1.
Year
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A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earths axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by changes in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the globe, four seasons are recognized, spring, summer, autumn. In tropical and subtropical regions several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons, but in the seasonal tropics, a calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earths orbital period as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian, or modern, calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars. For the Gregorian calendar the average length of the year across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days. The ISO standard ISO 80000-3, Annex C, supports the symbol a to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days, in English, the abbreviations y and yr are commonly used. In astronomy, the Julian year is a unit of time, it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly 86400 seconds, totalling exactly 31557600 seconds in the Julian astronomical year. The word year is used for periods loosely associated with, but not identical to, the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year. Similarly, year can mean the period of any planet, for example. The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle, west Saxon ġēar, Anglian ġēr continues Proto-Germanic *jǣran. Cognates are German Jahr, Old High German jār, Old Norse ár and Gothic jer, all the descendants of the Proto-Indo-European noun *yeh₁rom year, season. Cognates also descended from the same Proto-Indo-European noun are Avestan yārǝ year, Greek ὥρα year, season, period of time, Old Church Slavonic jarŭ, Latin annus is from a PIE noun *h₂et-no-, which also yielded Gothic aþn year. Both *yeh₁-ro- and *h₂et-no- are based on verbal roots expressing movement, *h₁ey- and *h₂et- respectively, the Greek word for year, ἔτος, is cognate with Latin vetus old, from the PIE word *wetos- year, also preserved in this meaning in Sanskrit vat-sa- yearling and vat-sa-ras year. Derived from Latin annus are a number of English words, such as annual, annuity, anniversary, etc. per annum means each year, anno Domini means in the year of the Lord. No astronomical year has an number of days or lunar months. Financial and scientific calculations often use a 365-day calendar to simplify daily rates, in the Julian calendar, the average length of a year is 365.25 days. In a non-leap year, there are 365 days, in a year there are 366 days
2.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
3.
Calendar
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A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, a date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a record of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a calendar or a partly or fully chronological list of documents. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. The most common type of calendar was the lunisolar calendar. Latin calendarium meant account book, register, the Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century. The course of the Sun and the Moon are the most evident forms of timekeeping, nevertheless, the Roman calendar contained very ancient remnants of a pre-Etruscan 10-month solar year. The first recorded calendars date to the Bronze Age, dependent on the development of writing in the Ancient Near East, a larger number of calendar systems of the Ancient Near East becomes accessible in the Iron Age, based on the Babylonian calendar. This includes the calendar of the Persian Empire, which in turn gave rise to the Zoroastrian calendar as well as the Hebrew calendar, calendars in antiquity were lunisolar, depending on the introduction of intercalary months to align the solar and the lunar years. This was mostly based on observation, but there may have been attempts to model the pattern of intercalation algorithmically. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the new moon but simply followed an algorithm of introducing a leap day every four years. This created a dissociation of the month from the lunation. The Islamic calendar is based on the prohibition of intercalation by Muhammad and this resulted in an observationally based lunar calendar that shifts relative to the seasons of the solar year. The first calendar reform of the modern era was the Gregorian calendar. Such ideas are mooted from time to time but have failed to gain traction because of the loss of continuity, massive upheaval in implementation, a full calendar system has a different calendar date for every day. Thus the week cycle is by not a full calendar system. The simplest calendar system just counts time periods from a reference date and this applies for the Julian day or Unix Time
4.
Ordinal number
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In set theory, an ordinal number, or ordinal, is one generalization of the concept of a natural number that is used to describe a way to arrange a collection of objects in order, one after another. Any finite collection of objects can be put in order just by the process of counting, labeling the objects with distinct whole numbers, Ordinal numbers are thus the labels needed to arrange collections of objects in order. An ordinal number is used to describe the type of a well ordered set. Whereas ordinals are useful for ordering the objects in a collection, they are distinct from cardinal numbers, although the distinction between ordinals and cardinals is not always apparent in finite sets, different infinite ordinals can describe the same cardinal. Like other kinds of numbers, ordinals can be added, multiplied, a natural number can be used for two purposes, to describe the size of a set, or to describe the position of an element in a sequence. When restricted to finite sets these two concepts coincide, there is one way to put a finite set into a linear sequence. This is because any set has only one size, there are many nonisomorphic well-orderings of any infinite set. Whereas the notion of number is associated with a set with no particular structure on it. A well-ordered set is an ordered set in which there is no infinite decreasing sequence, equivalently. Ordinals may be used to label the elements of any given well-ordered set and this length is called the order type of the set. Any ordinal is defined by the set of ordinals that precede it, in fact, the most common definition of ordinals identifies each ordinal as the set of ordinals that precede it. For example, the ordinal 42 is the type of the ordinals less than it, i. e. the ordinals from 0 to 41. Conversely, any set of ordinals that is downward-closed—meaning that for any ordinal α in S and any ordinal β < α, β is also in S—is an ordinal. There are infinite ordinals as well, the smallest infinite ordinal is ω, which is the type of the natural numbers. After all of these come ω·2, ω·2+1, ω·2+2, and so on, then ω·3, now the set of ordinals formed in this way must itself have an ordinal associated with it, and that is ω2. Further on, there will be ω3, then ω4, and so on, and ωω, then ωωω, then later ωωωω and this can be continued indefinitely far. The smallest uncountable ordinal is the set of all countable ordinals, in a well-ordered set, every non-empty subset contains a distinct smallest element. Given the axiom of dependent choice, this is equivalent to just saying that the set is ordered and there is no infinite decreasing sequence
5.
Anno Domini
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The terms anno Domini and before Christ are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means in the year of the Lord, There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, the Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. Traditionally, English followed Latin usage by placing the AD abbreviation before the year number, however, BC is placed after the year number, which also preserves syntactic order. The abbreviation is widely used after the number of a century or millennium. Because BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes concluded that AD means After Death. However, this would mean that the approximate 33 years commonly associated with the life of Jesus would not be included in either of the BC, astronomical year numbering and ISO8601 avoid words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years. The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was followed by the first year of his table. Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the year during which his birth or conception occurred. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC,1 BC, There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls There were confused summations of emperors regnal years It is not known how Dionysius established the year of Jesuss birth. It is convenient to initiate a calendar not from the day of an event. For example, the Islamic calendar begins not from the date of the Hegira, at the time, it was believed by some that the Resurrection and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus. The old Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Anno Mundi 6000 was thus equated with the resurrection and the end of the world but this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius. The Anglo-Saxon historian the Venerable Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, used Anno Domini dating in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. e. On the continent of Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the Carolingian Renaissance by the English cleric and scholar Alcuin in the late eighth century
6.
Regnal year
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A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin regnum meaning kingdom, rule. The oldest dating systems were in years, and considered the date as an ordinal. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a year of rule, a third, and so on, but not a zero year of rule. Applying this ancient epoch system to modern calculations of time, which include zero, is led to the debate over when the third millennium began. Regnal years are finite era names, contrary to infinite era names such as Christian era, Jimmu era, Juche era, in ancient times, calendars were counted in terms of the number of years of the reign of the current monarch. Reckoning long periods of times required a king list, the oldest such reckoning is preserved in the Sumerian king list. In Canada, acts of Parliament are dated by the session, the Parliament, the year. While not strictly a regnal year, time in the United States of America can be derived from the Declaration of Independence, for example, the U. S.2017 is the 242nd year of the Independence of the United States of America. Time is also sometimes reckoned in terms of Congress, e. g. House of Representatives Bill 2 of the 112th Congress is dated 112th CONGRESS, 1st Session. An era name was assigned as the name of each year by the leader of the East Asian countries during some portion of their history, the people of the country referred to that year by that name. Era names were used for two millennia by Chinese emperors and are still used in North Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It could last from one year to the length of the leaders reign, if it lasted more than one year, numbers were appended to the era name. If it lasted the length of the leaders reign, then that leader is often referred to by that name posthumously. However, the leader was given a more complex formal posthumous name as well. It should not be confused with a name, by which many leaders are known. The Lanfang Republic era, Republic of Formosa era and Republic of China era are era names without an emperor, the Confucius era and Juche era are based on the year of birth of the thinker or eternal president. The Huangdi era, Dangun era and kōki were counted in terms of the number of years of the reign of the first monarch, some are transliterations of their Chinese era names. Chinese era names were employed in other East Asian countries
7.
Henry VIII of England
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Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII, Henry is best known for his six marriages and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. Despite his resulting excommunication, Henry remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings to England. Besides asserting the supremacy over the Church of England, he greatly expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were commonly used to quash dissent, and he achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich and his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated, and accomplished king, and he has been described as one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne. He was an author and composer, as he aged, Henry became severely obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI, born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henrys six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary – survived infancy and he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, and was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York, in May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. Henry was given an education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king, as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, Arthurs death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public, as a result, the young Henry would later ascend the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship
8.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
9.
Stephen Jay Gould
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Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of science of his generation. Gould spent most of his teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1996 Gould was also appointed as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University, Goulds most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is characterized by periods of evolutionary stability. The theory was contrasted against phyletic gradualism, the idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth. Most of Goulds empirical research was based on the land snail genera Poecilozonites and he also contributed to evolutionary developmental biology, and received wide praise for his book Ontogeny and Phylogeny. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans and he campaigned against creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields whose authorities do not overlap. Gould was known by the public mainly from his 300 popular essays in the magazine Natural History. In April 2000, the US Library of Congress named him a Living Legend, Stephen Jay Gould was born and raised in the community of Bayside, a neighborhood of the northeastern section of Queens in New York City. His father Leonard was a stenographer and a World War II veteran in the United States Navy. His mother Eleanor was an artist whose parents were Jewish immigrants living and working in the citys Garment District, when Gould was five years old his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered Tyrannosaurus rex. I had no idea there were such things—I was awestruck, Gould once recalled and it was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist. Raised in a secular Jewish home, Gould did not formally practice religion, when asked directly if he was an agnostic in Skeptic magazine, he responded, If you absolutely forced me to bet on the existence of a conventional anthropomorphic deity, of course Id bet no. But, basically, Huxley was right when he said that agnosticism is the honorable position because we really cannot know. Id be real surprised if there turned out to be a conventional God, though he had been brought up by a Marxist father, he stated that his fathers politics were very different from his own. In describing his own views, he has said they tend to the left of center. According to Gould the most influential political books he read were C. Wright Mills The Power Elite, while attending Antioch College in the early 1960s, Gould was active in the civil rights movement and often campaigned for social justice
10.
Millennium celebrations
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The Millennium celebrations were a worldwide, coordinated series of events celebrating New Years Eve in 1999–2000, marking the end of the second millennium and beginning of the new, third millennium. This also marks the ending of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, equally, many private venues, cultural and religious centres held events and a diverse range of memorabilia was created – such as souvenir postage stamps. As with every New Years Eve, many events were timed with the stroke of midnight at the timezone of the location, there were also many events associated with the dawn on 1 January. While there was debate whether the millennium truly begins in 2000 or 2001 the popularity of the round number made New Years 1999–2000 a global celebration. An international television broadcast called 2000 Today was produced by a consortium of 60 broadcasters, some countries in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and hence close to the International Date Line engaged in Millennium politics to argue they were the first to enter the new millennium. The US Navy submarine Topeka positioned itself 400 feet underwater, straddling both the International date line and the equator, at Caroline Island, renamed as Millennium Island in the mid-Pacific, the republic of Kiribati claimed the first land to see the new millennium. On the Chatham Islands there was a Maori blessing, as they faced the Pacific Ocean, a beacon was lit and school children sang. In Auckland, a display on the Harbour made New Zealand the first industrial nation to celebrate the year 2000. Sydney, hosts of the 2000 Summer Olympics, held a fireworks display centering on the Harbour Bridge with the locally famous graffito Eternity being recreated. For the first time in its history, the Sydney Opera House precinct was almost completely cordoned off from the public, instead, tickets costing as much as $2000 each were being sold for Opera House parties. However, public transport and access was available to view the fireworks on the Bridge, in Tokyo, there were a series of concerts and a fireworks display. At midnight, temple bells across Japan were rung 108 times to dispel the evils of mankind, in Beijing, alongside fireworks and dragon dances, President Jiang Zemin lit an eternal flameand pledging China would restore its lost glory. In the Philippines, Millennium Parties simultaneously began in different parts of the Country, moscows Government and its National Government had sponsored parties across the city. In Jerusalem, and particularly at the Mount of Olives, fears that doomsday fanatics. could try to trigger an apocalypse prompted one of Israels biggest peacetime police operations. In Giza, a concert called The Twelve Dreams of the Sun with music by Jean Michel Jarre was held on the pyramids, paris was the focal point of celebrations in France where searchlights and 20,000 strobe lights for the event for installed on the Eiffel tower. In Rome, Pope John Paul II led a traditional Te Deum service at St. Pauls Cathedral, in London, attention focused around Big Ben, the Millennium Dome and fireworks display, called the River of Fire went along several kilometers of the Thames. The Irish national television channel RTÉ produced a marathon 19-hour broadcast called Millennium Eve, rio de Janeiro held a special party led by Gal Costa at minutes to midnight. Meanwhile, in Bermuda celebrations were marked as the first Caribbean nation to crossover to the new millennium reached it highest at midnight
11.
Arthur C. Clarke
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Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001, A Space Odyssey, Clarke was a science writer, who was both an avid populariser of space travel and a futurist of uncanny ability. On these subjects he wrote over a dozen books and many essays, in 1961 he was awarded the Kalinga Prize, an award which is given by UNESCO for popularizing science. These along with his fiction writings eventually earned him the moniker Prophet of the Space Age. His other science fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, for many years Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov were known as the Big Three of science fiction. Clarke was a proponent of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the British Interplanetary Society, in 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system, an idea which won him the Franklin Institutes Stuart Ballantine Medal in 1963, and other honours. Later he was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946–47, Clarke emigrated from England to Sri Lanka in 1956, largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving. That year he discovered the ruins of the ancient Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee. Clarke augmented his fame later on in the 1980s, from being the host of television shows such as Arthur C. He lived in Sri Lanka until his death and he was knighted in 1998 and was awarded Sri Lankas highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005. Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England, and grew up in nearby Bishops Lydeard, as a boy, he grew up on a farm enjoying stargazing, fossil collecting, and reading American science fiction pulp magazines. He received his education at Huish Grammar school in Taunton. Early influences included dinosaur cigarette cards, which led to an enthusiasm for fossils starting about 1925, in his teens, he joined the Junior Astronomical Association and contributed to Urania, the societys journal, which was edited in Glasgow by Marion Eadie. At Clarkes request, she added an Astronautics Section, which featured a series of articles by him on spacecraft and he moved to London in 1936 and joined the Board of Education as a pensions auditor. Clarke spent most of his wartime service working on ground-controlled approach radar, as documented in the semi-autobiographical Glide Path, although GCA did not see much practical use during the war, it proved vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949 after several years of development. Clarke initially served in the ranks, and was an instructor on radar at No.2 Radio School. He was commissioned as an officer on 27 May 1943
12.
Analogy
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Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another, or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. The word analogy can also refer to the relation between the source and the target themselves, which is often, though not necessarily, a similarity, as in the biological notion of analogy. Analogy plays a significant role in solving, as well as decision making, perception, memory, creativity, emotion, explanation. It lies behind basic tasks such as the identification of places, objects and people, for example, in face perception and it has been argued that analogy is the core of cognition. Specific analogical language comprises exemplification, comparisons, metaphors, similes, allegories, and parables, phrases like and so on, and the like, as if, and the very word like also rely on an analogical understanding by the receiver of a message including them. Analogy is important not only in language and common sense but also in science, philosophy. In cognitive linguistics, the notion of conceptual metaphor may be equivalent to that of analogy, Analogy has been studied and discussed since classical antiquity by philosophers, scientists, and lawyers. The last few decades have shown a renewed interest in analogy, in ancient Greek the word αναλογια originally meant proportionality, in the mathematical sense, and it was indeed sometimes translated to Latin as proportio. From there analogy was understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not, kants Critique of Judgment held to this notion. Kant argued that there can be exactly the same relation between two different objects. The same notion of analogy was used in the US-based SAT tests, for example, Hand is to palm as foot is to ____. This relation is not apparent in some definitions of palm and sole, where the former is defined as the inner surface of the hand. Analogy and abstraction are different cognitive processes, and analogy is often an easier one and this analogy is not comparing all the properties between a hand and a foot, but rather comparing the relationship between a hand and its palm to a foot and its sole. While a hand and a foot have many dissimilarities, the focuses on their similarity in having an inner surface. A computer algorithm has achieved human-level performance on multiple-choice analogy questions from the SAT test, the algorithm measures the similarity of relations between pairs of words by statistical analysis of a large collection of text. It answers SAT questions by selecting the choice with the highest relational similarity, Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle actually used a wider notion of analogy. They saw analogy as a shared abstraction, analogous objects did not share necessarily a relation, but also an idea, a pattern, a regularity, an attribute, an effect or a philosophy. These authors also accepted that comparisons, metaphors and images could be used as arguments, analogies should also make those abstractions easier to understand and give confidence to the ones using them
13.
Reuters
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Reuters /ˈrɔɪtərz/ is an international news agency headquartered in London, England. It is a division of Thomson Reuters, until 2008, the Reuters news agency formed part of an independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data. Since the acquisition of Reuters Group by the Thomson Corporation in 2008, Reuters transmits news in English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Urdu, and Chinese. The Reuter agency was established in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter in Britain at the London Royal Exchange, Paul Reuter worked at a book-publishing firm in Berlin and was involved in distributing radical pamphlets at the beginning of the Revolutions in 1848. Upon moving to England, he founded Reuters Telegram Company in 1851, headquartered in London, the company initially covered commercial news, serving banks, brokerage houses, and business firms. The first newspaper client to subscribe was the London Morning Advertiser in 1858, Reuters agency built a reputation in Europe and the rest of the world as the first to report news scoops from abroad. Reuters was the first to report Abraham Lincolns assassination in Europe, for instance, in 1872, Reuters expanded into the far east, followed by South America in 1874. Both expansions were made possible by advances in overland telegraphs and undersea cables, in 1883, Reuters began transmitting messages electrically to London newspapers. In 1923, Reuters began using radio to transmit news internationally, in 1925, The Press Association of Great Britain acquired a majority interest in Reuters, and full owners some years later. During the world wars, The Guardian reported that Reuters came under pressure from the British government to national interests. In 1941 Reuters deflected the pressure by restructuring itself as a private company, the new owners formed the Reuters Trust. In 1941, the PA sold half of Reuters to the Newspaper Proprieters Association, the Reuters Trust Principles were put in place to maintain the companys independence. At that point, Reuters had become one of the major news agencies. In 1961, Reuters scooped news of the erection of the Berlin Wall, in 1981, Reuters began making electronic transactions on its computer network, and afterwards developed a number of electronic brokerage and trading services. Reuters was floated as a company in 1984, when Reuters Trust was listed on the stock exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange. Reuters published the first story of the Berlin Wall being breached in 1989, share price grew during the dotcom boom, then fell after the banking troubles in 2001. In 2002, Brittanica wrote that most news throughout the world came from three major agencies, the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse, Reuters merged with Thomson Corporation in Canada in 2008, forming Thomson Reuters. In 2009, Thomson Reuters withdrew from the LSE and the NASDAQ, instead listing its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the last surviving member of the Reuters family founders, Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, died at age 96 on 25 January 2009
14.
3001: The Final Odyssey
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3001, The Final Odyssey is a 1997 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. It is the fourth and final book in Clarkes Space Odyssey series and this novel begins with a brief prologue describing the bioforms — dubbed the First-Born — who created the black monoliths. They evolved from primordial soup, and over the course of millions of years, perceiving that nothing was more precious than mind, they catalysed the evolution of intelligent species wherever they went, by increasing the intelligent species chance of survival. After visiting Earth, the First-Born found a way to impress themselves into the fabric of space and time, meanwhile, the monoliths—implied to have been forgotten by their creators when they ascended to a higher state of being—continued to watch over their subjects. 3001 follows the adventures of Frank Poole, the astronaut killed by the HAL9000 computer in 2001, one millennium later, Pooles freeze-dried body is discovered in the Kuiper belt by a comet-collecting space tug named the Goliath, and revived. Poole is taken home to learn about the Earth in the year 3001, humans have also colonised the Jovian moons Ganymede and Callisto. TMA-1, the black monolith found on the Moon in 1999, has brought to Earth in 2006. Presumably, the monolith was empowered to obliterate the nascent biosphere of Jupiter, Frank conscripts Bowman and HAL, who have now become a single entity—Halman—residing in the monoliths computational matrix, to infect the monolith with a computer virus. The monolith does receive orders to exterminate humanity, and duplicates itself, due to Halman having already infected the first monolith, all the monoliths disintegrate. At the close of the story, Poole and other land on Europa to start peaceful relations with the primitive native Europans. A statement is made that the monoliths makers will not determine humanitys fate until the Last Days and this portrayal of the monoliths is different from that in the earlier novels. In particular, the 2001 monolith was capable of faster-than-light transmission, in 2010, an apparition of Bowman appeared before Floyd, warning that the Leonovs crew must leave Jupiter within fifteen days. Floyd had difficulty convincing the rest of the crew, which would have much easier had he been in possession of the video recording of the incident shown to Poole by Dr. Allister Kim in 3001. The epilogue of 2010, titled 20,001, could not have happened as portrayed because of the disappearance of the monoliths at the end of 3001, the story features a ring-shaped habitat in geostationary orbit around Earth, connected by four towers equally spaced around the equator. In the epilogue of 2061, Odyssey Three however, the ring-shaped habitat reportedly has six towers instead of four, additionally, some of the dates are changed. The USSR is acknowledged as having collapsed in 1991, whereas in the three books it lasts well into the twenty-first century. These parallel universes are a part of Clarkes retroactive continuity and it was reported on Yahoo Entertainment in 2000 that M. G. M. and actor/director Tom Hanks were in discussions regarding turning both 2061, Odyssey Three and 3001, The Final Odyssey into movies. An update in 2001 stated that there was no development on the project
15.
Utopia
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A utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia and you could also say that utopia is a perfect place that has been made so there are no problems. The term has been used to describe intentional communities, the term utopia was coined from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. The word comes from Greek, οὐ and τόπος and means no-place, however, in standard usage, the words meaning has narrowed and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society. Eutopia, derived from Greek εὖ and τόπος, means good place, in English, eutopia and utopia are homophonous, which may have given rise to the change in meaning. Chronologically, the first recorded utopian proposal is Platos Republic, part conversation, part fictional depiction, and part policy proposal, Republic would categorize citizens into a rigid class structure of golden, silver, bronze and iron socioeconomic classes. The golden citizens are trained in a rigorous 50-year-long educational program to be benign oligarchs, plato stressed this structure many times in both quotes by him and in his published works, such as the Republic. The wisdom of these rulers will supposedly eliminate poverty and deprivation through fairly distributed resources, the educational program for the rulers is the central notion of the proposal. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, during the 16th century, Thomas Mores book Utopia proposed an ideal society of the same name. Some maintain the position that Mores Utopia functions only on the level of a satire, but the homophonic prefix eu-, meaning good, also resonates in the word, with the implication that the perfectly good place is really no place. Ecological utopian society describes new ways in which society should relate to nature and these works perceive a widening gap between the modern Western way of living that destroys nature and a more traditional way of living before industrialization. Ecological utopias may advocate a society that is more sustainable, according to the Dutch philosopher Marius de Geus, ecological utopias could be inspirational sources for movements involving green politics. Particularly in the early 19th century, several ideas arose. These ideas are often grouped in a utopian socialist movement. A once common characteristic is a distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money. Citizens only do work which they enjoy and which is for the good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts. One classic example of such a utopia was Edward Bellamys Looking Backward, Another socialist utopia is William Morriss News from Nowhere, written partially in response to the top-down nature of Bellamys utopia, which Morris criticized. However, as the socialist movement developed, it moved away from utopianism, in a materialist utopian society, the economy is perfect, there is no inflation, and only perfect social and financial equality exists
16.
Year 2000 problem
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The Year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or Y2K, was a computer bug related to the formatting and storage of calendar data. Problems were anticipated, and arose, because twentieth-century software often represented the year with only the final two digits—making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. The assumption of a date in such programs caused various errors, such as the incorrect display of dates. It identifies two problems that may exist in computer programs. First, the practice of representing the year with two digits became problematic with logical error arising upon rollover from x99 to x00. This had caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after 1 January 2000, without corrective action, long-working systems would break down when the. Ascending numbering assumption suddenly became invalid, years divisible by 100 are not leap years, except for years that are divisible by 400. Thus the year 2000 was a leap year, companies and organisations worldwide checked, fixed, and upgraded their computer systems to address the anticipated problem. Very few computer failures were reported when the clocks rolled over into 2000 and it is not known how many problems went unrecorded. Y2K is a numeronym and was the abbreviation for the year 2000 software problem. The abbreviation combines the letter Y for year, and k for the SI unit prefix kilo meaning 1000, hence, 2K signifies 2000. It was also named the Millennium Bug because it was associated with the popular roll-over of the millennium, the Year 2000 problem was the subject of the early book, Computers in Crisis by Jerome and Marilyn Murray. The first recorded mention of the Year 2000 Problem on a Usenet newsgroup occurred on Friday,18 January 1985, the acronym Y2K has been attributed to David Eddy, a Massachusetts programmer, in an e-mail sent on 12 June 1995. He later said, People were calling it CDC, FADL, Y2K just came off my fingertips. It was therefore important for programmers to reduce usage. As space on disc and tape was also expensive, this also saved money by reducing the size of stored data files, many computer programs stored years with only two decimal digits, for example,1980 was stored as 80. Some such programs could not distinguish between the year 2000 and the year 1900, other programs tried to represent the year 2000 as 19100. This could cause a failure and cause date comparisons to produce incorrect results
17.
Odometer
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An odometer or odograph is an instrument that indicates distance travelled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or automobile. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two, the noun derives from the Greek words hodós and métron. Possibly the first evidence for the use of an odometer can be found in the works of the ancient Roman Pliny, both authors list the distances of routes traveled by Alexander the Great as by his bematists Diognetus and Baeton. However, the accuracy of the bematistss measurements rather indicates the use of a mechanical device. 2% from the actual distance. From the nine surviving bematists measurements in Plinys Naturalis Historia eight show a deviation of less than 5% from the actual distance, three of them being within 1%. An odometer for measuring distance was first described by Vitruvius around 27 and 23 BC, hero of Alexandria describes a similar device in chapter 34 of his Dioptra. Some researchers have speculated that the device might have included technology similar to that of the Greek Antikythera mechanism, the odometer of Vitruvius was based on chariot wheels of 4 feet diameter turning 400 times in one Roman mile. For each revolution a pin on the axle engaged a 400 tooth cogwheel thus turning it one complete revolution per mile and this engaged another gear with holes along the circumference, where pebbles were located, that were to drop one by one into a box. The distance traveled would thus be given simply by counting the number of pebbles, whether this instrument was ever built at the time is disputed. Leonardo da Vinci later tried to build it himself according to the description, however, in 1981 engineer Andre Sleeswyk built his own replica, replacing the square-toothed gear designs of da Vinci with the triangular, pointed teeth found in the Antikythera mechanism. With this modification, the Vitruvius odometer functioned perfectly, the odometer was also independently invented in ancient China, possibly by the prolific inventor and early scientist Zhang Heng of the Han Dynasty. By the 3rd century, the Chinese had termed the device as the jì lĭ gŭ chē, there is speculation that some time in the 1st century BC, the beating of drums and gongs were mechanically-driven by working automatically off the rotation of the road-wheels. This might have actually been the design of one Loxia Hong, the odometer was used also in subsequent periods of Chinese history. In the historical text of the Jin Shu, the oldest part of the compiled text, the passage in the Jin Shu expanded upon this, explaining that it took a similar form to the mechanical device of the south-pointing chariot invented by Ma Jun. As recorded in the Song Shi of the Song Dynasty, the odometer and south-pointing chariot were combined into one wheeled device by engineers of the 9th century, 11th century, and 12th century. The Sun Tzu Suan Ching, dated from the 3rd century to 5th century, the historical text of the Song Shi, recording the people and events of the Chinese Song Dynasty, also mentioned the odometer used in that period. At the completion of every li, the figure of a man in the lower storey strikes a drum, at the completion of every ten li. The carriage-pole ends in a phoenix-head, and the carriage is drawn by four horses, the escort was formerly of 18 men, but in the 4th year of the Yung-Hsi reign-period the emperor Thai Tsung increased it to 30
18.
Dinosaur in a Haystack
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Dinosaur in a Haystack is the seventh volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column The View of Life published in Natural History magazine, the book deals with themes familiar to Goulds writing, evolution, science biography, probabilities, and strange oddities found in nature. His essay Poes Greatest Hit analyzes the controversial conchology textbook The Conchologists First Book, Poes volume on natural history sold out within two months, and was his only book republished during his lifetime. Essay Dinomania is a review of Michael Crichtons novel and Steven Spielbergs blockbuster film, Goulds book received favorable reviews in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times. Up Against the Wall - by Steve Jones Essay Summaries - by Lawrence N. Goeller Dinosaur in a Haystack Review - by Danny Yee Book review by Kathryn Denning Two Cultures - by Howard A
19.
Dionysius Exiguus
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Dionysius Exiguus (Latin for Dionysius the Humble, c. AD544 was a 6th-century monk born in Scythia Minor. He was a member of a community of Scythian monks concentrated in Tomis, Dionysius is best known as the inventor of the Anno Domini era, which is used to number the years of both the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar. Some churches adopted his computus for the dates of Easter and these Collectiones canonum Dionysianae had great authority in the West, and continues to guide church administrations. Dionysius also wrote a treatise on elementary mathematics, according to his friend and fellow-student, Cassiodorus, Dionysius although by birth a Scythian, was in character a true Roman, most learned in both tongues. He was also a thorough catholic Christian and an accomplished Scripturist, by the 6th century, the term Scythian could mean an inhabitant of Scythia Minor, or simply someone from the north-east of the Greco-Roman world, centred on the Mediterranean. The term had a meaning, devoid of clear ethnic attributes. Furthermore, since none of the Scythian monks expressed any kinship, by blood or spiritual, with the Arian Goths who at that time ruled Italy, a Gothic origin for Dionysius is questionable. By the time of the flourishing of the Scythian monks, the provinces from the Lower Danube, most likely Dionysius was also of local Thraco-Roman origin, like Vitalians family to whom he was related, and the rest of the Scythian monks and other Thraco-Roman personalities of the era. Of great importance were the contributions of Dionysius to the tradition of canon law, a collection of synodal decrees, of which he has left two editions, a. This contains canons of Oriental synods and councils only in Greek and Latin, another bilingual version of Greek canons, undertaken at the instance of Pope Hormisdas, only the preface has been preserved. A collection of papal Constitutions from Siricius to Anastasius II, Dionysius is best known as the inventor of the Anno Domini era, which is used to number the years of both the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar. He used it to identify the several Easters in his Easter table, how he arrived at that number is unknown, but there is evidence of the system he applied. It has been suggested that he arranged the numbers so that leap years would be exactly divisible by four, and that his new table would begin one Victorian cycle, i. e.532 years, after his new epoch. The Anno Domini era became dominant in western Europe only after it was used by the Venerable Bede to date the events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. Evidence exists that Dionysius desire to replace Diocletian years with a based on the incarnation of Christ was to prevent people from believing the imminent end of the world. At the time, some believed that the Second Coming and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus, the current Anno Mundi calendar commenced with the creation of the world based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Anno Mundi 6000 was thus equated with the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. In 525, Dionysius prepared a table of the dates of Easter
20.
Douglas Adams
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Douglas Noel Adams was an English author, scriptwriter, essayist, humorist, satirist and dramatist. Adamss contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academys Hall of Fame, a posthumous collection of his works, including an unfinished novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002. Adams was known as an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, as a lover of fast cars, cameras, technological innovation and the Apple Macintosh, Adams was born on 11 March 1952 to Janet and Christopher Douglas Adams in Cambridge, England. The following year in 1953, Watson and Crick famously first modelled DNA at Cambridge University, the family moved to East London a few months after his birth, where his sister, Susan, was born three years later. His parents divorced in 1957, Douglas, Susan, and their mother moved to an RSPCA animal shelter in Brentwood, Essex, Adams attended Primrose Hill Primary School in Brentwood. At nine, he passed the exam for Brentwood School, an independent school whose alumni include Robin Day, Jack Straw, Noel Edmonds. Griff Rhys Jones was a year below him, and he was in the class as Stuckist artist Charles Thomson. He attended the school from 1959 to 1964, then the main school until December 1970. Adams was six feet tall by age 12 and stopped growing at 6 ft 5 in and his form master, Frank Halford, said of him, Hundreds of boys have passed through the school but Douglas Adams really stood out from the crowd — literally. He was unnecessarily tall and in his short trousers he looked a trifle self-conscious, the form-master wouldnt say Meet under the clock tower, or Meet under the war memorial, he joked, but Meet under Adams. Yet it was his ability to write stories that really made him shine. He became the student ever to be awarded a ten out of ten by Halford for creative writing, something he remembered for the rest of his life. He also designed the cover of one issue of the Broadsheet, and had a letter and short story published nationally in The Eagle, in it, Adams rhymes futile with mute, while and exhausted with of course did. On the strength of an essay on religious poetry that discussed the Beatles and William Blake, he was awarded an Exhibition in English at St Johns College, Cambridge. He wanted to join the Footlights, an invitation-only student comedy club that has acted as a hothouse for comic talent, despite doing very little work—he recalled having completed three essays in three years—he graduated in 1974 with a B. A. in English literature. After leaving university Adams moved back to London, determined to break into TV, an edited version of the Footlights Revue appeared on BBC2 television in 1974. A version of the Revue performed live in Londons West End led to Adams being discovered by Monty Pythons Graham Chapman, the two formed a brief writing partnership, earning Adams a writing credit in episode 45 of Monty Python for a sketch called Patient Abuse. He is one of two people outside the original Python members to get a writing credit
21.
Prime Minister of Australia
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The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the head of government of Australia. The individual who holds the office is the most senior Minister of the Crown, the leader of the Cabinet, the office is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia and exists only through longstanding political convention and tradition. Despite this, in practice it is the most powerful position in Australia. The individual who holds the office is commissioned by the Governor-General of Australia, almost always and according to convention, the Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party or largest party in a coalition of parties in the House of Representatives. However, there is no requirement that the prime minister sit in the House of Representatives. The only case where a member of the Senate was appointed minister was John Gorton. Malcolm Turnbull has held the office of Prime Minister since 15 September 2015, the Prime Minister and Treasurer are traditionally members of the House, but the Constitution does not have such a requirement. Before being sworn in as a Minister of the Crown, a person must first be sworn in as a member of the Federal Executive Council if they are not already a member. Membership of the Federal Executive Council entitles the member to the style of The Honourable for life, the senior members of the Executive Council constitute the Cabinet of Australia. The Prime Minister is, like ministers, normally sworn in by the Governor-General. When defeated in an election, or on resigning, the Prime Minister is said to hand in the commission, in the event of a Prime Minister dying in office, or becoming incapacitated, the Governor-General can terminate the commission. Despite the importance of the office of minister, the Constitution does not mention the office by name. The conventions of the Westminster system were thought to be entrenched in Australia by the authors of the Constitution that it was deemed unnecessary to detail them. The formal title of the portfolio has always been simply Prime Minister, except for the period of the Fourth Deakin Ministry, Page was the leader of the smaller party in the governing coalition, the Country Party. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected a new leader, Robert Menzies, in August 1941 Menzies resigned as prime minister. In July 1945 John Curtin died suddenly and his deputy, Frank Forde, was sworn in the next day as prime minister, although the Labor Party had not had an opportunity to meet and elect a new leader. Forde served for eight days until Ben Chifley was elected leader, Chifley was then sworn in, replacing Forde, who became Australias shortest-serving prime minister. Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December 1967 and was declared presumed dead on 19 December, the governor-general, Lord Casey, commissioned the Leader of the Country Party, John McEwen, to form a government until the Liberal Party elected a new leader
22.
John Howard
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John Winston Howard, OM, AC was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. Only Sir Robert Menzies has served in the position longer, born in Sydney, Howard was a solicitor at Clayton Utz before entering politics, having studied law at the University of Sydney. A member of the Liberal Party and former president of the Young Liberals, he first stood for office at the 1968 New South Wales state election, but lost narrowly. At the 1974 federal election, Howard was elected to the Division of Bennelong and he was promoted to cabinet in 1977, and later in the year replaced Phillip Lynch as Treasurer of Australia, remaining in that position until the defeat of Malcolm Frasers government in 1983. In 1985, Howard was elected leader of the Liberal Party for the first time and he led the Liberal–National coalition to the 1987 federal election, but lost to Bob Hawkes Labor government, and was removed from the leadership in 1989. Remaining a key figure in the party, Howard was re-elected leader in 1995, after defeating Paul Keatings Labor government in 1996, the Howard Government was re-elected at the 1998,2001 and 2004 elections. Howards actions as prime minister included new gun laws, the introduction of a nationwide value-added tax, immigration reform, Australia also contributed troops to the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War under his government, and led the International Force for East Timor. The Howard government was defeated at the 2007 federal election, with the Labor Partys Kevin Rudd succeeding him as prime minister, Howard also lost his own seat at the election, becoming only the second prime minister to do so. John Howard is the son of Mona and Lyall Howard. His parents were married in 1925 and his eldest brother Stanley was born in 1926, followed by Walter in 1929, and Robert in 1936. Lyall Howard was an admirer of Winston Churchill, and sympathetic to the New Guard during its early years, Howards ancestors were English, Scottish and Irish. Howard was born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood and his mother had been an office worker until her marriage. His father and his grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. They also ran two Dulwich Hill petrol stations where Howard worked as a boy, Lyall Howard died in 1955 when John was sixteen, leaving his mother to take care of John. Howard suffered an impairment in his youth, leaving him with a slight speech impediment. It also influenced him in ways, limiting his early academic performance, encouraging a reliance on an excellent memory. Howard attended the state schools Earlwood Primary School and Canterbury Boys High School, Howard won a citizenship prize in his final year at Earlwood, and subsequently represented his secondary school at debating as well as cricket and rugby. In his final year at school he took part in a show hosted by Jack Davey, Give It a Go broadcast on the commercial radio station, 2GB
23.
Seinfeld
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Seinfeld is an American sitcom that originally ran for nine seasons on NBC, from 1989 to 1998. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a version of himself. It is often described as being a show about nothing, as many of its episodes are about the minutiae of daily life, Seinfeld was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment. In syndication, the series has been distributed by Sony Pictures Television since 2002, a favorite among critics, the series led the Nielsen ratings in seasons six and nine, and finished among the top two every year from 1994 to 1998. In 2002, TV Guide named Seinfeld the greatest television program of all time, E. named it the number 1 reason the 90s ruled. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named Seinfeld the No.2 Best Written TV Series of All Time and that same year, Entertainment Weekly named it the No.3 best TV series of all time and TV Guide ranked it at No.2. Main Jerry Seinfeld – Jerry is a minor celeb stand-up comedian who is depicted as the voice of reason amidst the general insanity generated by the people in his world. The in-show character is a mild germaphobe and neat freak, as well as an avid Superman, New York Mets, Jerrys apartment is the center of a world visited by his eccentric friends and a focus of the show. Plot lines often involve Jerrys social interactions and romantic relationships around New York City and he typically finds minor, pedantic reasons to break up with women, including a habit of eating peas one at a time, oversized man hands and an irritating laugh. Other plot lines involve his longtime enemy Newman and his overbearing relatives, Elaine Benes – Elaine is Jerrys ex-girlfriend and later friend. She is attractive and genial, while also being humorous, arrogant and she sometimes has a tendency to be too honest with people, which often gets her into trouble. She usually gets caught up in her boyfriends quirks, eccentric employers unusual behaviors and idiosyncrasies, and she tends to make poor choices in men she chooses to date and is often overly reactionary. First she works at Pendant Publishing with Mr. Lippman, is hired as a personal assistant for Mr. Pitt. One of Elaines trademark moves is her forceful shove while exclaiming Get Out, when she receives good, objectionable or surprising news. Another is her memorable Little Kicks dance move, which is described as a full body heave accompanied by a double-fisted thumbs-up and she hates The English Patient, which is met with significant social disapproval. Elaine is popularly described as an amalgamation of Davids and Seinfelds girlfriends during their days in New York as struggling comedians. Cosmo Kramer – Kramer is Jerrys wacky neighbor and his trademarks include his humorous upright pompadour hairstyle, vintage clothes, and energetic sliding bursts through Jerrys apartment door. Kramer was heavily based on a neighbor of Davids during his amateur comedic years in Manhattan and this is seen in his success with women and employers
24.
Jerry Seinfeld
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Jerome Allen Jerry Seinfeld is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. He is known for playing a version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld. Seinfeld was heavily involved in the Bee Movie, in which he voiced its protagonist, in 2010, he premiered a reality series called The Marriage Ref. He directed Colin Quinn in the Broadway show Long Story Short at the Helen Hayes Theater and he is the creator and host of the web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. In his stand-up comedy career, Seinfeld is known for specializing in comedy, often ranting about relationships. In 2005, Comedy Central named Seinfeld their 12th Greatest Stand-up Comedian of All Time, Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father Kalmen Seinfeld collected jokes he heard while serving in World War II and his mother, Betty, is of Syrian-Jewish descent, her parents Selim and Salha Hosni were from Aleppo. Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa, New York, and attended Massapequa High School on Long Island, at the age of 16, he spent time volunteering in Kibbutz Saar in Israel. He later attended State University of New York at Oswego, transferring after his year to Queens College, City University of New York, graduating with a degree in communications. Seinfeld developed an interest in comedy after brief stints in college productions. In 1976, after graduation from Queens College, he tried out at a night at New York Citys Catch a Rising Star. Seinfeld appeared on open mic nights at Budd Friedmans Improv Club while attending Queens College, in 1979 he had a small recurring role on the sitcom Benson, playing Frankie, a mail delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear. However, Seinfeld was abruptly fired from the due to creative differences. Seinfeld has said that he was not actually told he had been fired until he turned up for the session for an episode. Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1988 for NBC, the show was later renamed Seinfeld to avoid confusion with the short-lived teen sitcom The Marshall Chronicles. By its fourth season, it had become the most popular, the final episode aired in 1998, and the show has been a popular syndicated re-run. Along with Seinfeld, the show starred Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus and experienced actors Michael Richards, Alexander played George, a caricature of Larry David. Seinfeld holds the distinction of being the actor to appear in every episode of the show
25.
Edward Gorey
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Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his illustrated books. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings, Edward St. John Gorey was born in Chicago. His parents, Helen Dunham and Edward Lee Gorey, divorced in 1936 when he was 11, then remarried in 1952 when he was 27. One of his stepmothers was Corinna Mura, a singer who had a small role in the classic film Casablanca as the woman playing the guitar while singing La Marseillaise at Ricks Café Américain. His father was briefly a journalist, Goreys maternal great-grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey, was a popular nineteenth-century greeting card writer and artist, from whom he claimed to have inherited his talents. Gorey attended a variety of local schools and then the Francis W. Parker School. He spent 1944 to 1946 in the Army at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and he then attended Harvard University, beginning in 1946 and graduating in the class of 1950, he studied French and roomed with poet Frank OHara. He frequently stated that his art training was negligible, Gorey studied art for one semester at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1943. From 1953 to 1960, he lived in New York City and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor, illustrating covers and in some cases. He illustrated works as diverse as Dracula by Bram Stoker, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells and his first independent work, The Unstrung Harp, was published in 1953. He also published under pen names that were anagrams of his first and last names, such as Ogdred Weary, Dogear Wryde, Ms. Regera Dowdy and his books also feature the names Eduard Blutig, a German language pun on his own name, and O. Müde. Goreys illustrated books, with their vaguely ominous air and ostensibly Victorian and Edwardian settings, have long had a cult following, in 1980, Gorey became particularly well known for his animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery. In the introduction of each Mystery, episode, host Vincent Price would welcome viewers to Gorey Mansion. Because of the settings and style of Goreys work, many people have assumed he was British, in fact, he left the U. S. once. The first of these productions, Lost Shoelaces, premiered in Woods Hole, the last was The White Canoe, an Opera Seria for Hand Puppets, for which Gorey wrote the libretto, with a score by the composer Daniel James Wolf. In the early 1970s, Gorey wrote a screenplay for a silent film. Gorey was noted for his fondness for ballet, fur coats, tennis shoes, all figure prominently in his work. Gorey treated television commercials as an art form in themselves, even taping his favorites for later study, Gorey was especially fond of movies, and for a time he wrote regular reviews for the Soho Weekly under the pseudonym Wardore Edgy
26.
The X-Files
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The X-Files is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter, which originally aired from September 10,1993 to May 19,2002 on Fox. The program spanned nine seasons, included 202 episodes, and a film of the same name. Later in 2008, a film was made and preceded a tenth season revival. The series revolves around FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files, early in the series, both agents become pawns in a larger conflict and come to trust only each other and a very few select people. The agents also discover an agenda of the government to keep the existence of life a secret. They develop a relationship which begins as a platonic friendship. In addition to the story arc, Monster-of-the-Week episodes form roughly two-thirds of all episodes. When creating the characters, Carter sought to reverse gender stereotypes by making Mulder a believer. The first seven seasons featured Duchovny and Anderson equally, in the last two seasons, Anderson took precedence while Duchovny appeared intermittently. New main characters were introduced, FBI agents John Doggett and Monica Reyes, Mulder and Scullys boss, Assistant Director Walter Skinner, also became a main character. The first five seasons of The X-Files were filmed and produced in Vancouver, British Columbia, the series later returned to Vancouver to film The X-Files, I Want to Believe as well as the tenth season of the series. The X-Files was a hit for the Fox network and received positive reviews. Initially considered a series, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories. Both the series itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson received multiple awards and nominations, the series also spawned a franchise which includes The Lone Gunmen spin-off, two theatrical films and accompanying merchandise. The revival premiered on January 24,2016, the X-Files follows the careers and personal lives of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Mulder is a profiler and strong believer in the supernatural. He is also adamant about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and this set of beliefs earns him the nickname Spooky Mulder and an assignment to a little-known department that deals with unsolved cases, known as the X-Files. His belief in the springs from the claimed abduction of his sister Samantha Mulder by extraterrestrials when Mulder was 12
27.
Millennium (The X-Files)
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Millennium is the fourth episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on November 28,1999 and it was written by Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz and directed by Thomas J. Wright. The episode is a Monster-of-the-Week story, unconnected to the wider mythology. Millennium earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.1, and was watched by 15.09 million people in its initial broadcast, the show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, an associate of the Millennium Group—a secret society which believes the apocalypse will happen on the new year of 2000—resurrects the dead for use in bringing about the apocalypse. As a result, Mulder and Scully have to ask the help of criminal profiler Frank Black, a man who has former experience with the shadowy group, for assistance. The episode serves as a crossover with the series Millennium, also developed by the creator of The X-Files, Chris Carter, the writers had a difficult time coming up with a story that would successfully allow Frank Black and Mulder and Scully to cross paths. Lance Henriksen later expressed disappointment with the episode, the idea to use zombies had originally been slated to appear in an aborted project X-Files remake of George A. Romeros cult 1968 zombie film Night of the Living Dead. In addition, the episode is notable because it features the first romantic kiss between Mulder and Scully, described as inevitable by one critic, thematically, the episode has been analyzed for its use of Biblical quotes from the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation. For the first two seasons of the show, Black worked for a consulting firm known as the Millennium Group. Black lived in Seattle with his wife Catherine and daughter Jordan, during the first season, Black and the Group largely focused on various serial killers and other murderers. However, during the second and third seasons, Black began coming into conflict with forces within the Millennium group that appeared to be demonic in nature and it appeared that the Group was focused on the fulfillment of apocalyptic biblical prophecy at the start of the new millennium. During the third season, Frank returned to Washington, D. C. to work with the FBI following the death of his wife at the hands of the Group. In the third season finale Goodbye to All That, Black realized that the Group was preparing to come after him, in Tallahassee, Florida, on December 21,1999, a memorial service is held for a former FBI agent named Raymond Crouch. His widow is approached by a man, Mark Johnson. After the other mourners have left, Johnson returns to the parlor, dons the corpses clothes. One week later, Johnson is monitoring Crouchs grave when his phone rings, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are called in to examine Crouchs empty grave
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Dana Scully
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Dana Scully is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files, played by Gillian Anderson. Scully is an FBI agent and a doctor, partnered with fellow Special Agent Fox Mulder for the first seven, and the tenth, seasons. In the television series, they out of a cramped basement office at FBI headquarters in Washington. In 2002, Scully left government employment, and in 2008 she began working as a surgeon in Our Lady of Sorrows, in contrast to Mulders credulous believer character, Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove. She later on becomes a believer after Mulders abduction at the end of season seven. Scully has appeared in all but four episodes of The X-Files, and in the 20th Century Fox films The X-Files, released in 1998, the episodes she does not appear in are 3, Zero Sum, Unusual Suspects, and Travelers. Dana Katherine Scully was born on February 23,1964 in Annapolis, Maryland, to William and Margaret Scully, into a close-knit Catholic family with Irish ancestry. She has a brother, Bill Jr. an older sister, Melissa, and a younger brother, Charles. Scullys father was a captain, who died of a heart attack in early January 1994. Dana Scully grew up in Annapolis, Maryland and later in San Diego, as a young girl, Scullys favorite book was Moby-Dick and she came to nickname her father Ahab from the book, and in return, he called her Starbuck. Due to this she named her dog Queequeg, Scully attended The University of Maryland, and in 1986 received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. Her undergraduate thesis was titled Einsteins Twin Paradox, A New Interpretation, while in medical school at Stanford University she was recruited by the FBI, she accepted the agencys offer of employment because she felt she could distinguish herself there. After two years in the bureau, Division Chief Scott Blevins assigned her to work with agent Fox Mulder, upon being partnered with Mulder, Scully maintained her medical skills by acting as a forensic pathologist, often performing or consulting on autopsies of victims on X-Files cases. In Season 3 she found out that a super hi-tech microchip has been implanted in the back of her neck, after having it removed, she developed cancer in the fourth season and was hospitalized after the cancer became terminal. She was saved after Mulder broke into the Department of Defense to retrieve another chip to be implanted back into her neck, at the time, Scully was also undergoing experimental medical treatments and was having a dramatic renewal of her faith. Scully was pronounced infertile during the fifth season, in the season five episode Emily, Scully discovers that she unknowingly mothered a daughter during her abduction. Her daughter Emily was adopted by another family, Emily died shortly afterwards, and they were unable to further investigate after Emilys body went missing. In the seventh season finale, Requiem, Scully mysteriously became pregnant, the child, named William, after her own father, as well as Mulders father, was born at the end of the eighth season
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Fox Mulder
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FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files, played by David Duchovny. Mulders peers consider his theories on extraterrestrial activity as spooky and far-fetched and he also has a photographic memory and is partially colorblind. Mulder was a character for the first seven seasons, but was limited to a recurring character for the following two seasons. He returns as a character for the tenth season. Mulder made his first appearance in the first season pilot episode, Mulder believes in extraterrestrial unidentified flying objects and a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of their existence. Mulder considers the X-Files and the truth behind the conspiracy so important that he has made them the main focus of his life. Mulder was born on October 13,1961 in Chilmark, Massachusetts, the mysterious disappearance of Mulders sister and his ensuing search for her became the consuming drive of his life. In 1982, Mulder graduated with first class honours from University of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and he then graduated with honors from the Quantico FBI Training Academy in 1984. Mulder joined the FBI on October 24,1984, on graduating from the Academy, Mulder began his work in the Behavioral Science Unit under Agent Bill Patterson, with whom he had a testy relationship. In 1988, the FBI assigned Mulder to the Violent Crimes Unit, around this time, Mulder first came across the X-Files, an obscure FBI section dealing with cases relating to the paranormal, he pored over these cases in his spare time, becoming obsessed with them. In 1991, Mulder re-opened the X-Files with Special agent Diana Fowley, Mulders ultimate goal was to uncover what he believed to be a government conspiracy to hide the truth about alien life, and to find out what had happened to his sister. His quest and belief in the existence of aliens was, for most of the series, during the seventh season, Mulder eventually discovers the truth about his sister. Samantha was abducted, and various tests were performed on her and she was then returned to The Smoking Man to live out her life under his supervision, all the while undergoing additional tests. She was unable to bear the testing any longer so she ran away from her home and was admitted to a nearby hospital. It is revealed that Samantha was taken by spiritual intervention, with the help of beings called Walk-ins, Mulder is briefly reunited with Samanthas spirit. Mulder was also abducted by the aliens himself in 2000, and returned to Earth, almost dead and he had been infected by an alien virus, but Scully found a way to rescue him. He returned to work for a period of time, but was eventually fired for failure to follow orders not to investigate any X-Files. After Scully gave birth to William, Mulder went into hiding in New Mexico after Kersh said his life was in danger, despite a defense organized by Walter Skinner with numerous witnesses, the judges sentence Mulder to death
30.
Denby Dale
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Denby Dale is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England, to the south east of Huddersfield. The civil parish covers the villages of Denby Dale, Lower Denby, Upper Denby, Upper Cumberworth, Lower Cumberworth, Skelmanthorpe, the parish had a population of 14,982 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 16,365 at the 2011 Census. The parish council gives the electorate of the village itself as 2,143, the River Dearne runs through the village, in the floods of 2007 the it burst its banks on two separate occasions and caused damage to Springfield Mill. Before the Industrial Revolution the village was sparsely-populated with a textile industry at the crossroads of the Barnsley to Shepley Lane Head. Within 25 years, factories and mills had been built and had a station on the Penistone Line. Denby Dale provided the industry with raw materials, coal. Silk for the Queen Mothers wedding dress was made at Springfield Mill, with the economy flourishing, the population increased and the village grew. The village is served by Denby Dale railway station, and also has 2 bus stops, Denby Dale First and Nursery school provides education from aged 2 to aged 10. Denby Dale Nursery School received an outstanding OFSTED report in 2012, Denby Church of England Voluntary Aided First School is a voluntary aided primary school associated with the Church of England in Upper Denby. The school has two classes, infants and juniors, with the running through years reception to year 2. At the turn of the millennium, there were around 40 to 50 pupils in the school, Denby Dale has a tradition of baking giant pies, which started in 1788 to celebrate the recovery of King George III from mental illness. To date ten pies have been made as part of nine pie festivals, in August 1887, a pie baked to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria spoiled and was buried in quick lime. A replacement pie was baked in September 1887, the sixth pie was baked on 1 August 1896, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the repeal of the corn laws. The seventh raised money to endow a cot at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, the eighth pie raised money to provide a village hall. The most recent in 2000, weighed 12 tonnes and celebrated the new millennium, Denby Dale Pies was founded in the village
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Dickie Bird
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Harold Dennis Dickie Bird, OBE is a retired English international cricket umpire. In February 2014, Yorkshire announced that Bird is to be voted in as the president at their Annual General Meeting on 29 March. The son of a miner, he gained the nickname Dickie at school and he lives in the South Yorkshire village of Staincross. Bird failed his 11-plus and went to Raley Secondary Modern School, for a while, he worked at a coal mine on the surface, but gave it up, deciding it was not for him. Instead, he set out for a career in sport, when a knee injury put paid to playing football professionally, he followed his second love, cricket. In his early career in Barnsley, he played cricket in the same team as Geoff Boycott, and journalist and chat show host Michael Parkinson. In 1956, Bird signed up with his county, Yorkshire. Overall, between 1956 and 1964, Bird played first-class cricket as a batsman for Yorkshire and Leicestershire in 93 matches, after his county career, he coached and played league cricket before becoming an umpire. He stood in his first county game in 1970, three years later, he officiated at his first Test match, England v New Zealand at Headingley in Leeds. The other umpire was Charlie Eliott as England won by an innings, and then at Lords, play was interrupted by an IRA bomb scare. While the crowd cleared out of the ground in time, Bird. He gained a reputation for stopping play for weather, and almost never giving batsmen out LBW - he gave LBWs so seldom that if he did give it, there was absolutely no doubt the batsman was out. Bird was also very strict on the definitions of intimidatory bowling, Birds attention to detail was placed under scrutiny at the Centenary Test between England and Australia at Lords in 1980. Angry MCC members scuffled with Constant as he and the team returned to the Long Room after their fifth pitch inspection. The two captains, Ian Botham and Greg Chappell, had to intervene to protect Constant, Bird, however, was still on the pitch at the time according to his own recounting of the event in his book. When play finally started at 3,45 pm, police had to escort the umpires through the Long Room, a pitch invasion followed the West Indies 17-run win in the inaugural Cricket World Cup. A number of players and umpires had items of their playing outfits souvenired by the crowd, man, havent you heard of Mr Dickie Bird, he replied. I took it off his head at the World Cup final and we all ran onto the field and I won the race
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Millennialism
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Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the earth to gather His saints before the Millennium, a literal thousand-year golden age of peace. This return is referred to as the Second Coming, the doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Jesus physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration of the Millennium. For the last century, the belief has been common in Evangelicalism according to surveys on this topic, Premillennialism is based upon a literal interpretation of Revelation 20, 1–6 in the New Testament, which describes Jesus reign in a period of a thousand years. It views this future age as a time of fulfillment for the hope of Gods people as given in the Old Testament. Post-millennialism, for example, agrees with premillennialism about the future reign of Christ. Postmillennialists hold to the view that the second coming will happen after the millennium, historically Christian premillennialism has also been referred to as chiliasm or millenarianism. The current religious term premillennialism did not come into use until the mid-19th century, the concept of a temporary earthly messianic kingdom at the Messiahs coming was not an invention of Christianity. Instead it was an interpretation developed within the apocalyptic literature of early Judaism. In Judaism during the Christian intertestamental period, there was a distinction between the current age and the “age to come”. The “age to come” was commonly viewed as a nationalistic Golden Age in which the hopes of the prophets would become a reality for the nation of Israel, on the surface, the biblical prophets revealed an “age to come” which was monolithic. Seemingly the prophets did not write of a two-phase eschaton consisting of a messianic age followed by an eternal state. However, that was the concept that some Jewish interpreters did derive from their exegesis and their conclusions are found in some of the literature and theology of early Judaism within the centuries both before and during the development of the Christian New Testament. This work likely dates to the early 2nd century and shows a schematization of the divine history divided into ten periods of time called “weeks. ”In the apocalypse. However, after the week, the temporary earthly messianic age begins. After the temporary messianic kingdom, the creation of the new heavens, Second Esdras likely dates from soon after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. The apocryphal book was apparently an attempt to explain the difficulties associated with the destruction of Jerusalem, during one of the visions in the book, Ezra receives a revelation from the angel Uriel. The angel explains that prior to the last judgment, the Messiah will come, seven days after this cataclysmic event, the resurrection and the judgment will occur followed by the eternal state. The Jewish belief in a temporary messianic age continued during
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Millennium Dome
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Located on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East London, England, the exhibition was open to the public from 1 January to 31 December 2000. The project and exhibition was the subject of political controversy as it failed to attract the number of visitors anticipated. All of the exhibition and associated complex has since been demolished. The dome still exists, and it is now a key feature of The O2. The Prime Meridian passes the edge of the Dome and the nearest London Underground station is North Greenwich on the Jubilee line. The dome is one of the largest of its type in the world, in plan view it is circular,365 m in diameter. It has become one of the United Kingdoms most recognisable landmarks and it can easily be seen on aerial photographs of London. Its exterior is reminiscent of the Dome of Discovery built for the Festival of Britain in 1951, the architect was Richard Rogers and the contractor was a joint venture company, McAlpine/Laing Joint Venture formed between Sir Robert McAlpine and Laing Management. The building structure was engineered by Buro Happold, and the roof structure weighs less than the air contained within the building. Although referred to as a dome it is not strictly one as it is not self-supporting, but is in fact a giant Big Top, for this reason, it has been disparagingly referred to as the Millennium Tent. The twelve posts represent the months of the year, another reference to time in its dimensions, alongside its height. The canopy is made of PTFE-coated glass fibre fabric, a durable and weather-resistant plastic and its symmetry is interrupted by a hole through which a ventilation shaft from the Blackwall Tunnel rises. The land was previously derelict and contaminated by toxic sludge from East Greenwich Gas Works that operated from 1889 to 1985, the clean-up operation was seen by the then Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine as an investment that would add a large area of useful land to the crowded capital. The incoming Labour government elected in 1997 under Tony Blair greatly expanded the size, scope and it also significantly increased expectations of what would be delivered. Just before its opening Blair claimed the Dome would be a triumph of confidence over cynicism, boldness over blandness, in the words of BBC correspondent Robert Orchard, the Dome was to be highlighted as a glittering New Labour achievement in the next election manifesto. Fisher Athletic were a team interested in moving to the Dome. The Dome was planned to take over the functions performed by the London Arena and this is the function which The O2 Arena has now undertaken. Night Rain and Faith Festivals Calendar Self Portrait, sponsored by Marks & Spencer, sculpture design by Gerald Scarfe What we do, Work, the Journey Zone, outlining the history and development of transport, was one of the few singled out for praise
