stalls, entertainment. Some are based around temples or shrines, others hanabi, Matsuri is the Japanese word for a festival or holiday. In Japan, festivals are sponsored by a local shrine or temple. Almost every locale has at least one matsuri in late summer/early autumn, notable matsuri often feature processions which may include elaborate floats.
Preparation for these processions is usually organised at the level of neighborhoods, prior to these, the local kami may be ritually installed in mikoshi and paraded through the streets. One can always find in the vicinity of a matsuri booths selling souvenirs and food such as takoyaki, karaoke contests, sumo matches, and other forms of entertainment are often organized in conjunction with matsuri. If the festival is next to a lake, renting a boat is an attraction. Favorite elements of the most popular matsuri, such as the Nada no Kenka Matsuri of Himeji or the Neputa Matsuri of Hirosaki, are often broadcast on television for the nation to enjoy. Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the largest festivals of the year in Sapporo and it began in 1950 when high school students built snow statues in Odori Park, central Sapporo. The event is now large and commercialized. About a dozen large sculptures are built for the festival along with around 100 smaller snow, several concerts and other events are held.
Lake Shikotsu is the northernmost ice-free lake which is 363 meters deep and this festival features a moss-covered cave, which has evergreen draped on the inside and is covered in ice
Easter
It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting and penance. In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day, Pentecost Sunday. In Eastern Christianity, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the fortieth day, the Feast of the Ascension. The First Council of Nicaea established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified, these were worked out in practice and it has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March, but calculations vary. Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, in many languages, the words for Easter and Passover are identical or very similar. Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church.
The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection, traditionally decorates the area of churches on this day. Additional customs that have associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades. There are various traditional Easter foods that vary regionally, however, it is possible that Bede was only speculating about the origin of the term since there is no firm evidence that such a goddess actually existed. In Greek and Latin, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called Πάσχα, the word originally denoted the Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt. In most of the non-English speaking world, the feast is known by names derived from Greek, Pascha is a name by which Jesus himself is remembered in the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration. The New Testament states that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith, the resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness.
For those who trust in Jesus death and resurrection, death is swallowed up in victory, any person who chooses to follow Jesus receives a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Through faith in the working of God those who follow Jesus are spiritually resurrected with him so that they may walk in a new way of life and receive eternal salvation. Easter is linked to the Passover and Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper and crucifixion of Jesus that preceded the resurrection. According to the New Testament, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as in the room during the Last Supper he prepared himself. He identified the matzah and cup of wine as his soon to be sacrificed
Thanksgiving (United States)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a public holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. It originated as a harvest festival, Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, after a proclamation by George Washington. Together with Christmas and the New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the holiday season. The event that Americans commonly call the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621 and this feast lasted three days, and—as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating thanksgivings—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. Setting aside time to give thanks for blessings, along with holding feasts to celebrate a harvest, are both practices that long predate the European settlement of North America. The first documented thanksgiving services in territory belonging to the United States were conducted by Spaniards.
Thanksgiving services were routine in what became the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607, with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, in 1619,38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia. The groups London Company charter specifically required that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned, in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God. Americans trace the Thanksgiving holiday to a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, autumn or early winter feasts continued sporadically in years, first as an impromptu religious observance, and as a civil tradition. Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn, squanto had learned the English language during his enslavement in England. The Wampanoag leader Massasoit had given food to the colonists during the first winter when supplies brought from England were insufficient, the Pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days after their first harvest in 1621.
Seventeenth-century accounts do not identify this as a thanksgiving observance, rather it followed the harvest and it included 50 persons who were on the Mayflower and 90 Native Americans. The feast was cooked by the four adult Pilgrim women who survived their first winter in the New World, along with young daughters, two colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth. The Pilgrims, most of whom were Separatists, are not to be confused with Puritans, both groups were strict Calvinists, but differed in their views regarding the Church of England. Puritans wished to remain in the Anglican Church and reform it, for as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want, and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, and besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.
Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports
Graduation
Graduation is getting a diploma or academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated with it, in which students become graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as graduands, the date of graduation is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony itself is called commencement, convocation or invocation, in the United States and Canada, the term is additionally increasingly being used to refer to the advancement from a primary or secondary school level. When ceremonies are associated, they include a procession of the academic staff and candidates. At the college and university level the faculty will usually wear academic dress at the ceremonies, as will the trustees. After degree completion, graduates can be referred to by their graduating year, in some places, graduation parties to celebrate graduation from school, college or university are popular. In a recent 2014 nationwide survey in the United States, $985 was the amount spent on graduation parties. When a student graduates without attending the ceremony, it is called graduation in absentia, the procedures and traditions surrounding academic graduation ceremonies differ around the world.
In a graduation ceremony the students dress up in special graduation caps, Graduation traditions are varied across universities observing different cultures. Most universities across Sweden are research-oriented and may present its students with bachelors, universities across the country are based through the Higher Education Ordinance. A large number of candidates continue their education onto secondary and upper secondary education, most of the national programs provide Swedish, English and Science among majors. In Zimbabwe, graduation ceremonies are associated with the guest of honor who most of is the ceremonial head of the institution. At state universities the President of Zimbabwe officiates as chancellor and guest of honor, every graduate of a state university in Zimbabwe can claim to have shaken the Presidents hand. The person most associated with graduation at those institutions is President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, at other State Institutions of higher learning the vice Presidents or any other Senior Government officials may preside.
Ceremonies for graduating students date from the first universities in Europe in the 12th century, at that time Latin was the language of scholarship. A universitas was a guild of masters with licence to teach and graduate come from gradus, meaning step. The first step was admission to a bachelors degree, the second step was the masters step, giving the graduate admission to the universitas and license to teach. The typical dress for graduation are gowns and hoods or hats adapted from the dress of university staff in the Middle Ages
Pricing
Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the businesss marketing plan. Pricing is an aspect of financial modeling and is one of the four Ps of the marketing mix. Price is the revenue generating element amongst the four Ps. However, the other Ps of marketing will contribute to decreasing price elasticity and so enable price increases to drive greater revenue, automated systems require more setup and maintenance but may prevent pricing errors. The needs of the consumer can be converted into demand only if the consumer has the willingness, pricing is the most important concept in the field of marketing, it is used as a tactical decision in response to comparing market situations. Where manufacturing is expensive, distribution is exclusive, and the product is supported by advertising and promotional campaigns. Price can act as a substitute for product quality, effective promotions, from the marketers point of view, an efficient price is a price that is very close to the maximum that customers are prepared to pay.
In economic terms, it is a price that shifts most of the economic surplus to the producer. A good pricing strategy would be the one which could balance between the floor and the price ceiling. Marketers develop an overall pricing strategy that is consistent with the organisations mission and this pricing strategy typically becomes part of the companys overall long -term strategic plan. The strategy is designed to provide guidance to price-setters and ensures that the pricing strategy is consistent with other elements of the marketing plan. In some cases, prices might be set to de-market, revenue-oriented pricing, - where the marketer seeks to maximise the profits or simply to cover costs and break even. For example, dynamic pricing (also known as yield management is a form of revenue oriented pricing, customer-oriented pricing, where the objective is to maximise the number of customers, encourage cross-selling opportunities or to recognise different levels in the customers ability to pay. Value-based pricing, occurs where the company uses prices to market value or associates price with the desired value position in the mind of the buyer.
The aim of value-based pricing is to reinforce the overall positioning strategy e. g. premium pricing posture to pursue or maintain a luxury image, relationship-oriented pricing, where the marketer sets prices in order to build or maintain relationships with existing or potential customers. Socially-oriented pricing, Where the objective is to encourage or discourage specific social attitudes, E. g. high tarrifs on tobacco to discourage smoking. When decision-makers have determined the broad approach to pricing, they turn their attention to pricing tactics, tactical pricing decisions are shorter term prices, designed to accomplish specific short-term goals. The tactical approach to pricing may vary from time to time, accordingly, a number of different pricing tactics may be employed in the course of a single planning period or across a single year
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a city in western New York state and the county seat of Erie County, on the eastern shores of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. As of 2014, Buffalo is New York states 2nd-most populous city after New York City, the metropolitan area has a population of 1.13 million. After an economic downturn in the half of the 20th century, Buffalos economy has transitioned to sectors that include financial services, biomedical engineering. Residents of Buffalo are called Buffalonians, the citys nicknames include The Queen City, The Nickel City and The City of Good Neighbors. The city of Buffalo received its name from a creek called Buffalo Creek. British military engineer Captain John Montresor made reference to Buffalo Creek in his journal of 1764, there are several theories regarding how Buffalo Creek received its name. In 1804, as principal agent opening the area for the Holland Land Company, Joseph Ellicott, designed a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown like bicycle spokes similar to the street system he used in the nations capital.
Although Ellicott named the settlement New Amsterdam, the name did not catch on, during the War of 1812, on December 30,1813, Buffalo was burned by British forces. The George Coit House 1818 and Samuel Schenck House 1823 are currently the oldest houses within the limits of the City of Buffalo, on October 26,1825, the Erie Canal was completed with Buffalo a port-of-call for settlers heading westward. At the time, the population was about 2,400, the Erie Canal brought about a surge in population and commerce, which led Buffalo to incorporate as a city in 1832. In 1845, construction began on the Macedonia Baptist Church, an important meeting place for the abolitionist movement, Buffalo was a terminus point of the Underground Railroad with many fugitive slaves crossing the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario in search of freedom. During the 1840s, Buffalos port continued to develop, both passenger and commercial traffic expanded with some 93,000 passengers heading west from the port of Buffalo.
Grain and commercial goods shipments led to repeated expansion of the harbor, in 1843, the worlds first steam-powered grain elevator was constructed by local merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar. Darts Elevator enabled faster unloading of lake freighters along with the transshipment of grain in bulk from barges, canal boats, by 1850, the citys population was 81,000. At the dawn of the 20th century, local mills were among the first to benefit from hydroelectric power generated by the Niagara River, the city got the nickname City of Light at this time due to the widespread electric lighting. It was part of the revolution, hosting the brass era car builders Pierce Arrow. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6,1901, McKinley died in the city eight days and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion as the 26th President of the United States. The Great Depression of 1929–39 saw severe unemployment, especially working class men
Skiing
Skiing is a mode of transport, recreational activity and competitive winter sport in which the participant uses skis to glide on snow. Many types of skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Skiing has a history of almost five millennia, although modern skiing has evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, it may have been practiced as early as 600 BC in what is now China. The word ski is one of a handful of words Norway has exported to the international community and it comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means split piece of wood or firewood. Asymmetrical skis were used at least in northern Finland and Sweden until the late 19th century, on one leg the skier wore a long straight non-arching ski for sliding, and on the other a shorter ski for kicking. Early skiers used one long pole or spear, the first depiction of a skier with two ski poles dates to 1741. Until the mid-19th century skiing was primarily used for transport, and since has become a recreation, military ski races were held in Norway during the 18th century, and ski warfare was studied in the late 18th century.
As equipment evolved and ski lifts were developed skiing evolved into two main genres during the late 19th and early 20th century and Nordic, called downhill skiing, alpine skiing typically takes place on a piste at a ski resort. It is characterized by fixed-heel bindings that attach at both the toe and the heel of the skiers boot, because alpine equipment is somewhat difficult to walk in, ski lifts, including chairlifts, bring skiers up the slope. Backcountry skiing can be accessed by helicopter, hiking, facilities at resorts can include night skiing, après-ski, and glade skiing under the supervision of the ski patrol and the ski school. Alpine skiing branched off from the older Nordic skiing around the 1920s, Alpine equipment specialized to where it can only be used with the help of lifts. The Nordic disciplines include cross-country skiing and ski jumping, which share in common the use of binding that attach at the toes of the skiers boots, cross-country skiing may be practiced on groomed trails or in undeveloped backcountry areas.
Ski jumping skiing is practiced at certain areas that are deemed for ski jumping only, Telemark skiing is a ski turning technique and FIS-sanctioned discipline. It is named after the Telemark region of Norway, using equipment similar to nordic skiing, the ski bindings having the ski boot attached only at the toe. This allows the skier to raise his/her heel throughout the turn, the following disciplines are sanctioned by the FIS and USSA. Many have their own cups and are in the Winter Olympic Games. Cross-country, The sport encompasses a variety of formats for cross-country skiing races over courses of varying lengths, such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic and free-style events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. Alpine skiing discliplines include combined, slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, one run of each even like one run of Super-G and one run of Slalom skiing this is called a Super Combined
Television
Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, news, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set.
Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight.
The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
Snow blower
A snow blower or snow thrower is a machine for removing snow from an area where it is not wanted, such as a driveway, roadway, railroad track, ice rink, or runway. The misnomer snow blower is used, as the snow is moved using an auger or impeller instead of blowing it. It can use electric power, or a gasoline or diesel engine to throw snow to another location or into a truck to be hauled away. This is in contrast with the action of snow plows, which push snow to the front or side, Snow blowers can generally be divided into two classes, single-stage and two-stage. On a single-stage snow blower, the auger pulls snow into the machine, the auger contacts the ground, making single-stage snow blowers unsuitable for use on unpaved surfaces. On a two-stage snow blower, the auger pulls snow into the machine and feeds it into a high-speed impeller, two-stage snow blowers can generally handle deeper snow depths than single-stage ones, and because their augers dont touch the ground, they can be used on unpaved surfaces.
Robert Carr Harris of Dalhousie, New Brunswick patented a Railway Screw Snow Excavator in 1870, in 1923, Robert E. Cole patented a snowplow that operated by using cutters and a fan to blow snow from a surface. However, it is Arthur Sicard who is credited as the inventor of the first practical snow blower. In 1925 Sicard completed his first prototype, based on a concept he described in 1894 and he founded Sicard Industries in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec and by 1927 his vehicles were in use removing snow from the roadways of the town of Outremont, now a borough of Montreal. His company is now a division of SMI-Snowblast, Inc. of Watertown, consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that each year there are approximately 5,740 snowblower related injuries in the United States which require medical attention. One problem with the design of the blower is that snow can build up in the auger, jamming it. This is complicated by the fact that the auger could deform before applying enough resistance to the motor to turn it off, the correct procedure is to turn off the engine, disengage the clutch and clear the jam with a broom handle or other long object.
In an effort to improve safety, many now include a plastic tool to be used to clear jams. Most modern machines mitigate this problem by including a safety system known as the Dead mans switch to prevent the mechanism from rotating when the operator is not at the controls and they are mandatory in some jurisdictions. Jet engines and other gas turbines are used for large scale propelling and melting of snow over rails, the jet engine both melts and blows the snow, clearing the tracks faster than other methods. While offering considerably greater power in a lightweight machine, this method is much more expensive than traditional snow removing methods. In Russia, the high cost is partially negated by utilizing retired military jet engines, such as the Klimov VK-1
