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Tente is one of the first toys that I have consciousness of having in my childhood. As the most old site know, Tente was a building game from colored blocks, Lego style. Although the concept is very similar to the legendary Danish building game, invented back in the 30's, Tente not be considered a mere copy of Lego. The toy company created by the Barcelona Exin (legendary creator of toys as Cinexin -relaunched the same Christmas-Scalextric or Exin Castillos) had brought their own personality and great ideas to the vast world of construction toys . Many people whose childhood has taken place between 1972 and 1993 (the years in which Tente was marketed in Spain with great success before the disappearance of bankruptcy Exin) certainly prefer Tente Lego.
A series that I have burned into my brain, I guess because I had at the time several models, was Roblock Series: huge, colorful robots that could transform into vehicles (Clearly inspired by the Transformers , although Roblock had the advantage that you built yourself and the possibilities were endless.) Undoubtedly one of the best and most charming series of Stand, near the spectacular series Titanium. I'm sure I left many series and models, but I wanted to base it more on Tente I had at the time and that I can convey to the feelings that caused me when I was a kid, than making an exhaustive list.
Tente is history, we must recognize that the English competitor of Lego went far, far away. At the time, Exin signed an agreement with Hasbro to distribute Tente U.S. and Japan (though the sets were in shops, not like Lego, which could be bought in any shopping center), plus to possess an American subsidiary, Exinmex, which popularized the toy in some countries American. hard to believe that this toy invented in Barcelona conquered half the world in his day.
So far this brief look at building game Tente, known almost entirely by the kids of today and overshadowed by Lego, but he had the charisma and personality enough to seduce an entire generation of children. I hope I've rebuilt a bit of your childhood with this retrospective, as pieces of Tente.
item was removed from: http://www.elmundo.es
creepy in a sample of their hatred toward Latinos, Shawna Forde and two colleagues Minutemen paramilitary group dedicated to fighting illegal immigration, illegally entered the house of the Flores family in Arizona and killed cold-blooded father, Raul Flores, and his daughter, Brisenia, 9 .
On Monday afternoon, nearly two years after the event, told a jury Forde guilty of double murder, and it is expected that the judge set his sentencing on Thursday. His two companions will stand trial in the coming weeks.
The details of the bloody night of May 9 of 2009 are staggering. Forde and the other two paramilitaries came to the home of the Flores family after midnight posing as policemen. In theory, its aim was to gain an alleged drug stash worth a million dollars. The drug was never found at home of the Latino family, and three paramilitary shot in cold blood against marriage when Raul Flores began to doubt the veracity of their identity.
however, could not end the life of the mother, Gina Gonzales, who managed to fool them by pretending to be dead. As he lay on the floor, heard the murderers Brisenia the small canyon. "Please do not shoot me" , pleaded the girl. It did not help its appeal, Frode and his accomplices then fired two shots in the head at close range, killing him instantly. It was the mother, Gina, who called 911 when the paramilitaries left the house.
addition to first-degree murder, Forde was also convicted of attempted murder attempt , illegally entering a property, assault and aggravated robbery. His two accomplices, Albert Gaxiola and Jason Robert Eugene Bush is awaiting the start of his trial, which has not yet set a definite date.
At the time the murders were not reported as "hate crimes", but Latin associations consider that the motivation was clearly racial hatred. Although the Minutemen says his goal is to combat illegal immigrants, why the border patrol of illegal hunting, the Flores family had U.S. citizenship and was born in the U.S. Briselē.
media and American politicians almost completely ignored the event, which took place during the debate preceding the approval of the controversial Arizona SB1070 that makes in a state crime be an undocumented immigrant. However, some Latino groups as Presente.org have attracted more media attention during the trial of Forde.
"What we have shown is that Latinos are looking that if people and the parties want the Latino vote will have to speak out against things like this," said Joaquín Guerra, director Presente.org to Huffington Post website. "We expect the death [of Briselē] is not in vain, and to provide an example of what happens when such conditions exist in Arizona are allowed to pass."
these times is known that epidemic is needed good meat and cheap, plentiful as pigeons theft which is a taste. Sixty pairs were stolen the day before yesterday, no less, of a roof of Boria Street and another eight hours of Bruch Street, "announced the Barcelona daily La Vanguardia the September 10, 1885. On the same page, in a terse statement, the newspaper announced the death, four days before, Narcis Monturiol , "author of Ictíneo and consistent Democrat."
A quarter century earlier, the inventor had surprised Catalan English society with a fish boat, a submarine that was able to move underwater for two hours at the port of Barcelona in September 1859. And the press dispatched his death sentence in the middle of a reference to the theft of pigeons, although two years earlier the same newspaper had opted for " claim their glory , now obscured by forgetfulness, discussed a day for the pedants, denied by the light, belittled by the indifferent. "And in the middle of 2010, the English who invented a submarine 30 years before Isaac Peral, continues into oblivion outside Catalonia.
rejectedCatalan live in the U.S. egalitarian communes
Now, a discovery has now returned to Monturiol figure, one of the heroes of the English paleotecnología. In 1994, the director of the library Ebro Observatory, a research center founded by the Jesuits in 1904, found the book on a shelf Naval Architecture With an unexpected dedication: "To my friend Narcís Monturiol."
For 16 years, the director, Maria Genescà, searched among the 60,000 volumes in the library copies with the same entry date: August 16, 1944, when the Nazis and the Allies were fighting for Europe in the Battle of Normandy . And they appeared some 70 books, the library staff Monturiol, where all knowledge about oceanography and shipbuilding used to create the forerunner of the submarine, the Ictíneo (Greek for "fish boat"). "It was a time when underwater navigation was a military concern, but he wanted dedicated to collecting and researching the ocean coral, "says Genescà.
Queen Elizabeth made money for the project of anti-monarchist
books with marks and annotations," show that Monturiol worked with first class materials to create a submarine free humanity "as the greatest expert on the inventor, historian of science Antoni Roca Rosell.
Monturiol had left everything to develop your machine. In 1854, his dream was fulfilled. The followers of the French socialist Étienne Cabet invited him to join their egalitarian communes in Illinois (USA). There would be born society perfect, Icaria, where people, mostly French, live without money or private property. Without violent revolution, the Communists wanted cabetianos conquer the world armed only with his example. However, Monturiol, leader of cabetiano in Spain, refused to cross the ocean to join Utopia. It was when removing Two Progressive, to take one of the largest projects of English technology of the time.
perfect society envisioned by Cabet get up on science and communism. And there are those who fantasized that the Icarian would move under water. Monturiol took up the challenge and began to devour books, they now have appeared in the library Roquetes in Tarragona.
The head of the committee that judged his invention fell asleep
formed a team of experts and began his adventure in 1857. A year later, the design of the first Ictíneo was ready. It was a wooden fish seven feet long capable of carrying five crew members. Four of them would have to give a hand crank to move the propellers to propel the boat fish. In 1859, the submarine was tested at the port of Barcelona. Moved less than a kilometer per hour the speed of a three year old boy walking, but moving forward.
proved so popular that raised 500,000 pesetas from donations from citizens, today's equivalent to three million euros. Even Queen Elizabeth was forced to give money "personal capacity" to draft a communist anti-monarchist , says Roca Rosell. "The queen had a bad press, and wanted his picture using the Ictíneo ," says the professor of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya.
After the first trials at the port of Barcelona, \u200b\u200bMonturiol drove his submarine to Alicante for a demonstration before a commission appointed official by the Government. The Ictíneo again navigate underwater. However, as pointed La Vanguardia in 1883, there was a "sad story as curious ", showing "how much influence they have on things over the most trivial circumstances."
Monturiol appeared before the committee with a speech to convince the Government to support your boat-fish. "But it happened that little or rhetorical brilliance of the inventor or the dryness natural in a discussion on technical points (...) or fatigue and dizziness in the Commissioners or some of them produce the stay on board during Ictíneo trials, placed in such a bad mood Monturiol listeners that neither understood him nor wanted him right, and still there was a case that the president would finally fall asleep, "he told the newspaper.
The inventor decided to proceed without government help, nor would have none of a huge military model with capacity for 1,200 sailors. His team came one second Ictíneo , bigger and better, and kicked him out in 1862. But he was moving like a dead whale. Faced with the 100,000 pesetas spent on the first prototype, Monturiol 400,000 needed to create and refine the second.
The biceps of the 16 crew members were not sufficient to genius move of 17 meters in length, at an appropriate speed. And the inventor chose a revolutionary solution: a steam engine. "It was the first to put a motor inside a submarine," says Roca Rosell.
Catalan which created a new fuel and oxygen reaction produces heat, ideal for use in a submersible. And the motorized Ictíneo put to sea in 1867. It was the ultimate test. Monturiol company was near bankruptcy. And the test failed, because the engine increased the speed of the machine. Professor Enric Freixa said engine in 1986 that the mistake was the inventor of the propeller, poorly designed and unable to drive the submarine.
adventure ends here. All employees were left on the street. The Ictíneo were auctioned in 1868 and eventually dismembered. And Monturiol technological dream ended in failure, like the U.S. Communist communes. The inventor, depressed, was devoted to something further: a cigarette rolling machine
Article extracted from: http://emosqueira.wordpress.com
Following the themedeconstruction of the holidays we can ask what celebrate the night of 31 December to 1 January? Then it will be the beginning of the new year, that's clear. What is less clear is why the year begins on that date. What is special about January 1? The following vignette puts it well: absolutely nothing.
And if I told you the English are to blame for that year begins January 1 , read on and see the reason for this surprising conclusion, and other facts about the beginning of the year.
There
a number of noteworthy points in the orbit of Earth around the Sun These items are solstices and equinoxes (which mark the beginning of the seasons), the perihelion (the point at which the Earth is near the Sun) and aphelion (the point at which the Earth is farthest from the Sun.) All of them are perfect candidates to mark the beginning of the year, the most logical are those that mark the beginning of the season. For example, academic courses start at about the end of summer and beginning of autumn. In the figure below details about the relationship between these points.
As we see in the image above none of the items listed in line with the new year. The one that comes close is the perihelion, which falls on January 3 (although it can vary each day depending on the year), so we can say Happy Perihelion ! and at least would have an astronomical meaning (and not happy new year which, deep down, does not mean anything.) However
perihelion actually has little effect on life on Earth. Vale are closest to the Sun, but the difference is minimal because the orbit of Earth but elliptical (drawn exaggerated form the majority of cases) is actually almost a circle. Earth is 147 million kilometers from the Sun at perihelion and 152 million km at aphelion. This difference only 5 million kilometers is invaluable to the daily life of Earth. The following image shows a little better as the orbit of Earth is nearly circular (design is shown in yellow). For this reason, although the Earth is closer to the Sun at perihelion in the northern hemisphere do not notice more heat, otherwise we are in winter.
also given the fact that perihelion coincides almost our time the new year and the winter solstice quite simply by chance. Due to the precession of the equinoxes perihelion position is touring schedule giving a complete return to it after about 26,000 years.
If the perihelion really little impact on daily life, the solstices and equinoxes actually do affect, mark the beginning and end of the season and we all know what that means (to keep the clothes from the beach Fall out jackets for example). In the winter solstice the Earth is in the position shown in the figure below, with the sun falling perpendicular on the Tropic of Capricorn, marking the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere (and summer in the southern hemisphere).
Any of the solstices and equinoxes would have marked a perfect start of the year, however, is not so, why? Why
As stated above the solstices and equinoxes mark suitable for describing a moment when the year begins. In times of Roman Republic, the consuls (top leaders) began his term with the arrival spring. It seems an appropriate time to mark the beginning of the year, life begins to be reborn and we have survived another year the harsh winter (for example the Babylonians also celebrated the start of the year with the arrival of spring). The Roman consuls were put in command of his legions expanding year after year domain throughout the known world.
must also be said that the Roman calendar of the time was a real chaos, initially had 304 days divided into 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Majus, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December). Now you know it September, October, November and December so called, were the months 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Roman calendar. The remaining days putting intercalary months were added from one year to another. It is believed that it was the legendary King Numa Pompilius who decided to add 2 months a year (and Februarius Ianuarius), but as the year was now only 355 days remained with occasional intercalary months. Furthermore, the count of years was carried out according to the time when consuls were put in charge of the republic, as we said was with the arrival of spring.
However, in the year 153 BC, something unexpected happens in conquest of Hispania (Spain) by the Romans. The Lusitano manage to defeat the Roman legions taking away their banners in battle (something truly humiliating to the Romans, who considered sacred). A revolt of the Lusitanian join other tribes, and the Celts Vetoni. The latter begin this year its long siege in the town of Numancia . The situation of Roma in Hispania was in a state of extreme precariousness. Rome needs to act quickly and, as appointing two new consuls Quinto Fulvio Nobilior and Lucio Mummius two and half months earlier than normal, ie early January. Later that
Date change became permanent, the new consuls went ahead from the beginning of January, why? probably because they considered most appropriate for the military campaigns to the consul that was taking place to prepare them in winter so that when you actually begin in March, had everything ready. Be any reason for the revolt in Hispania in the year 153 BC caused a change in the beginning of the consular year. In the figure we can see the progress of the Roman troops in the conquest of Hispania, as you see there was a triumphant and that cost them 200 years dominate (compared with 7 years of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar).
Julius Caesar during his dictatorship, he decided to put an end once and for all this chaos and establish a calendar, the Julian calendar , which is not necessary to add intercalary months to synchronize with the seasons. Just had to add an extra day (leap year) every four years, making it so that the duration of the year was 365.25 days. In fact the year is 365.242189 days, so it was necessary to reform rather minimal (Gregorian calendar) to prevent successive gaps over the centuries. Julius Caesar also renamed the fifth month (Quintilis) putting yours, Augusto repeated something Sextilis month, hence the origin of the names of the months of July and August.
But after that Caesar would give many laps to calendar (46 BC lasted 445 days) why did not match on 1 January with the winter solstice? . The reason is not entirely clear, one possible explanation here point is it was probably that the idea of \u200b\u200bCaesar, but perhaps for superstitious reasons decided that the new year of the new calendar began with the new moon . Thus, the January 1 of year 1 AD was new moon, and the winter solstice was relegated to 24th December.
The date of January 1 continued with the arrival of Christianity because they link well with the Christian tradition, remember that Jesus was a Jew, and when the society presented in a Jewish child is in his circumcision 8 days after birth. So Jesus would have been born the night of 24 to 25 December (winter solstice) and January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year coinciding with the day of the circumcision of Jesus .
And here we are another problem, Christmas today does not match the winter solstice, which falls a few days before (specifically on 21 December). Why this gap between Christmas and solstice? We said previously that the Julian calendar was inaccurate and caused a small gap over the centuries (in particular about three days every four years). Thus we come to Council of Nicaea held in 325 AD and convened by Constantine the Great in order to establish religious peace and to build unity of the Christian Church.
In times of Julius Caesar the solstice was on 25 December, but at the time of the Council of Nicea (almost four years later) it had already been delayed three days, with the winter solstice on 21 December and not coinciding with Christmas. Among other things, the Council decided the formula which calculated the date of Easter on these premises would be held on Sunday, not coincide with Passover and Christians should not celebrate the Passover twice in the same year.
It was therefore decided to refer to the equinox and indicate that Easter is celebrated the first Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox passed . As the equinox had been postponed until March 21 because of the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar this is the date passed to posterity as an indicator of the equinox when the calculation of Easter. As a curiosity to say that in 2011 Easter dates will be too late, particularly on Easter Sunday is April 24 (dates always vary between 22 March and 25 April). This is because the full moon falls on 19 March, just before the equinox, so we have to wait almost a month to the next full moon (April 18) being the day of resurrection the following Sunday (24 April).
Thus the Council of Nicea forever dissociated winter solstice Christmas. There was a chance to reunite with the reform was the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Since at that time the spring equinox error accumulated 10 days (happened on 11 March). Gregorian reform that error corrected 10 days (making the equinox back to being 21), but did not correct the error three days that accrued from the Julian Calendar institution and conclusion of the Council of Nicea (probably because The date of 21 March and was too established to change at this point).
Thus we see that the New Year and Christmas are linked to the winter solstice, but various causes have led to these dates diverge slightly with time being the solstice on December 21, Christmas on 25 December and New Year on January 1. Also remember that a revolt in Spain was the advance prompting the start of the year the winter solstice (displacing traditional spring equinox). Sources
: Most of the information and images from Wikipedia. Other sources are: 1 , 2 , 3 and 4
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