Lebanon

Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians and their kingdom, a sea-faring culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1500 BC to 300 BC.

The Lebanon region was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918.

Lebanon was devastated by civil war in the 1970s and 1980s. There was conflict between Sunnis and Shias, between Christians and Muslims, and the involvement of Israel, Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Cedar Revolution Lebanon's March 14 Alliance got its name from this day on March 14, 2005. Over a million people took to the streets of Beirut to demand the end of Syrian occupation, which by then had lasted 29 years.

By Lefendi - Own work,Wikipedia Commons

Lebanon is the only Middle Eastern country without a desert.

About 60% of Lebanese people are Muslim and 39% are Christian.

The national symbol in Lebanon is the Cedar tree, because an abundance of them are found in the Lebanon Mountains.

In ancient times wood from the cedar of Lebanon was prized above all other woods. The warm, red wood is free of knots and has a fragrance, which is pleasant to humans, but repels insects, It was in every way an ideal wood for large buildings.

After Switzerland, the world’s largest per capita gold reserves are held by Lebanon.

Leather

Early Stone Age people wrapped themselves in dried animal pelts and discovered ways of softening and preserving the skins. This was the beginning of leather processing. At first the pelts were probably dried in air and sunlight, then later they may have been soaked in water and dried over a fire. Further on, it would have been discovered that certain twigs, barks, and leaves soaked with the hides in water helped to preserve the skins..

Evidence exists for the use of leather by the ancient Sumerians as far back as 6000 BC.

Archaeological studies have found the earliest leather shoe, skirt and wine-producing facility in Armenia, dated to about 4000 BC.

Ancient Egyptian stone carvings show leather workers. Egyptian leather sandals more than 3,300 years old are in museums.

The Israelites learned to make leather from the Egyptians. A passage in the Old Testament reads, "Unto Adam and also unto his wife did the Lord God make clothes of skins and clothe them."

The colonists brought oak-bark tanning methods from England. The first leathermaker, named Experience Miller, arrived in Plymouth in 1623.

When the first settlers arrived in America, they found that the Indians' tanning method was much like the ancient shamoying, a method used by the Arabs and mentioned by Homer. The Indians taught the pioneers how to make buckskin.

By 1650 there were 51 tanners in Massachusetts. The early leathermakers simply dug holes in the ground and walled them with planking. In these holes hides were covered with oak bark and left for at least six months. This method was no more advanced than that used by the ancient Hebrews.

The phrase 'going hell for leather,' meaning as fast as possible, comes from a horseman riding fast and putting a lot of wear into his leather saddle.

Sir Humphry Davy discovered that materials from other trees--hemlock, mimosa, chestnut, and ash--could be used in tanning. These trees were plentiful in the United States and helped make it the center of the leather trade.

Brogues were originally rough leather boots worn in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, but applied in the 20th century  to sturdy shoes with patterns of perforation in an upper layer of leather, worn in particular for such activities as shooting or golf.

William Ramsay first produced the Kiwi shoe polish in 1906. Within two years, his firm had developed the famous "dark tan," the first stain polish, capable of altering the color of leather.

The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabres, hence the name "leathernecks."

Gucci's journey began in Florence, Italy, in 1921, when Guccio Gucci opened his first store specializing in high-quality leather goods. He initially crafted saddles and luggage, drawing inspiration from the equestrian world and Florentine craftsmanship.

Over time, Gucci expanded its leather repertoire to include handbags, wallets, and other accessories, gradually building a reputation for exquisite materials, expert craftsmanship, and timeless designs. This foundation in leatherwork remains a core element of Gucci's identity even today, influencing their approach to other product categories.

Corinthian leather is a term coined in 1974 by the advertising agency Bozell to describe the upholstery used in certain Chrysler luxury vehicles. The term suggests that the product has a relationship to or origination from Corinth, but the supplier was located outside Newark, New Jersey.

 A 1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham, showing the plush leather interior. By Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA

Leather skin does not have any smell. The leather smell that you sense is actually derived from the materials used in the tanning process.

The term "genuine leather" doesn't simply mean "real leather": it refers to the lowest grade of all leather products that can technically be considered authentic.

Leap year

It takes the Earth 365.25 days to make this trip around the sun. In other words, for every year we gain one-fourth of a day and every four years we gain an extra day hence the Leap year.

Cleopatra introduced Julius Caesar to her astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, who suggested to the Roman dictator the idea of leap days and leap years.

Julius Caesar introduced the first leap year around 46 B.C., but his Julian calendar had only one rule: Any year evenly divisible by four would be a leap year.

There was no February 29th in Caesar’s leap years but February 24th was repeated.

Before Julius Caesar proposed the Leap Year, people observed a 355-day calendar with an extra 22-day month every two years.

Caesar's Julian Calendar didn't exactly coordinate the measured year with the earth's orbit around the sun, so when Pope Gregory XIII revised the calendar in 1582, he left century years out of the leap day rule unless the number before the 00 is divisible by 4. This means the year 2100 will not be a leap year.

It is acceptable for a woman to propose to a man on February 29th. The custom has been attributed to St. Bridget, who is said to have complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for men to propose marriage. Patrick supposedly gave women one day to propose.

In 1288 Queen Margaret of Scotland made a ruling that on Leap Year Day a woman could propose marriage to the man of her choice. She also stated that any man who refused a proposal on leap year must pay a fine or buy the woman 12 pairs of gloves.

Alessandro Farnese was born on February 29, 1468 in Lazio, Italy. Later, he became Pope Paul III — he was the only Pope ever to be born on a leap year day.

If America had done away with leap days on July 4, 1776, the US calendar today would be a full two months ahead of the Earth's position.

A person born on February 29th may be called a "leapling" or a "leaper." Some famous leapers are English poet John Byrom, Italian pianist and composer Gioachino Rossini, band leader Jimmy Dorsey and the rapper Ja Rule.

The eighth premier of Tasmania, James Milne Wilson, was born on a leap day and died on a leap day in the 1800s.

Karin Henriksen of Norway gave birth to children on February 29 in 1960, 1964 and 1968, and Louise Estes of Provo, Utah, gave birth on February 29 in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

There are an estimated 5 million leapsters alive today.

Because there seemed to be an overabundance of people born in Anthony in Texas on February 29, the town declared itself the Leap Year Capital of the World in 1988. It holds a huge party every February 29th.

The only time a month begins and ends on the same day of the week is February in a leap year.

Sources USA Today, Daily Express

Lawyer

The earliest people who could be described as "lawyers" were probably the orators of ancient Athens. However Athenian law forbade them from taking a fee to plead the cause of another. This meant the advocate had to uphold the legal fiction that they were merely an ordinary citizen generously helping out a friend for free, and thus they could never organize into a real profession.

Draco was an Athenian lawyer who gave the city its first written code. The word Draconian originated from his name as his laws were so brutal. According to legend, he died due to his popularity; after giving a speech at a theatre, he was smothered when the audience threw their cloaks at him.

Early Roman advocates were trained in rhetoric, not law, but in time Rome developed a class of specialists who were learned in the law, known as jurisconsults. These specialist legal orators were wealthy amateurs who dabbled in law as an intellectual hobby; they did not make their primary living from it.

Egyptian advocates were banned from law during the time Rome ruled over Egypt, as their joking disrupted the sanctity of the courts. They mocked Roman judges and their decisions and some even made up jokes and songs to defend political prisoners.

Shakespeare still upsets legal eagles with his ''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers'' line. It was stated by Dick the Butcher,  a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, who thought that if he disturbed law and order, he could become king in 'Henry VI' Part II. Shakespeare gift shops report that items bearing the slogan tend to sell well

The early colonists brought with them the long-standing English sentiment against lawyers and tried to do without them. Massachusetts (1641), Virginia (1658), and the Carolinas (1669) all enacted statutes that prohibited pleading in court for hire.

On the death of King Charles II in 1685, the English Bar entered a period of mourning and.started to wear black mourning robes, complete with pleated shoulders and tapered elbows. Although the Bar has stopped formally stopped mourning the death of the monarch, barristers in the UK still dress in all black in court.

The first African-American man to become a lawyer was John Mercer Langston, who passed the bar exam in 1854.

Myra Bradwell's love of the law had begun when she married her husband James Bradwell in 1852, who was also a law student. She started her formal law training when her husband was accepted to the Illinois Bar. There she apprenticed as a lawyer in her husband's office, and assisted him with research and legal writings. On August 2, 1869, Bradwell passed the Illinois law exam becoming the first female lawyer in US. The following month she applied for the submission to the bar, but was prevented, due to her gender, from being admitted to practice law in Illinois in 1890, and the United States Supreme Court two years later,

Despite an Iowa state law restricting the bar exam to males, Arabella Mansfield took it in 1869 and earned high scores. Shortly afterwards, Mansfield challenged the state law excluding her and the Court ruled that women may not be denied the right to practice law in Iowa, admitting Mansfield to the bar. Mansfield was sworn in at the Union Block building in Mount Pleasant that year becoming America's first woman lawyer allowed to practice.

In 1870, Ada H. Kepley, of Illinois, graduated from the Union College of Law in Chicago. In doing so, she became the first woman lawyer to graduate from a law school.

American President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1879. That same year Belva Ann Lockwood was the first American woman lawyer to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lincoln's Inn in London admitted its first female bar student in 1919. Helena Normanton was the first women to be admitted as a student, on Christmas Eve 1919 at the Middle Temple,

Frances Kyle was called to the Bar of Ireland on November 1, 1921, becoming the first female barrister in Ireland or Great Britain. She was also the first woman to win the John Brooke Scholarship.  

Helena Normanton was called to the bar a few weeks later on November 17, 1922, at the Middle Temple in London. She was the first woman to be called to the bar in England and Wales. Normanton was also the first woman to appear in the High Court and the Old Bailey. She was a fierce advocate for women's rights and equality, and she used her platform as a barrister to speak out against discrimination.

When actor Raymond Massey divorced his wife Adrianne Allen in 1939,  they used, respectively, husband and wife divorce lawyers Dorothy Whitney and William Dwight Whitney. Raymond then married his lawyer Dorothy and Adrianne married her lawyer William.

The Guyana-born lawyer Sir Lionel Luckhoo, achieved 245 consecutive murder charge acquittals between 1940 and 1985.

The shark in Jaws was named Bruce after Bruce Ramer, a lawyer who was representing Stephen Spielberg during the making of the movie.

Matthew McConaughey gave up on going to law school in 1993 to go into acting. His breakout movie role came three years later, as a lawyer.

On October 28, 1998, Shon Robert Hopwood (born June 11, 1975) pleaded guilty to robbing several banks in Nebraska. During his 11 years in federal prison, Hopwood spent time in the law library and became well-known as a jailhouse lawyer. He had become an accomplished United States Supreme Court practitioner by the time he left in 2008.

In four states, including California, you can take the bar examination and practice law without ever going to law school. It’s called "reading law."

In England and Wales, the role of lawyer is divided in two. Solicitors provide legal advice, barristers argue in court, and clerks are middlemen between the two.

Leaf

Regardless of climate, tree leaves maintain an internal temperature of 70 degrees F (21 degrees C), which is the perfect temperature for photosynthesis.

In plant growth, it has been observed that each successive leaf on the stems of many plants is turned from the previous leaf by the golden angle, approximately 137.5°, an angle that purportedly maximizes leaves' sun-collecting power.

It is estimated that your chances of finding a four-leaf clover on the first try are 1 in 10,000.

Evergreen trees will not lose their leaves in the fall like deciduous trees. Their leaves, also called needles, are covered with a thick wax. This wax protects the inner components of the needles, preventing them from freezing.

Leaves turn yellow and orange then brown in autumn as the shorter days bring less chlorophyll-producing sunlight.

The leaves of the Ficus religiosa tree move continuously even when the air around is still and no wind is blowing. This phenomenon can be explained due to the long leaf stalk and the broad leaf structure.

A lotus leaf is able to self-clean by causing water to bead up and collect dirt on its ultrahydrophobic surface

Raphia palm tree have got the largest leaves; one leaf can grow up to 20 meters.

Psithurism is the sound of rustling leaves.

Raking your leaves destroys ecosystems. Fallen leaves create a natural layer that box turtles, butterflies, chipmunks, moths, salamanders, shrews, toads, worms, and other species rely on for food and shelter.

The actor Joaquin Phoenix began calling himself "Leaf" as a child, having been inspired by spending time outdoors raking leaves and desiring to have a nature-related name like his siblings. This became the name he used as a child actor, until he changed it back to Joaquin at age 15.

T. E. Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888 in Tremadog, Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd), Wales in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge.

His unmarried parents were Sir Thomas Chapman, an Anglo Irish landowner of private means and Sarah Junner, a Scottish governess for whom Chapman left his tyrannical wife and legitimate daughters. His father had four other sons in quick succession with her.

In the summer of 1896, Lawrence's parents moved with their five sons to a terraced house, 2 Polstead Road in Oxford, where they lived under the names of Mr and Mrs Lawrence until 1921.

From 1907 to 1910, Lawrence studied History at Jesus College, Oxford. He graduated with First Class Honors largely on account of a highly-acclaimed thesis entitled The influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture – to the end of the 12th century.

Lawrence first went to the Middle East in 1909 when he traveled to Syria as part of his Oxford studies.  He traveled 1,000 miles (1,600 km) on foot alone during a three-month tour of crusader castles while writing his thesis about the Crusades and European military architecture. 

CAREER IN THE MIDDLE EAST 

On leaving university, Lawrence commenced a postgraduate degree in medieval pottery, which he soon abandoned after he was offered the opportunity to become a practicing archaeologist in the Middle East.

Between 1910-14 Lawrence took part in archaeological expeditions in Syria and Mesopotamia to excavate the ancient Hittite empire along the Euphrates river.

When World War 1 began, Lawrence was rejected for active service as he was too short. He found a place in the war office and was transferred to the intelligence service in Egypt.

In 1916, Lawrence was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was sent to help the Emir Felsel of Iraq in a revolt against the Turks in Syria and Palestine. There he re-organized the Arab army, which he practically commanded.

Lawrence run a guerrilla operation, blowing up many bridges and trains, and succeeded in uniting the disparate Arab world. The Turks offered a reward of £20,000 for the capture of "El Oransi", destroyer of engines".

In 1917 Lawrence captured Aquaba after a 600-mile march and led their triumphal entry into Damascus in 1918 but failed to secure Arab independence. However, the Battle of Aqaba was the key battle that ended a 500-year Ottoman rule over Greater Syria.

The rogue soldier was known as Lawrence of Arabia and he lived up to his name an Arab's flowing robes and a chieftain's headdress.

Lawrence used a fleet of Rolls Royces to transport his Arabian nationalist guerrillas when he led his forces against the Turks in Syria,

Lawrence was famous for riding a camel. However, he suffered from profound motion sickness when on board the humped dromedary.

He was awarded the DSO and Order of the Bath & recommended for a VC.

On the subject of the war, Lawrence said: "I liked a particular Arab, and thought that freedom for the race would be an acceptable present."

POSTWAR CAREER 

In August 1922, Lawrence enlisted in the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman under the name John Hume Ross. At the RAF recruiting center in Covent Garden, London, the officer in charge, Captain WE Johns (the author of the Biggles books) rejected Lawrence's application as he correctly believed that "Ross" was a false name. He was also malnourished and bore the scars of self-inflicted beatings. Lawrence admitted that this was so and that the documents were false which he had provided. He left, but returned some time later with an RAF messenger carrying a written order for Johns to accept Lawrence.

Lawrence was forced out of the RAF in February 1923 after being exposed. He changed his name to T. E. Shaw and joined the Royal Tank Corps in the same year.

Lawrence was unhappy in the Royal Tank Corps and repeatedly petitioned to rejoin the RAF, which finally readmitted him in August 1925.

Lawrence was assigned to a remote base in British India in late 1926, where he remained until the end of 1928. He was forced to return to Britain after rumors began to circulate that he was involved in espionage activities.

Lawrence was offered a job as a nightwatchman at the Bank of England in 1928. He turned it down.

WRITING

Lawrence's literary hero was Thomas Hardy.

Lawrence wrote his account of the Arab revolt during World War 1, 7 Pillars Of Wisdom, while staying at 14 Barton Street Westminster in London. For a while he attracted attention by climbing into his own house instead of using the front door.

On one occasion, Lawrence took a train trip from London to Oxford carrying with him eight of ten volumes of his book in a bag. While changing stations at Reading he left them in a refreshment room, never to be found. His friends persuaded him to rewrite the book the following year.

The title comes from the Book of Proverbs, 9:1: "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (King James Version)

Seven Pillars of Wisdom was originally privately published in a limited edition in 1926. Lawrence vowed not to take any money from his book as it was the result of his war service, so the sale price was one third of the production costs. This left him in substantial debt.

Within weeks of Lawrence's death in 1935, the book was published for general circulation

PERSONAL LIFE 

Lawrence was 5ft 6ins with a slight build. He had a long face, reddish blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes.

There is no reliable evidence for consensual sexual intimacy between Lawrence and any person. His friends have expressed the opinion that he was asexual.

Lawrence was close friends with EM Foster, GB Shaw and particularly Shaw's wife, Charlotte. He generally preferred men's company to women and felt at home in the ranks.

Noel Coward wrote to Lawrence of Arabia when he was Aircraftsman TE Shaw no 338171. Knowing his shyness, he began "Dear 338171, may I call you 338?"

Lawrence's favorite composers were Beethoven and Mozart and the British soldier and writer was also very fond of Elgar's 2nd Symphony.

Lawrence rode a Brough motorbike, the Rolls Royce of bikes. He owned seven in succession, his last one being a hand built Brough 1932 SS 100 model Blue Mist. Pulling onto his motorcycle and hurling it into top speed was Lawrence's way of relaxing.

He submitted articles to Motor Cycle magazine.

FINAL YEARS, DEATH AND LEGACY 

After leaving the RAF in 1935 Lawrence retired to a former Gamekeeper’s cottage at Clouds Hill near Moreton, Bovington, Dorset.

Returning home from Bovingdon Barracks to his cottage, Lawrence was involved in a motorcycle accident two miles from Clouds Hill. A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boy cyclists; he swerved to avoid them, lost control, and was thrown over the handlebars. Lawrence was not wearing a helmet and suffered serious head injuries that left him in a coma; He died six days later in hospital at Bovington Camp on May 19, 1935.

One of the doctors attending Lawrence in hospital was the neurosurgeon, Hugh Cairns. As a result of Lawrence's death, Cairns began a long study of what he saw as the unnecessary loss of life by motorcycle dispatch riders through head injuries and his research led to the use of crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists.

Mourners at Lawrence's funeral included Winston Churchill, Siegfried Sassoon and EM Forster.

The 5ft 6in Lawrence was portrayed by the 6ft 2in Peter O'Toole in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The David Lean classic epic did win the Oscar for best movie.

“I deem him one of the greatest beings alive in our time... We shall never see his like again. His name will live in history. It will live in the annals of war... It will live in the legends of Arabia.” Winston Churchill speaking of Lawrence.

Lawn mower

The first lawn mower was invented by farmer's son and textile mill laborer Edwin Budding in 1830 in Thrupp, just outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire, England. Inspired by rotary machines used to trim velvet, he joined forces with the businessman John Ferrabee to build a self-powered cylinder. Budding was granted a British patent on August 31, 1830.

An early cylinder (reel) mower,

Budding's first mower was 19 inches wide, had a box that collected the clippings as they were thrown forward by the blades and allowed the user to adjust the height of the cut. The mower changed little in design until after World War II.

The first person known to have bought a lawnmower was a Mr Curtis, head gardener of Regent's Park Zoo, who paid 210 shillings for a Ferabee machine in 1831.

As well as the Royal Zoological Society, Oxford colleges were also among the first to use Budding's lawn mower. Its popularity spread as more British homes came to have gardens. As the lawn mower's popularity spread and made lawns more affordable, sports that were played on grass, such as cricket, football and rugby, were given better playing surfaces.

The first Wimbledon championship was held in 1877 to raise money for repairs to the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club's pony-drawn lawn roller. Entrants had to pay a guinea (£1.05) each.

Automobile manufacturer Ransom E. Olds (1864-1950)  invented the power lawn mower in 1914.
In 1897 he'd opened the Olds Motor Vehicle Company and started building there four years later he first mass-produced automobile, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash. In 1915, after a softening in the auto market, Olds formed the Ideal Power Lawn Mower Company to manufacture his newest invention.

A Baptist, Olds' philanthropies included establishing an interdenominational home for retired ministers in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The prototype flymo was a dustbin lid with an engine stuck on it.

During one bender in 1966, country singer George Jones' wife tried to curb her husband's drinking by hiding their car keys so he couldn't get to the nearest bar, which was eight miles away. Undeterred, Jones found the key was still in the ignition of his sit-on lawnmower, so set off at 5 mph before being pulled over by the police.

A 73-year-old almost blind man, Alvin Straight, was unable to get a drivers license due to his eyesight. Instead, he drove his John Deere lawn mower 240 miles from northwestern Iowa to southwestern Wisconsin to visit his ailing 80-year-old brother, Henry.

In 1995 a gardener in Norway was the first man to be convicted of drunken driving whilst in charge of a lawnmower as he drove one between two gardens.

Mowing lawns on Sundays and holidays is a punishable offense in Germany. German law forbids making excessive noise on Sundays and holidays, as well as from 10PM to 7AM on weekdays.

Mowing American lawns uses 800 million gallons of gas every year. This is a significant amount of energy and resources, and it has a negative impact on the environment.

The shape of a lawn mowers blade creates lift which forces the grass to stick up, making it much easier to be cut by the next blade.

Sources The Independent,  Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999