Monuments to the Gods

Monuments to the Gods

In the fifth century BC, most Greeks lived in small city-states on islands in the Aegean Sea and in mountain valleys near its coast.. The Greeks built temples as homes for their gods so the gods would live among them and defend their cities. The first temples were built of timber and sud-dried brick and looked like the Greeks own huts. Later temples were built on top of a three-stepped plarform and surrounded by columns. When the wooden temples decayed they were replaced by stone temples, which looked exactly the same. The main goal of the Greeks was to make their temples look perfect. They built with the purest white marble and architects used geometry to design the temples so that all the proportions fit together in harmony.

Temple of Athena Nike

The design of this small temple, dedicated to the goddess Athena, is based on a typical Greek hut. It was built in the Ionic style.

Greek Orders

The Greeks built im three styles caled orders. You can recognize the different orders by the style of the wide section at the top of each column, which is called a capital.

• Doric order: This style has thick columns and plain capitals.
• Ionic order: The thinner columns of this style are topped by a capital with two white spirals called volutes.
• Corinthian order: This order is more elaborate and the capital is decorated with acanthus leaves.

Frieze

A narrow band of carving encircles the top of the temple wall and shows the procession on Athena's festival day.

Worshiping the Gods. Photo by Elena.

The goddess Athena

The tall wooden statue of Athena had an ivory face, arms and feet. She wore clothing made of gold plates that weighed 2,500 lb.

The Parthenon

After defeating invaders, the people of Athens built this temple between 447 and 432 BC to honor the city's patron goddess Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. The ruined remains of the Parthenon still stand within the Acropolis, Athens's original fortress.

Carved in Stonemasons

The men and horses are part of a procession held every four years when Athens' leaders, warriors, athletes, musicians and poets climbed up to the Acropolis, on a bluff above the city, to present offerings before the Parthenon to Athena.

Illusions in Stonemasons

The ancient Greeks knew  knew that our eyes see temples differently from the way they really are. They used many tricks, called optical illusions, to create a perfect temple. If steps are built perfectly flat or horizontal, they will appear to sag in the middle. Every horizontal line in a temple, therefore, curves slightly upwards. If columns are built straight up and down, the will appear to lean outwards. The ancient Greeks built vertical lines to lean towards the middle.

What has become of the plans drawn by the designers of ancient Greek buildings? A sharp observer recently found plans of the unfinished building carved on the inside of its foundation.

• Stories in stone: Painted sculptures portray dramatic events about the victories of Athena.
• Colonnade: Athena's marble temple is surrounded by 46 Doric columns,

Ken Longdone

Chicken Salad and Lemonade

From I Love Capitalism by Ken Longdone

You noticed. I originally named my little start-up Invemed because I was so fascinated by the health-care field, and now here I was, in 1976, up to my ass in the home improvement business. And happy to be there.

Contradictory? Sure! Life is full of left turns, and I've taken quite a few of them, following my nose, which has very often pointed me in the right direction. The truth is I can't help myself: I am a deal junkie. If the phone rings, I'm like the proverbial firehouse dog – off to the races. Who knows who might be calling? More often than not, it's someone who has a very interesting business proposition. Doesn't matter what kind of business it is.

Handy Dan was ab extremely interesting business proposition in 1976. And Bernie Marcus, I soon found out, was very much a kindred spirit. Oddly enough, ha had started his business career in the health-care field, as a Rutgers-trained pharmacist: this was how he came to Daylin in the first place. Then two friends of his, Amnon Barness and Max Candiotty, knowing that Bernie understood merchandise and markups and service, asked him to go take over this little home-improvement start-up. Which, as we've seen, Bernie turned into a big success, despite the failures of the parent corporation.

After I took my position in Handy Dan, Elaine and I became friends with Bernie and his wife, Billi. Every January, I used to rent a house in Palm Springs to play in the Bob Hope golf tournament, and Bernie and I would golf there together. As we walked the course, we would inevitably talk shop, and Handy Dan continued to fascinate me. I began visiting the stores often, in California and Arizona (where they were called Angels Do-It-Yourself Centers), in Denver and Kansas City and Houston.

I love capitalism. Photo by Elena.

I used to love to go to store openings: they always seemed to exciting and hopeful. One Thursday in the fall of 1976 – grand openings typically happened on Thursdays, with lots of newspaper and TC ads and hoopla, to get momentum going for the weekend – I joined Bernie at the christening of a new Handy Dan in Houston. And Bernie and I were walking around the store when I saw something in the paint department that knocked my socks off.

It was a big display, depicting two cans of paint, one Handy Dan's house brand and the other a competitor, Sherwin-Williams or Glidden. The display showed the percentage of each can that was pigment and the percentage that was thinner: the more pigment, the better the quality. And here was graphic evidence that not only did the house brand have more pigment than the competition, but the prices were better. Oh boy, I thought that was wonderful.

It was a big display, and the new store was a very big store, thirty-five thousand square feet. Every place I went in it, I saw similar displays and signage, showing how this Handy Dan was going to educate and service the customer. Soon I was literally bouncing up and down; I thought this was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. 

I Love Capitalism

I Love Capitalism

An American Story

By Ken Langone

Supply and demand goes through everything in life. Early on I caught the fact that if you have a special talent, or if you have something unique that provokes people to do something that you can make a profit on, that's a good thing. Every two weeks while I was at Bucknell, my dad used to send me a $16 check for spending money: eight bucks a week. A big stretch for him and a tough budget for me. Man, I had to go out and kill to eat. But necessity is the mother of invention.

Late in my freshman year, I'd hit on an idea. I remembered that as soon as they'd get to Bucknell as freshmen, a lot of the rich kids (practically anybody who wasn't me was rich) were buying stationary with their names printed on it or the Bucknell seal on it. Some guys waited until they pledged a fraternity, then put the emblem of their fraternity on it. I thought, “How could I make some money selling stationary?”

The light-bulb went on. Freshman orientation! For orientation at Bucknell, you had to wear a beanie and a kind of sandwich board – two sheets of white cardboard, one on your chest and one on your back, connected by a couple of pieces of string over your shoulders – with your name and hometown printed on each side. It was a little humiliating: That was part of the point. The first coupe days you're there, you haven't met anybody yet, and you're melancholy; you miss your high-school friends, they've all gone someplace else. I thought that would be my moment to strike.

Magic Wand. Illustration by Megan Jorgensen (Elena).

L.G. Balfour was a company in Massachusetts that made college rings and caps and gowns, and they also had a stationary division. Before I started my sophomore year, I got them to send me samples, and I put the samples on a piece of cardboard; I got all set up a week before freshman orientation. As soon as the freshmen arrived, I'd go into their dorms with my sample board and say, “Look, you're going to be writing a lot to your friends.” I'd remind them that a long-distance phone call was sixty-five cents for three minutes; that was a lot of money then. I'd say, “Let's see you have how many friends? Ten? You're going to write them two-three times a week?”

They're nodding. I can see they're homesick and blue. “Okey,” I'd tell them. “Here's what you'll need for your freshman year, but you get a price break if you order enough.” I guess you might say I was exploitative.

I made damn sure I got their check or money order right away, and here's why. Within two weeks after they got to school, they'd forgotten their friends at home, they'd made new friends, they were going to rush a fraternity; writing letters was the last thing on their minds. I had guys tell me year later: “You son of a bitch, I still have boxes of the f... stationary.”

Suddenly Supply and demand was more than a theory to me.

About Time

About Time

People have been keeping the time for thousands of years. The first time-keeping devices were very inaccurate. They measured time by the sun, or by the falling levels of water or sand. Mechanical clocks are much more accurate. They have three main parts: an energy supply, a mechanism fore regulating the energy and a way of showing the passing of time.

The energy is supplied by a coiled spring or a weight.  The spring unwinds, or the weight falls, and turns a series of interlocking, toothed wheels. Hands linked to the wheels rotate around a dial. For the clock to be accurate, the hands must turn at a constant speed. In large clocks, a pendulum swings at a constant rate and regulates the movement of the escapement. Digital or electronic watches have a piece of quartz that vibrates at 32,768 times a second. An electronic circuit uses these movements to turn the hands or change numbers on the watch face.

People have made instruments to measure the passing of time for at least 3,000 years. The sundial was developed from a simple observation. As the Earth turns, the sun appears to cross the sky and the shadows it casts move across the ground. If the positions of the shadows are marked at regular intervals, they can be used to tell the time.

Escarpment: This regulates the speed of the clock. It consists of an anchor that rocks from side to side, and an escape wheel that is repeatedly caught and released by the anchor.

Hour hand: The hour hand makes one revolution every 12 hours.

Minute hand: The minute hands moves 12 times faster than the hour hand and makes one revolution every hour.

Pendulum: The swinging pendulum regulates the rocking motion of the anchor.

Gears: These make sure that the minute hand goes around 12 times faster than the hour hand.

Weight: This hangs on a cord wound around a shaft so that the weight turns the shaft to move the gears.

About Time. Photograph by Elena.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

Athletes often cross the finish line at exactly the same moment and it is difficult to decide who has won the race. Officials accurately record the athletes' race times so that very close finishes can be separated by degrees of a second.

Athletes train hard for their events. Stopwatches can help them monitor their progress by measuring times to within 100th of a second. Some stopwatches can also store up to 100 laps in their memories and even print times using built-in printers.

Things In Common

Pendulum clocks and digital watches are very different in size, but they are made from the same basic building blocks. Both have an oscillator that moves or swings at a regular rate,a  device that turns these movements into time-keeping pulses, and a display of showing the time.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia

Peter's first battle

While the dwarf and the white. Witch were saying this, miles away the Beavers and the children were walking on hour after hour into what seemed a delicious dream. Long ago they had left the coats behind them. And by now they had even stopped saying to one another.

“Look! There's a kingfisher,” or “I say, bluebells!” or “What was that lovely smell?” or “Just listen to that thrush!” They walked on in silence drinking, it all in, passing through patches of warm sunlight into cool, green thickets and out again into wide mossy glades where tall elms raised the leafy roof far overhead, and then into dense mass of flowering currants and among hawthorn bushes where the sweet smell was almost overpowering.

They had been just as surprised as Edmund when they saw the winter vanishing and the whole wood passing in a few hours or so from January to May. They hadn't even known for certain (as the Witch did) that this was what would happen when Aslan came to Narnia. But they all knew that it was her spells which had produced the endless winter; and therefore they all knew when this magic spring began that something had gone wrong and badly wrong, with the Witch's schemes. And after the thaw had been going on for some time they all realized that the Witch would no longer be able to use her sledge. After that they didn't hurry so much and they allowed themselves more rests and longer ones. They were pretty tired – only slow and feeling very dreamy and quiet inside as one does when one is coming to the end of a long day in the open. Susan had a slight blister on one heel.

A witch. Photograph by Elena.

They had left the course of the big river some time ago; for one had to turn a little to the right (that meant a little to the south) to reach the place of the Stone Table. Even if this had not been their way they couldn't have kept to the river valley once the thaw began, for with all that melting snow the river was soon in flood – a wonderful, roaring, thundering yellow flood – and their path would have been under water.

And now the sun got low and the light got redder and the shadows got longer and the flowers began to think about closing.

“Not long now,” said Mr. Beaver, and began leading them uphill across some very deep, springy moss (it felt nice under their tired feet) in a place where only tall trees grew, very wide apart. The climb, coming at the end of the long day, made them all pant and blow. And just as Lucy was wondering whether she could really get to the top without another long rest, suddenly they were at the top. And this is what they saw.

They were on a green open space from which you could look down on the forest spreading as far as one could see in every direction – except right ahead. There, far to the East, was something wtinkling, and moving.

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary

By Gustave Flaubert

A horizon of realisable whims opened out before Emma. She was prudent enough to lay by a thousand crowns, with which the first three bills were paid when they fell due; but the fourth, by chance, came to the house on a Thursday, and Charles, quite upset, patiently awaited his wife's return for an explanation.

If she had not told him about this bill, it was only to spare him such domestic worries; she sat on his knees, caressed him, cooed to him, gave a long enumeration of all the indispensable things that had been got on credit.

“Really, you must confess, considering the quantity, it isn't too dear.”

Charles, at his wit”s end, soon had recourse to the eternal Lheureux, who swore he would arrange matters if the doctor would sign him two bills, one of which was for seven hundred francs, payable in three months. In order to arrange for this he wrote his mother a pathetic letter. Instead of sending a reply she came herself; and when Emma wanted to know whether he had got anything out of her, “Yes,” he replied; “but she wants to see the account”. The next morning at daybreak Emma ran to Lleureux to beg him to make out another account for not more than a thousand francs, for to show the one for four thousand it would be necessary to say that she had paid two-thirds, and confess, consequently, the sale of the estate – a negotiation admirably carried out by the shopkeeper, and which, in fact, was only actually known later on.

Despite the low price of each article, Madame Bovary senior of course thought the expenditure extravagant.

“Couldn't you do without a carpet? Why have re-covered the armchairs? In my time there was a single armchair in a house, for elderly persons, at any rate it was so at my mother', who was a good woman, I can tell you. Everybody can't be rich! No fortune can hold out against waste! I should be ashamed to coddle myself as you do! And yet I am old, I need looking after. And there! There! Fitting up gowns! Fallals! What! Silk for lining at two francs, when you can get jaconet for ten sous, or even for eight, that would do well enough!

Madame Bovary. Photo by Elena.

Emma, lying on a lounge, replied as quietly as possible - “Ah! Madame, enough! Enough!”

The other went on lecturing her, predicting they would end in the work-house, But it was Bovary's fault. Luckily he had promised to destroy that power of attorney.

“What?” “

“Ah! He swore he would,” went on the good woman.

Emma opened the window, called Charles, and the poor fellow was obliged to confess the promise torn from him by his mother.

Emma disappeared, then came back quickly, and majestically handed her a thick piece of paper.

“Thank you,” said the old woman, And she threw the power of attorney into the fire.

Emma began to laugh, a strident, piercing, continuous laugh; she had an attack of hysterics.

“Oh, my God!” cried Charles. “Ah! You really are wrong! You come here and make scenes with her!”

His mother, shrugging her shoulders, declared it was “all put on.”

A Zombie Christmas Carol

A Zombie Christmas Carol

By Michael G. Thomas

Although well used to ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it. The Spirit paused a moment, as observing this condition, and giving him time to recover.

But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.

“Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed, “O fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?”

It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them.

“Lead on!” said Scrooge. “Lead on!” The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!

The Phantom moved away as it had come towards him. Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress, which bore him up, he thought, and carried him along.

They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to spring up about them, and compass them of its own act.

Bob Marley as a Dead Man walking. Photo by Elena.

There was something sinister and somewhat terrible about the place though. London was never the greatest jewel in terms of beauty but today it was a changed place. As he swept past the places he knew well he noticed the differences. Some of the houses were gone, entire streets in places razed to the ground as though a great storm had blown them down. Carts moved slowly through the winding alleys, some carried goods but most carried corpses, presumably off to burial. A sullen, bitter mood filtered through the alleys and roads from a miserable and much depleted population.

As they slowed, Scrooge noticed a scream and a group of young men ran in the direction of the noise.

“She's been bitten, quickly, do it!” cried one of them.

A woodsman rushed forward, lifting, his light axe he brought it down without hesitation. As the despoiled corpse dropped down the men simply dragged it to one side and heaped it onto one of waiting carts. Scrooge tried to stop to see what was happening, but the Spirit whisked him forwards and past the incident.

A short distance further on and they approached the better, more civilized parts of the city. There were still sections burnt or pulled down but unlike in the slums they were being rebuilt. Small groups of militia rode past, ever on the lookout for the terrible evil that seemed to linger on every street corner. They slowed to a halt as they reached the damaged but still functioning Stock Exchange.

There they were, in the heart of it; on “Change, amongst the merchants; who hurried up and down, and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals; and so forth, as Scrooge had seen then often.

Early Trade and Exploration

Early Trade and Exploration of the Nature

The world looked very different 20,000 years ago. Great glaciers, caused by an ice age, covered much of the land. The people who lived at this time were hunters and gatherers, and they were always on the move. They followed herds of animals ; gathered with nuts, berries, plants and shellfish; and fished the rivers. They traveled long distances for things they valued, such as flint for making tools and weapons. Gradually, they drifted across much of Europe and Asia, and crossed into North America. 

At the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 BC, the glaciers thawed and lush forest grew. As the climate changed, so did the way humans lived. Many continued to hunt and gather food, but people in the Middle East planted crops and bred animals. They made pots, wove cloth, and used metals such as gold. Soon they started to trade with other villages for goods they could not produce themselves.

On the Move

Groups of hunters and gatherers in North-America followed herds of caribous as they migrated between summer and winter pastures. The people carried all their possessions as well as their flint-tipped spears and arrows for hunting.

Past Reflections

People made utensils and tools from obsidian, a black volcanic gass tha was highly valued. Almost 9,000 years ago, women at Catal Huyuk in Turkey used obsidian mirrors to put on their make-up.

Fur trade was very popular. Photo by Elena.

Flint Ax

Hunters used bone or wood to chip flint stones into tools with sharp edges.

Survival Tools

Hunters and gatherers caught their prey with weapons such as wooden daggers with deer-horn points, harpoons made from wood and spearheads made from deer bone with flint set in carved grooves.

Golden Bull

Golden bulls were made of gold in Bulgaria. People often traded for precious metals, such as gold.

Working the Land

Early farmers in the Middle East made the first plows and harnessed oxen to them. Thousands of years later, this farmer in central India uses similar tools to plow his land.

Village Life

The town of Catal Huyuk in southern Turkey, is one of the oldest towns in the world. People built mud-brick houses, which were joined together and entered through the roofs, in 7000 BC. Some of the houses were special shrines, decorated with wall paintings, for worshipping the gods. The people herded cattle; grew wheat, barley and peas; and were skilled clothmakers. They had plenty of obsidian and exchanged it for goods from other areas. Catal Huyul soon become a busy trading center.

Pyramids : Set in Stone

Set in Stone

The World Beyond

Many ancient Egyptian stone monuments still stand in the desert today. Although moisture, wind, sandstorms and tourists have damaged them, the pyramods, tombs, temples and colossal statues tell us much about the ideas, beliefs and technology of the people who built them.

These incredibly complicated projects required expert skills and a huge work force. Astronomers studied the stars to determine the best sites, mathematicians and architects calculated the measurements, stonemasons shaped the blocks, and overseers organized the teams of several thousand laborers. Craftsmen worked soft stones with bronze and copper chisels. The pounded harder rocks with balls of dolerite, then rubbed the surface smooth with quartz sand. The Great Pyramids at Giza were faced originally with gleaming white Tura limestone and may have been capped with gold.

Shipping the Stone

Carpenters built cargo vessels at the Nile shipyards to carry stone blocks from the quarries to the building sites.

The pyramids of Giza

Khufu's Great Pyramid, the biggest of three massive pyramids at Giza, is the largest stone building in the world. It is 479 feet high and contains nearly two-and-a-half million blocks of limestone.

Building measurements on the pyramids are very precise. The stone slabs on the outside of the Great Pyramid fit so snugly side by side that a hair cannot be pushed into the joints between them.

A Pyramid set in ice. Photo by Elena.

The Pyramids and the Stars

We know from hieroglyphs on the pyramid walls that the ancient Egyptians likened their gods to the stars. Some scientists think that the arrangement of the three Great Pyramids on Earth matches Orion's belt in the sky. The buildings are placed in a line with the smaller one slightly to the left, just as the three stars in the constellation are aligned.

The Giza Sphinx

This huge sphinx, cut from rock, guarded the pyramids at Giza. The statue had a human head (representing intelligence) on a lion's body (a sign of strength). Together they symbolized royal power.

False Door

Tombs had false doors decorated with prayers and the owners' names. They were sacred places for the living to leave offerings for the dead.

Village Life

Village Life in Ancient Times

In the past, living in villages meant safety in numbers and shared supplies. Some groups built dwellings. Others followed the food trails, like the Subarctic people who carried caribou skin shelters from camp to camp. Several tribes wintered in pit houses covered with mud. Alaskan Eskimos lived partly underground beneath turf roofs, while Southern Seminoles raised their thatched homes on stilts above the swampy land. Southwesterners solved the problem of fitting many people into a small apce by stacking their stone and mud-brick houses one on top of another, like modern apartment buildings. Native American dwellings came in various shapes : cones, domes triangles, squares and rectangles. Their names were just as varied : chickees, hogans, igloos, tepees, longhouses, Ican-tos, wigwams and wickiups.

Pueblo Village

Sothwestern villages were honeycombs of two-storey stone houses. Ladders led to the roofs and the entrances to the upper rooms.

Split Level Living

Up to 12 Northeastern Iroquois families shared a longhouse. The top level was used for storage, the bottom for sleeping. Curtains separated areas.

Round Houses

The Mandan people built villages on rises beside the Missouri River. Heavy rain ran easily down the domed sides of the houses.

Village in Jamaica. Photo by Elena.

Village Layout

In the well-planned Creek villages of the Southeast, airy summer sleepouts were built beside warmer lodges. The largest round council buildings could seat 500 people. The villagers used them for ceremonies, dancing, winter meetings of the tribal elders and to house the homeless and the aged.

Front Door Poles

Northwest Coast tribes, such as the Haida, lived in wooden buildings. Carved cedar totem poles indicated who lived in each house.

Back Shelter

Some tribes built huts from chunks of redwood or cedar bark. The sweet-smelling wood repelled insects.

Roaming the Oceans

Roaming the Oceans

When anything tries to move through water, the water resists its movement. Boat designers try to minimize water resistance, called “drag”, by making boat hulls as smooth and streamlined as possible. Water underneath a boat pushes up against its hull with a force called “upthrust”. If the force of the boat's weight is equal to the upthrust of the water, the boat floats. If the boat weighs more than the upthrust of the water, it sinks. A submarine, or a smaller underwater craft called a submersible, sinks under the waves by letting water into its ballast tanks to make it heavier. It rises to the surface again by forcing the water out of the tanks with compressed air, or by dropping heavy weights to make the craft lighter. Most working boats, submarines and submersibles are powered by propellers with angles blades that push against the water as they turn.

Setting Sail

A sail is set at an angle so that wind blowing around the sail from the side reduces the air pressure in front of it, sucking the sail and the boat forward. This means that a sail can use a wind blowing in one direction to propel a yacht in a completely different direction. But a yacht can never sail directly into the wind.

When compasses were first used on ships, seamen did not understand how they worked and were afraid of the magical powers they seemed to possess. Compasses were hidden from the crew inside a box called a binnacle.

Manipulator Arm

A robot arm with a mechanical claw at the end of it picks up objects from the sea bed.

Below the Surface

Submersibles allow scientists to explore the sea bed, study living organisms in their natural surrounding and investigate shipwrecks.

Ocean. Photo by Elena.

Crew Sphere

The crew members sit inside a metal sphere because a sphere is the best shape to resist the crushing pressure of water. Air for the crew to breathe is also stored in spherical tanks.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Navigators used to figure out the position of a ship at sea by studying the position of the sun or the stars. Now they use a system called Global Positioning System or GPS. Satellites orbiting the Earth send out radio signals that are picked up by a receiver in the ship. The signals tell the receiver where each satellite is, how fast it is flying, in which direction and what the time is. By using signals from at least three satellites, the receiver can calculate the position of the ship.

Thruster

A thruster is a propeller inside a tube driven by an electric motor. Submersibles are propelled and sterred by thrusters.

Ballast tanks

The submersible sinks by letting water into its ballast tanks.

Batteries

Electric power for the thrusters, lights, cameras and other instruments is supplied by a set of batteries.

Iron ballast

Iron bars provide some of the weight that is required to sink the submersible.

God-Kings of Egypt

The God-Kings

An ancient Egyptian creation myth tells how the god Osiris was sent by Re, the sun-god, to rule the country. The Egyptian believed that all pharaohs were god kings. The god-kings took part in many ceremonies. They had to dress, eat and even wash in a special way, and every day they went to the temple to offer food to their ancestors. People expected pharaohs to be physically strong, expert at hunting and able to lead the army to victory in battle. Their subjects thought the god-kings controlled the flowing and flooding of the Nile and the growth of crops, as well as the country's success in foreign trade. Everyone knelt and kissed the ground when they approached the royal person. The pharaohs continued to be worshiped even after they had died and joined the god Osiris in the kingdom of the dead.

Make of a pharaoh

Oval shapes containing hieroglyphs were called cartouches. Two of them make up a pharaoh's name. Cartouches have helped Egyptologists decipher the ancient Egyptian language.

The Great Royal Wife

Pharaohs' wives were also regarded as gods, and shared their husbands' wealth. A painted limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti shows her wearing a crown and necklace rich with jewels. Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten.  She helped him establish a new city at Amarna on the east bank of the River Nile in Middle Egypt. Women rarely ruled the country unless it was for a short time at the end of the dynasty when there were no men to take over Hatshepsut was the only strong woman ruler.

God-Kings of Ancient Egypt. Photo by Elena.

Did You Know?

When Queen Hutshepsut's husband died, she took over government and ruled for her stepson Tuthmosis III, who was only five. She held power for about 20 years. Statues show her wearing the false beard of kingship.

Court Visitors

Foreigners, such as this group from the Middle East, often appeared at the pharaoh's court. They came to offer gifts or to discuss trade agreement.

Choice of Crowns

Pharaohs might wear the white crown of Upper Egypt, the red crown of Lower Egypt, the double crown of a united Egypt, the atef crown of Osiris or the blue crown. There ar white crown, red crown, double crown, blue crown and atef crown. 

Comfort at Court

Slaves fanned the pharaohs and his wife on their comfortable cushioned thrones. The king held a crook and flail – symbols of power linking him to the god Osiris. He also wore a crown and a false beard.

Royal seat

Tutankhamun's wooden throne, covered in gold leaf, pictured the young king with his wife Ankhsensmon. 

Messages from Space

Messages from Space

Satellites circling the Earth send us pictures of the weather and relay telephone calls and television programs around the world. They also study vast areas of the Earth and its oceans, taking photographs and measurements with their cameras and instruments and beaming them down to Earth by radio. Some satellites circle the planet from pole to pole; others circle around the equator. Most satellites orbit the Earth at a height of between 124 miles and 496 miles and have to travel at a speed of 5 miles per second to stay in orbit.

Communications and weather satellites are boosted to a height of 22,320 miles (36,000 km) – much higher that other satellites. At this height above the equator, a satellite circles the Earth once every 24 hours, the same time the Earth takes the spin once on its axis. This kind of orbit is called  “geostationary” because the satellite seems to hover over the same spot on Earth. It takes three satellites in geostationary orbit to relay telephone calls between any two points on Earth.

Communications Satellites

A communications satellite or comsat, works a little like a mirror on the sky, it receives radio signals beamed up to it from Earth, amplifies them and sends them back to a different place on Earth.

A Live Broadcast

Satellites enable events such as the Olympic Games to be watched anywhere in the world seconds after the happen.

In the Sky

A low-flying satellite orbits at a height of about 155-186 miles just outside most of the Earth's atmosphere. It can dip down to as low as 74 miles to take close-up photographs of interesting places. Its advanced camera systems can see details as small as 2 inches across.

Messages from Space. Photograph by Elena.

Gas Tanks

The satellite uses jets of gas from its gas tanks to stop it from drifting out of position.

Communications Circuits

The satellite's communications circuits can relay tens of thousands of telephone calls at the same time.

Picturing the Weather

Satellite pictures can help a weather forecaster see how weather systems, such as cyclones, grow and move across the oceans. Views from the space would be impossible to obtain from the ground.

Weather Satellite's

The world's weather constantly changes, and the temperature of the sea, the land and the clouds vary all the time. A weather satellite carries heat-sensitive cameras that continually monitor the weather.

Staying on Orbit

If could throw a ball hard enough, it would fly all the way around the Earth, because the curve of its fall would exactly match the curve of the Earth's surface. To see this in action, make two plastic balls – one 2 in across to represent gravity, and one ¾ in across to to represent a satellite. Thread 20 in of string through a thread spool (Earth), and tie each end to a key. Push each key into one of the balls. Hold the thread spool and the large ball and start the small ball spinning. Let the large ball go. The satellite tries to fly away from Earth but gravity pulls it back. When the two forces are balanced, the satellite orbits Earth.

Messages from Space. Illustration by Elena.

Ancient Egypt: A Royal Journey

Power of the Pharaohs

The civilization we call ancient Egypt started about 5,000 years ago, when the rule of the pharaohs began. They made Egypt a rich and powerful nation, admired throughout the ancient world. They also ordered the building of great temples for their gods and elaborate tombs for themselves. Some pharaohs, such as Pepy II, came to the throne when they were very young and stayed in power for many years.

Sons inherited their father's throne. Pharaohs' wives were also important, but few women ever ruled the country. Teams of workers crafted beautiful objects for the pharaohs and their families. They used materials such as semi-precious stones and gold from the desert mines. The royal couple often displayed their riches in public. Processions, receptions for foreign visitors and visits to the temples were opportunities to show the power of the pharaohs.

A Royal Journey

The magnificent royal barge gliding down the river reminded people of the wealth and importance of their god-king and his “Great Royal Wife”.Safe landing: Oarsmen were skilled at bringing the boat smoothly to rest beside the dock.

Fit for a pharaoh: A sphinx guarded the prow. The rest of the barge was covered with gold and inlaid with semi-precious stones.

People in waiting: Officials and tribute bearers, soldiers and slaves stood by the immense columns of the temple to welcome their pharaohs.

Pharaohs. Photo by Elena.

The Dynasties of the Pharaohs

Archaic Period, 2920 BC to 2575 BC.: Upper and Lower Egypt were united. Building programs included impressive monuments in Saqqara and Abydos. Stone vases.

Old Kingdom, 2575 BC to 2134 BC.: This period was also known as the Age of Pyramids. Crafts and architecture developed. Picture symbols, called hieroglyphs, were used to write the texts inside the pyramids. Figures of female brewer.

First Intermediate Period, 2134 BC to 2040 BC.: At the end of the sixth dynasty, a series of weak pharaohs ruled. Local officials called nomarchs struggled for more power. Low Nile floods caused widespread famine.

Middle Kingdom. 2040 BC to 1640 BC.: Strong pharaohs united the country again and trade revived. The twelfth-dynasty pharaohs organized canals and reservoirs for better irrigation, King Mentuhotpe II.

Second Intermediate Period, 1640 BC – 1550 BC.: The pharaohs lost control. The Hyksos from the Near Est settled in the delta region.

New Kingdom, 1550 BC to 1070 BC.: Ahmose ousted the Hyksos. The pharaohs who followed him expanded Egypt's frontiers to form an empire.

Third Intermediate period, 1070 BC to 712 BC.: Power was divided between the pharaohs and the high priests.

Late Period, 712 BC to 332 BC.: The Egyptian conquerors became the conquered. Successive invasions of Nubians, Assyrians and Persians took over Egypt. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great freed Egypt from Persion rule.

Harnessing the Sun

Harnessing the Sun

The sun is an extraordinary powerful form of energy. In fact, the Earth receives 20,000 times more energy from the sun than we currently use. If we used much more of this source of heat and light, it could supply all the power needed throughout the world. We can harness energy from the sun, called “solar energy”, in many ways. Satellites in space have large panels covered with solar cells that change sunlight directly into electrical power.

Some buildings have solar collectors that use solar energy to heat water. These panels are covered with glass and are painted black inside to absorb as much heat as possible. Some electric cars are even powered by solar panels. Solar energy is a clean fuel, but fossil fuels, such as oil or coal, release harmful substances into the air when they are burned. Fossil fuels will run out eventually, but solar energy will continue to reach the Earth long after the last coal has been mined and the last oil well has run dry.

Saving energy

An energy-efficient house is designed to minimize energy waste. It generates its own electricity, but it is still connected to the national power grid. If it generates more electricity than it needs, the excess is supplied to the grid. If it needs more electricity, this supplied by the grid.

Keeping warm

Most of the heat lost by a house escapes through the roof. The roof of an energy-efficient house is lined with insulation material to stop heat from escaping.

Solar panels

When the sun shines on a solar panel, solar energy is converted into electricity to power electrical appliances in the house, such as water heaters or cooling fans.

The Sunny Side

Many houses are built today with one long side facing the sun so that it can absorb as much solar energy as possible during the day.

Harnessing the Sun. Photo by Elena.

Small windows

Windows that do not face the sun are smaller, to reduce heat loss.

Water tanks

Hot water from the roof-top solar collectors is stored in tanks for later use. The tanks are insulated to stop the heat from escaping.

Cover Up

Awning shield windows from the excessive heat and glare of the sun.

Skylights

These let in natural light and can be opened to let war air escape.

Walls

The walls are filled with insulating materials to stop heat from escaping through them.

Large Windows

Windows facing the sun are large so that plenty of solar energy can pass through and warm the rooms inside. In the evening, when the sun sets, heavy curtains or shutters are closed over the windows to stop the heat from escaping.

Warming Up

Greenhouse are made of glass and have slanted roofs to allow the maximum amount of sunlight to enter. The sun's heat is trapped inside, which raises the temperature inside the greenhouse and helps the plants to grow. Plants in a greenhouse can be grown all year around.

Solar Cells

Solar cells convert light directly into electricity. Light reaches the cell through a transparent protective coating. The first layer is made from a material called N-type silicon (silicon is one of the most plentiful elements in the Earth's crust). N-type silicon is specially treated so that it has more electrons than normal silicon. This has gaps in its structure because it has less electrons. Sunlight gives electrons enough energy to jump from the N-type silicon to the P-type to fill the gaps. When electrons move, they make an electric current. The tiny currents made by hundreds of thousands of solar cells are added together to make an electric current that is large enough to power equipment.

Human, Bow Down

Human, Bow Down

By James Patterson and Emily Raymond, excerpt

Mikky stands tall, as proud as she can look in her dirty clothing. Heer commander holds out his gun – his very own – and she hubmly accepts it, bowing don in gratitude.

She has been forgiven.

She straightens and offers him a competent, merciless smile. “Sir,” she says briskly, “who shall I terminate first?”

A noise from the hall makes MosesKhan turn and look expectantly at the door.

A moment later, it bursts open, and a creature is dragged into the room. A spitting, hissing thing that seems like a cross between an adolescent girl and a jackal. It curses and flails, but the two Hu-Bot guards hold it steady, unperturbed by such feeble, animal attempts to escape.

“Get your fake-ass hands off of me, skin job,” it screams. “I”ll yank your circuits right out of your neck!” Then the figure looks up through its tangled hair and sees Mikky. It eyes widen in shock and relief. “Mikky!” it cries. “Helps me!”

Mikky goes rigid. She recognizes the human now: 68675409M, the Corvette thief. The one who caused her fall from grace. Her grip tightens on the gun.

MosesKhan steps forward, the hint of a smile playing about his lips. “You know what to do now, MikkyBo,” he says. He gestures toward the revolver in her hand. “Make it hurt,” he tells her, loud enough for the human to hear.

Mikky nods. Considers which extremity to hit first. Would the stomach hurt more than the knees, or would she die too quickly?” She palms the gun, feeling its heft. A .44 Magnum cartridge, she guesses: powerful enough to shred the girl like a grenade.

At such close range, Mikky's going to have to work hard not to kill the girl immediately. She licks her lips. Aims for a kneecap...

“Mikky, don't do it,” the girl says desperately. “This isn't you. They've done something to you.”

Mikky's focus doesn't waver. “Correct. They have repaired my problematic glitch,” she says tonelessly.

68675409M shakes her head. “No, Mikky, that's not true. Don't let them take control,” she says urgently, her sweaty desperation coming off her in pungent waves. “I know you. You're not a robot – you”re a person.”

Person? Mikky thinks, nearly chuckling as she cocks her weapon. With an insult that hateful, the human is clearly begging to die.

A spitting, hissing thing that seems lie a cross between an adolescent girl and a jackal. 

Barbie, Human, Bow Down. Photo by Elena.

Ancient World

The Black and the Red

An Ancient World

People began to live beside the River Nile many thousands of years ago. The river cut through the desert and provided them with water. The valley of Upper Egypt in the south formed a long narrow strip; the delta of Lower Egypt in the north spread out across the river mouth. Every year, floods washed thick mud over the banks and lef good soil behind. Early Egyptians called this the “Black Land” and used it for growing crops. Beyond it was the “Red Land,” an immense stony waste where it hardly ever rained and nothing useful grew. Where the Black Land ended, the Red Land began. A person could stand with one foot on fertile ground and the other on dry sand. Wolves and jackals hunted along the edges of the desert, but human enemies were seldom able to cross it and attack ancient Egypt.

The Cliffs of Thebes

Limestone cliffs line the western boundary of the valley of Thebes. Pharaohs built temples on the edge of the floodplain and tombs in the hills beyond.

Alexander's Alexandria

Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 331 BC, and planned a great city called Alexandria.

The Monuments of Giza

The pyramids and the sphinx at Giza are landmarks of ancient Egypt, visible from a great distance across the desert.

Ancient World. Photo by Elena.

Queen Hatshepsut's temple

Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled as pharaoh, built a terraced temple at Deir el-Bahri on the west bank of the Nile. She filled the gardens with sweet-smelling plants.

Abu Simbel

Ramesses II ordered two huge temples to be built in the desert at Abu Simbel in Nubia. They were carved out of the sandstone cliffs.

Temples at Karnak

Karnak was an important religious center. Stone columns with elaborately carved tops supported the heavy roofs of the huge temples.

Marsh Hunt

The hunter felled birds with his throwing stick after his trained cat had startled them from the papyrus reeds.

Land of the Lotus

People in modern times likened ancient Egypt to a lotus plant, with its valley as the stem and its delta as the flower.

The Civilization of Ancient Egypt

Old Stone Age: Before 12,000 BC. The earliest Egyptians hunted lions, goats and wild cattle on land, and hippopotamuses and crocodiles in the river marshes.

New stone Age: Begins about 4500 BC, during this period, people discovered fire for cooking. They learned to herd animals and to grow grain. New stone-age pottery witness that.

Land of two kingdoms: Begins about 3000 BC. Ditches were dug to irrigate the land and villages became more established. In 3100 BC, Narmer united Upper and Lower Egypt. Narmer”s palette shows his victory.

Rule of the Pharaohs: 2920 BC to 322 BC. Egypt was strong for much of this time. Monuments were built and trade with foreign countries developed.

New Design

A New Design in the Industrial World

After the Second World War, many nations around the world made great economic recoveries. People felt confident and full of adventure. Architects of the 1950s and 1960s designed buildings with unusual shapes to reflect this new confidence. Some buildings have simple geometric shapes, while others look like huge abstract sculptures. 

Many of these structures could not have been built without the invention of a new material called reinforced concrete. A roof of reinforced concrete will bridge a wide room without any other supports in between. Steel and reinforced concrete are so flexible that walls and ceilings can be built into any shape. Sometimes the walls of a room or ceiling were built so they curved away from the people inside the building. This was done to give people a feeling of exhilaration – the spirit of the time in which these buildings were designed and constructed.

A Better Building Material

Reinforced concrete is made by pouring concrete into molds around steel rods or wire mesh. The kind of concrete is no longer brittle, so roof supports can be set farther apart. Concrete reinforced with wire mesh is used to build thin, lightweight ceilings and walls and can be easily molded into any shape desired. The bowl shape of the assembly room in the Palace of the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, is possible because of reinforced concrete.

Manhattan modern buildings. Photo by Elena.

The construction of an innovative building is difficult and often requires new techniques and special building materials. Many unexpected problems arise no matter how careful the advance planning may be. The architects and engineers building the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, faced major obstacles. The design was so innovative that it took several years for engineers to work out a way to actually build it.

Specialists in sound, called acoustical engineers advised on how the chosen building materials would affect the quality of sound. Metal, plastic and glass from around the world was used in the building. Manufacturer designed essential new equipment and construction workers learned new skills to build the Opera House. There were many unexpected costs and delays in construction. The architect's imaginative design became a unique masterpiece, which today is recognized throughout the world.

A Global View

A great building can reflect many different ideas and styles and tells us about the beliefs and values of the people who designed and built it. Ancient buildings around the world looked different because they were shaped by the building materials available. Each material inspired a different construction method People in the forest areas of Europe built in wood. Wood was scarce but stone was plentiful along the Mediterranean coast.

Passing on the Power

Passing on the Power

Electricity has to be sent from the power station where it is made to the homes and businesses where it is used. Whether the power station is nuclear powered hydroelectric or burns coal, the electricity it makes is distributed in the same way. Transformers at the power station boost the electricity to a very high voltage-hundreds of thousands of volts. The electricity is then carried by metal cables suspended from tall transmission towers, or pylons. It usually ends its journey by passing along underground cables. By the time it reaches your home, transformers have reduced its voltage to a level that depends on which country you live in. Electricity generated in one place can be sent to another part of the country if more power is needed.

Turbogenerator

Electricity is made by a turbogenerator – a generator driven by a turbine. When a wire moves near a magnet, electricity flows along the wire. Inside the generator, strong magnets make electricity flow through coils of wire.

Rotor

The rotor consists of coils of wire that rotate at high speed. Electric current flowing through the coils creates powerful magnetic fields around them.

Anode

A carbon rod acts as the positive electrode.

Passing on the power. Photo by Elena.

Electrolyte

This is a chemical paste.

Cathode

The zinc battery case forms the negative electrode.

Batteries

When a battery is connected to an electric circuit, a chemical reaction between the negative terminal (cathode) and a liquid or paste (electrolyte) creates a current. This current travels round the circuit and returns to the battery at the positive electrode (anode).

Rotor

The rotor consists of coils of wire that rotate at high speed. Electric current flowing through the coils creats powerful magnetic fields around them.

Transformers

Transformers increase the voltage before electricity is transmitted.

Electricity Distribution

Electricity generated at a power station is distributed through a network of cables above and below the ground.

A Bright Idea

Most light bulbs contain a thin coiled wire filament that heats up and glows when an electric current flows trough it. They are called incandescent bulbs. An energy efficient bulb is a fluorescent tube that needs less electricity to produce the same amount of light as a normal bulb. When an electric current passes through mercury vapor inside the tube, the vapor releases invisible ultraviolet rays, and the coating on the inside of the bulb converts them into visible light.

Stator

The stator which does not move, is made from coils of wire surrounding the rotor. As the rotor turns, its magnetic fields cut through the stator coils and make an electric current flow through them.

Power take-off cables

Thick cables lead electric current away from the generator.

Transmission towers

The transmission lines are held high above the ground by tall transmission towers. Glass or ceramic insulators between the metal towers and the cables stop the current from running down the towers into the ground.

Transmission line

Cables strengthened by steel carry the current.

Street transformers

Before electricity reaches your home, its voltage is reduced by transformers. The voltage level depends on the country you live in.

Home

Electricity enters your home through a meter that measures how much electricity is used.

Did you know?

Power stations have to be ready to boost electricity production whenever demand suddenly increases. In many countries, television schedules help to predict power demands. At the end of films or major sporting events, the demand for electricity soars as millions of television viewers switch on their electric kettles to make tea or coffee.