Month: April 2018

The Etymology of “Police”

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The term “police” first came into use in English during the 15th century with the term meaning “public policy” or “public order”. The root of the term comes from French, and the French root term is originally based upon the Latin term “politia” which was adapted from the Greek term “politeia” meaning “citizenship”, “administration”, or “civil polity”. To clarify, the term “polity” means “civil government”. The Greek term “politeia” is based upon the Greek word “polis” which means “city” (e.g. the English term “metropolis” meaning “urbanized/highly condensed city”)

Bangladesh Seceding From Pakistan

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Bangladesh was once referred to as East Pakistan and modern day Pakistan was referred to as West Pakistan, both being satellite states of India. West Pakistan imposed harsh laws upon East Pakistan including the forcible changing of the national language to Urdu and the forbidding of listening to radio news, most especially the British Broadcasting Network. Bangladesh eventually broke free and gained its independence in 1971

The Person Who Created the Term “The Renaissance”

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The person who is accredited with creating The Renaissance is Giorgio Vasari as he published a book entitled “Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori” which means “The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects” in Italian. The book is often shortened in its title and called “The Lives of Artists”. This book ended up becoming the most influential art book of all time. Within the preface of the book, Vasari uses the term “rinascita” which means “rebirth” in Italian, to describe what was going on around him. Vasari stated that under the ancient Greeks and ancient Roman’s, art and civilization reached it’s highest levels of perfection, and that when the barbarians, or as they’re called today, the Germans, came into the picture, the arts fell to ruins. The Renaissance is measured to have occurred between 1400 – 1600, with the dates being slightly vague on each end

How Aircraft Carriers Stop High Speed Aircraft When Landing

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Landing an aircraft on an aircraft carrier at sea is considered the most difficult task in aviation. The first aircraft ever landed on the deck of a steamship was accomplished in 1911, just a few short years after the Wright brothers had the first airplane become airborne. The task was accomplished by having ropes and sandbags run horizontally across the wooden landing stage on top of the deck of the ship. The rope caught a hook on the bottom of the landing aircraft and slowed it down, with each bag adding more and more weight. The engineering of this practice is still in use today, with the only significant difference being the components used, which are now high tension steel cables. Navy Marines and other ranked Navy and Airforce officers jointly train for their wings, but Navy Marine officers are more likely to take off at sea, whilst Navy officers are more likely to take off from land

General Motors Purposefully Suppressing and Dismantling Public Transport

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General Motors, through various shell companies, purchased the Los Angeles, United States of America, mass transit system and deconstructed it so that only vehicles and highways would survive the transition. General Motors understood that people wanted and needed a simple way get where they needed to be within a reasonable amount of time and doing away with public transit meant that these people would have no alternative other than to purchase a vehicle, with the goal being for these people to purchase from General Motors. By 1960, the last remaining trolleys were shut down and taken to the nearby Santa Monica Bay to be thrown into the ocean, which is why they are now being used as reefs. This was not a person centered solution nor was it an environmental centered solution, but it was an intelligent business decision and did end up changing the way American’s viewed transit. Traffic congestion became more and more difficult as time progressed so the municipality of Los Angeles decided to widen its freeways to compensate for the sudden burst of vehicles within the city

Technological Advances in Film During the Past Few Decades

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Until the 1980’s, nature documentarians like a David Attenborough, could only film underwater for 10 minutes at a time before rising to the surface to swap out the film roll which had just been used, as it would be full after such time. Video tapes solved this issue as they permitted the person using it to film for 30 minutes. Video tapes were also more sensitive than traditional film reels and therefore low light conditions could be filmed for the first time, making artificial lights unnecessary. The security industry developed infrared cameras within the coming decades which made filming nocturnal animals possible for the first time, without the use of artificial lights which disturbed the nocturnal animals natural processes. Soon after cameras which use neither artificial light nor infrared light but rather low light provided by the stars and the moon became available which made it possible to record animals in blue and white hues, similar to infrared but not the same, as eyes are not reflective as is the case with infrared. These star and moonlight cameras make nighttime appear more natural, making the night appear as it does to human beings during the latter part of dusk. During this time, optical probes were invented which made possible the ability to dive into the world of burrowed animals and insects. Macro and micro lenses as well as the ability to slow down and speed up the perception of time are not new concepts, but they have been vastly improved in the most recent decades and because of this, distinguished details can be recorded which are impossible to see with the naked eye. Ariel photography gained leaps and bounds in its ability to fit into tightly enclosed spaces by moving from airplanes, to helicopters, to hot air balloons, and finally to drones. Animated figures both static and dynamic helped illustrate when narrating about historical figures like dinosaurs, and models created by hand led to further this style of narrative, but the technique of after shot animation did not truly get its wings until the technology of computer animation caught up to movie special effects and then surpassed them by looking more realistic than any model which could be designed by hand

How Tempered Glass is Manufactured

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Tempered glass is made from annealed glass which is regular glass, also referred to as “non-tempered” glass. Annealed glass is placed onto a roller table, taking it through a furnace which heats it 620 degrees Celsius, which is well above its transition temperature of 564 degrees Celsius in which it changes from a hard material into a soft rubber material. The glass is soon after rapidly cooled with forced air. The inner portion remains free to flow for a short time whilst the outer portion hardens quickly. An alternative chemical toughening process involves forcing a surface layer of glass at least 0.1 millimeters thick into compression by ion exchange of the sodium ions in the glass surface with potassium ions (which are 30% larger), by immersion of the glass into a bath of molten potassium nitrate. Chemical toughening results in increased toughness compared with thermal toughening and can be applied to glass objects of complex shapes

Ancient Egyptian Scarab Beetles and the Reason the Egyptians Believed the Beetle to be Immortal

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The scarab beetle was among the most popular of all ancient Egyptian jewelry pieces as the beetle represented the God “Khepri”. Khepri was the God of creation and rebirth and controlled the movement of the Sun. There are 30,000 different depictions of scarab which account for approximately 10% of all known beetle species. Beetles feed upon the undigested nutrients left behind within the excrement of larger animals, almost always mammals. Beetles then lay their eggs within the ball of dung and soon after die. The eggs hatch from within the inner dung, set foot into the world, and end up pushing the very ball of dung which they were born in. Ancient Egyptians viewed this as the beetle having eternal life and therefore placed incredible importance upon it

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill Painting and Writing

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Winston Churchill took up painting in his middle age, and painted over 500 canvases during the last 50 years of his life. Churchill preferred to paint bright landscapes and dark portraits. Churchill worked as a government minister during World War I, and played a crucial role in spearheading the Dardanelles campaign which unfortunately failed miserably causing over 200,000 allied soldiers to lose their lives. Churchill soon after resigned from his position within the government and enlisted in the British military to go and fight on the Western Front. It was in the brief interlude between enlisting and visiting the Hell of Flanders, that Churchill began to paint. Churchill struck and maintained friendships with many painters who he spent time learning techniques from. Churchill hated being disturbed whilst painting and was one to bellow out at whoever was barging in, including his beloved grandchildren. Churchill was born to the aristocracy but never had much income of his own, yet he dreamed of becoming a millionaire. Churchill wrote many short stories and journals amongst other publications but only 1 fictitious romantic novel called “Savrola”, which was written in his early 20’s. The book garnered terrible reviews which forced Churchill to recede back into writing non-fiction. Churchill only painted on a single occasion during World War II, which he did in Marrakech, Morocco. Churchill brought Franklin Roosevelt and gave him the painting he created as a gift

Leonardo da Vinci’s Sfumato Technique

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Leonardo da Vinci worked for the Parisian court as the head artist, and much of his work can be seen hanging in the Louvre. The technique da Vinci invented to create the illusion of distance is called “sfumato” derived from the Italian term “fumo” which means “smoke”. The technique involves blurring and softening a background or foreground to make it more vague and therefore provide an illusion of depth, with an excellent example of this technique being used within the background of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting. Da Vinci is quoted as saying that sfumato is “without lines or borders”