wikipedia

A trebuchet (French: trébuchet) is a type of catapult that uses a hinged arm with a sling attached to the tip to launch a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weights and further distances than a traditional catapult.

A trebuchet projectile can be almost anything, even debris, rotting carcasses, or incendiaries, but is typically a large stone.

Tonsure (/ˈtɒnʃər/) is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word tonsura (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in medieval Catholicism, abandoned by papal order in 1972. Tonsure, in its earliest Greek and Roman origin, was used as a sign or signifier for slavery. Tonsure can also refer to the secular practice of shaving all or part of the scalp to show support or sympathy, or to designate mourning. Current usage more generally refers to cutting or shaving for monks, devotees, or mystics of any religion as a symbol of their renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem.

Tattooed ladies were working class women who acquired tattoos and performed in circuses, sideshows, and dime show museums as means for earning a substantial living. At the height of their popularity during the turn of the 20th century, tattooed ladies transgressed Victorian gender norms by showcasing their bodies in scantily clad clothing and earned a salary considerably larger than their male counterparts. Tattooed ladies often used captivity narratives as a means for excusing their appearance, and to tantalize the audience. The popularity of tattooed ladies waned with the onset of television.

Circuses and dime museums searched for new and exciting acts, including posting wanted ads in newspapers for tattooed ladies. During the late 1890s to early 1900s, tattoo artists typically charged less than a dollar for small tattoos, while a full body job totalled $30 and took less than two months to complete. Depending on her popularity, a tattooed lady made anywhere from $100 to $200 weekly during the turn of the century, whereas teachers in 1900 averaged $7 a week, plus room and board, and by 1909, clerical workers earned about $22 a week and industrial workers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made $9.

One unique characteristic of the trail marker tree is a horizontal bend several feet off the ground, which makes it visible at greater distances, even in snow.

Native Americans chose trees mainly from the hardwood family in their region. They most commonly shaped oak and maple trees—due to their flexibility when young, and their permanence and ability to retain shape. They bent trees over to form an arch, and secured them to a stake in the ground or tied them to a large stone with a leather strap or vine. They left a new branch to grow skyward from the top of the arch, forming a new trunk. Eventually they removed the old trunk, leaving a knob, a distinctive characteristic of trail marker trees.

Trail trees, trail marker trees, crooked trees, prayer trees, thong trees, or culturally modified trees are hardwood trees throughout North America that Native Americans intentionally shaped with distinctive characteristics that convey that the tree was shaped by human activity rather than deformed by nature or disease. A massive network of constructed pre-Columbian roads and trails have been well documented across the Americas, and in many places remnants can still be found of trails used by hunters and gatherers.

Crowd counting is the act of counting the total crowd present in a certain area. The people in a certain area are called a crowd. The most direct method is to actually count each person in the crowd.

Since the early 2000s, there has been a shift in the understanding of the phrase “crowd counting”. Having moved from a simpler crowd counting method to that of clusters and density maps, there are several improvements for crowd counting methods. Crowd counting can also be defined as estimating the number of people present in a single picture.

Getting sufficient depth of field can be particularly challenging in macro photography, because depth of field is smaller (shallower) for objects nearer the camera, so if a small object fills the frame, it is often so close that its entire depth cannot be in focus at once. Depth of field is normally increased by stopping down aperture (using a larger f-number), but beyond a certain point, stopping down causes blurring due to diffraction, which counteracts the benefit of being in focus. It also reduces the luminosity of the image. Focus stacking allows the depth of field of images taken at the sharpest aperture to be effectively increased.

Secessio plebis (withdrawal of the commoners, or secession of the plebs) was an informal exercise of power by Rome's plebeian citizens between the 5th century BC and 3rd century BC., similar in concept to the general strike. During the secessio plebis, the plebs would abandon the city en masse in a protest emigration and leave the patrician order to themselves. Therefore, a secessio meant that all shops and workshops would shut down and commercial transactions would largely cease. This was an effective strategy in the Conflict of the Orders due to strength in numbers; plebeian citizens made up the vast majority of Rome's populace and produced most of its food and resources, while a patrician citizen was a member of the minority upper class, the equivalent of the landed gentry of later times.

Tree-ring dating indicates that construction and refurbishing of Cliff Palace was continuous approximately from 1190 AD through 1260 AD, although the major portion of the building was done within a 20-year time span. The Ancestral Puebloans who constructed this cliff dwelling and the others like it at Mesa Verde were driven to these defensible positions by "increasing competition amidst changing climatic conditions". Cliff Palace was abandoned by 1300, though debate is ongoing as to the cause.

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The structure built by the Ancestral Puebloans is located in Mesa Verde National Park in their former homeland region.

A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.[2]

Carhenge is a replica of England's Stonehenge located near the city of Alliance, Nebraska, in the High Plains region of the United States. Instead of being built with large standing stones, as is the case with the original Stonehenge, Carhenge is formed from vintage American automobiles, all covered with gray spray paint.

It is also called "nut tag", "bag tag", "sack whack", "bell flicking" and "roshambo", the last name coming from an episode of South Park that featured the practice.

Sack tapping is a slang term for a game where a participant attacks, by slapping, tapping, punching, kicking, elbowing, twisting, or backhanding a victim's testicles. The term derived from 'sack', slang that refers to the scrotum, and the activity is a form of groin attack. This sociological manifestation of bullying can result in severe testicular injury that may require amputation as the only form of treatment.

Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, hyperhydration, overhydration, or water toxemia, is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that can result when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe limits by excessive water intake.

This timeline of anti-Zionism chronicles the history of anti-Zionism, including events in the history of anti-Zionist thought.

there are some very interesting statements on that page

The book consists of miniature paintings of events from the Hebrew Bible, set in the scenery and costumes of thirteenth-century France, and depicted from a Christian perspective.

The illuminations are stunning

The special territories of members of the European Economic Area (EEA) are the 32 special territories of EU member states and EFTA member states which, for historical, geographical, or political reasons, enjoy special status within or outside the European Union and the European Free Trade Association.

The earliest evidence for soup in human culinary practice dates to the Upper Palaeolithic period when thermally altered rocks became commonplace in the archaeological record. Small boiling pits are present on the Gravettian site Pavlov Cobbles were heated on the hearth and then placed into the water to bring it to boil. However, the antiquity of soup is highly contested. Based on ethnographic evidence, some archaeologists conjecture that early humans employed hides and watertight baskets to boil water.

The word soup comes from French soupe ('soup", "broth"), which comes through Vulgar Latin suppa ("bread soaked in broth") from a Germanic source, from which also comes the word "sop", a piece of bread used to soak up soup or a thick stew.

The word restaurant (meaning "[something] restoring") was first used in France in the 16th century, to refer to a highly concentrated, inexpensive soup, sold by street vendors, that was advertised as an antidote to physical exhaustion. In 1765, according to Prosper Montagné's Larousse Gastronomique, a Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in such soups. This prompted the use of the modern word restaurant to refer to eating establishments.

In South Asia, hijra[a] are transgender, intersex, or eunuch people who live in communities that follow a kinship system known as the guru-chela system

• The wife to be carried may be your own, or the neighbour's, or you may have found her further afield; the wife must, however, be over 17 years of age.

• The wife is a gender free term that is used over the carried person (Gender rule changed in February 2023)

• The minimum weight of the wife to be carried is 49 kilograms (108 lb). If she weighs less than 49 kg, she will be burdened with a rucksack containing additional weight to bring the total load to be carried up to 49 kg.

• All participants must enjoy themselves.

• The only equipment allowed is a belt worn by the carrier and a helmet worn by the carried.

The drinking of distilled water as a replacement for drinking water has been both advocated and discouraged for health reasons. Distilled water lacks minerals and ions, such as calcium, that play key roles in biological functions, such as in nervous system homeostasis, and are normally found in potable water. The lack of naturally occurring minerals in distilled water has raised some concerns. The Journal of General Internal Medicine published a study on the mineral contents of different waters available in the US. The study found that "drinking water sources available to North Americans may contain high levels of calcium, magnesium, and sodium and may provide clinically important portions of the recommended dietary intake of these minerals". It encouraged people to "check the mineral content of their drinking water, whether tap or bottled, and choose water most appropriate for their needs". Since distilled water is devoid of minerals, mineral intake through diet is needed to maintain good health.

A black fax is a prank fax transmission consisting of one or more pages entirely filled with a uniform black tone.