Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Process of oil painting

The process of oil painting varies from artist to artist, but frequently includes certain steps. First, the artist prepares the surface. Although surfaces like linoleum, panel, paper, slate, pressed wood, and cardboard have been used, the most well-liked surface since the 16th century has been canvas, even though many artists used panel through the 17th century and beyond. Before that it was panel, which is more luxurious, heavier, less easy to transport, and prone to warp or split in poor conditions. For fine detail, however, the absolute solidity of a wooden panel gives an advantage.

The artist might sketch an outline of their subject prior to apply pigment to the surface. "Pigment" may be any number of natural substances with color, such as sulphur for yellow or cobalt for blue. The pigment is varied with oil, usually linseed oil but other oils may be used as well. The various oils dry in a different way creating assorted effects.

Traditionally, an artist assorted his or her own paints for each project. Handling and mixing the raw pigments and mediums was prohibitive to transportation. This changed in the late 1800s, when oil paint in tubes became extensively available. Artists could mix colors rapidly and easily without having to grind their own pigments. Also, the portability of tube paints allowed for plein air, or outdoor painting.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Advertising

It is a form of message that typically attempts to influence the potential customers to buy or to consume more particular brand of product or service. Many advertisements are planned to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of "brand image" and "brand loyalty". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes implant their persuasive message with truthful information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including television, cinema, radio, magazines, internet, newspapers, video games, and billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising organization on behalf of a company or other organization.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Seven Blunders of the World

The Seven Blunders of the World is a list that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi gave to his grandson Arun Gandhi, written on a piece of paper, on their final day together, not too long before his assassination. The seven blunders are:
Prosperity without work
Pleasure without sense of right and wrong
Knowledge without nature
Commerce without principles
Science without humankind
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle
This list grew from Gandhi's search for the ancestry of violence. He called these acts of inactive violence. Preventing these is the best way to prevent oneself or one's society from reaching a point of violence.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score runs by striking a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four markers called bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting while the other team (the fielding team) try to stop them from scoring runs by receiving hitters out in any number of ways. A player on the batting team can discontinue at any of the bases and hope to score on a teammate's hit. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team gets three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning; nine innings make up a professional game. The team by way of getting more runs at the end of the game wins.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Electronic Filing System

The Electronic Filing System (or EFS) is the Singapore Judiciary's electronic platform for filing and service of papers within the proceedings process. In addition, it provides to register in the Supreme Court and the Subordinate Courts with an electronic registry and workflow scheme; and an electronic case file. Recent enhancement has added a module which facilitates the conduct of inquiry using documents that have been electronically filed.

The EFS provides the legal profession with a elementary online case file from which documents can be electronically filed with the courts or served on the other parties in a case. The EFS is also the source for electronic cause book searches that are provided through the Litigation module of LawNet.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Professional Development

The recommendations

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Teachers should be fully aware of the school's Internet access arrangements so that they know whether access to the web and to newsgroups is filtered or blocked at all.
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Senior management should ensure that appropriate time and resources for professional development are made available so that staff can keep themselves up to date with Internet issues and use.
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All staff should be able to engage in a professional development programme which covers at least the following basic objectives:
o using and understanding the Internet;
o appreciating the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet;
o understanding the potential role of the Internet across the curriculum;
o recognizing how Internet use and Personal Safety Programmes can reinforce each other;
o developing Internet-related policies with ethically-sound foundations; and,
o responding to queries from other professionals and from the wider community regarding the Internet arrangements and policies within their own establishment, and the underlying rationale.

· Schools are likely to benefit from having their own small group, which keeps up to date with Internet and Child Safety issues and shares new experience with colleagues.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Art Deco

Art Deco was a popular international design movement from 1925 until 1939, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, core design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film. This movement was, in a intelligence, an amalgam of many different styles and movements of the early 20th century, including Neoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, and Futurism. Its popularity peaked in Europe during the Roaring Twenties and continued strongly in the United States through the 1930s. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was simply decorative. At the time, this style was seen as graceful, functional, and modern.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Tata Nano

The Tata Nano is a planned city car debuted by India's Tata Motors at the 9th annual Auto Expo on January 10, 2008 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India.

Called the people’s car in Tata's promotional material, it was projected to be the smallest amount luxurious production car in the world. The standard version of the Nano is projected to sell for Rs.100,000 (approximately US $2500, GBP 1277, or € 1700), not including fees or delivery.

Newsweek identify the Nano as a part of a "new breed of 21st-century cars" that embodies "a contrarian philosophy of smaller, lighter, and cheaper" and portends a new era in inexpensive personal transportation - and potentially, "global gridlock". The Wall Street Journal confirms a global trend toward small cars, led by the Nano.

The prefix "Nano" derives from the Greek root 'nanos', meaning dwarf - as with nanometer. "Nano" also means "small" in Gujarati, the native verbal communication of the Tata family, founders of the Tata Group.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq, formerly Babylon are precise one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. They were built by Nebuchadnezzar II approximately 600 BC. He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and aromatic plants of her homeland.The gardens were damaged by several earthquakes after the 2nd century BCE.

The lush Hanging Gardens are broadly documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that exist at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets explain the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the necessary height.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Formal wear

Formal wear or formal dress is an ordinary fashion term used to explain clothing apt for formal procedures, with weddings, debutante cotillions, etc. Western formal dress has had a ubiquitous influence on styles in different countries. It is almost forever the normal used in countries where there is no formal edition of the national costume. Foreign dignitaries and honored visitors in Western countries frequently take on Western evening dress on formal and state occasions, even though it is not unusual for distinguished persons to wear the formal versions of their common dress if such exists; the sari and the dashiki are easily-recognizable for examples.

Unlike for the majority part of the fashion world, the styles of formal dress take their names from men's wear rather than female dress. Traditional 'rules' oversee men's formal dress; these are definitely observed at socially traditional events for example royal weddings, and give as starting points for the creative formal wear seen at high school proms, formal dances and in free time industry awards shows.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Credit rating

A credit rating assesses the credit worthiness of an individual, corporation, or even a country. Credit ratings are considered from financial history and current assets and liabilities. Typically, a credit rating tells a lender or investor the probability of the subject being capable to pay back a loan. However, in recent years, credit ratings have also been used to adjust insurance premiums, determine employment eligibility, and establish the amount of a utility or leasing deposit.

A poor credit rating indicates a high risk of non-payment on a loan, and thus leads to high interest rates or the denial of a loan by the creditor.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Yield curve

In finance, the yield curve is the relation between the interest rate and cost of borrowing and the time to maturity of the debt for a given borrower in a given currency. For example, the current U.S. dollar interest rates paid on U.S. Treasury securities for various maturities are closely watched by many traders, and are normally plotted on a graph such as the one on the right which is informally called "the yield curve." More formal mathematical descriptions of this relation are often called the term arrangement of interest rates.

The yield of a debt instrument is the annualized percentage increase in the worth of the investment. For instance, a bank account that pays an interest rate of 4% per year has a 4% yield. In general the percentage per year that can be earned is dependent on the length of time that the money is invested. For example, a bank may offer a "savings rate" higher than the normal checking account rate if the customer is prepared to leave money unharmed for five years. Investing for a period of time t gives a yield Y (t).

This function Y is called the yield curve, and it is often, but not always, an increasing function of t. Yield curves are used by fixed income analysts, who analyze bonds and connected securities, to understand conditions in financial markets and to seek trading opportunities. Economists make use of curves to understand economic conditions.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Dieting

Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a harmonized fashion to search out an exacting objective. In numerous cases the aim is weight loss, however some athletes look forward to gain weight and diets can as well be used to keep a stable body weight.

There are many kinds of diets:

The Weight-loss diets control the intake of exacting foods, or food in most cases, to lessen body weight. What works to drop off body weight for one person will not essentially work for another, because of the metabolic differences and lifestyle factors. In addition, for a variety of reasons, the greater part of the people discovers that it is very difficult to maintain major weight loss over time. There is some notion that losing weight promptly can actually make it harder to maintain the loss over time.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Exchange rate

In finance, the exchange rates that are different names are also known as the foreign-exchange rate, forex rate or FX rate between two currencies specify how much one currency is value in terms of the other. For example an exchange rate of 102 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 102 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimate, about 2 trillion USD worth of currency changes hands every day.
The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate. The forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a exact future date.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Divergence theorem in maths

In vector calculus, the divergence theorem, as well known as Gauss' theorem, Ostrogradsky's theorem, or Gauss-Ostrogradsky theorem is an answer that relates the flow (that is, flux) of a vector field through a surface to the behavior of the vector field inside the surface.

More accurately, the divergence theorem states that the outward flux of a vector field through a surface is equal to the triple integral of the divergence on the region in the surface. Intuitively, it states that the sum of every source minus the sum of all sinks gives the net flow out of a region.
The divergence theorem is the main result for the mathematics of physics, particularly in electrostatics and fluid dynamics.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Primary storage

Primary storage, presently known as memory, is the only one directly reachable to the CPU. The CPU continuously reads commands stored there and executes them. Any data actively operate on is also stored there in uniform manner.

Historically, early computers used delay lines, Williams’s tubes, or revolving magnetic drums as primary storage. By 1954, those unreliable methods were frequently replaced by magnetic core memory, which was still rather cumbersome. Undoubtedly, a revolution was started with the invention of a transistor that soon enables then-unbelievable neatness of electronic memory via solid-state silicon chip technology.

This led to a modern random access memory (RAM). It is small-sized, light, but quite expensive at the same time. (The particular types of RAM used for primary storage are also volatile, i.e. loses the information when not powered).

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Carrot

The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is a root vegetable, usually orange or white, or pink in color, with a crunchy texture when fresh. The suitable for eating part of a carrot is a taproot. It is a cultivated form of the wild carrot Daucus carota, national to Europe and southwestern Asia. It has been bred for its very much inflamed and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot, but is still the similar species.

It is a biennial plant which grows a rosette of leaves in the spring and summer, while building up the fat taproot, which stores big amounts of sugars for the plant to flower in the second year. The peak stem grows to about 1 m tall, with an umbel of white flowers.

Carrots can be eaten raw, whole, chopped, grate, or added to salads for color or texture. They are also often chopped and boiled, fried or steamed, and cooked in soups and stews, as well as fine baby foods and choose pet foods. A well recognized dish is carrots julienne. Grated carrots are used in carrot cakes, as healthy as carrot puddings, an old English dish thought to have originated in the early 1800s.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Chocolate

Chocolate comprises a number of raw and process foods that are formed from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. Native to lowland tropical South America, cacao has been sophisticated for three millennia in Central America and Mexico, with its earliest recognized use about 1100 BC. All of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, as well as the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have a controlling bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After being roasted and ground, the ensuing products are known as chocolate or cocoa.

Much of the chocolate inspired today is made into bars that combine with cocoa solids, fats like cocoa butter, and sugar. Chocolate has twist into one of the most popular flavors in the world. A chocolate lover is also called as "chocoholics." Gifts of frustrated wrapped chocolate molded into different shapes has become traditional on certain holidays: chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, coins on Hanukkah, Santa Claus and further holiday symbols on Christmas, and hearts on Valentine's Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to make chocolate milk and cocoa.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Corporate bond

A corporate bond is a bond issued by a company; the term is usually applied to longer-term debt instruments, usually with a maturity date falling at least a year after their issue date. The term "commercial paper" is sometimes shabby for instruments with a shorter maturity.

Sometimes, the term "corporate bonds" is used to include all bonds separately from those issued by governments in their own currency. Strictly speaking, however, it only applies to those issued by corporations.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Mercury

Mercury (pronounced /'m?kj??ri/) is the deepest and smallest planet in the solar system, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. Mercury is bright when viewed from Earth, range from -2.0 to 5.5 in apparent magnitude, but is not easily seen as its greatest angular separation from the Sun (greatest elongation) is only 28.3°: It can only be seen in morning and evening twilight. Comparatively little is known about it; the first of two spacecraft to move toward Mercury was Mariner 10 from 1974 to 1975, which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface. The second was the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% of the planet throughout its flyby of January 14, 2008. MESSENGER will make two more passes by Mercury, follow by orbital insertion in 2011, and will survey and map the whole planet.