Quakers

Quakers are members of a historically Christian group generally known as the Society of Friends

The son of an English Puritan weaver, George Fox (1624-1691) heard an “inner voice” telling him to become a travelling preacher. In 1647 Fox begun travelling from village to village speaking against formalized religion, arguing for a Spirit-filled Christianity where all believers have an equal status and proclaiming his “inner light” doctrine that God is present within everyone.

19th-century engraving of George Fox, based on a painting of unknown date

Elizabeth Hooton was a middle-aged, married woman when she met Fox in 1647 in Skegby, Nottinghamshire, and was already a Nonconformist—specifically, a Baptist. She was among the first, perhaps the very first, to be convinced by the teachings of the young preacher.

Soon afterward, Hooton felt a "call" from God to preach and became the first woman to become a Quaker preacher. She left her family and began to urge judgment and repentance across England. Because of her outspokenness, she found herself in prison many times in her life.

Fox opposed war, (he interpreted the command in Matthew 5 v 39 “Do not resist one who is evil”, literally). By 1648, he had gathered a following of people attracted by his pacifist views, called the Friends of Truth, but the authorities turned against those followers of his who refused to take up arms and imprisoned them.

In 1650 George Fox was jailed at Derby on a trumped-up charge of blasphemy. When he was sentenced, the preacher warned the Judge, Gervasse Bennet, to "tremble at the word of the Lord". Bennet responded by contemptuously calling Fox and his followers, "Quakers", thereby coining their name.

In 1652 George Fox felt God lead him to walk up Pendle Hill, in the north of England. At the top he had a vision of many souls being coming to Christ. From Pendle Hill, Fox traveled north to Sedbergh, and there he preached on the< nearby Firbank Hill where he convinced many to accept his teachings of the "inner light". Encouraged he began preaching in the open air to thousands and gradually he collected a group of young male and female Quaker evangelists who spread out preaching Fox's message.

A Quaker woman preaches at a meeting in London

Ann Austin and Mary Fisher were the first Quakers to arrive in America. The pair had sailed from Barbados, where the Quakers had established a center for missionary work. Their ship docked in Boston Harbor in the Massachusetts Bay colony on July 11, 1656.

As soon as Ann Austin and Mary Fisher set foot on American soil they were arrested and imprisoned. The pair were locked up for five weeks in a dark cell and ordered to be given no food or water. If it wasn't for Nicolas Upshall, the owner of the Red Lion on Boston’s North Street who bribed one of the guards to slip the women some nourishment, both surely would have died, Austin and Fisher were eventually deported back to England five weeks later.

Massachusetts enacted the first punitive legislation against the Society of Friends on October 14, 1656. The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism made them regard the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive. The Massachusetts law enacted against the "cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers..."

The Massachusetts law declared that any shipmaster bringing a Quaker into the colony would be fined £100. Any colonist possessing a Quaker book would be fined £5. Any Quaker coming within the jurisdiction of the colony would be arrested, whipped, and transported out of the colony without conversing with anyone.

Mary Dyer, a Quaker woman, had been repeatedly defying the laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that banned Quakers from the region. She had previously been banished from the colony but returned to challenge the laws and advocate for religious freedom. Despite warnings and the risk to her own life, she continued to speak out and engage in Quaker activities.

On June 1, 1660, Mary Dyer was taken to the gallows and hanged for her beliefs. Her execution, along with those of William Robinson, Willam Leddra and Marmaduke Stevenson, who were also Quakers, became significant in highlighting the issue of religious persecution and intolerance in the early American colonies. The four executed Quakers are known as the Boston martyrs.

Quaker Mary Dyer led to execution on Boston Common, June 1, 1660

Elizabeth Hooton traveled to Boston in 1662, where she was taken on a two-week walk into the woods and abandoned her there to starve. Although over sixty at the time, she survived, finding her way to Rhode Island.

The Society of Friends movement continued to grow despite much persecution in Britain and America and by Fox's death in 1691 there were around fifty thousand Quakers.

The first complete exposition of the Quaker doctrine of "inner light" was written in 1678 by the Scottish Quaker, Robert Barclay in his An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, as the Same is Held Forth and Preached by the People Called in Scorn Quakers. He wrote that believers can receive divine guidance from an inward light, without the aid of intermediaries such as priests or external rites.

The oldest existing Quaker meeting house is in a secluded hollow beside a country lane near Feock, Cornwall. It was built in 1710 and was originally only 20 ft by 27 ft though it has since been extended.

Conservative Friends worshiping in London in 1809. 

Some Quakers founded banks and financial institutions, including Barclays, Lloyds, and Friends Provident; and the big three British confectionery makers Cadburys, Rowntrees and Fry's.

The Quakers were reportedly the first group of people to protest against slavery in the American colonies that would become the U.S.

In the 19th century, many Friends were prominent in social reform, including Elizabeth Fry.

Up until the 20th century, The Quakers regularly called the months of the year and days of the week by number only, in order to avoid using names of pagan deities. The numerical names continue to be used in many documents and more formal situations.

The Quakers now form a worldwide movement of about 375,000, and traditionally worship is marked by its stress on meditation and by the freedom of all to take an active part in the service (called a meeting).

Quakers have no priests or ministers, and congregate in 'meeting houses' rather than churches.

Around 79% of Quakers worldwide belong to the "evangelical" and "programmed" branches of Quakerism. These Quakers have a different kind of worship service, like other Christian meetings. They sing hymns and a pastor gives a sermon.

The Quaker Oats company isn't Quaker and never was; they picked their name based on the Quakers reputation for being honest in business.

Source Christianity.com

Qatar

Foreign maps of Arabia drawn before the 19th century didn’t show Qatar.

Katar (Qatar) in an 1891 Adolf Stieler map

Qatar has been ruled by the House of Thani since the early 19th century.

Before the discovery of oil, many Qataris earned their living diving for pearl oysters.

Qatar was a British protectorate from 1916 to 1971. This means that Qatar was not fully independent, but was under the protection of the United Kingdom. The British protectorate was established in 1916, following the end of Ottoman rule in the region. The British agreed to protect Qatar from external threats in exchange for Qatar giving up some of its sovereignty.

Qatar gained its independence on September 3, 1971. This was the same day that Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also gained their independence. The independence of Qatar was a significant event in the history of the country. It marked the end of Qatar's dependence on Britain and the beginning of a new era of self-determination.

After Hurricane Katrina, the emir of Qatar donated $100 million to the stricken Louisiana region, intended to help rebuild housing, hospitals and schools.

In June 2017, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar, citing the country's support of groups they considered to be extremist

The Qatar Bahrain Causeway was a planned causeway between the two Arab states of Qatar and Bahrain. It was announced that construction would start in early 2009, and would cost approximately US$2.3 billion to complete. As of June 2015, construction had not started, and the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway project was on hold.

Qatar is the only country that begins with a Q.

The only country with which Qatar has a land border is Saudi Arabia.

The flag of Qatar is the only national flag which has a length more than twice its height.

Qatar is a high income economy and is a developed country, backed by the world's third largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves. It produces 283 barrels of crude oil and 11 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas every day.

Qatar has the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world.

The official language of Qatar is Arabic, but many people also speak English, especially when they are doing business.

As of early 2017, Qatar's total population was around 2.6 million: 313,000 Qatari citizens and 2.3 million expatriates.

Doha is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Qatar. Doha has a population of 1,351,000.

Traditional dhows in front of the West Bay skyline as seen from the Doha Corniche. By StellarD 

Qatar is the country that has the highest male ratio, with 2.87 males per female.

As of June 2016, nearly 1.4 million people—60% of Qatar's population— were living in the country's filthy, cramped, and unsafe labor camps.

Qatar has competed at nine Olympic Games. Their best result was winning a silver medal in the men’s high jump at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Football is the most popular sport in Qatar and in December 2010, the country won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In Qatar there is a sport called Robot Camel Racing where robots are placed on top of the camels are operated by a joystick, using the right hand to crack whips and the left to pull on the reins. By law they are the only jockeys allowed in Qatar.

Source Daily Express

Python

On April 1st, 2007 (April Fool's Day) Google sent an e-mail to its employees saying a python was loose in their office. They weren't joking.

Python

Pythons are not venomous. As constrictors, they squeeze their prey to death and swallow them whole.

Attacks on humans are rare, but a ten-year-old boy was killed in South Africa in 2002 and in 1999 a three-year-old boy died in the US.

They can detach their jaws, allowing the python to stretch to three times the size of their head.

Pythons mainly live on small mammals but have been known to eat dogs and cats, which take weeks or months to digest.

In the wild they frequently eat antelope, which weigh up to 140lbs (10st.) One python in Florida ate a 1.83 metre (6ft) crocodile.

Pythons eat only 4 to 5 times a year if their prey is large.

When a python eats something, 37 percent of the energy in the food is spent just digesting it.

After a meal, a Burmese python’s heart grows by 40%.

Burmese python

Python can grow to 30 feet and typically weigh 260 to 300lb.

Pythons live 20-30 years on average in the wild and up to 40 years in captivity.

In the wild, they are found in rainforests, savannas and deserts.

Flat out, pythons can reach speeds of 32.18 kilometres per hour (20mph).

Source Daily Mail

Pythagoras

EARLY LIFE 

Pythagoras born on the Greek island of Samos, situated in the eastern Aegean around 570 BC.

His father, Mnesarchus, is said to have been a gem-engraver or a wealthy merchant, originally from Tyre or Syria.

A late source gives his mother's name as Pythais.

Pythagoras travelled widely in Egypt and Asia Minor before settling in the Greek colony Croton (today's Crotone, on the southern coast of Magna Graecia (Southern Italy).

Bust of Pythagoras in the Capitoline Museums, Rome. Galilea at German Wikipedia

PYTHAGOREAN SCHOOL 

Pythagoras arrived in Croton in around 530BC. He founded there an educational society that was half-religious and half-philosophical. His pupils were trained in gymnastics, mathematics and music.
Pythagoras opened his school to men and women students alike.

According to Iamblichus, the Pythagoreans followed a structured life of religious teaching, common meals, exercise, reading and philosophical study. We may infer from this that participants required some degree of wealth and leisure to join the inner circle.

Pythagoras, the man in the center with the book, teaching music, in Raphael's The School of Athens

Internal discord drove most of the Pythagoreans out of Croton due to mistrust of the society. Pythagoras left the city before the outbreak of civil unrest and moved to Metapontum (today's Metaponto, on the Italian Ionian Coast), where he stayed for the rest of his life.

BELIEF

Both Plato and Isocrates affirm that, above all else, Pythagoras was famous for leaving behind him a way of life. The Samian sage was the first person known to have referred to himself as a philosopher (meaning a "Lover of Wisdom".)

Pythagoras believed in immortality and the transformation into glorification of souls.

He regarded elaborate dress and superfluous possessions as weaknesses to be avoided.

The Pythagorean letter Ypsilon is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. The letter was seen by Pythagoras as an emblem of the path of virtue or vice.

Geoffroy Tory Ypsilon

Pythagoras preached abstention from meat, beans and mallows and he desired a return to the golden age. He believed that a vegetarian diet helped with his clarity of thought.

Pythagoras forbade the eating of broad (fava) beans as it was thought they contain the souls of the dead. He even refused to walk through fields of broad beans. It is probable that he was prone to favism, which is almost entirely confined to genetically susceptible people of Mediterranean origin. Favism occurs when such individuals consume broad beans or inhale the pollen and it leads to the destruction of red blood cells resulting in severe anemia.

Pythagoras and fava beans, French, 1512/1514

Pythagoras favored a cucumber salad with raisin-coriander vinaigrette.

MATHEMATICS 

Pythagoras has commonly been given credit for discovering the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right-angled triangle the area of the square on the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares of the other two sides—that is, a 2   + b 2   = c 2. In doing so he founded a new branch of mathematics - geometry.

His Pythagorean theorem was actually discovered by the Babylonians 1000 years earlier. However while the theorem that now bears Pythagoras' name was known and previously utilized by the Babylonians, he, or his students, are often said to have constructed the first proof.

Pythagoras and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics, and felt that everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic cycles.

He discovered the first two amicable numbers - 284 and 220 (two numbers that each is the sum of all the divisors of the other.) The divisors of 284 are 1,2,4,71, 142 whose sum is 220. The divisors of 284 are 1,2,4,5,10,11,20,22,44,55,110 whose sum is 284.

MUSIC 

Pythagoras had a revelation when he discovered the relationship between the principal interviews of the musical score. Music, he realized, operates according to the same mathematical laws which govern the rest of the world including the cosmos. The philosopher posited that the stars and planets were part of a celestial refrain, a divine symphony. "There is geometry in the humming of the strings," he is quoted by Aristotle as saying. "There is music in the spacings of the spheres."

Pythagoras' eureka moment arrived when listening to the sounds made by a blacksmith striking his anvil. He noticed that a heavy hammer produced a frequency twice as long as that produced by one half its weight, an octave lower; that the musical scale correlated with simple mathematical ratios.

Medieval woodcut showing Pythagoras with bells and other instruments in Pythagorean tuning

Music featured as an essential organizing factor in his Pythagoran society. The disciples would sing hymns to Apollo together regularly; they used the lyre to cure illness of the soul or body; poetry recitations occurred before and after sleep to aid the memory.

SPORT 

As a youngster, Pythagoras was a fine boxer.

Later, the Samian sage applied science to in boxing knocking out men with upper cuts. He philosophized that a sharp blow delivered from the hip was the most effective method.

Throughout his life Pythagoras carried out yoga-like physical exercises.

Pythagoras claimed that life resembled the Olympic Games. A few men strain their muscles to carry off a prize: others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for a profit: and some there are those who seek no further advantage than to look at the show and see how everything is done.

PRIVATE LIFE

According to some accounts, Pythagoras married Theano, a lady of Croton. (Others state she was the wife of Brontinus). Theano was also a philosopher, and said to have first been Pythagoras' pupil.

The children variously ascribed to Pythagoras and Theano included three daughters, Damo, Myia, and Arignote, and a son, Telauges.

Pythagoras was one of the first Greeks to start wearing trousers instead of the usual skirt.

Pythagoras invented a practical joke cup that would spill wine all over a person if they filled their cup too much.

DEATH

Pythagoras met his death in around 495BC at the hands of the people of Crotonia in Italy. Pursued by them, he came to the edge of a bean field and, rather than set foot in it, was caught and killed.

Sources Food For Thought by Ed Pearce, The Observer Book of Space

Pyramid

A pyramid is a pyramidal building, usually made of stone. From ancient to modern times people in many different parts of the world have built such structures.

EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

In 2620BC the architect Imhotep created the first pyramid - the 'step pyramid' at Saqqara - as a tomb for the pharaoh Zoser.

Early Egypt recorded the names of the architects who built the great pyramids. The first great architect, Imhotep, who lived almost 5,000 years ago, is also the first scientist known by name today.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built by 100,000 people working 10 hours a day for 23 years.

It took approximately 2.5 million blocks to build the Pyramid of Giza.

Great Pyramid of Giza 

Originally the pyramids were covered with a protective coating of smooth white highly polished Tura limestone. The coating gave off such a shine from the hot desert sun that they could be seen from the Israeli mountains hundreds of miles away,

As for what happened to these white stones, many were taken and used in other projects. A few of them still stand today such as several mosques in Cairo; time and environmental conditions took care of most of the rest.

The Egyptian pyramids were built by paid workers, who often left graffiti on unexposed areas of the tombs. They inscribed their crew's nickname ("The Friends of Khufu Gang," "The Drunkards of Menkaure") onto the bricks.

The Pyramids were so well built that when Al-Aziz Uthman, Saladin's son and the Sultan of Egypt, tried to destroy a small Pyramid 3,000 years after its construction, the workers could only move 1-2 stones a day and gave up after creating only a gash after eight months.

in 1196 AD, Al-Aziz Uthman, Saladin's son and the Sultan of Egypt, attempted to demolish the pyramids, starting with that of Menkaure. Workmen recruited to demolish the pyramid stayed at their job for eight months, but found it almost as expensive to destroy as to build. They mostly failed.

The capstone of an ancient Egyptian pyramid was found in 1900. It's made of black basalt and weighs 4.5 tonnes (9921 lbs).

The word "pyramid" comes from the Greek word "pyramis" which meant "wheat cake." This was because the Greeks mocked the Egyptians' strangely constructed tombs, calling them "wheaten cakes."

The uppermost piece of an Egyptian pyramid is called a "pyramidion."

PYRAMIDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Egypt isn't the country with the most pyramids. It's Sudan where there are approximately 255 pyramids.

The highest mountain in Texas has a stainless steel pyramid at its summit.

The largest pyramid by volume is in Mexico. The Cholula pyramid was built in AD 100 from sun-dried brick and earth. Although it’s only 177ft high — less than half the height of Great Pyramid of Giza — its volume is more than 141 million cubic feet, 25 per cent larger than any pyramid in Egypt.  A pre-classical masterpiece, it is part of a vast complex of interwoven rooms and temples.

Artist's conception of what the pyramid might have looked like

The tenth tallest pyramid in the world is a Bass Pro Shop superstore in Memphis, Tennessee. The facility was built in 1991

The largest pyramid north of Mesoamerica is located near Collinsville in Illinois. Covering 13 acres, its footprint is comparable in size to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Source QI: The Third Book Of General Ignorance by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Andrew Hunter Murray

Pyjamas (or pajamas)

Lakeside dwellers in Switzerland who lived around 9000 BC used linen woven from flax to cover themselves and keep themselves warm as they slept.

In medieval Europe, people usually slept naked or in their regular clothes. Specific nightclothes were first worn in the 1500s.

The English word "Pyjamas" is a combination of the Persian words "pa" (leg) and "jamah" (garment). The original pyjāmā were loose, lightweight trousers fitted with drawstring waistbands worn by Muslims in India and adopted by British colonists during their 18th and 19th century rule there.

Muslim men in paijamas (various styles), Bombay, 1867. By Chintamon, Hurrichund - 

Never a fan of formal affairs, Thomas Jefferson was often reported to have worn his pajamas while meeting with foreign dignitaries.

The original pyjāmā day-apparel became a night garb and a shirt was added to the trousers. They became a fashion in Britain and the Western world as sleeping attire for men during the Victorian period, from about 1870.

Pyjamas became fashionable for British women because of World War I zeppelin air raids  Pyjamas were more practical and fashionable than night dresses when people had to evacuate their homes at a moment’s notice and coincided with the "new novelty" of women wearing trousers.

The frontman of Nirvana Kurt Cobain got married to Courtney Love wearing green pajamas.

Children's sleepwear in the United States is required to be flame resistant and self-extinguishing

Source Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999

Puzzle

The oldest known puzzle is a dissection of a square mentioned by Archimedes around 250BC. Archimedes asked how many solutions there were. The answer of 536 was only found in 2003.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the origin of the word 'puzzle' is a bit of a puzzle. But the verb 'to puzzle' seems older than the noun 'puzzle'.

The first documented use of the word 'puzzle' to describe a new type of game) was as a verb in a book titled The Voyage of Robert Dudley...to the West Indies, 1594–95, narrated by Capt. Wyatt, by himself, and by Abram Kendall, master (published circa 1595). The word later came to be used as a noun.

Jigsaw puzzles were invented by the English mapmaker and geographer John Spilsbury. He used a marquetry saw to produce the first one in 1760.

Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, would lie awake all night devising mental puzzles to keep erotic thoughts at bay.

The crossword puzzle was invented by journalist Arthur Winn and published for the first time in the Sunday edition of the New York World on December 21, 1913.

New York Times' puzzle editor Will Shortz designed his own major program at Indiana University, and in 1974 became the first and only holder of a degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles.

The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik. It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy. It took Ernö Rubik, a whole month to solve his puzzle before he introduced it to the world.

The Sudoku puzzle was invented in America and first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines as Number Place. The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in 1984 where it soon became immensely popular. It took off in the UK, Israel, and Canada twenty years later, stimulating worldwide interest.

Tetris is a Soviet tile-matching puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov. It was in 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game's pieces contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.

Professor Layton is a puzzle adventure game series for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS developed by Level-5. They are a direct result of Akihiro Hino's childhood love of Akira Tago's popular Atama no Taisou series of puzzle books, which have sold more than 12 million copies to date in Japan. of April 2015, the series has sold over 15.5 million copies.

The puzzle-solving prowess of pigs have been known for centuries. In Georgian England learned porkers were frequently on view solving mathematical puzzles. Past studies have shown that pigs can be taught to distinguish between scribbles they have seen before and ones that are new. The only other animals known to be this observant are chimpanzees.

Source Daily Express