Budapest is the capital and the most
populous city of Hungary, and the tenth-largest city in the European Union by population within city
limits. The city has an estimated population of 1,752,286 over a land
area of about 525 square kilometres (203 square miles). Budapest is both
a city and county, and
forms the centre of the Budapest
metropolitan area, which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres
(2,944 square miles) and a population of 3,303,786, comprising 33% of the
population of Hungary. The history of Budapest began
when an early Celtic settlement transformed into
the Roman town
of Aquincum, the capital of Lower Pannonia. The Hungarians arrived in the territory in
the late 9th century. The area was
pillaged by the Mongols in
1241–42. Buda became
one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture
by the 15th century. The Battle of Mohács,
in 1526, was followed by nearly 150 years of Ottoman. After the reconquest of Buda in
1686, the region entered a new age of prosperity. Pest-Buda became a global city with the
unification of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest on 17 November 1873, with the name
'Budapest' given to the new capital.
Budapest also became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power that dissolved in 1918,
following World War I. The city was the focal point of the Hungarian
Revolution of 1848, the Battle of Budapest in
1945, and the Hungarian
Revolution of 1956. The city has around 80 geothermal springs, the largest thermal water cave system, the
second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building in the world. Budapest attracts around 12 million international tourists per
year, making it a highly popular destination in Europe. The city was chosen as the Best
European Destination of 2019, a major poll conducted by EBD, a tourism
organisation partnering with the European Commission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest
For backpackers and other
thrill seekers touring New Zealand, a whiff of danger has placed White Island
firmly on adventure itineraries alongside bungee jumping, jetboating and white
water rafting. But the tragic events of December 9,
2019 have spotlighted the tourism industry that's built up around White Island
and other volatile attractions. It was only when I boarded the tour boat and signed a disclaimer
that absolved anyone but myself of any responsibility that the reality of the
trip's dangers hit home, but not enough to dissuade me or my fellow tourists
from continuing. After a couple of hours
sailing, our party landed at White Island's Crater Bay, where we were greeted
by what looked like an alien landscape. The
sea was lemon yellow, the rocks cinnamon brown, the sand pitch black and the
air thick with the smell of an open latrine.
What was eerie, though, was the silence.
I was expecting a roar, at least a muted grumble, but no, the island was
silent. With pewter-gray ash and scoria
covering much of the land; the scene could've been described as lunar if it
weren't for the mist over the steam vents.
These vents came in every shade of yellow--from banana to butterscotch
and all variations in between. "Don't
go anywhere near the vents," our guide said. "The coolest ones clock 95 C (100 F). The superheated ones can reach 200 C (400 F). Some go deep down to 600 feet below sea
level." At some point, we reached a
white line painted on the ground and were told to stop. "From here on, the crust is thin,"
the guide said. "Walk further and
the ground might give in under your feet."
In front of us lay the main crater cloaked under a vapor cloud, a gate
to the center of the Earth. Back on the boat, the guide
changed his sneakers. He used a separate
pair just for White Island. "Plastic
laces, holes with no metal eyelets; everything rusts there," he said. John Malathronas See graphics, including the 25,000 mile Ring
of Fire at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/new-zealand-volcano-tours-ads/index.html
The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting
immigration into the United States. Many
Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to
Chinese workers. Although the Chinese
composed only .002 percent of the nation's population, Congress passed the
exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about
maintaining white "racial purity."
Meant to curb the
influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States, particularly California, The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and
declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. President Chester A. Arthur signed it into
law on May 6, 1882. Chinese-Americans
already in the country challenged the constitutionality of the discriminatory
acts, but their efforts failed. Proposed
by California congressman Thomas J. Geary, The Geary Act went into effect on
May 5, 1892. It reinforced and extended
the Chinese Exclusion Act’s ban on Chinese immigration for an additional ten
years. It also required Chinese
residents in the U.S. to carry special documentation—certificates of
residence—from the Internal Revenue Service.
Immigrants who were caught not carrying the certificates were sentenced
to hard labor and deportation, and bail was only an option if the accused were vouched
for by a “credible white witness.”
Chinese Americans were finally allowed to testify in court after the
1882 trial of laborer Yee Shun,
though it would take decades for the immigration ban to be lifted. The Supreme Court upheld the Geary Act in
Fong Yue Ting v. United States in 1893, and in 1902 Chinese immigration was
made permanently illegal. The
legislation proved very effective, and the Chinese population in the United
States sharply declined. https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/chinese-exclusion-act-1882 See also https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/chinese.html
Strange
Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella written by the Scottish
author Robert Louis
Stevenson and first published in 1886. It is about a London lawyer who investigates
strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr.
Henry Jekyll and the misanthropic Mr. Hyde. The work is known for its vivid portrayal of
a split personality,
and since the 1880s dozens of stage and film adaptations have been produced,
although there have been no major adaptations to date that remain faithful to
the narrative structure of Stevenson's original. Most omit the figure of Utterson, telling the
story from Jekyll's and Hyde's viewpoint and often having them played by the
same actor, thus eliminating entirely the mystery aspect of the true identity
of Hyde, which was the original's twist ending and not the basic premise it
is today. Many adaptations also introduce
a romantic element which does not exist in the original story. While
Hyde is portrayed in the novella as an evil-looking man of diminutive height,
many adaptations have taken liberties with the character's physical appearance,
sometimes depicting him with bestial or monstrous features. There are over 123 film versions, not
including stage and radio, as well as a number of parodies and imitations. See adaptations for stage, film, radio, TV,
music, and books as well as appearances in other fiction at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_Strange_Case_of_Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde
The Ugly Duckling is a 1959 British
comedy film, directed by Lance Comfort and
starring Bernard Bresslaw, Jon Pertwee and Reginald Beckwith. The film is a comic adaptation of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde storyline and the
opening credits include "with ideas stolen from Robert Louis
Stevenson". The film has no connection to the Hans Christian Andersen story. The tagline on posters was "HE'S A CHANGED MAN AFTER
TAKING JEKYLL'S FAMILY REMEDY."
Practically every modern
author’s origin story includes a cherished memory of a library. Few question the public library’s value as an
important discovery channel, both in print and digital, especially in the
thousands of communities across the United States without local booksellers. The same is true for publishers. Publishers depend on library preorders to
help establish initial print runs ahead of publication. And once books are published, library-hosted
author events and community reading campaigns have been shown to drive consumer
sales. Many publishers even have
full-time staff dedicated to marketing their books directly to librarians. There is no question that public librarians themselves are
unparalleled, often unheralded influencers, helping readers to discover books
and authors through a plethora of in-person and online readers’
advisory services, regardless of publication date or bestseller list
status. And yet, despite all these
tangible, measurable activities and a well of consumer research that
consistently shows library patrons are also book buyers, there are still some
publishers who continue to view library lending, in any format, with a cynical
eye. Why? Most stakeholders would agree: better data about the library’s role in the
reading marketplace would be enormously useful.
True, the inherent complexity of aggregating and analyzing the many
sources of data needed to measure the impact of libraries is
challenging—there’s data from publishers and wholesalers, booksellers and
libraries, and various industry organizations with overlapping and sometimes
competing agendas. And there is the
ever-present silent elephant in every room:
Amazon. But the challenge is by
no means insurmountable, if only publishers were to deem it a priority. Guy LeCharles Gonzales https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/81977-ala-midwinter-2020-why-it-s-time-to-quantify-the-library-s-role-in-the-reading-marketplace.html
"Exorcise" or
"Exercise"? Exorcisms are limited to evil spirits. The word “exorcise” comes from a Greek work
for “oath,” so think of swearing an oath to get rid of an evil spirit, and in
your mind, link the “o” from “oath” to the idea that “exorcise” is spelled with
an “o.” Exercising is for all kinds of
mind and body activities. Mignon Fogarty https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/exorcise-or-exercise
Kifli or kipfel is
a traditional yeast bread roll that
is rolled and formed into a crescent before baking. Crescent-shaped pastries are considered to be
the oldest-surviving pastry shape and are believed to represent an
ancient pagan tradition involving offerings to
the moon goddess Selene. Pastries of similar shape have been baked
since the 10th century. In Vienna kipfel
dates to at earliest the 13th century and was likely traditionally baked
in monasteries for Easter.
It is a common type of bread roll throughout much of central Europe and
nearby countries, where it is called by different names. It is probably the inspiration for the
French croissant, which has a similar shape but is
made with a different type of dough. In Old
High German, Kipfa means
"carriage stanchion", referring to the stanchions or
"horns" of a cart. From the 13th century this usage refers to a
bread shape of pagan origin. In Hungarian, kifli means "twist"
or "crescent". See
pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kifli
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2207
January 8, 2020
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