A yawn is deep involuntary breath from drowsiness, lack of stimulation or boredom. The reflex consisting of the simultaneous inhalation of air and the stretching of the eardrums, followed by an exhalation of breath.
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HUMAN YAWNING
Yawning (oscitation) most often occurs in adults immediately before and after sleep, during tedious activities and as a result of its contagious quality.
Yawning doesn't always necessarily mean you're tired, it also means your body needs more oxygen.
When you yawn, you take in three times more oxygen than you do in a normal breath.
Two women ironing, one with a yawn, by Edgar Degas
Describing how he begins his day, Benito Mussolini said in 1927: "My sleep is like that of a babe. It is profound, undisturbed and therefore extremely reposeful. I instinctively stretch and yawn when I wake, and, as quick as a flash, I am out of bed. My day has begun. I never stay in bed a moment after the yawn."
Yawning and stretching at the same time is called "pandiculating." It's very important in waking up our nervous system.
If you touch your tongue while yawning, it can stop the yawn.
Psychopaths aren't affected by the contagiousness of yawning.
People with autism are less likely to catch yawns. The more severe their condition, the less common the behavior gets.
ANIMAL YAWNING
An animal’s yawn based on how large their brain is. The bigger the brain, the longer they will yawn. Dogs will yawn in order to express that there is a conflict of interest between their own ideas or desires and those of their owners.
Yale University was founded on October 16, 1701 by Congregationalist ministers unhappy with the growing liberalism at Harvard. It wasn't called Yale then, but rather the Collegiate School.
The Congregationalist ministers donated forty books and declared their objective, that "Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences who through the blessing of God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State."
The first diploma awarded by Yale College was granted to Nathaniel Chauncey in 1702.
It 1718 the Collegiate School was re-named Yale University after Boston-born Elihu Yale, (April 5, 1649 – July 8, 1721). Yale was a successful merchant and the President of the East India Company settlement in Fort St. George, at Madras, India. A benefactor of the Collegiate School, he donated books and goods worth $2,500 to the Collegiate School.
During the shaky founding years of the Collegiate College, colonial agent Jeremiah Dummer (1681 – May 19, 1739) was an important force in the solidification of the college's future. Dummer sought donations for the school in the form of money and books, eventually securing donations from several benefactors including Elihu Yale. In fact Jeremiah Dummer did more for Yale University than Elihu Yale, but the trustees didn't want the school known as "Dummer College."
Yale Daily News was the first daily college newspaper in the United States. The independent student newspaper was published by Yale University students on January 28, 1878.
A Front View of Yale-College and the College Chapel, Daniel Bowen, 1786.
Yale School of Medicine was established following passage of a bill in the Connecticut General Assembly in 1810. The school opened its doors three years later with four professors and 37 students and conferred its first degrees in 1814.
Sporting competition between universities dates back to August 3, 1852, when the Harvard-Yale rowing regatta first took place on Lake Winnepeasaukee, New Hampshire.
In 1861 Yale University started granting the PhD degree to younger students who, after having obtained the bachelor's degree, had completed a prescribed course of graduate study and successfully defended a thesis or dissertation containing original research in science or in the humanities. They were the first ever PhDs to be awarded in North America.
The first three earned PhDs in North America were awarded by Yale University to Eugene Schuyler, Arthur Williams Wright, and James Morris Whiton in 1861.
Yale football player and coach Walter Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) is known as the "Father of American Football". Among the sport's most distinctive features he introduced, included the eleven-man team, a type of scrimmage in which a player snapped the ball back by kicking it to the quarterback and the system of downs.
In 1889 the bulldog Handsome Dan became Yale University's mascot. He was the first animal to hold such a position in American sports.
The Yale Bowl is a college football stadium located about 1½ miles (2½ km) west of the main campus of Yale University. It is the home of the Yale Bulldogs of the Ivy League. When it opened on November 21, 1914 with 70,896 seats, it was the first bowl-shaped stadium in the country. Its design was an modification of the old U-shape - it was U-shaped at both ends. The Yale Bowl inspired the design of such stadiums as the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and Michigan Stadium.
Yale bowl. By ToddC4176,
The frisbee was invented by Yale students in 1947. They played with aluminiumpie plates supplied by a local baker, Joseph Frisbie, whose Frisbie Pie Company was a regular supplier to the University. They discovered his plates had amazing aerodynamic qualities when thrown to each other.
Hillary and Bill Clinton first met at the Yale Law School in 1971. She was a class year ahead of him.
The hospice movement arrived in the United States in 1975 after a lecture on the subject by its founder, Cicely Saunders at Yale University.
The yale lock consists of a cylinder which can rotate inside a housing to turn the bolt. In the cylinder is a row of holes, which match another row in the housing. When the lock is locked, two pins, held in each of the holes by a spring, prevent the cylinder turning. When the correct key is inserted, the lower pins are raised so that they reach the edge of the cylinder and allow it to turn.
The pin-tumbler lock was invented on June 13, 1844 by lock shop owner Linus Yale Sr. It is a lock mechanism that uses pins of varying lengths to prevent the lock from opening without the correct key. Yale drew his inspiration from the Egyptian pin-and-bolt locks which were made of wood.
Linus Yale Jr. (April 4, 1821 – December 25, 1868) originally tried his hand at portrait painting before beginning to assist his father in improving bank locks. By 1849 he had set up a small lock factory in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts and he began to invent and manufacture a continuous series of improved locks, both for banks and private use.
Linus Yale Jr
In 1851 Yale Jr. patented the first "double lock" - two locks within one case, operated by a key.
Inspired by the original 1840s pin-tumbler lock designed by his father, Yale Jr invented and patented a small cylinder lock with pin tumblers. It was operated by a smaller flat key with serrated edges as well as pins of varying lengths within the lock itself. This was the first modern pin-tumbler lock.
In 1863 Yale Jr patented the Yale Double Dial Bank Lock, the first dial-operated combination lock, which is the basis of bank safe locks still in use.
Linus Yale, Jr.'s 1865 patent for a pin-tumbler lock and key was a drastic improvement over previous models, and is the basis for pin-tumbler locks still in use.
With his Massachusetts factory busy making bank locks, in 1868 Yale Jr formed a partnership with John H. Towne and his son Henry R. Towne and set up the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company in Stamford, Connecticut, to make cylinder locks. Yale died soon after the factory began production.
Yachting is pleasure cruising or racing a small and light vessel, whether sailing or power-driven.
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FAMOUS YACHTS
One of first ever yachts was the 100 tonne "Mary" which was presented by the Dutch to King Charles II for his own use.
Former New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. once owned a 300 ft. yacht, the $635,000 ($17.8 million today) Lysistrata built by William Denny & Son of Dumbarton, Scotland. Among many other luxuries, the yacht included a padded stall for a cow, so he'd always have fresh milk, cream, and butter while he was at sea.
Yachting was French authorJules Verne's favourite relaxation. In 1867, he bought a small yacht, the Saint-Michel, which he successively upgraded with the Saint-Michel II and the Saint-Michel III as his financial situation improved.
The American-made schooner Meteor III was the largest yacht in the world when built for Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi's two-masted steam yacht Elettra served as a floating laboratory fitted with an eight kilowatt transmitter and a loop aerial capable of transmitting wireless signals over a 1,000 miles distance. From 1921, he lived aboard his yacht, cruising in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Elettra
Adolf Hitler's personal yacht, the Aviso Grille, which the Fuehrer hoped to sail to London to take the surrender of Britain in 1940, was crewed by 230 men.
From 1933 until 1977 there was a Presidential Yacht, but it was sold off by Jimmy Carter, and today raccoons live in it.
The royal Yacht Britannia is the former royal yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, was in service from 1954 until 1997. It had a displacement of 4000 tons and overall length of 126 metres (413 feet). During her 43-year career, the yacht travelled more than a million nautical miles around the globe.
The World is the largest privately owned residential yacht. The 150-200 residents who live aboard make decisions about the ship's itinerary, finances, and lifestyle and are looked after by a crew of 280. Apartments cost between $2-15 million.
MS The World By VirtualSteve
YACHT RACING
On American waters, races are held for virtually every size and class of sailboat. The most famous international yachting competition is the America's Cup race.
The America's Cup Race originated with an invitation for the Great Exhibition of 1851 by the Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), inviting the recently formed New York Yacht Club (NYYC) to enjoy the facilities of the clubhouse of the RYS. A race took place around the Isle of Wight as part of the 1851 Royal Yacht Squadron Regatta. The yacht America beat the Royal Yachting Squadron leading to the trophy being named "America's Cup".
King Edward VII of the United Kingdom was a keen yachtsman. He was on board Sir Thomas Lipton's yacht Shamrock when a sudden squall wrecked the boat during a practice run for the America's Cup in May 1901.
For 132 years, from 1850-1980, and through 25 challenges, the America's Cup had been held by the United States. In 1983 Alan Bond and his team from of Australia defeated Dennis Conner and his team from the United States to capture the America's Cup of yacht racing. It was the first time an American crew had been beaten time since the race series began.
The O-Jolle was a sailing event at the 1936 Summer Olympics program in Firth of Kiel. Germany. The Bronze medal winner was Peter Scott, son of Robert Falcon Scott of South Pole fame.
At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, six categories existed. They were RS;X (windsurfing), Laser, Finn, 470, 49er and Nacra 17.
The xylophone is a musical percussion instrument comprising a number of wooden bars of varying length arranged in rows over resonators to produce sounds when struck with hammers.
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Often confused with its cousin the marimba, the xylophone has thick, hardwood bars and elicits much sharper, shorter notes, so the two instruments are often used together for a more varied tone.
No one really knows the xylophone's origins. Although they are present in the traditional music of Melanesia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and more, its birthplace and date remain a mystery. In 1511, it was called "wooden clatter" and later a "straw fiddle" in Europe.
The East African log xylophone has bars lying on banana stems resting on the ground with no resonators below the bars. It was imported into Europe in the late 15th century where the xylophone bars were laid out on straw in four rows (instead of today's two rows). This practice continued for over 300 years but today the xylophone is often identified by its piano-esque appearance.
The xylophone is actually interchangeable with the marimba in Latin America, and has been used in Guatemala since before the 17th century.
The xylophone first became known in the western world in the early 19th century, and its first significant orchestral appearance was in Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre" (1874).
Orchestral xylophone (left) and marimba (right) By Spiritia,
It wasn't until the 20th century that the xylophone became as important to classical music as it was to musicals.
In Senegal, xylophones have been used as part of initiation ceremonies, played by young girls and boys. Among other practical uses, it was also used to scare birds, monkeys, and other pests out of the gardens.
Today's xylophones are usually made of hardwood, but can also be constructed from other types of wood, including maple or even bamboo. However, you're likely to get a much different sound depending on what type of wood you use.
The xylophone is often used to to effect the sound of clanking bones, making it as relevant in a Halloween movie as in jazz.
X-radiation is a kind of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays are produced when high-energy electrons from a heated filament cathode strike the surface of a target on the face of a massive heat-conducting anode, between which a high alternative is applied.
X-rays have a shorter wavelength, and therefore more energy, than ultraviolet radiation. They have a much shorter wavelength than visible light (the light that we can see).
Applications of X-rays make use of their short wavelength (such as X-ray crystallography) or their penetrating power ) as in medical X-rays of internal body tissues,)
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German physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen was experimenting at Wurzburg University on November 8, 1895 with the flow of electricity through gases when he noticed the fluorescence of a barium platinocyanide screen. After further investigations he found that the radiation causing this was able to pass through everyday materials such as paper, wood and living tissue and it produced an image on photographic plates as well as a fluorescent screen.
Röntgen could not determine how the radiation was carried through space or why it had such penetrating power. For this reason he called the radiation X rays, taking the name from the mathematician's use of x to denote the unknown quantity in a problem.
Realizing that he had created a means by which physicians could see inside the human body, Röntgen made the first X-ray, an image of his wife Bertha's hand.
First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Röntgen of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand
The first use of X-rays under clinical conditions was by John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England on January 11, 1896, when he radiographed a needle stuck in the hand of an associate.
The x-ray machine was exhibited (in New York City) for the first time in 1896. To see the machine, people had to pay a 25¢ admission charge.
Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics, in 1901, for his discovery and he donated the monetary reward from the prize to his university. He refused to take out any patents related to his discovery on moral grounds, as he believed that the products of scientific research should be made freely available to all.
In the late 1890s, Thomas Edison began investigating materials for ability to fluoresce when X-rayed; by the turn of the century he had invented a fluoroscope with sufficient image intensity to be commercialized.
Thoracic fluoroscopy using handheld fluorescent screen, 1909.
Clarence Dally, a glass blower of lab equipment and tubes at Edison’s laboratory, was repeatedly exposed, to radiation poisoning, In 1904, he became perhaps the first person to die of man-made radiation when he passed away from skincancer. Edison refused to work with x-rays ever again.
Dally's death caused some scientists to begin taking the risks of radiation more seriously, but they still weren't fully understood. During the 1930s, 40s and 50s, in fact, many shoestores featured shoe-fitting fluoroscopes that used to X-rays to enable customers to see the bones in their feet; it wasn't until the 1950s that this practice was determined to be risky business.
Before people knew the full extent of x-rays, women would get face x-rays in order to kill bacteria which would make skin look healthy and beautiful. After a while people who did this started developing tumors on their faces and some even died. Doctors also used this method for hair removal.
During World War I, Marie Curie established the first military field radiological centres. She invented a mobile x-ray machine for usage on the front line and taught 150 women to use them.
Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation. Curie believed her radiation exposure during her time developing her mobile X-Ray machine during the First World War caused her terminal illness.
English chemist Rosalind Franklin (July 25, 1920 –April 16, 1958 is the unsung hero of DNA research. James Watson and Francis Crick got the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after Franklin's lab partner showed Watson one of her best images — an X-ray labelled ‘photograph 51'. Many believe she should have shared in their Nobel prize.
Dorothy Hodgkin was a British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography, a method used to determine the three-dimensional structures of biological molecules. Hodgkin solved the structures of cholesterol (1937), penicillin (1946) and vitamin B12 (1956), for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964.
One of Hodkins' students in the 1940s was Margaret Roberts — later Mrs Thatcher
In her final year at Oxford, Thatcher studied X-ray crystallography under Dorothy Hodgkin.
The first brain-scan using x-ray computed tomography (CT or CAT scan) was performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London in 1971. The original 1971 CT Scan took 160 parallel readings with each scan taking a little over five minutes. The images from these scans took 2.5 hours to be processed on a large computer.
The secret police in CommunistRomania subjected the leaders of a 1977 coal miners' strike to 5-minute chest X-rays to ensure that they developed cancer.
In the USSR, when foreign music was banned, bootleg records were made on old x-rays pulled from medical trash. These were called "ribs" and "bone records".
Francis Xavier was born Francisco de Jaso y Azpilcueta on April 7, 1506. He entered this world in the royal castle of Xavier, near Sangüesa and Pamplona, in the Spanish kingdom of Navarre.
A painting of Saint Francis Xavier, held in the Kobe City Museum
Francisco was born into an aristocratic Basque family. He was the youngest son of a high government official. Francisco's father lost his post when Spain won possession of Navarre.
Francis's mother was Doña María de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families.
In 1512, Castile invaded Navarre. Many fortresses were devastated, including the family castle, and land was confiscated.
The castle of the Xavier family By Jsanchezes,
Francis' father died in 1515.
Francisco was first taught by his father’s chaplain then later entered the University of Paris.
UNIVERSITY AND EARLY CAREER
At the age of 19 Francis went to study in Paris at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, University of Paris where he earned the title of Magister- similar to a modern Doctor of philosophy degree.
Francis furthered his studies at Paris University in theology, and became acquainted with Ignatius Loyola, who was already planning the foundation of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius won the confidence of Xavier. Five others having joined them, the seven professed vows of poverty, chastity, and later obedience to the Pope in the church of Montmartre, Paris, on August 15, 1534.
Church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, Paris
The seven vowed to leave at the end of 1534 for the Holy Land to convert infidels. But the war between the Venetians and the Turks prevented this, and the pope detailed them to other tasks.
In 1537, the Jesuit fraternity traveled to Italy to seek papal approval for their order. Pope Paul III gave them a commendation, and permitted Xavier and his colleagues to be ordained priests. On June 24, 1537, Xavier received Holy orders with St. Ignatius.
MISSIONARY WORK
Known as "The Apostle of the Indies" Xavier had high qualifications to be a missionary: he was animated with glowing zeal; endowed with great linguistic gifts, and restless pushing forward marked his activity.
In 1541 Francis Xavier was commissioned by King John III of Portugal to preach the Christian faith in the Portuguese colonies in the East, thus marking the beginning of the Jesuit missions. He left Lisbon on April 7, 1541, his thirty-fifth birthday, along with two other Jesuits and the new viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa, on board the Santiago.
Francisco Xavier asking John III of Portugal for an expedition
After a 13-month voyage, Xavier arrived in Goa, India in 1542 and during the few months he stayed there he sparked off a moral revolution.
Xavier learned that along the coast, which extends from Cape Comorin on the southern tip of India to the island of Mannar, off Ceylon (Sri Lanka), there was a group of people called Paravas. Many of them had already converted to Christianity in return for Portuguese protection but know little about the religion they had adopted. Accompanied by several native clerics from the seminary at Goa, Xavier set sail for Cape Comorin in October 1542.
Once he arrived in South India, Xavier started laboring amongst the pearl fishers there. When he rang a handbell, the villagers gathered in the church, then Xavier recited the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed and the Rosary. He then explained to them through interpreters about the meaning of the words and many of these poor people with their faith strengthened turned from nominal Christianity to a real faith.
Conversion of the Paravars by Francis Xavier in South India,19th-cent lithograph
Xavier met a Japanese man from Kagoshima named Anjirō in Malacca in December 1547. Anjirō became the first Japanese Christian and adopted the name of 'Paulo de Santa Fe'. He later helped Xavier as a mediator and interpreter.
Xavier reached Japan on July 27, 1549, with Anjirō and three other Jesuits, only six years after the first ever Portuguese merchant visited there.
When Xavier arrived in Japan the local Japanese people initially assumed that the he was Buddhist monk from India and that Christianity was a new Buddhist sect.
After learning Japanese at Kagoshima, Xavier was given leave to teach as a representative of the Portuguese King. During his time teaching as a representative of the Portuguese King Xavier made 150 converts.
After the feudal ruler of his area made it a capital offence to become a Christian, Xavier set out as a wandering missionary. During 1551, Xavier preached in some important cities, forming the nucleus of several Christian communities, which in time increased with extraordinary rapidity.
He most remarkable mission was establishing a Christian community, which has survived to this day, despite numerous periods of severe persecution.
In both South India and Japan Xavier was granted the gift of tongues, healed countless people, raised several from the dead and prophesied the future.
PERSONAL LIFE
A bright and cheerful man of great personal charm, Xavier had both abundant common sense and a mystical sense. He was a man of remarkable energy and organisational ability.
In his early years at the University of Paris, Xavier acquired some reputation as an athlete especially as a high-jumper.
LAST YEARS, DEATH AND LEGACY
After working about two years and a half in Japan Xavier left this mission in charge of Father Cosme de Torres and Brother Juan Fernández, and returned to Goa, arriving there at the beginning of 1552. During his trip to Goa, he had met Diogo Pereira, a rich merchant and an old friend from Cochin. Pereira showed him a letter from Portuguese prisoners in Guangzhou, asking for a Portuguese ambassador to speak to the Chinese Emperor on their behalf.
On April 17, 1552 Xavier set sail with Diogo Pereira on the Santa Cruz for China. He reached the Chinese island of Shangchuan off the shore, near Canton and whilst waiting for a junk to take him to the mainland, he fell ill with a fever. A poor man, George Alvarez, found him lying on the shore and carried him to his hut. He died on the island on December 2, 1552, at age 46, without having reached mainland China.
By Nicoco007 -
Xavier was first buried on Shangchuan Dao’s beach. His intact body was taken from the island in February 1553. It was temporarily buried in St. Paul's church in Malacca on March 22, 1553. An open grave in the church now marks the place of Xavier's burial. Pereira came back from Goa, removed the corpse shortly after April 15, 1553, and moved it to his house.
On December 11, 1553, Xavier's body was shipped to Goa. The body, having resisted extensive decay, is now in the Basilica of Bom Jésus in Goa, where it was placed into a silver casket on December 2, 1637. This casket, constructed by Goan silversmiths between 1636 and 1637, was an exemplary blend of Italian and Indian aesthetic sensibilities.
Casket of Saint Francis Xavier in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India
There is a debate as to how the body could have remained incorrupt for so long. Some say that Francis Xavier was mummified, while others argue that the incorruptible body is evidence of a miracle.
The silver casket is lowered for public viewing only during the public exposition which occurs for a duration of six weeks every ten years, the most recent of which took place between November 22, 2014 and January 4, 2015.
Xavier was canonized with St. Ignatius in 1622, although on account of the death of Gregory XV, the Bull of canonization was not published until the following year.
Pius XI named St. Francis Xavier in 1927 the patron Saint of Catholic Missionaries in foreign countries.
