tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57756400858439332612024-03-16T23:02:35.111-07:00Shortnotes of HistoryHistory is about people in society, their actions and interactions, the beliefs and prejudices their pasts and presents. History is the science which investigates and then records past human activities as are definite in time and space, social in nature and socially significant. The word ‘History’ means learned, expert, and knowledgeable. The word history has the connotation of finding out by investigation or inquiry.Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comBlogger341125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-83859809923945215792024-03-16T22:58:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:02:01.175-07:00History of Clove: From Spice Islands to Global CommodityResembling small nails, the name "clove" is derived from the French word "clov," meaning nail. Each "nail" is an unopened flower bud of the clove tree, scientifically known as <i>Eugenia aromatica,</i> a tropical evergreen member of the Myrtle family. These trees, with their fragrant and prized buds, have a lifespan of up to a century, with fruit production beginning at the age of seven and reaching full maturity by 25 years. Despite their longevity, clove trees were once confined to the Moluccas, famously known as the Spice Islands. During the 1700s, it seemed as though clove cultivation might forever remain restricted to the island of Amboina, the heart of the clove trade.<br /><br />The history of cloves traces back millennia, with records dating as far as 200 BC when envoys from Java presented cloves to the Han-dynasty court of China. At that time, cloves were used to perfume the breath during audiences with the emperor. However, it was during the late Middle Ages that cloves gained prominence in Europe, where they were prized for their ability to preserve, flavor, and garnish food.<br /><br />Indonesia, particularly the Moluccas, emerged as the epicenter of clove production. In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company, driven by profit motives, instituted a ruthless monopoly on cloves. To maintain control over prices, they systematically eradicated clove trees from all islands except Amboina and Ternate. This monopolistic strategy aimed to create scarcity and inflate prices, establishing the Dutch as dominant players in the lucrative spice trade.<br /><br />However, the latter half of the 18th century witnessed a challenge to Dutch dominance. The French, driven by their appetite for profit and desire to break monopolies, engaged in clove smuggling. They clandestinely transported cloves from the East Indies to Indian Ocean islands and even to the New World, disrupting the Dutch monopoly and expanding the global reach of cloves.<br /><br />Despite the tumultuous history of clove cultivation, its significance transcends mere economics. Cloves have permeated various aspects of human life, from culinary traditions to medicinal practices. In addition to their culinary uses, cloves have been valued for their medicinal properties, ranging from alleviating toothaches to aiding digestion. Moreover, their aromatic essence finds application in perfumery and aromatherapy, underscoring the versatile nature of this humble spice.<br /><br />In conclusion, the history of clove is one of resilience, monopolies, and global trade. From their origins in the Spice Islands to their dispersion across continents, cloves have left an indelible mark on human civilization. As we savor their distinctive flavor and aroma, it is worth reflecting on the journey of these tiny yet potent "nails" that have shaped culinary and cultural landscapes worldwide.<br /><i>History of Clove: From Spice Islands to Global Commodity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-XLQ6luV3qBWTRSH_99Bm7wgu6asFptMFiRssYp59ZmY6jicpzWazijV3riJ9fhrpXYx1HkUQPvTMqRESm4kz1WpCwCKvQedNjsV9Vg_RF7ksaowwsddFek7kCL3OHfxnUM9YqVck3Ap9h2NLzgqSeterPGZTrIQsPH7V90Q_eHr9NcjoaBw0-evh0xo/s409/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="409" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-XLQ6luV3qBWTRSH_99Bm7wgu6asFptMFiRssYp59ZmY6jicpzWazijV3riJ9fhrpXYx1HkUQPvTMqRESm4kz1WpCwCKvQedNjsV9Vg_RF7ksaowwsddFek7kCL3OHfxnUM9YqVck3Ap9h2NLzgqSeterPGZTrIQsPH7V90Q_eHr9NcjoaBw0-evh0xo/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-68410966509752097742024-03-02T21:10:00.000-08:002024-03-02T21:17:20.850-08:00Evolution of Baking: From Ancient Egypt to Modern AmericaThe history of baking spans millennia, with its origins dating back to the royal bakers of the Nile Valley in Egypt around 3500 to 3000 BC. It is believed that leavened bread, a pivotal innovation in baking, was discovered by accident during this time when a royal baker noticed dough left out overnight had risen, thanks to the process of fermentation.<br /><br />The ancient Egyptians, adept at observing and learning from nature, soon mastered the art of controlling yeast in their bread-making process. With each batch of bread, they would set aside a portion of leavened dough to incorporate into the next, ensuring consistent results and propagating their knowledge through generations.<br /><br />During the Pharaonic period (3100-330 BC), bread held significant cultural and economic importance, serving as both a staple food and a unit of measure and currency. This underscores the integral role baking played in ancient Egyptian society.<br /><br />While the Egyptians laid the foundation for baking, other civilizations around the Mediterranean, such as the Swiss Lake dwellers, were also experimenting with dough and heat. Some 8,000 years ago, these early bakers mixed flour with water to create dough, which they then baked on heated stones—a rudimentary yet effective method of early baking.<br /><br />The dissemination of baking knowledge continued as the Greeks established public bakeries as early as 200 BC, often staffed by former slaves. With the Roman conquest of Greece, baking techniques were further refined and disseminated across the expanding empire. Later, as English colonists migrated to America, they brought with them the rich tradition of baking, contributing to the culinary tapestry of the New World.<br /><br />In the early colonial period of America, baking was a vital part of daily life. By 1604, baking had become a flourishing industry, with ovens built into large fireplaces in most New England homes. The Pennsylvania Dutch, known for their distinct cultural practices, utilized brick ovens in separate bakehouses for their baking needs, showcasing the diversity of baking practices across regions.<br /><br />The late 1700s saw another significant advancement with the invention of the cast-iron range, which revolutionized cooking by providing a more efficient and controlled means of baking. This innovation gradually replaced traditional hearth ovens and fireplaces as the preferred method of baking.<br /><br />In 1750, America witnessed the introduction of the first chemical leavening agent, pearl ash (potassium bicarbonate). Derived from natural wood ash and other resources, pearl ash marked a significant milestone in baking technology, paving the way for further innovations in the centuries to come.<br /><br />From the accidental discovery of leavened bread in ancient Egypt to the continuous refinement of baking techniques throughout history, the evolution of baking is a testament to human ingenuity and innovation. Today, baking remains not only a fundamental culinary practice but also a cherished tradition passed down through generations.<br /><i>Evolution of Baking: From Ancient Egypt to Modern America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_DTbrVK96GoT8yNCIIMePGHFEWvMnTjZjdLUyHqt48JSHhcsHlOIg9U2TtI1pt5T7zo8vvVCI9jVMH3ygEbFu1XnPpp4mV6RnzMxTzccgVrcko5EjYH8UCxfxFyw_iL8y4eYytTlczZ63uaFP058yWIxlznir9ZGwpC2201azmyB8j15Nysh2JQks7pA/s863/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="863" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_DTbrVK96GoT8yNCIIMePGHFEWvMnTjZjdLUyHqt48JSHhcsHlOIg9U2TtI1pt5T7zo8vvVCI9jVMH3ygEbFu1XnPpp4mV6RnzMxTzccgVrcko5EjYH8UCxfxFyw_iL8y4eYytTlczZ63uaFP058yWIxlznir9ZGwpC2201azmyB8j15Nysh2JQks7pA/w476-h241/1.jpg" width="476" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-75644263058381511672024-02-17T19:25:00.000-08:002024-02-17T19:25:45.536-08:00Cereal Evolution Breakfast cereals have played a pivotal role in American history, especially during critical periods like the Civil War. The emergence of the health food movement in the 19th century further underscored the significance of these morning meals. Over time, breakfast cereals have evolved from simple, utilitarian provisions to beloved staples in households across the nation.<br /><br /> During the American Civil War, hot breakfast cereals served as vital sustenance for Union soldiers. Amidst the scarcity of resources, soldiers relied on makeshift meals like "bully soup" or panada, made from whatever ingredients were available. These hearty meals not only provided nourishment but also boosted morale during long marches and supply disruptions, highlighting the crucial role of breakfast in maintaining the health and spirits of troops.<br /><br />The 19th century witnessed the rise of the health food movement, heavily influenced by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church's advocacy for a vegetarian lifestyle. Concerns regarding dietary fiber deficiency and digestive disorders spurred interest in wholesome, plant-based diets. Institutions like the Battle Creek Sanitarium became hubs of experimentation, where figures like Dr. John Harvey Kellogg explored the potential of cereals in promoting health and wellness.<br /><br />The roots of cereal breakfasts can be traced back to the 1830s when health foods gained traction among health-conscious individuals. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's experiments at the Battle Creek Sanitarium laid the groundwork for the modern cereal industry. Concurrently, Dr. James C. Jackson introduced precooked cereal, laying the foundation for subsequent innovations in cereal production.<br /><br />The commercialization of breakfast cereals took off with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's introduction of corn flakes in 1902. Kellogg, along with competitors like Post, employed innovative marketing strategies to popularize their products. Over time, cereals underwent transformations, with the addition of sugar and the targeting of children through colorful packaging and mascots.<br /><br />In response to criticism of their nutritive value, breakfast cereals have been fortified with essential nutrients. Despite this, per capita consumption trends have fluctuated throughout the 20th century, reflecting shifts in consumer preferences towards convenience and flavor over perceived healthfulness. The industry faces ongoing challenges in adapting to changing consumer demands while addressing concerns about nutritional content and sustainability.<br /><br />From their humble origins to their modern-day ubiquity, breakfast cereals have left an indelible mark on American history and culture. Their evolution reflects broader societal shifts in attitudes towards health, convenience, and taste. As the cereal industry continues to evolve, it must navigate the delicate balance between tradition and innovation to meet the changing needs of consumers while preserving its rich heritage.<br /><i>Cereal Evolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-xsXS5hSkFVae4QhJZYZKLLLXHOoX23SpNkIxQvolj0oNodiMpuvZfFbsDZ5YnDrvz48G2OQDrYx3htSpLYWCMBJSRiRhAp4hfn_3cPH-ByM5JNdbe461lZ8QY3I9cU4aNIA7WZfgFjXoXIQA4HEoo7R9o1Ti2R6LGHLO5NNLxslcLKOKz8A_zo1kNEU/s640/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="374" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-xsXS5hSkFVae4QhJZYZKLLLXHOoX23SpNkIxQvolj0oNodiMpuvZfFbsDZ5YnDrvz48G2OQDrYx3htSpLYWCMBJSRiRhAp4hfn_3cPH-ByM5JNdbe461lZ8QY3I9cU4aNIA7WZfgFjXoXIQA4HEoo7R9o1Ti2R6LGHLO5NNLxslcLKOKz8A_zo1kNEU/w285-h488/2.jpg" width="285" /></a></div> </i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-72999358412543828802024-02-04T06:17:00.000-08:002024-02-04T06:17:13.642-08:00Jackson Pollock: No.5, 1948 - Navigating Turbulent Origins Towards an Artistic RevolutionPaul Jackson Pollock, born on January 28, 1912, in the serene town of Cody, Wyoming, was the youngest among five siblings. The Pollock family's domestic dynamics were anything but straightforward, shaped significantly by frequent relocations, the extended absence of his father, and the dominant personality of his mother.<br /><br />In 1928, the family underwent a significant relocation to Los Angeles, where Jackson enrolled in Manual Arts High School. During this period, Pollock's fascination with Mexican muralists such as Joe Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros began to take root. These artists underscored the political dimension of art, leaving an enduring impact on Pollock's artistic journey.<br /><br />While at Manual Arts, Pollock received instruction in drawing and sculpture from Schwankovsky and sculptor Harold Lehmann. However, success remained elusive in these artistic pursuits.<br /><br />Pollock's artistic legacy encompasses the introduction of the All-over style of painting, a departure from traditional composition that avoids specific focal points or identifiable elements within the canvas. The design of his paintings paid no heed to the canvas's inherent shape or size, sometimes leading to post-production alterations like trimming to align with the intended image. These characteristics played a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of American painting in the late 1940s and early 1950s.<br /><br />One of Pollock's masterpiece works, "No.5, 1948," commanded an astonishing $140 million in 2006, setting a record as the highest sum ever paid for a painting at that time. This surpassed the $135 million spent on Gustav Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I.”<br /><i>Jackson Pollock: No.5, 1948 - Navigating Turbulent Origins Towards an Artistic Revolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEvwpmi0T4-jlk7VJrtxa1qJvxLdWEg8GrD7VNeWkdl9r2o22Ib45PG8jEqcoOXdopsoDHF7yUwSFwxuzxs74JU-p6wXY_3K29YmK7Dnfr-7fpJYL6ptZDjZGPO0cmgQ3PaeK4ycsoY0W_TXJ12YidXZjNY1U4qknDsPnHduClC2HHpD_-Zr8Lt0va8Xw5/s297/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="144" height="587" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEvwpmi0T4-jlk7VJrtxa1qJvxLdWEg8GrD7VNeWkdl9r2o22Ib45PG8jEqcoOXdopsoDHF7yUwSFwxuzxs74JU-p6wXY_3K29YmK7Dnfr-7fpJYL6ptZDjZGPO0cmgQ3PaeK4ycsoY0W_TXJ12YidXZjNY1U4qknDsPnHduClC2HHpD_-Zr8Lt0va8Xw5/w284-h587/1.jpg" width="284" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-55713049232917562402024-01-07T06:48:00.000-08:002024-01-07T06:48:29.592-08:00Sumerians' Arithmetic and WritingThe Sumerians took a leading role in pioneering the development of an arithmetic system, which was crucial for managing quantities of goods like sacks of grain or heads of cattle, involving operations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication.<br /><br />In response to practical needs in trade and tax collection, the Sumerians also devised an effective system of weights and measures. Their groundbreaking innovation in writing originated from the necessity to record information about goods.<br /><br />Initially, records featured simple pictorial representations, such as an ox head, accompanied by dots indicating quantity. These symbols were etched onto soft clay tablets using a sharpened reed and then solidified in a kiln.<br /><br />Originally organized in vertical columns from the top right, around 3000 BC, scribes discovered that horizontal rows, written from left to right, offered enhanced clarity. Simultaneously, the original pointed stylus was replaced with one featuring a wedge-shaped tip. This alteration facilitated crisper impressions on the clay, avoiding the untidy ridges associated with scratching.<br /><br />The Mesopotamian writing system consisted of stylized images entirely formed by cuneiform, or 'wedge-shaped,' marks, representing a significant advancement in communication during that era.<br /><i>Sumerians' Arithmetic and Writing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo14i2NHfo81Ph_T0TeilCesbuKldf9spYIH43e4nax5QJ-cA6GIRkgJjEhE-HbYda4rfbA5xm0Y7VsOTQGld_rWhJtDLKc7F88V1J0krjvNeQFijSx1xvZu1Mlal93rpcBdb_e_J0BCTDbFASEk3EpoRy_RRExRhS_MZjvxEUBSK0qfsyTGC9yslx1jPE/s484/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="463" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo14i2NHfo81Ph_T0TeilCesbuKldf9spYIH43e4nax5QJ-cA6GIRkgJjEhE-HbYda4rfbA5xm0Y7VsOTQGld_rWhJtDLKc7F88V1J0krjvNeQFijSx1xvZu1Mlal93rpcBdb_e_J0BCTDbFASEk3EpoRy_RRExRhS_MZjvxEUBSK0qfsyTGC9yslx1jPE/s320/1.jpg" width="306" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-87527135805980679582023-12-23T08:23:00.000-08:002023-12-23T08:23:21.792-08:00Discovery history of CasprinThe Casprin Enteric Microencapsulated Capsule contains aspirin, known as both a salicylate and a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).<br /><br />Bayer, based in Germany, conducted tests and introduced the compound acetylsalicylic acid to the field of medicine in the late 1890s. Pioneers in its development include Heinrich Dreser, Arthur Eichengrün, and Felix Hoffmann. Aspirin, the resulting drug, was officially marketed in 1899 under a registered trademark. The account of this discovery first emerged in 1934 as a footnote in a history of chemical engineering authored by Albrecht Schmidt, a chemist associated with IG Farbenindustrie—into which F Bayer & Co had been incorporated in 1925.<br /><br />Acetylsalicylic acid demonstrates both anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects. Moreover, it acts as an inhibitor of platelet aggregation and is employed in the prevention of blood clots, strokes, and myocardial infarctions.<br /><br />Since its debut by Bayer in 1899, aspirin has evolved into one of the most extensively used and renowned medications globally. By 1915, Bayer Pharmaceuticals developed the inaugural tablet form, which was subsequently distributed worldwide as a medicinal product.<br /><i>Discovery history of Casprin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotJoEg291pSexE3IEs_SpZA-2-MtDLiQWyMQJkC_ekY4nYQaM4hR1LS50GOSnfZue-CkqFjNagkUM4kV-k88v-rkoF5ihPriStvTtUJ4Ej51iEi5ewN_RFLJCpcSYPxKqFG32KZkrpBNmf7PvRi7hqEEy9_RD5tMnLNqU69Iu20jJaPXWf2Ilg3CC01Wa/s813/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="813" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotJoEg291pSexE3IEs_SpZA-2-MtDLiQWyMQJkC_ekY4nYQaM4hR1LS50GOSnfZue-CkqFjNagkUM4kV-k88v-rkoF5ihPriStvTtUJ4Ej51iEi5ewN_RFLJCpcSYPxKqFG32KZkrpBNmf7PvRi7hqEEy9_RD5tMnLNqU69Iu20jJaPXWf2Ilg3CC01Wa/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-29689278742380447972023-08-19T18:23:00.007-07:002023-08-19T18:23:50.583-07:00Founding and Growth of VladivostokFounded as a naval outpost in 1860, Vladivostok has now risen to become Russia's largest city situated along the Pacific Ocean. Operating both as a city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, it commands a notable location at the head of Golden Horn Bay, proximate to Russia's borders with China and North Korea.<br /><br />From the 17th century until the mid-19th century, China effectively limited significant Russian expansion into the relatively prosperous Far Eastern territories. Not until a French whaleboat visited the area in 1851 did Europe become aware of the region that would eventually house the port of Vladivostok.<br /><br />Capitalizing on China's weakened stance in 1858, Russia took control of all the land north of the Amur River. Following this, in 1859, utilizing a warship named "America," the Russian Governor-General of Siberia, N. N. Muraviev Amursky, conducted an exploration of the coastal regions of the maritime territory, an occurrence now commemorated as Peter the Great Day.<br /><br />During the era of Peter the Great, which fostered ties with enlightened Europe, the Russian population was motivated to embark on explorations of previously unknown lands. This endeavor aimed not solely at boosting the state treasury, but also at advancing scientific inquiry and addressing the demands of Russian trade and industry.<br /><br />By 1860, Russian forces had taken hold of the territory to the east of the Ussuri River. In July of that same year, troops and equipment were dispatched to establish the initial Russian military outpost along the southern coastline. This calculated action was propelled by the Russian government's search for an optimal location to accommodate a naval flotilla and provide winter shelter. The initial group of Russian settlers tasked with erecting the outpost reached the shores of Golden Horn on June 20, 1860.<br /><br />Over the course of time, this outpost developed into the present-day city recognized as Vladivostok, a name derived from the Russian words "vladet," signifying dominion, and "vostok," meaning east.<br /><br />The city's early growth was disorderly, gradually giving way to a more coherent layout over time. The city's initial character, marked by its military, bureaucratic, and capitalist elements in the early 20th century, underwent only surface-level changes due to the Bolshevik Revolution. It was only in the 1930s, with the onset of the Five Year Plans, that substantial endeavors to rejuvenate the older sections of the city were merged with ambitious proposals to construct a model Soviet urban center.<br /><i>Founding and Growth of Vladivostok<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlpj_O722J4CzzkonrMGk5IOIk4kTYhn_B1gO81t9CYm-gziaLNtNGbfgQoSdVJJk6EAo7fzu0oYHz5nMDxQYLE2E0vqa-_ejjY3Xw8Up1ZK_JqSzkMOGJJYOuIoBlMkpMCLmSVMzZrG80neGVCEgtcqU5XTx6MEx1-4R1kqdk-1VY6gNHQlyJfqPTYwl/s485/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="485" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlpj_O722J4CzzkonrMGk5IOIk4kTYhn_B1gO81t9CYm-gziaLNtNGbfgQoSdVJJk6EAo7fzu0oYHz5nMDxQYLE2E0vqa-_ejjY3Xw8Up1ZK_JqSzkMOGJJYOuIoBlMkpMCLmSVMzZrG80neGVCEgtcqU5XTx6MEx1-4R1kqdk-1VY6gNHQlyJfqPTYwl/w387-h339/1.jpg" width="387" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-86655363610714069822023-07-16T02:49:00.003-07:002023-07-16T02:49:26.152-07:00Tamerlane's Brutal WarfareTamerlane demonstrated a military prowess comparable to that of Genghis Khan, achieving success in every operation, even when facing the same adversaries multiple times in battle. The central element defining his warfare strategy was the frequent targeting and assaulting of major cities, such as Damascus, Baghdad, Aleppo, Delhi, and Ankara. It is crucial to recognize that his opponents were formidable and should not be underestimated.<br /><br />Tamerlane has gained a reputation as the most recklessly destructive among the nomadic horse chieftains of the steppes. He systematically used terror as a tool against towns, making it an integral part of his strategic approach. Whenever he besieged a city, its inhabitants had the option to spare their lives by surrendering at the first warning. However, resistance resulted in brutal punishment, often leading to the massacre of civilians under horrific circumstances. After conquering a city, Tamerlane went on to construct pyramids made of decapitated heads. For example, during the taking of Isfahan in 1397, a city with approximately half a million inhabitants, observers estimated a death toll of 100,000 to 200,000.<br /><br />Following these ruthless actions, Tamerlane ordered the construction of approximately fifty pyramids, each comprising thousands of heads, with the aim of compelling other besieged cities to surrender immediately. However, this tactic did not consistently yield the desired results, as many towns still refused to give in. Nonetheless, after the devastating events in Isfahan, Tamerlane advanced to Shiraz, encountering no resistance. According to his perspective, this approach prevented further bloodshed, especially among those willing to lay down their weapons without a fight. Despite the methodical nature of his use of terror, Tamerlane took care to spare certain groups, including elites, theologians, artists, poets, engineers, architects, and others.<br /><i>Tamerlane's Brutal Warfare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFDXj_-OTmEO2jwVfrNCvDIjTTsFErD8NciFrUrnQDHfIgaIGZhGyWemZoSx9Ci6MXgxGQwc7rJq_n6E6bWk1uNMinPZWrJSia-SGzrDqPdtrVBEHx-p7KxmN3aGE5zqfxwfMj_f9FczpNmiBkEJE12ZOvTzAQhNpgOVQwpTeku7olBAYaV1UspWQO2Q3/s623/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="623" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFDXj_-OTmEO2jwVfrNCvDIjTTsFErD8NciFrUrnQDHfIgaIGZhGyWemZoSx9Ci6MXgxGQwc7rJq_n6E6bWk1uNMinPZWrJSia-SGzrDqPdtrVBEHx-p7KxmN3aGE5zqfxwfMj_f9FczpNmiBkEJE12ZOvTzAQhNpgOVQwpTeku7olBAYaV1UspWQO2Q3/w470-h260/1.jpg" width="470" /></a></div></i>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-5440436861317364812023-06-24T08:45:00.006-07:002023-06-24T08:45:49.829-07:00History of cappuccinoThe first use of the word “cappuccino” is traced to the Italians in the 16th century, referring to the long, pointed cowl or cappuccino (derived from cappuccino meaning “hood) that was worn as part of the habit of the Capuchin order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. The Capuchin friars are members of the larger Franciscan orders of monks, and their order was founded in the 16th century in Italy. <br /><br />The British seem to have started filtering and steeping coffee already in the second part of the 18th century, and France and continental Europe followed suit. By the 19th century, coffee was brewed in different devices designed for both home and public cafés. <br /><br />Adding milk to coffee was mentioned by Europeans already in the 1700s. The first attestation of cappuccino comes from the coffeehouses of Vienna in the around the late 1700's, where the Kapuziner emerged as a popular drink and is in 1805 described in a Wörterbuch (dictionary) as "coffee with cream and sugar". In some places they would add spices too. <br /><br />Italian cappuccino, however, was first made in early 1900 which was shortly after the popularization of espresso machines. <br /><br />In more modern usage in the mid to late 1940s, the word cappuccino was introduced to describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with streamed milk or cream, so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin monk. <br /><br />After a few improvements by the Italians of a good espresso and a balance of steamed and frothed milk. It was World War 2, where the popularization of the drink spread around the world. <br /><br />Cappuccino lovers would argue that the foam cap on the drink is the element to a great cappuccino. Steam frothing of milk to prepare a cappuccino coffee involves injecting air and steam into milk to create the foam and to heat the milk to near boiling.<br /><b>History of cappuccino<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBo1qiln0TKU8wKObmF9rsrtNih4KReZ60cLT8gnhR9KTGAjpJuB-aVF3pmha2Bwwavb-VG3xX-frSK804Z7gLjiSon-zpsSf6h7tR7-eoGUYnhTNSz3j7IJKgaKriEUJkxNPE1qyTyseD3P7kqznB3My81eIUJsc-Qaf8Q58IbeGs9e3N9llk9lvl4F9A/s342/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="342" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBo1qiln0TKU8wKObmF9rsrtNih4KReZ60cLT8gnhR9KTGAjpJuB-aVF3pmha2Bwwavb-VG3xX-frSK804Z7gLjiSon-zpsSf6h7tR7-eoGUYnhTNSz3j7IJKgaKriEUJkxNPE1qyTyseD3P7kqznB3My81eIUJsc-Qaf8Q58IbeGs9e3N9llk9lvl4F9A/w456-h245/1.jpg" width="456" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-49318897104044622962023-05-22T21:07:00.005-07:002023-05-22T21:07:52.016-07:00Sidney Altman (May 1939 – April 2022) - Molecular biologistSidney Altman was born in Montreal, Canada, on May 7, 1939, the son of Jewish immigrant parents from Poland and Ukraine. His father had worked as a laborer on a collective farm in Ontario until he purchased and ran a small grocery store in Montreal. <br /><br />While he was still in high school, Sid and a friend decided on a whim to write the American Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at McGill. <br /><br />Both friends applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, and as luck would have it, Sid was accepted, but his friend was not. He earned his B.Sc. in 1960. He conducted his senior thesis research on electron decay with Lee Grodzins, and throughout his life, Sid credited Grodzins for inspiring him to consider science as a career. <br /><br />He then spends eighteen months in graduate school at Columbia University in New York. He decided to enroll as a graduate student in biophysics at the University of Colorado, where he obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology. <br /><br />As a postdoctoral fellow with Matt Meselson at Harvard, Sid continued working on bacteriophage T4, characterizing a DNA endonuclease that acts in its replication and recombination. <br /><br />After a year of research at Harvard, Altman had the great privilege of joining Cambridge. Altman made his initial discovery that eventually led to his Nobel Prize. At the end of his term in Cambridge, he was offered the post of assistant professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut which he accepted. <br /><br />At Yale he progressed to full professor on 1980. In 1982, Thomas Cech, working at the University of Colorado in Boulder, had shown that RNA sometimes served as a biocatalyst—a role previously believed to belong exclusively to proteins. <br /><br />He worked with ribonuclease-P (an enzyme composed of RNA and a protein), which catalyzes the processing of transfer RNA. Both the protein and RNA were thought to be necessary for the enzyme to work at the cellular level. Altman found that, in vitro, ribonuclease-P alone could splice the transfer RNA molecule at the correct site. <br /><br />He revolutionized molecular biology by discovering the catalytic properties of RNA. The 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was bestowed upon him and Thomas Cech, who had independently made a similar breakthrough.<br /><b>Sidney Altman (May 1939 – April 2022) - Molecular biologist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgppl8blr7B0GrMBhmWv5UjiPPwdgoEUHTi6T6lLelLvjczGw3hh3K0f-6SIXYpsDJu3FdhlJwsME0rQdUfmvkYpBVRVrGevBykM3Q_7zPLn_ZgHQkt_ab5NaEQ_srSxr7ljDoid9mzLAm1zDawK8U2cLVaW6Hd_OnM00bt6H2l5chy69O6bdpAzFWB3w/s672/2023-05-23.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="557" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgppl8blr7B0GrMBhmWv5UjiPPwdgoEUHTi6T6lLelLvjczGw3hh3K0f-6SIXYpsDJu3FdhlJwsME0rQdUfmvkYpBVRVrGevBykM3Q_7zPLn_ZgHQkt_ab5NaEQ_srSxr7ljDoid9mzLAm1zDawK8U2cLVaW6Hd_OnM00bt6H2l5chy69O6bdpAzFWB3w/s320/2023-05-23.png" width="265" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-44370115492704644892023-05-01T07:30:00.005-07:002023-05-01T07:30:24.725-07:00History of cigarettes First cultivation of the tobacco plant started 6000 BC. Around 2,000 years ago tobacco began to be chewed and smoked during cultural or religious ceremonies and events. Tobacco was not only sniffed and smoked but chewed, eaten, drunk (like tea), smeared over bodies (to kill lice and other parasites), and used in eye drops and enemas. It was blown into warriors’ faces before battle, over fields before planting (it is still used as an insecticide in agriculture) and over women before sex. <br /><br />The Aztecs smoked a hollow reed or cane tube stuffed with tobacco. Other natives of Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America crushed tobacco leaves and rolled the shreds in corn (maize) husk or other vegetable wrappers. The first European to discover smoking was Christopher Columbus. <br /><br />In 1492 Christopher Columbus and his crew returned to Europe from the Americas with the first tobacco leaves and seeds ever seen on the continent. A crew member, Rodrigo de Jerez, was seen smoking and imprisoned by the Inquisition, which believed he was possessed by the devil. Almost from the outset, smoking was described as an evil and harmful practice by the Europeans but it seems that spiritual revulsion and danger to health have never been sufficiently long-lasting to prevent people from engaging in tobacco use. <br /><br />Early in the 16th century beggars in Sevilla (Seville) began to pick up discarded cigar butts, shred them, and roll them in scraps of paper (Spanish papeletes) for smoking, thus improvising the first cigarettes. These poor man’s smokes were known as cigarrillos (Spanish: “little cigars”). <br /><br />Early 1500s in Middle East, tobacco was introduced when the Turks took it to Egypt. In 1531 tobacco was cultivated for the first time in Europe (at Santo Domingo). By 1600 tobacco use had spread across Europe and England and was being used as a monetary standard, a practice that continued throughout the following century. <br /><br />A Frenchman named Jean Nicot (from whose name the word nicotine derives) introduced tobacco to France in 1560 from Portugal. From there, it spread to England. The first report of a smoking Englishman is of a sailor in Bristol in 1556, seen "emitting smoke from his nostrils". <br /><br />By the end of the 16th century, tobacco use had became a custom among fashionable people in Europe and tobacco was being exported to India, China, and Japan. <br /><br />Late in the 18th century they acquired respectability and their use spread to Italy and Portugal; they were carried by Portuguese traders to the Levant and Russia. French and British troops in the Napoleonic Wars became familiar with them; the French named them cigarettes. <br /><br />Cigarettes were first introduced in the United States in the early 19th century. Before this, tobacco was used primarily in pipes and cigars, by chewing, and in snuff. <br /><br />By the time of the Civil War, cigarette use had become more popular. Federal tax was first imposed on cigarettes in 1864. Shortly afterwards, the development of the cigarette manufacturing industry led to their quickly becoming a major U.S. tobacco product. <br /><br />Cigarette making machines were developed in the latter half of the 1800s. The first such machines produced about 200 cigarettes per minute.<br /><b>History of cigarettes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgdDbb6uGdHe8QYWqCz3krA7p1NN47xYKEWBhOIHFOG_kUr2p5CnBBaO5_iw_uJhqxQ7tkwjbrIqDaLYl0BJ0A3AxM5pZuR7jeITGlnuM8XL-l-jGNQKeSxv8EajiKi_3cUcO8_wPF8AHKFmvvC-TNciDbWPy6gBe25m9-tZxMUSifo0olr3-lpb5wcw/s746/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="746" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgdDbb6uGdHe8QYWqCz3krA7p1NN47xYKEWBhOIHFOG_kUr2p5CnBBaO5_iw_uJhqxQ7tkwjbrIqDaLYl0BJ0A3AxM5pZuR7jeITGlnuM8XL-l-jGNQKeSxv8EajiKi_3cUcO8_wPF8AHKFmvvC-TNciDbWPy6gBe25m9-tZxMUSifo0olr3-lpb5wcw/w457-h247/1.jpg" width="457" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-39549680802166098492023-03-25T21:46:00.006-07:002023-03-25T21:46:49.071-07:00History of litmus paperLitmus paper is a piece of paper that produces a result which can be used as a pH indicator. It is made by treating paper with natural dyes from lichens. Initially, litmus paper is either red or blue. <br /><br />Litmus paper is available in three different colors which are purple, red and blue. A purple litmus paper turns red if the given solution is acidic and turns blue if the given solution is basic in nature. <br /><br />The Spanish alchemist Arnaldus de Villa Nova (Arnold of Villanova) is purported to have used litmus in the early 14th century. There is some data that suggest that litmus paper was developed by J.L. Gay-Lussac, a French chemist during the early 1800s. Gay-Lussac is best known for his Law of Combining Volumes. <br /><br />Originally, the blue dye has been extracted from lichens since the 16thcentury, especially in the Netherlands. In distilled water, lichens have a mauve (purple) tint. It turns red when added to an acidic solution and blue when added to a basic solution. <br /><br />The word "litmus" comes from the old Norse word for "to dye or color". Today, litmus is prepared mainly from the species <i>Roccella montagnei</i> from Mozambique and <i>Dedographa leucophoea </i>from California. <br /><br />With the cooperation of two university professors from Kyoto, Masao Horiba developed a suitable pH meter, which was named the “Alligator”. By 1950, he was producing glass electrodes.<br /><b>History of litmus paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdY2qFnEoJzOMYJeLgDC9kB7EjEqlfyppB6FGede5rHPToSdmXs4JC2x04m06iBhysNC2gc2FpSONYMFObuSJgigq9KTqKaMAESRbrHMJqSwqfxt1iMuMvPwyyQiojU-LY_CXVr-yL_zrwRhUglMH3Wdq-5KRU8XdXUNrJHpMycQxcBMH3GfSHlw3rQ/s271/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="271" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdY2qFnEoJzOMYJeLgDC9kB7EjEqlfyppB6FGede5rHPToSdmXs4JC2x04m06iBhysNC2gc2FpSONYMFObuSJgigq9KTqKaMAESRbrHMJqSwqfxt1iMuMvPwyyQiojU-LY_CXVr-yL_zrwRhUglMH3Wdq-5KRU8XdXUNrJHpMycQxcBMH3GfSHlw3rQ/s1600/1.jpg" width="271" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-42861249772662770432023-02-27T07:55:00.002-08:002023-02-27T07:55:12.552-08:00English Channel TunnelPlans to build a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802, but British political and media pressure over the compromising of national security had disrupted attempts to build one. It was not until the late 20th century, though, that the necessary technology was developed. <br /><br />In 1880, the first real attempt was made by Colonel Beaumont, who bore a tunnel more than a mile long before abandoning the project. <br /><br />The idea was discussed several times during the 20th century but only in the 1960s did dialogue between France and the UK result in a call for proposals, leading to the drafting of a convention in 1972. <br /><br />In 1986, Britain and France signed a treaty authorizing the construction of a tunnel running between Folkestone, England, and Calais, France. Digging started in 1988, with tunnel boring machines (TBMs) used for all the tunnels. Five TBMs dug from France, six TBMs dug from the UK. <br /><br />The tunnel was officially opened for passenger service on May 6, 1994. In 1996, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.<br /><b>English Channel Tunnel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGk-TA9XF9peCASrME1dTzvHwvWHlzceehjzW2H06yv0irwPNUeRGxDywGeHGozaRluXfiEHDuaEPNWVVdeLDPUU_EeOPPRIvsoxm2h9yqrlig8xJjDurN4qw1iio75IZ0wbpwCaDRLFYCx4yho2Mu0cEqPJBtq34Cubv-fHPMbnil5EOU4Q6LS22Xw/s1500/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGk-TA9XF9peCASrME1dTzvHwvWHlzceehjzW2H06yv0irwPNUeRGxDywGeHGozaRluXfiEHDuaEPNWVVdeLDPUU_EeOPPRIvsoxm2h9yqrlig8xJjDurN4qw1iio75IZ0wbpwCaDRLFYCx4yho2Mu0cEqPJBtq34Cubv-fHPMbnil5EOU4Q6LS22Xw/w433-h289/2.jpg" width="433" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-54244270601328127952023-01-08T07:58:00.004-08:002023-01-08T07:58:44.944-08:00Invention of payment card by Flatbush National BankThe Flatbush Trust Company was bought out by the Irving Trust Company and Bank, which was bought out by Bank of New York in the 1908s <br /><br />In 1946, bank president John Biggins created the “Charg-It” program, which served as an intermediary between Biggins’s bank and Flatbush National’s account holders. The way it worked was that merchants could deposit sales slips into the bank and the bank billed the customer who used the card. <br /><br />Thus was the first known third-party charge card. It spawned imitators around the country, most of which were flops because there weren’t enough customer. In 1952, Franklyn National Bank, issued the first ever general-purpose credit card which was widely accepted by the local merchants.<br /><b>Invention of payment card by Flatbush National Bank<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCefP9_YGahRyBUmBkgxpOLy1MGeCJ-Bko3JPXLJNc7YKFY1L8HUgIb_nBoOGgK6RHKhAKzfuA9dCflqKq_sYpOH_8fgbY9SR-g2e46rclO3eUUQ2Gypd03mhYoGqvpKwECgelgUU__DOdMGr_MtCq1m8Imd7J5_m7Ilvz79XzAs2TSST3jb4LdogHg/s700/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="700" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCefP9_YGahRyBUmBkgxpOLy1MGeCJ-Bko3JPXLJNc7YKFY1L8HUgIb_nBoOGgK6RHKhAKzfuA9dCflqKq_sYpOH_8fgbY9SR-g2e46rclO3eUUQ2Gypd03mhYoGqvpKwECgelgUU__DOdMGr_MtCq1m8Imd7J5_m7Ilvz79XzAs2TSST3jb4LdogHg/w484-h313/1.jpg" width="484" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-33322992911513721392023-01-08T05:14:00.004-08:002023-01-08T05:14:20.126-08:00The rise of Bengal SultanateThe Bengal Sultanate was a sovereign state that encompassed present-day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal and the Myanmarese state of Rakhine between the 14th and 16th centuries. The sultanate was dominated by numerous dynasties of Turkic, Arab, and Persian, Bengali and Abyssinian origin. <br /><br />The Bengal was gradually absorbed into the Delhi Sultanate during the 1200s. It began with Bakhtiar Khilji’s conquest of Gauda between 1202 and 1204 during the reign of Muhammad of Ghor. <br /><br />The Bengal Sultanate arose after the reign of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq of the Tughlaq Dynasty. In mid-14th century the governors of Bengal announced their independence. The Bengal Sultanate was then formed in 1352 by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah when he conquered Lakhnauti, Sonargaon and Satgaon. <br /><br />Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah was the Ilyas Shahi Dynasty's founder. In the conflict between the Delhi Sultanate and the Bengal Sultanate, Firoz Shah Tughluq overcame Ilyas Shah in 1353. Although Firoz slew up to 180,000 Bengalis and even temporarily dislodged Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah from his capital at Pandua, he failed to reannex the delta. <br /><br />Bengal agreed to pay a tribute to the Delhi Sultan. Despite losing control of many conquered areas, Ilyas Shah remained in firm control of Bengal <br /><br />Sultan Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah defeated the rulers of Orissa and extended his realm up to Chilika Lake. He raided Jajpur and Cuttack. Ilyas Shah returned to Bengal with plunders from Orissa, including 44 elephants. Ilyas Shah founded the Ilyas Shahi dynasty which ruled Bengal for fifteen decades.<br /><b>The rise of Bengal Sultanate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Yg1ONOyJN3cHy9mIXZrdxaCxzrrnBLkyUUPdpIn3jkxro3O8FFhubsVh3grryNJc7K55py9KH5Cxjw96ffaF4NXHfaetXP0e0aRy63oGzAOrrjzb-HQhrLXKtxxDKNiMAZ6bTHSUzpzwhfFFWGIBACBwkWm8NzCHY8c7gTvCwnFh84tS0j20OKv-nA/s766/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="700" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Yg1ONOyJN3cHy9mIXZrdxaCxzrrnBLkyUUPdpIn3jkxro3O8FFhubsVh3grryNJc7K55py9KH5Cxjw96ffaF4NXHfaetXP0e0aRy63oGzAOrrjzb-HQhrLXKtxxDKNiMAZ6bTHSUzpzwhfFFWGIBACBwkWm8NzCHY8c7gTvCwnFh84tS0j20OKv-nA/w412-h452/1.jpg" width="412" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-55747923397877142242022-12-03T06:03:00.006-08:002022-12-03T06:03:43.766-08:00Battle of PoitiersFought on 19 September 1356, the Battle of Poitiers was the war between a French army commanded by King John II and an Anglo-Gascon force under Edward, the Black Prince, during the Hundred Years' War. <br /><br />The Black Prince’s army numbered some 7,000 knights, men-at-arms and archers. Numbers in the French army are uncertain but were probably around 35,000. The French army comprised a contingent of Scots commanded by Sir William Douglas. <br /><br />In 1355, members of the Gascon nobility sailed to England to inform their overlord, King Edward III, that ever since 1352, Edward’s hereditary lands in Gascony had been under continuous attack by the French King’s lieutenant in the southwest, Count of Armagnac Jean I. <br /><br />In early 1356 the Duke of Lancaster landed with a second force in Normandy and began to advance south, while Edward, Prince of Wales, the "Black Prince," set out from English-held Aquitaine in southwest France to raid central France. Edward III was engaged in fighting in Scotland. <br /><br />The new king of France, John I, led an army against Lancaster forcing him to withdraw towards the coast. King John then turned to attack the Black Prince, who was advancing north east towards the Loire pillaging the countryside as he went. <br /><br />Marching in three parallel columns to maximize destruction, the raiding force went 100 miles South before swinging East, crossing the river Gers, and entering Armagnac territory. There, Edward’s army began mercilessly slaughtering every living creature it came across, torching everything that would burn and smashing everything that would not. <br /><br />In early September 1356 King John reached the Loire with his large army, just as the Black Prince turned back towards Bordeaux. The French army marched hard and overtook the unsuspecting English force at Poitiers on Sunday 18th September 1356. <br /><br />At first, a representative of the Pope, one Cardinal Talleyrand de Perigord, tried to negotiate a deal between the two sides but neither could agree terms. Both sides used the breathing-space to strengthen their position: Edward by digging trenches and forming barricades with his supply wagons, John by assembling more troops. <br /><br />The Black Prince’s army camped in a forest near Poitiers for the night. They emerged the next day and seized a hilltop position about a mile in front of the French, who had spent the night camped in battle formation. <br /><br />The English army was an experienced force; many of the archers veterans of Creçy, ten years before, and the Gascon men-at-arms commanded by Sir John Chandos, Sir James Audley and Captal de Buche, all old soldiers. The French, although they had some archers, continued to rely on crossbowmen as firing a crossbow required less training to use, but the weapon had a seriously slower firing rate than the longbow, about one bolt to five arrows in terms of speed of delivery. <br /><br />The French attack began in the early morning of Monday 19th September 1356 with a mounted charge by a forlorn hope of 300 German knights commanded by two Marshals of France; Barons Clermont and Audrehem. The force reached a gallop, closing in to charge down the road into the center of the English position. The attack was a disaster. <br /><br />Eventually the French king and his bodyguard were overwhelmed. Jean was taken into captivity and held until a vast ransom was paid in 1360, but many of his leading nobles had lost their lives. The English and Gascons decisively won the battle. A major consequence of the battle was that it allowed Edward III to keep 25% of France under the 1360 CE Treaty of Brétigny. The battle also cemented the reputation of the Black Prince as one of the greatest of all medieval knights.<br /><b>Battle of Poitiers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZpVlT8ChIN_qPSGdVM7uOcqhgFOgJmjcDpINrnk0Snl1k1HfLkcFRxqIkon2IY64rGv1_b2CSeAIxa3aVPHC89nX6odjUCaqFCr-IA9uGUiWB9ojGvqni_oFJtFGEB-xsNoU5q9JfIziNfv2Dl7iHI-tLBPmNdzC54TQUEN86VHxpC573pZD9YriRQ/s634/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="634" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZpVlT8ChIN_qPSGdVM7uOcqhgFOgJmjcDpINrnk0Snl1k1HfLkcFRxqIkon2IY64rGv1_b2CSeAIxa3aVPHC89nX6odjUCaqFCr-IA9uGUiWB9ojGvqni_oFJtFGEB-xsNoU5q9JfIziNfv2Dl7iHI-tLBPmNdzC54TQUEN86VHxpC573pZD9YriRQ/w537-h392/1.jpg" width="537" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-21146621345791070202022-11-07T04:26:00.003-08:002022-11-07T04:26:20.424-08:00Vacuum Foods CorporationIn 1942 the U.S. Army quartermaster offered a lucrative contract to whomever could figure out how to produce decent-tasting frozen orange juice. The U.S. Army decided to partner with National Research Corporation to create orange juice in a dehydrated form. <br /><br />National Research Corporation was founded in 1940 by Richard Stetson Mores, a talented businessman with a strong scientific background. During World War II the Boston-based National Research Corporation developed high-vacuum evaporation processes for dehydrating penicillin, blood plasma, and streptomycin for use in the U.S. war effort. <br /><br />In 1945, the U.S. Army orders 500,000 pounds of powdered orange juice. Florida Foods Corporation wins the contract. National Research Corporation organized Florida Foods Corporation headed by John M. (Jack) Fox. The new company quickly opened a pilot plant in Plymouth the heart of the Florida citrus belt. <br /><br />The plan was to fulfill contract with army. However, the war ends before the product ships. Since the war was over, Fox shifted the company’s focus to the consumer market. In need of a brand name, Florida Foods hired an advertising agency based in Boston, a city whose rich history included the famous Minutemen. The agency thereby created the Minute Maid® brand, a name connoting convenience and ease of preparation. <br /><br />They explored the possibility of marketing an “intermediate step” in the production process. Converting the powdered orange juice into a commercial product proved to be trickier than planned. The solution was an intermediate step - frozen orange juice concentrate which had a rich, fresh-squeezed taste. <br /><br />The first concentrated orange juice brand—took place on April 15,1946, from the Plymouth plant. That same month the company changed its name to Vacuum Foods Corporation. <br /><br />Vacuum Foods (which eventually becomes the Minute Maid Corporation) launches a national radio campaign featuring Bing Crosby, kicking off a 30-year promotional relationship between Vacuum Foods and Crosby. <br /><br />Coke acquired Minute Maid in 1960 as its first brand outside of its core soft drink business. In Canada, it was in the 1950's that the Minute Maid Company made its first Canadian acquisition with Clinton Foods of Canada.<br /><b>Vacuum Foods Corporation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBM2Da_MVhXjE6cG1V_PYuigbIF7QOhFR2GINjzRfgky3OoKZp4W2r1ZzUXuS05GSUAXndWaz1j5wdmOYjEx85AaGfcw8dHH_1D2FQaG4DJrNeY8vOar1KHFEWLg7ZvvgeHVPX56Lwcqs6daTBfHJT12KYGc3CFCYugDTY1J5_nlAlvZoCIhiL1rKpfg/s592/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="592" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBM2Da_MVhXjE6cG1V_PYuigbIF7QOhFR2GINjzRfgky3OoKZp4W2r1ZzUXuS05GSUAXndWaz1j5wdmOYjEx85AaGfcw8dHH_1D2FQaG4DJrNeY8vOar1KHFEWLg7ZvvgeHVPX56Lwcqs6daTBfHJT12KYGc3CFCYugDTY1J5_nlAlvZoCIhiL1rKpfg/w470-h335/1.jpg" width="470" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-66557411362006770142022-10-10T19:57:00.004-07:002022-10-10T19:57:21.828-07:00History of lemon fruit The name “lemon” first appeared around 1350–1400, from the Middle English word limon. Limon is an Old French word, indicating that the lemon entered England via France. <br /><br />It is believed that the first lemons were cultivated in Assam (in north-eastern India), where they have been cultivated for more than 2,500 years. A lemon genetic origin research has shown that it is hybrid from bitter orange to lemon (sour orange). <br /><br />Arab traders brought the lemons to the Middle East and Africa sometime after 100 AD. It is known that lemons were introduced to southern Italy around 200 AD and have been cultivated in Egypt and Iran since 700 AD. <br /><br />The citrus was first reported in literature in early Islamic gardens in an Arabic farming treaty of the 10th century. It was commonly spread between 1000 and 1150 in the Arab world and the Mediterranean area. Crusaders returning from Palestine brought it to the rest of Europe. In Genoa in the center of the 15th century, the first significant cultivation of lemons started in Europe. <br /><br />In 1493, Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to the New World on his second voyage. These seeds were planted in Hispaniola in 1493. Spaniard explorers and missionaries planted lemons, along with other fruits, in Florida and California. <br /><br />Portuguese traders came back to Europe with new varieties from Southeast Asia in the 16th century. Two centuries later then, citrus fruits had been distributed and known all over the world. <br /><br />Planting of lemon can be a profitable business. James Lind in 1747 found that lemons are very useful to treat scurvy, which was a particular plague for sailors, especially since sea voyages lasting for weeks and for months were becoming more common. <br /><br />In Florida and California, lemons were planted more and more in the 19th century, but due to a killer freeze in the winter of 1894-1895, commercial lemon culture in Florida ceased. Planting resumed in 1953 due to a need not for fresh lemons (of which there were plenty from California), but a market for frozen lemon concentrate.<br /><b>History of lemon fruit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJNCFSv6VxL1UlXjzVRHojQCZ144XQSdJYRO08vGoeHKnttMjNFqjS0sbJR6D02th92G_LZIOdpbUuxf74e2ZtjnxNPYjxnZoAsUovnP_AGX3aVowQ7ds1GUT0rPHs93G0Tf-cy0_9mtWFBP8oC1luRI-Pfz5HunrpFSr_acBgpWJmtAIBI0lfnnG4w/s1133/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="1133" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJNCFSv6VxL1UlXjzVRHojQCZ144XQSdJYRO08vGoeHKnttMjNFqjS0sbJR6D02th92G_LZIOdpbUuxf74e2ZtjnxNPYjxnZoAsUovnP_AGX3aVowQ7ds1GUT0rPHs93G0Tf-cy0_9mtWFBP8oC1luRI-Pfz5HunrpFSr_acBgpWJmtAIBI0lfnnG4w/w449-h366/1.jpg" width="449" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-70770935156118912372022-09-05T09:01:00.005-07:002022-09-05T09:01:45.730-07:00Discovery of measles Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by the morbillivirus, also known as the rubeola virus. Measles is characterized by a reddish brown rash that lasts for five to six days. Although a rare side effect, post-infection encephalitis can lead to permanent brain damage. <br /><br />The first description of measles as a disease different from smallpox is attributed to Persian physician Rhazes of Baghdad in the tenth century. The Persian physician, Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (860-932), known to the West as "Rhazes", published a book entitled The Book of Smallpox and Measles (in Arabic: Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah). <br /><br />Rhazes referred to measles as ‘hasbah’ (eruption) and regarded it as a modification of smallpox. One distinction noted was that ‘anxiety of mind, sick qualms and heaviness of heart oppress more in the measles than in the smallpox. Repeated epidemics of illness characterized by a rash are recorded in European and Far Eastern populations between AD 1 and 1200. <br /><br />The first written record of measles in the United States was in 1657 by a citizen of Boston, Massachusetts. John Hull, in his personal journal, stated "the disease of measles went through the town, but fortunately there were very few deaths". <br /><br />Francis Home, a Scottish physician, demonstrated in 1757 that measles is caused by an infectious agent in the blood of patients. He first attempted to make a vaccine. By then, measles was a worldwide killer. <br /><br />In roughly the last 150 years, measles has been estimated to have killed about 200 million people worldwide. In 1954 the virus that causes measles was isolated in Boston, Massachusetts, by John F. Enders and Thomas C. Peebles. <br /><br />Many of the basic principles of measles epidemiology and infection were elucidated by the studies of Peter Panum, a Danish physician who went to the France Islands in 1846 during a large-scale measles epidemic. Panum deduced the highly contagious nature of the disease the 14-day incubation period, the lifelong immunity present in older residents, and postulated a respiratory route of transmission. <br /><br />By the 1950s, measles deaths had dropped to only 400 to 500 a year, thanks to the availability of antibiotics and improvements in sanitation, medical supportive care and nutrition.<br /><b>Discovery of measles<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdU90g1chaiPUoNt3JigVByiMU7Mt3lox2L2yBCjdfYiTjf-NTVXxvMoOTtkqJFMlpG86-g-91fEYbQqCitVvU1lM2qEGa313Z1hZxNzJyAW3UxL5JtKCAFXOhKM9utzg0gB4l7DQW2mE3aYsyekCG-otrlFGJez3ymSSDJNpkgx6G2egX9aJOv8ZUZw/s269/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="187" height="479" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdU90g1chaiPUoNt3JigVByiMU7Mt3lox2L2yBCjdfYiTjf-NTVXxvMoOTtkqJFMlpG86-g-91fEYbQqCitVvU1lM2qEGa313Z1hZxNzJyAW3UxL5JtKCAFXOhKM9utzg0gB4l7DQW2mE3aYsyekCG-otrlFGJez3ymSSDJNpkgx6G2egX9aJOv8ZUZw/w333-h479/1.jpg" width="333" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Francis Home</b></td></tr></tbody></table></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-71304133590952220772022-08-21T22:26:00.004-07:002022-08-21T22:27:22.033-07:00Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (1911-1924)In its early years, IBM was widely associated with the punched card, invented by Herman Hollerith. Hollerith agreed to sell his Tabulating Machine Company to financier Charles Flint for US$2,312,100.<br /><br />The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), the precursor to IBM, was founded on June 16, 1911. At its beginning, it was a merger of three manufacturing businesses (International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Company and the Tabulating Machine Company), a product of the times orchestrated by the financier, Charles Flint. <br /><br />The companies that merged to form CTR manufactured a wide range of products, including employee time-keeping systems, weighing scales, automatic meat slicers and, most importantly for the development of computers, punched card equipment. <br /><br />Headquarters then moved to New York, and the company operated factories in Endicott, NY, Dayton, Ohio and a few other cities. <br /><br />In 1914 Thomas J. Watson, Sr., was named general manager of CTR. Watson emphasized research and engineering, and introduced into the company his famous motto "THINK." Aside from being in day-to-day control of CTR, Watson was also directly responsible for Tabulating Machine. Hollerith’s tabulator emerged as the most promising technology in CTR’s catalog. Before the merger, the machines had been used to conduct population censuses in a variety of countries, including Austria, Canada, Denmark and Russia. <br /><br />In 1912, the firm’s first full year of operation, CTR earned $541,000 in net profit. Two thirds of that sum came from International Time. <br /><br />Watson also began expanding overseas—beyond the UK, Canada and Germany where its products were already sold—taking tiny CTR global. When the economy picked up during World War I, CTR’s overall profit began climbing again. International Time and Computing Scale found new markets for their goods in the various war industries, <br /><br />In 1924, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company adopted the name International Business Machines Corporation.<br /><b>Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (1911-1924)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ALwk47nmbhI-eNghH-HKC0jSmCAbqtS3dFAdbmr2Dbix83vImv1xC0aZRF-EEYMTEWKXVLX6_5U7XYzcfBJUl6eND2VU9JLtugXJo-Lg5GOFnpbtPexEk7cry9ocViiWVruSU55rQk5d5XIvs85Kz3ij5Yv9Ekkpbmh2uzwjuwT91z_zIAMbnvgsgg/s2278/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="2278" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ALwk47nmbhI-eNghH-HKC0jSmCAbqtS3dFAdbmr2Dbix83vImv1xC0aZRF-EEYMTEWKXVLX6_5U7XYzcfBJUl6eND2VU9JLtugXJo-Lg5GOFnpbtPexEk7cry9ocViiWVruSU55rQk5d5XIvs85Kz3ij5Yv9Ekkpbmh2uzwjuwT91z_zIAMbnvgsgg/w391-h370/1.jpg" width="391" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-43975824930264690092022-08-05T18:53:00.000-07:002022-08-05T18:53:00.173-07:00History of supply chain managementBefore the 1950s, logistics was thought of in military terms. It had to do with procurement, maintenance, and transportation of military facilities, materials, and personnel. <br /><br />The scope of physical distribution was expanded to include physical supply and was called business logistics. It emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. <br /><br />The importance of logistics increased considerably, when physical distribution management in manufacturing firms was recognized as a separate organizational function . The SCM concept was coined in the early 1980s by consultants in logistics. <br /><br />The first use of the term “supply chain management” is commonly related to the article “Supply Chain Management: Logistics Catches up with Strategy” by Oliver and Weber (1982). <br /><br />The term “supply chain management” then came into widespread use in the 1990s. In practice, supply chain management became important in the 1990s in retail networks, the automotive industry, electronics, and textiles. <br /><br />The origins of the technique of supply chain management are thought to lie in the shipyards of Japan and were first used in the early 1950s. The technique was later used in the car manufacturing industry and in particular was pioneered, again in Japan, by Toyota. <br /><br />Physical distribution begins to emerge as an area of study and practice, which is the coordination of more than one activity associated with physically supplying product to the marketplace. <br /><br />The development of supply chain management was driven in the 1990s by three main trends. These are: customer orientation, markets globalization, and establishing an information society.<br /><b>History of supply chain management</b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-81008020655685044162022-07-17T09:42:00.004-07:002022-07-17T09:42:33.636-07:00Agricola, Georgius (Georg Bauer) (1494-1555Georgius Agricola was a physician, scientist and metallurgist of note and it was this which led to the publication of De Re Metalicca. Agricola's real name was Georg Bauer. He was born in Glauchau, a village of about 1000 residents. <br /><br />During the years 1514-1517 Agricola attended the University of Leipzig (Leipziger Universitat); this was during the revival of the classics of the early Reformation, and he studied philosophy, philology, Latin, and Greek. Between 1518 and 1522 he was a school teacher in Zwickau. <br /><br />He took his degree in 1526 and became a practicing doctor; however, he never seems to have been terribly enthusiastic about his profession, devoting most of his energy to studies of mining and geology. Eventually he settled as a physician in Chemnitz. Later he continued his medical practiced at Joachimstal in 1527 in the Erzgebirge. <br /><br />This town was newly built to serve the mining community in what was at the time the most important ore-mining filed in both Germany and Europe. <br /><br />As a physician in the sixteenth century, he would naturally have been concerned with the development of medicines which would have led him to research the medical properties or ores and base metals. <br /><br />He studied the mineralogy of his area and the mines and the miners who were working there. Agricola was the first to differentiate bismuth and antimony, and thus was the first to move beyond the seven metals known to the ancients. <br /><br />He wrote several books in Latin on geology and mineralogy. His important work during that period was a glossary of mineralogical and mining terms in both Latin and German. His perhaps best-known work, De re metallica from 1556, contains a complete representation of contemporary mining and metallurgy and served as a standard work for several centuries. <br /><br />De Re Metallica, literally translated, means "On the Nature of Metals," but the word metal had a wider meaning at the time, and meant any mineral. This large volume contains twelve books which deal with mining and metallurgy, including an account of glassmaking. <br /><br />The book was clearly intended as a textbook of mining and mineralogy and as such it would have been brought to England by German engineers when they were employed by Mines Royal in the Keswick area in the late sixteenth century. <br /><br />In addition to his studies in preparation for De Re Metalicca, Agricola was an ‘adventurer’ holding shares in the Gottesgab mine in the Erzegebirge.<br /><b>Agricola, Georgius (Georg Bauer) (1494-1555)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD5PfU2_eROs69WlA9tnaookRwbydvDNY96FxMM29h4eCA5jpw7K-uphzrdvl-CwMLe3vlM7UaA_nibiF8ItXXxLrfxPEPflZ5Erc2_gT7fEqrFZppnTV8nC63Fk38AHHDhuaFNo9k6TuqTE91j2xR6hgavoVcaNB-ifb9_9HvcGKj9gu-nQJTCOvDEQ/s800/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="691" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD5PfU2_eROs69WlA9tnaookRwbydvDNY96FxMM29h4eCA5jpw7K-uphzrdvl-CwMLe3vlM7UaA_nibiF8ItXXxLrfxPEPflZ5Erc2_gT7fEqrFZppnTV8nC63Fk38AHHDhuaFNo9k6TuqTE91j2xR6hgavoVcaNB-ifb9_9HvcGKj9gu-nQJTCOvDEQ/w324-h376/1.jpg" width="324" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-60583504226277962682022-06-20T11:22:00.002-07:002022-06-20T11:22:08.290-07:00Adler, Larry (1914 – 2001) – American harmonica playerLarry Adler or Lawrence Adler was born in Baltimore on 1914. Both his parents were recent immigrants from Russia. He generally considered to be responsible for the elevation of the mouth organ to concert status in the world of classical music. <br /><br />He had worn a talent competition at the age of thirteen by playing a Beethoven minuet on what had hitherto been regarded as a musical toy. Soon after this victory and over the objections of his horrified parents, Adler headed to New York City to look for work in the motion picture industry, which at that time had not yet made the move to Hollywood. <br /><br />Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Paul Hindemith have all written works for him and his reputation is worldwide. <br /><br />He had appeared in motion pictures during the 1930s and 1940s and with concert orchestras. Adler himself has also written film scores including Genevieve (1954), for which he played in the sound track. <br /><br />With other show-business personalities, he was blacklisted by the American entertainment industry after 1949 for his alleged left-wing sympathies. In that year, he refused to testify against the "Hollywood Ten." <br /><br />In 1950 Adler and performer Paul Draper sued Hester McCullough, the wife of a "Time-Life" editor for libel for alleging he was a communist, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. <br /><br />Since then, he has lived for many years in England where he has created a second career for himself as a journalist and writer. <br /><br />In 1994, he became the oldest artist ever to be awarded a gold disc for a million-selling album - appropriately of Gershwin melodies, accompanying entertainers from a different generation such as Elton John, Sting and Kate Bush. <br /><br />Adler was an entertaining performer and showman--the concerts in support of The Glory of Gershwin also revealed that he was a competent pianist, when he opened each performance with Gershwin's Summertime, playing piano and harmonica simultaneously. <br /><br />Adler died on August 6, 2001, in London’s St. Thomas’s Hospital at the age of 87.<br /><b>Adler, Larry (1914 – 2001) – American harmonica player<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_B3fSmjNHOed57fdv81A-4cIgbvDNcwWrBOzFPGPBPdyTBvHsMJ-HWSws9VHA53DuNIcAM64ih3IXkNZ0FGCac5fy9_X228V2zVcBFbT74QVyomeGMCMvMlyWpD5X_PzQWRp7pw9pgyxbONDZQhO9Q6zIpYoYTVjkqd0UclW85vfByLBo34GNUIyLQQ/s318/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="318" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_B3fSmjNHOed57fdv81A-4cIgbvDNcwWrBOzFPGPBPdyTBvHsMJ-HWSws9VHA53DuNIcAM64ih3IXkNZ0FGCac5fy9_X228V2zVcBFbT74QVyomeGMCMvMlyWpD5X_PzQWRp7pw9pgyxbONDZQhO9Q6zIpYoYTVjkqd0UclW85vfByLBo34GNUIyLQQ/w375-h375/1.jpg" width="375" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-32881158564846967002022-06-06T07:33:00.005-07:002022-06-06T07:33:45.987-07:00Seikan Tunnel in JapanJapan’s 53.85km Seikan railway tunnel passes beneath the Tsugaru Strait and connects the Aomori Prefecture on Honshu Island and the Hokkaido Island. The tunnel contains a rail line, and the building of the tunnel was sponsored by the Japanese National Railways. <br /><br />Before the existence of the tunnel, ferries provided transport between the two islands. In 1954, a typhoon sank five ferry boats in Japan's Tsugaru Strait and killed 1,430 people. In response to public outrage, the Japanese government searched for a safer way to cross the dangerous strait. The following year, Japanese National Railways (JNR) expedited the tunnel feasibility study. <br /><br />As early as 1946, Japan began looking at ways to build a fixed connection between the main island of Honshu and the nation’s second largest island to the north, Hokkaido. Conceptual planning of the Seikan tunnel was completed during 1939-40. <br /><br />Construction of the tunnel began in 1964 and was completed in 1988. The digging employed as many as 3,000 workers at one time and took 34 lives in all because of cave-ins, flooding, and other mishaps. <br /><br />Once the tunnel was completed, all railway transport between Honshu and Hokkaido used it. The freight and passenger services were started in March 1988. However, for passenger transport, 90% of people use air travel due to the speed and cost.<br /><b>Seikan Tunnel in Japan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1YmA9sJ_peJdlXDFv_sZTeAA2H8ifmqeN5vYQBudnmvdVrLSx_j-uY8FHk_Dbk8IjFa0W98LyZJbVn39wQblgcxvcBiyZqkaZ2hQfX0d2NNa2kdTPRTjGKrZgs8OVhgP-Ybyws0mudTb-wVwnx-b8ftTx2AptGva9ugrn7TZopM7NReVueYiRqj4Ug/s585/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="585" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1YmA9sJ_peJdlXDFv_sZTeAA2H8ifmqeN5vYQBudnmvdVrLSx_j-uY8FHk_Dbk8IjFa0W98LyZJbVn39wQblgcxvcBiyZqkaZ2hQfX0d2NNa2kdTPRTjGKrZgs8OVhgP-Ybyws0mudTb-wVwnx-b8ftTx2AptGva9ugrn7TZopM7NReVueYiRqj4Ug/w439-h292/1.jpg" width="439" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5775640085843933261.post-26942924559994927162022-05-22T19:57:00.002-07:002022-05-22T19:57:09.860-07:00History of clove in Southeast AsiaClove is an unopened flower bud growing on a tree belonging to the family <i>Myrtaceae</i>. Clove is native to the Moluccas Island in Indonesia where it has grown for thousands of years, without needing to be planted by people. The first clove tree was planted around the 16-17th century during the spice trade wars when the Dutch East India Company wanted a monopoly on the clove crop. <br /><br />For a period of time around the 1700's, it looked as if the clove trees would never grow anywhere but the island of Amboina. For the Moluccans, cloves compared to sago or coconut was the most valuable commodity. When the fruits were still green, they were preserved in vinegar. <br /><br />Specifically for the Chinese, cloves were used for medicine and food flavorings. While for Indians, cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds, which are commonly used in biryanis, pickles, salads and garam masala. <br /><br />The Moluccans sold the spices, such as cloves, nutmeg, and pepper outside of the island. They only used a small amount of spices for necessities such as food seasoning, while the rest, the tons of spices were sent to the cigarette companies in Java. <br /><br />Its source and place of origin were shrouded in mystery until16th century. Its story began with the discovery of the Moluccas Island by the Portuguese, and the expedition organized by Magellan. On returning to Spain in 1522, the Victoria, the first boat to circumnavigate the globe, carried in its hold a cargo of spices that included cloves. <br /><br />During the late Middle Ages, cloves were used in Europe to preserve, flavor, and garnish food. For European, the sweet smell of the cloves was distilled to strengthen the vision of the eye. Cloves may be added to food or drink to stimulate the appetite, and when they were drunk with milk enhance the pleasure of sexual intercourse. <br /><br />Two major naval European powers in the 17th and 18th centuries, namely the Dutch and the Portuguese were involved in a long tussle over competition for cloves. In the early 17th century the Dutch eradicated cloves on all islands except Amboina and Ternate in order to create scarcity and sustain high prices. <br /><br />This was the plan instituted by the Dutch government to control their monopoly of the valuable spice. They proceeded to destroy every clove tree that grew on any other island in the Moluccas. This project was destined to fail though, partly due to the tenacity of Pierre Poivre who, more than a century later, organised several expeditions for the French East India Company to pilfer clove and nutmeg plants from the Dutch.<br /><b>History of clove in Southeast Asia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tnlUbOlH_rw3PoFnMIZw8qJfFNXfgZDr_VRAfulTtl3Dl3B_oDCPC4m7i_-PihRkPS5BfSpjFQZzXYfGbrjnOzj5G1NwfwvxkitKfPZLP7JgSehf8wk9Rr7uzX0k1bZaApszJcH6me75hr1xliP-a-sHssvG_TEau0nZ8W-WZZcRf3Ny8PKwyotBzQ/s1490/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="1490" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tnlUbOlH_rw3PoFnMIZw8qJfFNXfgZDr_VRAfulTtl3Dl3B_oDCPC4m7i_-PihRkPS5BfSpjFQZzXYfGbrjnOzj5G1NwfwvxkitKfPZLP7JgSehf8wk9Rr7uzX0k1bZaApszJcH6me75hr1xliP-a-sHssvG_TEau0nZ8W-WZZcRf3Ny8PKwyotBzQ/w470-h204/1.jpg" width="470" /></a></div></b>Zack Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17143740517571824443noreply@blogger.com