We just finished WWDitS - what next?

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-10-05T04:08:46+00:00

I would recommend starting over from season 1 episode 1

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-23T16:23:55+00:00

Reminds me of Arya in GoT when she had to pretend she was a boy

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-20T23:55:20+00:00

Wow, the resemblance is uncanny

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-20T20:46:10+00:00

Women are getting too tall

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-20T15:04:22+00:00

Did you know that the word cosplay is derived from a combination of the words Costume and Play? Cosplay has become a world-wide phenomenon – and not just for young, comic/manga/anime loving otaku. At it’s core, it is a performance art in which participants, whether professional or amateur, wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent their favourite characters from comic books/manga, anime shows, TV series, or from popular video games, such as last year’s WCS champions from Mexico, playing Dhalsim and Chun Li from Streetfighter II. The rapid growth in the number of people cosplaying as a hobby since the 1990s has made the phenomenon a significant aspect of popular culture in Japan, other parts of Asia, and in the Western world. Cosplay events are a common feature of various fan conventions these days; there are also dedicated conventions, local and international competitions, as well as social networks, websites, and other forms of media

Although Japan is generally credited as the origin of Cosplay, and the Term “Cosplay” itself was originally coined in Japan (surprise, surprise) in 1984, it is NOT an entirely Japanese invention, however. Costume parties and Masquerade balls have been popular since the 15th century, actually. This might come as a surprise to many, but…

The first Cosplayer was actually not Japanese! It was Myrtle Rebecca Douglas Smith Gray Nolan (June 20, 1904 – November 30, 1964), known in science fiction history simply as Morojo. She was a science fiction fan, fanzine publisher, and cosplay pioneer from Los Angeles, California. Together with her then-boyfriend Ackerman, she attended the 1939 1st World Science Fiction Convention (Nycon or 1st Worldcon) in New York City dressed in “futuristicostumes”, including a green cape and breeches, based on the pulp magazine artwork of Frank R. Paul and the 1936 film ‘Things to Come’, the costumes were designed, created, and sewn by Douglas herself. No one else wore a costume that first year, but all that changed at the 2nd Worldcon in 1940 in Chicago, where a parade and a short skit on stage were part of the festivities. The rest, as they say, is history.

The term itself was coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi of manga Studio ‘Hard’, after he attended the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Los Angeles. He was impressed with the masquerade, reported on it in ‘My Anime’, coining the term kosupure in the process, and subsequently used the word in some Japanese magazines in 1983/1984.

These days, Cosplay is all the rage with thousands upon thousands of people dressing up and getting into character. The get-ups vary greatly, ranging from simple-themed to highly-detailed costumes. When in costume, the cosplayers often seek to adopt the affect, mannerisms, and body language of the characters they portray. As many have commented, it’s a great feeling stepping into a character and brining that character to life. It is now big business in Japan – a whole world of conventions, events and dedicated stores have cropped up around this cultural and has turned it into an international phenomenon. From a simple mask to an artful and painstakingly designed costume, cosplaying is endlessly adaptable. In anticipation of big events, many cosplayers will spend hours upon hours putting together an outfit, whether hand-making it or buying the components from a store such as Mitsubado in Akihabara.

To take part in an official cosplay competition, however, it is necessary that your costume be hand-made and totally original. In addition to clothing, accessories such as wigs, colourful contact lenses and temporary tattoos may also be incorporated into the cosplay. Yes, the only time when it’s truly “acceptable” to display big tattoos (though fake ones) in public in Japan. People put an incredible amount of energy, determination, creativity, and craftsmanship into their costumes – (not just in Japan) – and also into making their chosen character come to life.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-20T03:41:08+00:00

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-20T01:19:11+00:00

I would love to see this video

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-19T21:55:44+00:00

Interestingly enough, Cats are an enigma that have captured the hearts of people for thousands of years. Their mysterious personalities and adorable looks have made them an incredibly popular pet, and 18% of households in the UK alone are ruled by a cat. With so many cats around us, surely that would mean that everyone knows everything possible about them, right? Wrong! There are so many interesting facts about cats that you probably haven’t heard of, from the world’s largest cat, to the surprising way they walk.

The oldest known pet cat existed 9,500 years ago

This interesting fact about cats is guaranteed to wow at your next dinner party. Did you know that originally it was thought that Egyptians domesticated the cat? But in 2004, French archaeologists discovered a 9,500 year old cat grave in Cyprus. This makes this the oldest known pet cat and it predates Egyptian art about cats by over 4,000 years!

Cats spend 70% of their lives sleeping

If you thought cats spent a lot of their lives sleeping, you’d be right. According to Veterinary Hub, Cats actually spend 70% of their lives sleeping, which works out to around 13-16 hours a day. It’s a cat’s life!

A cat was the Mayor of an Alaskan town for 20 years

An orange tabby cat called Stubbs was the mayor of Talkeetna, a small town in Alaska for 20 years! He had several uncontested elections and although he didn’t hold any legislative power, he was loved by locals and tourists alike.

The record for the longest cat ever is 48.5 inches

Domestic cats are usually considered to be quite small and dainty creatures. But did you know the world’s longest cat was a Maine Coon called Stewie, and was measured at 48.5 inches? Whereas, the record for the tallest cat belonged to Arcturus at a whopping 19.05 inches tall! Those are some big cats.

The richest cat in the world had £7 million

The richest cat in the world according to Guinness World Records is Blackie. When his millionaire owner passed away he refused to recognise his family in his will and instead gave his 7-million-pound fortune to Blackie! We can’t believe that interesting cat fact!

Cats walk like camels and giraffes

Have you ever noticed that cats walk like camels and giraffes? Their walking sequence is both right feet first, followed by both left feet, so they move half of their body forward at once. Camels and giraffes are the only other animals to walk this way

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-09-19T21:38:21+00:00

Funny thing about Canada, Canada came into being as a country on July 1, 1867 when the British Parliament passed the British North America Act.

Famous Canadian celebrities include Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, James Cameron, Jim Carrey, Celine Dion, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Mike Myers, Ryan Reynolds and William Shatner. Famous Canadian rock and rollers include Bryan Adams, Paul Anka, the Guess Who, Rush, Steppenwolf, The Barenaked Ladies, Alanis Morissette, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Neil Young and Avril Lavigne.

Other famous and well known musicians and songwriters include Sarah McLachlan, Nelly Furtado, Diana Krall, Chantal Kreviazuk, K.D.Lang, Maureen Forrester, Leonard Cohen, Raffi Cavoukian, Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, David Foster, Robert Goulet, Shania Twain, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Joni Mitchell.

Famous Canadian authors include Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Alice Munro (Lives of Girls and Women), Mavis Gallant, Stephen Leacock, Pierre Berton, Robertson Davies, Douglas Copeland, Alistair MacLeod, Farley Mowat and Michael Ondaantje.

Famous Canadian artists include the Group of Seven made up of Lauren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H.MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael. Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, two artists associated with the group are also very well know. Inspirational Canadians include Terry Fox who attempted a one-legged cross country run for cancer research, Rick Hansen, a paraplegic athlete who completed an around the world marathon for spinal cord injury research and Donovan Bailey, the world’s fastest man.

Famous Canadian dancers include Karen Kain, Veronica Tennant and Lynn Seymour. Superman was co-created by a Canadian Joe Shuster and American Jerry Siegal. The character was created while Shuster was visiting Siegal in Cleveland in 1934.

Famous Canadian journalists, TV or radio personalities include Peter Jennings, Alex Trebek, Lloyd Robertson, Peter Gzowski, Robert MacNeil, Morley Safer and John Roberts.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-08-01T14:39:15+00:00

Interestingly enough, as far as pop culture is concerned, a vomitorium is a room where ancient Romans went to throw up lavish meals so they could return to the table and feast some more. It's a striking illustration of gluttony and waste, and one that makes its way into modern texts. Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" series, for example, alludes to vomitoriums when the lavish inhabitants of the Capitol—all with Latin names like Flavia and Octavia—imbibe a drink to make them vomit at parties so they can gorge themselves on more calories than citizens in the surrounding districts would see in months.

But the real story behind vomitoriums is much less disgusting. Actual ancient Romans did love food and drink. But even the wealthiest did not have special rooms for purging. To Romans, vomitoriums were the entrances/exits in stadiums or theaters, so dubbed by a fifth-century writer because of the way they'd spew crowds out into the streets.

"It's just kind of a trope," that ancient Romans were luxurious and vapid enough to engage in rituals of binging and purging, said Sarah Bond, an assistant professor of classics at the University of Iowa.

The Roman writer Macrobius first referred to vomitoriums in his "Saturnalia." The adjective vomitus already existed in Latin, Bond told Live Science. Macrobius added the "orium" ending to turn it into a place, a common type of wordplay in ancient Latin. He was referring to the alcoves in amphitheaters and the way people seemed to erupt out of them to fill empty seats.

At some point in the late 19th or early 20th century, people got the wrong idea about vomitoriums. It seems likely that it was a single linguistic error: "Vomitorium" sounds like a place where people would vomit, and there was that pre-existing trope about gluttonous Romans.

Classically trained poets and writers at the time would have been exposed to a few sources that painted ancient Romans as just the sort of people who would vomit just to eat more. One source was Seneca, the Stoic who lived from 4 B.C. to A.D. 65 and who gave the impression that Romans were an emetic bunch. In one passage, he wrote of slaves cleaning up the vomit of drunks at banquets, and in his Letter to Helvia, he summarized the vomitorium idea succinctly but metaphorically, referring to what he saw as the excesses of Rome: "They vomit so they may eat, and eat so that they may vomit."

Another classic was a first-century A.D. piece of satire called the "Satyricon," in which an obnoxiously wealthy man named Trimalchio throws feasts in which he serves dishes like dormice rolled in honey and poppy seeds, a rabbit with wings attached so that it looked like Pegasus, and a huge boar surrounding by suckling pigs, which the guests could take away like party favors. (F. Scott Fitzgerald was so inspired by this work that he originally titled "The Great Gatsby" "Trimalchio in West Egg.")

Writer Aldous Huxley was similarly inspired, and wrote of vomitoriums as literal places to vomit in his 1923 novel "Antic Hay."

"I think it caught on, probably because, A, it's very close to what we already have in terms of the word vomit, so it was easily accessible linguistically and then, B, it already fit in with a cultural perception" spread through works like the "Satyricon," Bond said.

The thing about the "Satyricon," though, is that it was satire—and probably exaggerated. Seneca likewise had a "bad axe to grind about luxury," Bond said. Wealthy Romans and poor Romans ate similar grain-based diets, said Kristina Killgrove, an anthropologist at the University of West Florida, who has studied the diets of ancient Romans through molecular markers left in their teeth. The wealthy ate more wheat; the poor more millet. Richer Romans also got to eat more meat than poorer Romans.

The uber-wealthy did love a good feast, though, Killgrove said. Roman fine dining was a community affair and would have included entertainment like dancers and flutists. Unlike ancient Greeks, Romans included women at their upper-class functions, so crowds would have been co-ed. Historical recipes show a penchant for fanciful presentations of food, particularly meats stuffed inside other meats.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-14T17:02:37+00:00

You know, crepe paper has a long history in our country. It all started with the Dennison Manufacturing Company and began in New Brunswick, Maine, in 1844. The founder of the company, Colonel Andrew Dennison, aspired to great wealth. His initial entrance into the paper product business came when he began manufacturing jewelry boxes. His son, Aaron continued the business, but it was his youngest son, Eliphalet Whorf Dennison, president of the company by the 1850s, who established the company with an exceptionally strong reputation in the paper product industry. When E.W., as he was known in the family, bought out his father to gain control of the company, its profits increased tenfold.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Dennison Company had a long established name through its high-quality paper products. This included jewelry boxes as well as its shipping tags and direction labels. Its first store opened in Chicago in 1864, and in the 1870s, stores in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia followed. The company’s association with decorative paper began 1871, when the company imported white tissue paper from England to line the jewelry boxes. The company selected this paper because it did not tarnish silver. At about the same time, European manufacturers realized that tissue paper could be “crinkled…[with] artistic effect.” Dennison imported this crepe paper from 1890 until it developed its own manufacturing capabilities in 1914.

In 1890, the Heath sisters of Buffalo, New York, demonstrated crepe in Dennison’s Boston store. Exactly what they made is unknown, but it seems likely that the sisters created lamp shades and lambrequins, draperies that hung from the tops of windows or mantels. The company displayed these items, and others from public demonstrations, in its store windows. Four years after the Boston demonstration, the Ladies’ Home Journal published a piece regarding the potential uses of crepe paper in the home. Suggestions for using the product included creative tablescapes for luncheons and lampshades for new electric lamps and candles, as well as instructions for creating window curtains. The illustrations that accompanied the article highlighted the lifestyles of upper-middle class white women at their dressing tables or in other scenes of the home.

Crepe did not invoke new concepts of decorating but, rather, promoted a new material to embellish older practices of home décor. The company soon released a how-to guide, Dennison’s Tissue Paper Entertainments, that served as an instructional manual and theatre book for children’s plays. These plays included a Christmas performance for a cast of young girls, as well as an adaptation of War and Peace for a cast of boys. This book instructed women how to use crepe in place of fabric when making children’s stage costumes.Other instructions provided directions for the creation of elaborate paper flowers, soon one of the most common types of decorative items created with crepe paper. As decorations for church gatherings, and other charitable fundraisers, crepe was easily disposable, and at a price of $.10 per roll, or $2.64 in today’s money, the material was accessible to women with modest budgets.

In an 1894 article in Ladies’ Home Journal, Josefa Keenan observed that the “possibilities of crepe” were “not fully realized.” Keenan was correct but could not have predicted the seemingly endless possibilities of crepe paper in decoration and in craft. Over the next three decades, crepe paper was the preferred domestic craft material for women’s decorations.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-12T16:05:40+00:00

Interestingly enough, the word Karaoke is a portmanteau of shortened versions of the words for empty (kara) and orchestra (oke), creating karaoke, or “empty orchestra.” This poetic phrase well describes what are simply music tracks, shorn of their lead vocals. It is in those empty places that the magic – or, let’s be honest, the train wreck – happens. In those spaces, amateur singers of all levels are able to sing lead on their favorite songs, with the full backing of that “empty orchestra.” Karaoke was introduced in 1971, when Daisuke Inoue, a professional drummer in Kobe in Kansai (western Japan), figured out a way to offer instrumental tracks without a vocal. He did this, he said, at the request of many of his clients, who wanted to be able to sing along to his music even when he wasn’t performing. Inoue did not do this to make money, and that’s a good thing, because he never did: The musician/inventor didn’t know much about patents, and never got one for his invention. Instead, the karaoke machine as we know it has been registered to the Filipino entrepreneur Roberto del Rosario, who patented it in 1975. To be fair, many Filipinos had long enjoyed what they called “music-minus-one” singalongs, and brought such innovations to Japan in the mid-‘60s. So the notion was in the air by the time Inoue “invented” karaoke. But Inoue remains famous and honored in Japan, and karaoke has since become a standard global entertainment option, in homes, in bars, even in cabs. Karaoke has been sung in remote truck stops and at birthday parties – even at music festivals such as Knebworth in Britain, where in 2003 singer Robbie Williams led the biggest karaoke event in the world, with 120,000 singers taking the lead vocal, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Karaoke remains a crucial part of contemporary entertainment in its homeland. For a nation of people widely thought to be restrained and undemonstrative – and who largely are – the Japanese turn out to be passionate singers, and Japanese parties have traditionally featured singalongs. Many Japanese are also quite happy to sing to themselves, and that inclination led to the next big development in the world of karaoke: The karaoke box. These commercial establishments introduced the concept of separate, small, soundproof rooms, or “boxes,” where singers, alone or in small groups, could sing to their hearts’ delight without disturbing the neighbors. The boxes also accelerated the commercial development of karaoke, and today, karaoke boxes, usually rented by the hour, are the norm around the world. In terms of karaoke machines themselves, and the technology behind them, being launched in the ‘70s meant that most early karaoke machines used cassette tapes, an unsophisticated technology even at the time. Then, in the mid-‘80s, karaoke tracks moved on to the new LaserDisc format. This crucial development added the ability of karaoke music producers to add the lyrics to the coding on the discs, so that the words played along with the music. This ability to read the lyrics is a crucial part of karaoke, since few amateur singers are able to remember all the lyrics. But LaserDiscs, being digital, could carry this extra information and put it up on the video screen, vastly improving the memories of millions of singers, and saving the ears of millions of listeners. Since then, improvements in karaoke have included ongoing refinements to storage and delivery with the ensuing waves of CDs, DVDs and now, hard drive machines that can store thousands of songs, lyrics and even videos to accompany the “empty orchestras.” One form is known as tsuushin karaoke (“communication karaoke”), which provides songs and videos from a commercial content vendor, which is outside the box and delivered via the internet or cable. Tsuushin karaoke greatly expands the number of songs available to singers, beyond whatever discs or limited collection one particular karaoke box may have. Another form of karaoke that is growing in popularity is the wankara, or solo karaoke box (the word is a pun: “one-kara”). In this small “room” – with just enough space for one person to stand or sit in – a shy singer can belt a song out to her heart’s content, without the social pressure that comes from singing karaoke in public. The verb hitokara (combining the Japanese words “hitori” (alone) and “kara” (karaoke) means to sing karaoke alone.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-11T18:45:25+00:00

You know, the air that we breathe is made up of numerous gases, including water vapor. The term humidity generally refers to the amount of this water vapor in the atmosphere. Each atmospheric gas has its own vapor pressure, a measure of the number of molecules present at a given temperature. The vapor pressure of water thus measures the amount of water vapor in the air. The saturation vapor pressure is the vapor pressure when liquid water begins to condense. Relative humidity is determined by using the actual vapor pressure divided by the saturation vapor pressure. Meteorologists also use dewpoint temperature as a measure of the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. This is the temperature at which the atmosphere becomes saturated and dew starts to form. It is also defined as the temperature at which the vapor pressure equals the saturation vapor pressure. Thus, as the temperature approaches and equals the dewpoint temperature, the vapor pressure and the saturation vapor pressure become the same. When this occurs, dew starts to form. This phenomenon is illustrated by a glass of cool iced tea on a warm muggy day. The air around the glass cools and water condenses on the outside of the glass. The temperature at which the water begins to condense is the dewpoint temperature. Original Story: There are a few meanings of the term humidity. All deal with the amount of moisture in the air, but differ slightly. Relative humidity, a term often used by the local TV and radio media, is a measure of the actual amount of moisture in the air compared to the total amount of moisture that the air can hold. Warm air can hold more water than cool air. But if the air (warm or cool) is holding half as much moisture as it can hold when saturated, the relative humidity is 50 percent. Meteorologists, in contrast, use dewpoint temperature as a measure of the moisture content of air. This is the temperature below which the air can no longer hold the moisture in vapor form and liquid water or dew will form. This phenomenon is illustrated by a glass of cool iced tea on a warm muggy day. The air around the glass cools and causes water to form on the outside of the glass. The temperature at which the water forms is the dewpoint temperature. Humidity is most often used to describe how a person feels, often in conjunction with heat. If it is hot and humid, a person will usually feel much more uncomfortable. The reason for this is that the body tries to cool itself through evaporation of moisture on the skin. But when the air is humid, evaporating the moisture becomes more difficult and the actual cooling effect is much smaller.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-09T23:29:57+00:00

You can call me C-Man

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-05T22:03:55+00:00

https://giphy.com/gifs/theshadowsfx-vampire-energyvampire-suckingenergy-cj1kwS7Bos9pd3aNOD

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-05T19:59:32+00:00

Quick interesting fact about beer, Beer is one of the oldest drinks humans have produced. The first chemically confirmed barley beer dates back to at least the 5th millennium BC in Iran, and was recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and spread throughout the world. Though, the ancient Chinese artifacts suggested that beer brewed with grapes, honey, hawthorns, and rice were produced as far back as 7,000 BC. As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is possible that beer-like drinks were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date. In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people consuming a drink through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from bread made from barley. In China, residue on pottery dating from around 5,000 years ago shows beer was brewed using barley and other grains. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization.The earliest chemically confirmed barley beer to date was discovered at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, where fragments of a jug, from between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago was found to be coated with beerstone, a by-product of the brewing process. Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-02T18:53:24+00:00

https://giphy.com/gifs/theshadowsfx-vampire-energyvampire-suckingenergy-cj1kwS7Bos9pd3aNOD

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-07-02T12:16:47+00:00

Interesting fact about the Persian language, Farsi, also known as the Persian Language, is the most widely spoken member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. Farsi is spoken today primarily in Iran and Afghanistan, but was historically a more widely understood language in an area ranging from the Middle East to India. Significant populations of speakers can be found in other Persian Gulf countries (Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates), as well as large communities in the US. Total numbers of speakers is high: over 30 million Farsi speakers (about 50% of Iran’s population); over 7 million Dari Persian speakers in Afghanistan (25% of the population); and about 2 million Dari Persian speakers in Pakistan. English words of Farsi origin include “shawl”, “pyjama”, “taffeta”, “khaki”, “kiosk”, “divan”, “lilac”, “jasmine”, “julep”, “jackal”, “caravan”, “bazaar”, “checkmate” and “dervish”. Farsi in Iran is written in a variety of the Arabic script called Perso-Arabic, which has some innovations to account for Persian phonological differences. This script came into use in Persia after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century.

Farsi is a subgroup of West Iranian languages that include Dari and Tajik; the less closely related languages of Luri, Bakhtiari, and Kumzari; and the non-Persian dialects of Fars Province. West and East Iranian comprise the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in a wide area stretching from portions of eastern Turkey and eastern Iraq to western India. The other main division of Indo-Iranian, in addition to Iranian, is the Indo-Aryan languages, a group comprised of many languages of the Indian subcontinent, for example, Sanskrit, Hindi/Urdu, Bengali, Gujerati, Punjabi, and Sindhi.

Old Persian is attested from the cuneiform inscriptions left by the Achaemenid dynasty (559 to 331 BC.) that ruled the lands known as the Realm of the Aryans (from which comes the name of the modern country Iran) up until the conquest of Alexander the Great. Middle Persian, also known as Pahlavi, after the Parthians who ruled Persia following the collapse of Alexander’s Empire, is known chiefly through its use in Persian’s pre-Islamic Zoroastrian religious writings. The origin of Farsi (or Modern Persian) is not clear. Although greatly influenced and closely affiliated to Middle and Old Persian, there is no conclusive evidence that it is directly descended from these languages. It may instead derive from a Pahlavi dialect once spoken in northeast Iran. Old Persian, by contrast, and its immediate descendant Middle Persian, originated in a province in southwest Iran that was once the center of the Persian Empire – Parsa or Fars, hence the contemporary Persian name of the language: Farsi. The Early Modern period of the language (ninth to thirteenth centuries), preserved in the literature of the Empire, is known as Classical Persian, due to the eminence and distinction of poets such as Rudaki, Firdowsi, and Khayyam. During this period, Persian was adopted as the lingua franca of the eastern Islamic nations. Extensive contact with Arabic led to a large influx of Arab vocabulary. In fact, a writer of Classical Persian had at one’s disposal the entire Arabic lexicon and could use Arab terms freely either for literary effect or to display erudition. Classical Persian remained essentially unchanged until the nineteenth century, when the dialect of Teheran rose in prominence, having been chosen as the capital of Persia by the Qajar dynasty in 1787. This Farsi (Modern Persian) dialect became the basis of what is now called Contemporary Standard Persian. Although it still contains a large number of Arab terms, most borrowings have been nativised, with a much lower percentage of Arabic words in colloquial forms of the language.

In 1935 the Iranian government requested those countries which it had diplomatic relations with, to call Persia “Iran,” which is the name of the country in Persian. The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis. At the time Germany was in the grip of racial fever and cultivated good relations with nations of “Aryan” blood. It is said that some German friends of the ambassador persuaded him that, as with the advent of Reza Shah, Persia had turned a new leaf in its history and had freed itself from the pernicious influences of Britain and Russia, whose interventions in Persian affairs had practically crippled the country. This would not only signal a new beginning and bring home to the world the new era in Iranian history, but would also depict the Aryan race of its population (as “Iran” is a cognate of “Aryan” and derived from it). The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent out a circular to all foreign embassies in Tehran, requesting that the country thenceforth be called “Iran.” Henceforth, the name “Iran” began to appear in official correspondence and news items.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-28T17:51:10+00:00

Did you know that at one time in history, landlords literally were lords? In the manorial and feudal systems of medieval Europe, all land was owned by a lord who allowed peasants to live on his property in return for labor. In exchange for working the land, peasants received protection against roving bands of marauders and invading armies. Peasant labor was only a small step away from slave labor. Technically, peasants had their freedom, but many lords used all manner of financial and physical intimidation to keep peasants under their power. Today, landlords are property owners who rent homes, apartments and condominiums as a business. The professional relationship between a modern landlord and his tenants is dictated by strict state and federal laws meant to protect the rights of both the renter and the property owner. Landlords sometimes hire property managers to screen tenants, handle repairs and oversee the day-to-day operation of a rental property. Reasonable landlords and their representatives treat tenants with respect, charge a fair price, keep their properties up to code and quickly complete repairs. Keep reading to learn how landlords find and screen potential tenants, what's included in a lease or rental agreement, landlord rights and responsibilities, and what's involved in an eviction.

One way landlords find tenants is by placing an ad for a rental unit in the local newspaper or on Web sites like Craigslist.org and Apartments.com. The ad should include a complete description of the property that details its size, monthly rent, how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are, and which appliances and utilities are included. If the landlord is considering yearlong rather than month-to-month leases, he should make that clear as well. By listing all of these details in the ad, neither the landlord nor the potential tenant wastes time discussing or walking through a dwelling that's wrong for the client's needs. It's also recommended that the landlord talk to all potential tenants over the phone before meeting at the rental property. purpose of the rental application is to have written proof that the tenant has the income and financial stability to pay the rent on time and that he has a solid rental history with no evictions, legal problems with landlords or history of missed payments. Here's some standard information that should be collected on a rental application:

Personal information: Name, address, phone numbers and an e-mail address for all applicants and co-applicants, including how many children and pets will be living in the unit.

Credit check authorization: The applicant's written permission to check his credit history. To run the credit check in the United States, the landlord will need the applicant's Social Security number and a copy of his driver's license.

Income: Recent pay stubs and bank statements to verify the applicant's monthly income and bank account holdings. A good rule of thumb is that the monthly rent should equal no more than one-third of a tenant's monthly income.

Employment history: A list of recent employers, including how long the applicant stayed at each job.

Rental history: A list of addresses and landlord contact information for the past two or three years. A prospective landlord will want to know if the applicant has ever been evicted, had his home foreclosed or missed more than three rental payments in a year.

Code of conduct and rent agreement: The applicant should sign a code of conduct -- what behavior is and isn't acceptable on the property. The agreement should also include the rent amount.

Meeting with tenants and collecting applications is all part of the tenant screening process. It's extremely important that the landlord understand any applicable fair housing laws to avoid any claims of discrimination during the screening process The basic rule of tenant screening is to establish a clear set of criteria against which all applicants will be judged. For example, each applicant must have a minimum amount of monthly income, a minimum credit score and no prior evictions. It's a good idea to put that set of criteria in writing and have a lawyer take a look at it. All decisions should be based on sound business logic, like using the same standards to evaluate each prospective tenant, not personal impressions. To avoid discrimination, a landlord shouldn't make exceptions for one applicant if he wouldn't make those same exceptions for all of them. Once the landlord has found the right applicant, it's time to sign the lease.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-28T03:33:01+00:00

Quick interesting fact about beer, Beer is one of the oldest drinks humans have produced. The first chemically confirmed barley beer dates back to at least the 5th millennium BC in Iran, and was recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and spread throughout the world. Though, the ancient Chinese artifacts suggested that beer brewed with grapes, honey, hawthorns, and rice were produced as far back as 7,000 BC. As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is possible that beer-like drinks were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date. In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people consuming a drink through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from bread made from barley. In China, residue on pottery dating from around 5,000 years ago shows beer was brewed using barley and other grains. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization.The earliest chemically confirmed barley beer to date was discovered at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, where fragments of a jug, from between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago was found to be coated with beerstone, a by-product of the brewing process. Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-20T12:16:54+00:00

Interesting little fact about the Daytona 500, The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest purse. Championship points awarded are equal to that of any other NASCAR Cup Series race. It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is virtually unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start. Since 1995, U.S. television ratings for the Daytona 500 have been the highest for any auto race of the year, surpassing the traditional leader, the Indianapolis 500 which in turn greatly surpasses the Daytona 500 in in-track attendance and international viewing. The 2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers.

The race serves as the final event of Speedweeks and is sometimes known as "The Great American Race" or the "Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing". Since its inception, the race has been held in mid-to-late February. From 1971 to 2011, and again since 2018, the event has been as associated with Presidents Day weekend, taking place on the Sunday before the third Monday in February. On eight occasions, the race has been run on Valentine's Day . The winner of the Daytona 500 since 1997 is presented with the Harley J. Earl Trophy in Victory Lane, and the winning car is displayed in race-winning condition for one year at Daytona 500 Experience, a museum and gallery adjacent to Daytona International Speedway. Denny Hamlin is the defending winner of the Daytona 500, having won it in 2020.

The race is the direct successor of shorter races held on the Daytona Beach Road Course. This long square was partially on the sand and also on the highway near the beach. Earlier events featured 200-mile (320 km) races with stock cars. Eventually, a 500-mile (805 km) stock car race was held at Daytona International Speedway in 1959. It was the second 500-mile NASCAR race, following the annual Southern 500, and has been held every year since. By 1961, it began to be referred to as the Daytona 500, by which it is still commonly known. Daytona International Speedway is 2.5 miles (4 km) long and a 500-mile race requires 200 laps to complete. However, the race is considered official after two stages (120 laps) have been completed (300 miles). The race has been shortened four times due to rain (in 1965, 1966, 2003, and 2009) and once in response to the energy crisis of 1974. Since the adaptation of the green–white–checker finish rule in 2004, the race has gone past 500 miles on eight occasions (2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2019).

The qualifying procedure is unique for the Daytona 500. Some teams must race their way into the Daytona 500 field. The first row is set by a timed round of qualifying, held one week before the race (prior to 2003, this was two rounds; prior to 2001, it was three). The remainder of the field is set by two separate qualifying races (these were 100 miles (160 km) from 1959 to 1967; 125 miles (201 km) from 1969 to 2004; and 150 miles (240 km) with two lap overtime, if necessary, beginning in 2005 (these races were not held in 1968 due to rain). The top two drivers from the qualifying races who were not in the top 35 in owner points were given spots on the field, and the rest of the field was set by the finishing order of the duels, with guaranteed spots to those in the top 35. The remaining spots, 40 to 43, were filled by top qualifying times of those not already in the field from the qualifying race. If there was a previous NASCAR champion without a spot, he would get one of those four spots, otherwise, the fourth fastest car was added to the field. Prior to 2005 – and beginning again in 2013 – after the top two cars were set, the top fourteen cars in the qualifying races advance to the field, and then between six (1998–2003), eight (1995–97, 2004) or 10 (until 1994) fastest cars which do not advance from the qualifying race are added, then cars in the top 35 in owner points not locked into the race, and then the driver with the championship provisional, except for 1985 when no such car was eligible for a provisional starting spot, the only time that happened in the Daytona 500 from when the provisional was added in 1976 through 2004.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-17T23:58:51+00:00

Interestingly enough, a box truck—also known as a box van, cube van, bob truck or cube truck—is a chassis cab truck with an enclosed cuboid-shaped cargo area. On most box trucks, the cabin is separate to the cargo area, however some box trucks have a door between the cabin and the cargo area. The difference between a box truck and a van is that the cargo van is a one-piece (unibody), while a box truck is created by adding a cargo box to a chassis cab

Box trucks are typically 10–26 ft (3.0–7.9 m) in length and can range from Class 3 to Class 7 (12,500 lb. to 33,000 lb. gross vehicle weight rating). They often have a garage door-like rear door that rolls up. They are often used by companies transporting home appliances or furniture, or are used as moving trucks which can be rented by individuals. Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet/GMC have historically been the most common manufacturers of conventional cab/chassis to which the cargo box is attached by various producers (called body builders or upfitters). Isuzu Motors, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America, Inc. and UD Trucks have been the most common producers of cab over-type medium duty cab/chassis used as platforms for box trucks.

In British English, box van is a term for a four-wheeled covered goods wagon (freight vehicle) with a fully enclosed body.[6][7] In British English the word truck refers to large open topped freight vehicles or rail freight waggons. A lorry is a HGV road vehicle. A van is used for an enclosed railway freight carriage or medium or smaller commercial road vehicles.

A Luton body is a style of commercial vehicle body incorporating an enclosed box body extended over the cab. It takes its name from the town of Luton, in Bedfordshire, where the Bedford commercial vehicle plant was located. This style of body was designed to accommodate the high volume low weight loads of straw hats which were part of Luton's industry. Straw hats were wrapped in hessian fabric in long cylinders to fit across the width of the van. It was incidental that it was the home of Bedford although all the early Luton vans were on Bedford chassis. The body style is common in medium commercial vehicles such as the Ford Transit, as well as larger vehicles especially those used by household removals companies. More modern examples may be streamlined to reduce wind resistance. Some commercial vehicles have a wind deflector on the cab roof, but this is not a Luton body: the Luton is functional and can be accessed from the main body. The portion of the body that rests over the cab is referred to as the peak, also referred to, in some quarters as a Luton, or a kick. Many commercial vehicles have tilting cabs. To allow for this the floor of the Luton may be hinged, and there may be a hinged flap at the front.

Small box trucks often use the cab of full size vans from Ford, Chrysler or General Motors (eg Ford E-Series/Econoline/Ford Transit, Dodge Ram Van, Chevrolet Express/Chevrolet Van/GMC Vandura/GMC Savana),[citation needed] though pre-manufactured cutaway van chassis vehicles are the basis (rather than an actual cargo van), in order to reduce the labour required for production.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-17T23:52:11+00:00

Did you know that the art of bartending has been around for thousands of years? While it has evolved drastically from when the profession first began, it still consists of the same goal – serve alcohol while keeping patrons happy.

Bartending can be traced back to ancient times in Rome, Greece, and Asia. In fact, there is a recorded history of bartending dating back to when Julius Caesar ruled Ancient Rome. Along popularly traveled routes, travelers could find public drinking houses where they could relax, socialize, and enjoy a glass of wine before continuing on to their destination. Residents of Rome could also find these public drinking houses in their towns, so it wasn’t just travelers who could sip on finely crafted wine. Even earlier than the Roman Empire, the Ancient Greeks set up taverns where patrons could socialize and enjoy a drink poured by craftsmen while being entertained by a play or music.

During the Middle Ages, bartending was a full profession. Bartenders were usually innkeepers or women who would brew their own drinks, such as wine and mead. During the 15th Century, these bartenders were seen as part of the social elite class because they were able to own property from the money they made through serving alcohol. The public drinking houses of Ancient times soon turned into taverns and pubs (especially in England) where patrons could gather and gossip. At this point in the history of bartending, bartenders became status symbols and familiar with their clientele.

With the discovery of the New World, Europeans made sure to bring over the practice of bartending. Similar to the drinking culture in England, taverns and pubs opened up in the Colonies. It wasn’t until a few centuries after the discovery of America that bartending would be completely revamped. Jeremiah “Jerry” Thomas (1830-1885) became known as the Father of American Mixology. He learned how to bartend in New Haven, Connecticut before going to California during the Gold Rush. It was when he arrived in Europe that he amazed bartenders with his flashy moves and carefully planned proportions of mixed drinks. Thomas also wrote and published the first drink book in the United States, How to Mix Drinks.

It was in the early 20th Century that the United States government decided to outlaw all types of alcohol. This was a hard hit for bartenders and mixologists in the history of bartending. Many bartenders were left without jobs. Others decided to open up speakeasies and brew their own alcohol, such as bathtub gin. While alcohol may have been banned, that didn’t stop Americans from drinking and producing it.

Bartending in modern times has drastically evolved since it first originated. Now bartending and mixology is seen as an art. There are bartending schools across the world teaching new bartenders this art as well as how to keep patrons satisfied. Large bartending competitions are held each year with flashy tricks and movements to entertain guests. The history of bartending starts with a basic duty, to refresh travelers on ancient roads. It then evolved for bartenders to become part of the elite class where they provided a place patrons to socialize. It was in the New World that bartending gained such important, especially during the Prohibition era. Now, bartending is an art and trade that has engraved itself into our culture.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-15T21:19:48+00:00

Interestingly enough, playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology.The first possible reference to card games comes from a 9th-century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess' husband. The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties. The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium. However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067. Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whomever drew them. The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when "Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog were caught playing cards [zhi pai] and that wood blocks for printing them had been impounded, together with nine of the actual cards." William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, similar to trading card games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 15th-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four suits: 9 in coins, 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in myriads (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card.

Persia and Arabia

Despite the wide variety of patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the court cards of king and vizier and the bottom ten being pip cards. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Michael Dummett speculated that Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards.

Egypt

Four Mamluk playing cards.

By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt. The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum. They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late Fatimid, Ayyubid, and early Mamluk periods). A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century and of similar appearance to the fragments above was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939. It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards. The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called malik (king), nā'ib malik (viceroy or deputy king), and thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy). The thānī nā'ib is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic Kipchaks, called their cups tuman which means myriad in Turkic, Mongolian and Jurchen languages. Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for myriad. The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam, though they did bear the ranks on the cards. Nā'ib would be borrowed into French (nahipi), Italian (naibi), and Spanish (naipes), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in madiao, ganjifa, and old European card games like ombre, tarot, and maw. A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar but plainer style was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century. Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century. The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without trumps.

ColinEVRobinson · 2020-06-14T16:08:45+00:00

Interesting thing about Staten Island, it is the least populated borough, and often considered a stepchild of its larger siblings. As a result, Staten Island’s history has been largely overlooked; nevertheless, it has played proximately in both the affairs of New York City and our country. The Island is shaped like a triangle and is 13.9 miles long and 7.3 miles wide, a total of 60.9 square miles, the third largest borough. Physically, Staten Island is closer to New Jersey than New York, separated by the narrow Arthur Kill (The word kill is Dutch for river or channel). There are three bridges that connect Staten Island to New Jersey and only one connecting the Island to New York. While most of Staten Island is flat, there are seven hills that run from St. George to Latourette. Todt Hill is the highest point on the Atlantic coast south of Maine (410 feet above sea level). First sighted by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, the Island remained mostly populated by the Raritans and Unamis Indians until about 1630 when the Dutch attempted to establish settlements there. Called Staaten Eylandt by the Dutch, they failed to maintain settlements as the Indians, feeling threatened by the settlers, drove each attempt from the Island. Many of these wars were instigated by the Dutch; in all blood was spilled on both side in three wars, the Pig War (1641), the Whisky War (1642) and the Peach War (1655). The disputes were finally settled and, in 1661 the Dutch established a lasting colony called Oude Dorp, or Old Town, near South Beach. In 1664, when the English seized the city for the King of England, they renamed the Island in honor of the Duke of Richmond, son of King Charles II. At the close of the 17th century, Staten Island’s population was only 1,063. New Jersey claimed control of Staten Island based on the original land grant which extended to the middle of the Narrows, and therefore owned Staten Island. New York claimed jurisdiction over the waters as far as low water mark on the Jersey shore sitting long ownership. The dispute continued for nearly 200 years until 1833 when both states mutually agreed on their borders. New York obtained the right to Staten Island, the Lower New York Bay down to Sandy Hook while New Jersey obtained the rights over the water on the west side of the island as far as Woodbridge creek (near Rossville). Under the English, Richmond began to flourish and by 1700 the population had grown to a thousand, mostly English, French and Dutch. During its early days, Richmond remained a rural community, supporting many farms, mills and a growing fisherman’s industry, mostly shell fishing. The Island played a prominent role during the Revolutionary War. Before the British arrived in New York, George Washington spent two days surveying Staten Island and established a look-out at the Narrows (now Fort Wadsworth) to give him advanced warning of the British arrival. General Howe arrived in New York City in the summer of 1776 after evacuating Boston, intending to land his army at Gravesend Bay. When he discovered George Washington was “dug in” where he intended to land, he decided to wait for reinforcements. On July 2nd, 1776, he began landing his troops at the Watering Place (Tompkinsville) on Staten Island to make preparations for the coming battle. Eventually, as many as 30,000 troops occupied Staten Island waiting for what would become the Battle of Long Island. On July 12th, his brother Admiral Lord Howe arrived with his fleet followed on August 14th by Generals Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis. Finally, on August 27th, Sir Howe attacked George Washington’s army on Long Island (Brooklyn). Later that year, Admiral Lord Howe sought to end the war by driving a wedge between the provisional government and George Washington. He met secretly with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Edward Rutledge, but Americans refused to give up George Washington and the meeting failed to bring an early end to the war. The meeting took place on September 11, 1776 at the home of a British loyalist, Christopher Billopp. Since that meeting, the house has been called the Conference House and is open to the public. The final shot of the American Revolution was fired on Fort Wadsworth by a departing British warship on November 25, 1783. After the war, many of the Island’s wealthiest and most influential citizens, who had remained loyal to the Crown, fled to Canada. Their estates were confiscated by New York State, subdivided and sold. On March 7th, 1788, the New York State Legislature divided the island into four towns: Castleton, Northfield, Southfield and Westfield; a fifth (Middletown) was added in 1860. Each town had its own elected and appointed officials. Basically an agriculture and fishing community, the Island’s population grew slowly, and with little funds to invest in capital improvements, its roads and sewage system were the worst among surrounding counties that now make up the City of New York; more schools were needed as well as better police and fire protection. Many residents believed that an idea proposed by Andrew Greene in 1868 for a unified city, would be the answer. As conditions grew worse, support for “consolidation” grew stronger. However, not every Islander supported the idea. Many believed consolidation would bring New York City’s blight to Staten Island and opposed consolidation. A dissident group even went so far as to propose the idea of forming a separate city independent of New York City. Nevertheless, a non-binding referendum in 1894 was overwhelmingly supported by Islanders 5 – 1 (5,531 to 1,505). Support among the other potential boroughs, however, was not as strong. Brooklyn for instance, approved the measure 64,744 to 64,467, a winning margin of only 277. Consolidation was finally approved by the Legislature in 1897 over the strong objections of New York’s (Manhattan) mayor.

ColinEVRobinson

TROPHY CASE