Mercury fulminate, or Hg2, is a primary explosive. It is sensitive to friction and shock and is used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and blasting caps. Mercury cyanate, though its empirical formula is identical, has a different atomic arrangement. First used as a priming composition in small copper caps beginning in the 1820s, mercury fulminate replaced flints as a means to ignite black powder charges in muzzle-loading firearms. During the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, mercury fulminate or potassium chlorate became used in primers for self-contained rifle and pistol ammunition. Mercury fulminate has the distinct advantage over potassium chlorate of being non-corrosive, but it is known to weaken with time, by decomposing into its constituent elements; the reduced mercury which results forms amalgams with cartridge brass, as well. Today, mercury fulminate has been replaced in primers by more efficient chemical substances; these are less toxic and more stable over time.

In addition, none of these compounds require mercury for manufacture, supplies of which can be unreliable in wartime. Mercury fulminate is prepared by dissolving mercury in nitric acid and adding ethanol to the solution, it was first prepared by Edward Charles Howard in 1800. The crystal structure of this compound was only determined in 2007. Silver fulminate can be prepared in a similar way, but this salt is more unstable than mercury fulminate; the thermal decomposition of mercury fulminate can begin at temperatures as low as 100 °C, though it proceeds at a much higher rate with increasing temperature. A possible reaction for the decomposition of mercury fulminate yields carbon dioxide gas, nitrogen gas, a combination of stable mercury salts. 4 Hg2 → 2 CO2 + N2 + HgO + 3 HgCN Hg2 → 2 CO + N2 + Hg Hg2 →:Hg2 2 Hg2 → 2 CO2 + N2 + Hg + Hg2 In the 1955 comedy film "Mister Roberts ", Ensign Frank Pulver test fires a fulminate of mercury firecracker and blows up the ship's laundry spreading soap suds across three decks.

In the episode of Breaking Bad titled "Crazy Handful of Nothin'", Walter White used mercury fulminate to blow up Tuco Salamanca's headquarters. “Have Gun Will Travel”, Season 4 Episode 10 “Crowbait”. Russell Collins plays prospector Crowbait, packing fulminated Mercury. Paladin worries about being blown up while taking a pack sack off. Fulminic acid Potassium fulminate National Pollutant Inventory - Mercury and compounds Fact Sheet "300 years after discovery, structure of mercury fulminate determined". Physorg.com. 24 August 2007

The pigpen cipher is a geometric simple substitution cipher, which exchanges letters for symbols which are fragments of a grid. The example key shows one way; the use of symbols instead of letters is no impediment to cryptanalysis, this system is identical to that of other simple monoalphabetic substitution schemes. Due to the simplicity of the cipher, it is included in children's books on ciphers and secret writing; the cipher is believed to be an ancient cipher and is said to have originated with the Hebrew rabbis. Thompson writes that, “there is evidence that suggests that the Knights Templar utilized a pig-pen cipher” during the Christian Crusades. Parrangan & Parrangan write that it was used by an individual, who may have been a Mason, “in the 16th century to save his personal notes.”In 1531 Cornelius Agrippa described an early form of the Rosicrucian cipher, which he attributes to an existing Jewish Kabbalistic tradition. This system, called "The Kabbalah of the Nine Chambers" by authors, used the Hebrew alphabet rather than the Latin alphabet, was used for religious symbolism rather than for any apparent cryptological purpose.

Variations of this cipher were used by both the Rosicrucian brotherhood and the Freemasons, though the latter used the pigpen cipher so that the system is called the Freemason's cipher. Hysin claims, they began using it in the early 18th century to keep their records of history and rites private, for correspondence between lodge leaders. Tombstones of Freemasons can be found which use the system as part of the engravings. One of the earliest stones in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City, which opened in 1697, contains a cipher of this type which deciphers to "Remember death". George Washington's army had documentation about the system, with a much more randomized form of the alphabet, and during the American Civil War, the system was used by Union prisoners in Confederate prisons. Using the Pigpen cipher key shown in the example above, the message "X MARKS THE SPOT" is rendered in ciphertext as The core elements of this system are the grid and dots; some systems use the X's, but these can be rearranged.

One used method orders the symbols as shown in the above image: grid, grid, X, X. Another used system orders the symbols as grid, X, grid, X. Another is grid, grid, with each cell having a letter of the alphabet, the last one having an "&" character. Letters from the first grid have no dot, letters from the second each have one dot, letters from the third each have two dots. Another variation of this last one is called the Newark Cipher, which instead of dots uses one to three short lines which may be projecting in any length or orientation; this gives the illusion of a larger number of different characters than exist. Another system, used by the Rosicrucians, used a single grid of nine cells, 1 to 3 dots in each cell or "pen". So ABC would be in the top left pen, followed by DEF and GHI on the first line groups of JKL MNO PQR on the second, STU VWX YZ on the third; when enciphered, the location of the dot in each symbol, would indicate which letter in that pen was represented. More difficult systems use a non-standard form of the alphabet, such as writing it backwards in the grid, up and down in the columns, or a randomized set of letters.

The Templar cipher is a method claimed to have been used by the Knights Templar. It uses a variant of a Maltese Cross. Barker, Wayne G. ed.. The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States Prior to World War I. Aegean Park Press. ISBN 0-89412-026-3. Gardner, Martin. Codes and secret writing. ISBN 0-486-24761-9. Kahn, David; the Codebreakers. The Story of Secret Writing. Macmillan. Kahn, David; the Codebreakers. The Story of Secret Writing. Scribner. ISBN 0-684-83130-9. Newton, David E.. "Freemason's Cipher". Encyclopedia of Cryptology. ISBN 0-87436-772-7. Pratt, Fletcher. Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Aegean Park Press. ISBN 0-89412-261-4. Shulman, David. A glossary of cryptography. Crypto Press. P. 44. Wrixon, Fred B.. Codes and other Cryptic & Clandestine Communication. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1-57912-040-7. Online Pigpen cipher tool for enciphering small messages. Online Pigpen cipher tool for deciphering small messages. Cipher Code True Type Font Deciphering An Ominous Cryptogram on a Manhattan Tomb presents a Pigpen cipher variant Elian script-often considered a variant of Pigpen

Steal My Heart is a 2013 South Korean romantic comedy film written and directed by Lee Hyeon-jong, starring Kim Ah-joong and Joo Won. Lee Ho-tae is a police profiler. One day while he's on a stakeout, the criminal attempts to flee and gets run over in a hit and run accident; when Ho-tae follows the driver to make an arrest, he finds himself face to face with Yoon Jin-sook, the first girl he loved. Their relationship had ended ten years ago. Taken aback, Ho-tae stalls his fellow officers by locking up Jin-sook in his own home, but as old feelings resurface, he finds out more shocking truths about his ex-girlfriend, like the fact that she's a notorious thief who's long been on the most wanted list for stealing priceless artworks and gems across Seoul. Together, they try to come up with a solution to keep Jin-sook out of prison while the rest of the police force search for her. Kim Ah-joong as Yoon Jin-sook/Lee Sook-ja Joo Won as Lee Ho-tae Joo Jin-mo as General manager Baek Do-bin as Oh Kyeong-wi Bae Sung-woo as Sergeant Park Hwang Tae-kwang as Detective Lee Kim Min-sung as Detective Jo Kang Min-jung as Detective Na Park Young-woong as Detective Bong Ji Sang-min as Detective Ji Nam Yeon-woo as Detective Tak Kang Deok-joong as Detective Choi Kim Hee-won as Auctioneer Sa Hee as Joo-ri Shin Seung-hwan as Bar part-timer Kim Mi-ra as Diamond Lady Kim Lee Sang-hoon as Guard Cha Tae-hyun as Guy next door Park Chul-min as Fence Official website Steal My Heart on IMDb Catch Me at the Korean Movie Database Catch Me at HanCinema

The 2010 NECBL playoffs was the postseason tournament of the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the 2010 season. It consisted of eight teams competing in three rounds of best-of-three series. In the championship round, the Eastern Division North Shore Navigators defeated the Western Division Danbury Westerners 2 games to 1; the 2010 NECBL playoffs consisted of three rounds, a Division Semifinal, Division Final, Championship Series. Competing teams consisted of the four best-record teams from both the West Division and the East Division; these teams were seeded #1 through #4 according to their regular season record. In each division, the #1 seed played the #4 seed and the #2 seed played the #3 seed in the Division Semifinal round; the two winners of these series advanced to the Division Finals. The winner of the round captured the Division Championship, one for both the East and West divisions; the two division champions faced each other in the Championship Series to decide the NECBL champion.

All rounds consisted of a best-of-three series in which the first game and third game of each series were played at the higher seed's home field and the second game was played at the lower seed's home field. If identically seeded teams from opposite divisions met in the Championship Series the NECBL tiebreaker rules would be utilized; the Division Semifinals, the first playoff round, consisted of matchups between each division's #1 and #4 seeds and #2 and #3 seeds. In the West Division, the Division Semifinal matchups were as follows: #1 North Adams versus #4 Keene, #2 Danbury versus #3 Bristol. North Adams wins series 2-1. Danbury wins series 2-1. In the East Division, the Division Semifinal matchups were as follows: #1 Newport versus #4 Laconia, #2 North Shore versus #3 Sanford. Newport wins series 2-0. North Shore wins series 2-1; the Division Finals, the second playoff round, consisted of match-ups between both divisions' No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. In the West Division, the Division Final match-up was as follows: No. 1 North Adams versus No. 2 Danbury, Danbury wins series, 2–1.

In the East Division, the Division Final match-up was as follows: #1 Newport versus #4 North Shore, North Shore wins series 2-1. The NECBL Championship Series, the final playoff round, consists of a matchup between both division's #2 seeds. North Shore wins series 2-1. NECBL website

Alastair Royalton-Kisch, known professionally as Royalton Kisch, was an orchestral conductor in London from 1947 to 1964. He performed in the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, as well as in other venues across Britain, he appeared in international concerts in Italy, Palestine, France and in Austria at the Salzburg Festival. His records appeared on the Decca label and he performed on broadcasts for the BBC, he was forced to retire from the rostrum in 1964 due to a progressively worsening back. Alastair Royalton Kisch was born in Marylebone, London in 1920, the son of a solicitor, Ernest Royalton Kisch and Pamela Kisch, née Hart, although his date of birth is wrongly given as 1919, his father was an early mentor of both Edward Arnold Goodman. Alastair Royalton Kisch was educated at Heath Mount School in Hampstead, before going on to Wellington College and Clare College, Cambridge, his university studies were interrupted by war service. The hyphen in his name was added at his father's instigation in 1938 by deed poll.

Inspired by a concert given by Sir Thomas Beecham and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Wellington College, Royalton-Kisch decided to become a conductor, rather than following the family tradition and going into the law. While at Wellington, he and his friend, Michael Heming, were active musically, with Royalton-Kisch playing the clarinet, conducting the school orchestra and forming a madrigal group. At Cambridge University he was a student of E. J. Dent and elected President of the University Music Society, he was only the second undergraduate to conduct the Society's Orchestra, giving performances of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, in March 1940. He received permission from Sir Henry Wood to attend the rehearsals and performances of the Promenade Concerts, held at the Queen's Hall, London, his college years were interrupted by World War II, where between 1940–46 he served as a Signals Officer in the King's Royal Rifles, being stationed in North Africa and Greece.

He described the last eruption of Vesuvius to his friends. In 1944, he was carrying a message for his commanding officer from Salerno to Naples, his route took him close to eruption, along a road thick with soot and over which lava had begun to spill. Sick from the sulphurous stench and his lungs choked with soot, the atmosphere was so thick that navigation was difficult. While in Italy he organised 21 concerts as he followed the allied advance northward through Salerno, Rome, Bari, Ancona and Forli, before being transferred to Athens. In Rome he was the first Englishman to conduct in the Rome Opera House. While in Athens in 1945–46, he conducted concerts at the ancient Herodus Atticus Theatre and the Olympia Theatre. In February 1946, he conducted the National State Orchestra in Athens during a Festival of English Music under the patronage of the Minister for Education, the British Ambassador, the British Council, represented by Sir Steven Runciman; these were the first concerts. In 1946, he was released from the army.

Back in London in October 1946, Royalton-Kisch established himself among the younger generation of conductors. Helped by various supporters, including Runciman and Harold Holt, he appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, where he made his central London debut on 30 March 1947. Aged 27, this made him the youngest conductor to appear there up to that time. Royalton-Kisch appeared at the Royal Festival Hall, conducting many of the major London orchestras: the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he was invited to conduct abroad, with the and the Pasdeloup Orchestra of Paris, the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Kisch's Albert Hall concert of 30 March 1947 led to his being offered a recording contract with Decca Records the following day, he became a regular feature of the British music scene, as well as performing numerous broadcasts for the BBC with the LSO, RPO and the Philharmonia Orchestra. His career with Decca included recordings with the LSO, the New Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra.

His repertory spanned the classical and romantic periods, with Brahms a special favourite, but twentieth-century music, including British composers as well as Stravinsky and Honegger, was covered. Reviewers looking back on his recordings have described his conducting as "musical and stylish" and "vigorous and suitably commanding, yet at the same time lyrical and sympathetic to the soloist". After he retired from conducting, he unsuccessfully attempted to form a record company. Turning to art, he founded the Cork Street Gallery, specialising in British and French paintings, which he continued through most of the 1970s. A devoted family man, he committed himself to charitable work, founding what is now the RK Charitable Trust with money earned from his musical career, he supported research by Dr Leslie Bunt and his colleagues into the use of musical therapy for people with schizophrenia. In 1940 Kisch married Aline, née Hylton Stewart, the cellist daughter of Bruce Hylton-Stewart and niece of Charles Hylton Stewart.

They had a son. He died in 1995, although his father's death in 1967 caused confusion when The Gramophone incorrectly publ

The Albanian cuisine is a representative of the cuisine of the Mediterranean. It is an example of the Mediterranean diet based on the importance of olive oil, fruits and fish; the cooking traditions of the Albanian people are diverse in consequence of the environmental factors that are more suitable for the cultivation of nearly all kinds of herbs and fruits. Olive oil is the most ancient and used vegetable fat in Albanian cooking, produced since antiquity throughout the country along the coasts. Hospitality is a fundamental custom of Albanian society and serving food is integral to the hosting of guests and visitors, it is not infrequent for visitors to be invited to drink with locals. The medieval Albanian code of honour, called besa, resulted to look after guests and strangers as an act of recognition and gratitude. Albanian cuisine can be divided into three major regional cuisines; the cuisine of the northern region has a rural and mountainous origin. Meat and vegetables are central to the cuisine of the northern region.

The people there use many kinds of ingredients, which grow in the region including potatoes, maizes, cabbages but cherries and almonds. Garlic and onions are as well important components to the local cuisine and added to every dish; the cuisine of the central region is threefold of rural and coastal. The central region is the flattest and rich in vegetation and biodiversity as well as culinary specialties, it has Mediterranean characteristics due to its proximity to the sea, rich in fish. Dishes here include several meat desserts of all kinds. In the south, the cuisine is composed of two components: the rural products of the field including dairy products, citrus fruits and olive oil, coastal products, i.e. seafood. Those regions are conducive to raising animals, as pastures and feed resources are abundant. Besides garlic, onions are arguably the country's most used ingredient. Albania is ranked second in the world in terms of onion consumption per capita. In his 17th-century work Seyahatnâme the Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi described several foods that he ate in the "vicinity of Ohrid" at the "green mountain pasture of Istok": We went from fold to fold, staying in tents, eating the yoghurt and cheeses and beestings and curds and cream with honey and omelets with honey, drinking the buttermilk and whey, savoring the kebabs of roasted lamb and trout, quaffing water from the ice-cold streams and various kinds of honey sherbets, snacking on a thousand kinds of herbs and tendrils and sorrel and wild strawberries and sour cherries, having a good time.

The strategic location of Albania in the western Balkan Peninsula with a direct proximity to the Mediterranean Sea has a large influence on Albanian cuisine. Many foods that are common in the Mediterranean Basin, such as olives, chickpeas, dairy products, fish and vegetables, are prominent in the Albanian cooking tradition. Albania has a distinctly Mediterranean climate. Across the country's territory, there are a wide range of microclimates due to differing soil types and topography that allow a variety of products to be grown. Citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons and olives thrive in the country; every region has its own typical breakfast. Breakfast consists of a light meal. Fresh bread is eaten and served with butter, cheese and yogurt, accompanied with olives, milk, tea or raki, it is common to have a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast. Coffee and tea is enjoyed both in homes or at the many cafés that feature in towns and cities throughout the country. Lunch is traditionally the biggest meal of the day for Albanians.

Everyone in Albania enjoys this lunch break, from school children to shop workers and government officials. Traditionally, people go back to their houses to have lunch with their families, but it is now common to have lunch with groups of friends at restaurants or cafeterias. Lunch sometimes consists of gjellë, a main dish of cooked meat with various vegetables, accompanied by a salad of fresh vegetables, such as tomatoes, green peppers and olives. Salads are served with meat dishes and are dressed with salt, virgin olive oil, white vinegar or lemon juice. Grilled or fried vegetables and sausages and various forms of omelettes are eaten during lunch, accompanied by coffee, fruit juices and milk. Dinner in Albania is a smaller meal consisting only of a variety of breads, fresh fish or seafood, cheese and various kind of vegetables, similar to breakfast, or sandwiches. Located in Southern Europe with a direct proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, the Albanian cuisine features a wide range of fresh fruits, growing in the fertile Albanian soil and under the warm sun.

In consideration of being an agricultural country, Albania is a significant fruit importer and exporter. Besides citrus fruits, strawberries and raspberries are among the most cultivated fruits. Many Albanians keep fruit trees in their yards. Fresh and dried fruits are eaten as desserts. Fruits that are traditionally associated with Albanian cuisine include apple, olive, nectarine, cherry, pomegranate, watermelon, lemon, plum, raspberry and cornelian cherry. A wide variety of vegetables are used in Albanian cooking. Due to the different climate and soil conditions across Albania, cultivars of cabbages, beetroots, potatoes and mushrooms can be found in a