A. A. Attanasio

Alfred Angelo Attanasio, born on September 20, 1951 in Newark, New Jersey, is an author of fantasy and science fiction. His science-fiction novel Radix was nominated for the 1981 Nebula Award for Best Novel and was followed by three other novels, the four books, together, comprising the critically acclaimed 'Radix Tetrad.' The 'Tetrad' is being re-issued by Phoenix Pick Publishers. He also writes under the name Adam Lee.

Bibliography (full-length works)

Novels

Radix Tetrad

Arthor Series

Čaňa

Čaňa (Hungarian: Hernádcsány) is a village and municipality in Košice-okolie District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia.

History

In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1164.

Geography

The village lies at an altitude of 172 metres and covers an area of 11.555 km². It has a population of about 5000 people.

Ethnicity

The population is almost entirely Slovak in ethnicity.

Government

The village has its own police force and fire brigade but the district and tax offices are located at Košice.

Economy and facilities

The village also has developed medical facilities including a Pharmacy and outpatient facilities for children and adolescents and a gynaecologist. The village also has a Slovakian bank and insurance branch, and a post office.

Culture

The village has a public library and a DVD rental store, and a number of food stores. Cana has its own cinema and the village is connected to satellite television.

Sport

The village has a football pitch, a swimming pool and a gymnasium.

Transport

Šaľa

Šaľa ( pronunciation ; Hungarian: Vágsellye, German: Schelle) is a town in south-western Slovakia.

Geography

The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on both banks of the Váh River, around 65 km from Bratislava and 30 km from Nové Zámky. Except the town itself, it has also the borough of Veča on the left bank of the river and settlements of Hetméň and Kilič. The town lies in the warm climatic zone.

History

The town was first mentioned in 1002 in a document of Pannonhalma abbey. It was promoted in 1536 into a market town. It was also ruled by Ottomans between 1663 and 1686 as part of Uyvar Eyalet. The railway, built in 1850 between Vienna and Budapest speeded development. After 1918, the town was part of Czechoslovakia, belonging for a short time between 1938 and 1945 to Hungary before being returned to Czechoslovakia.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, the town had 23.554 inhabitants. 69% of inhabitants were Slovaks, 12% Hungarians, and 19% others nationality. According to the 2001 census, the town had 24,564 inhabitants. 79.72% of inhabitants were Slovaks, 17.88% Hungarians, 0.48% Czechs and 0.40% Roma. The religious make-up was 66.63% Roman Catholics, 23.62% people with no religious affiliation and 4.00% Lutherans.

Lava

Lava is the molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. The resulting rock after solidification and cooling is also called lava. The molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. The source of the heat that melts the rock within the earth is geothermal energy. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 to 1,200 °C (1,292 to 2,192 °F).

A lava flow is a moving outpouring of lava, which is created during a non-explosive effusive eruption. When it has stopped moving, lava solidifies to form igneous rock. The term lava flow is commonly shortened to lava. Although lava can be up to 100,000 times more viscous than water, lava can flow great distances before cooling and solidifying because of its thixotropic and shear thinning properties.

Explosive eruptions produce a mixture of volcanic ash and other fragments called tephra, rather than lava flows. The word "lava" comes from Italian, and is probably derived from the Latin word labes which means a fall or slide. The first use in connection with extruded magma (molten rock below the Earth's surface) was apparently in a short account written by Francesco Serao on the eruption of Vesuvius between May 14 and June 4, 1737. Serao described "a flow of fiery lava" as an analogy to the flow of water and mud down the flanks of the volcano following heavy rain.

Aya (goddess)

Aya (or Aja) in Akkadian mythology was a mother goddess, consort of the sun god Shamash. She developed from the Sumerian goddess Šherida, consort of Utu.

History

Šherida is one of the oldest Mesopotamian gods, attested in inscriptions from pre-Sargonic times, her name (as "Aya") was a popular personal name during the Ur III period (21st-20th century BCE), making her among the oldest Semitic deities known in the region. As the Sumerian pantheon formalized, Utu became the primary sun god, and Šherida was syncretized into a subordinate role as an aspect of the sun alongside other less powerful solar deities (c.f. Ninurta) and took on the role of Utu's consort.

When the Semitic Akkadians moved into Mesopotamia, their pantheon became syncretized to the Sumerian. Inanna to Ishtar, Nanna to Sin, Utu to Shamash, etc. The minor Mesopotamian sun goddess Aya became syncretized into Šherida during this process. The goddess Aya in this aspect appears to have had wide currency among Semitic peoples, as she is mentioned in god-lists in Ugarit and shows up in personal names in the Bible (Gen 36:24, Sam 3:7, 1 Chr 7:28).

Açaí palm

The açaí palm (Portuguese: [aˌsaˈi], from Tupi-Guarani asaí;Euterpe oleracea) is a species of palm tree in the genus Euterpe cultivated for its fruit and hearts of palm. Its name comes from the Brazilian Portuguese adaptation of the Tupian word ïwaca'i, '[fruit that] cries or expels water'. Global demand for the fruit has expanded rapidly in recent years, and açaí is now cultivated for that purpose primarily. Euterpe edulis (juçara) is a closely related species which is now the primary source of hearts of palm.

Euterpe oleracea is mostly native to Brazil and Trinidad and northern South America, mainly in swamps and floodplains. Açaí palms are tall, slender palms growing to more than 25 m (82 ft) tall, with pinnate leaves up to 3 m (9.8 ft) long.

Harvesting and uses

Fruit

The fruit, commonly known as açaí berry, is a small, round, black-purple drupe about 25 mm (1 in) in circumference, similar in appearance to a grape, but smaller and with less pulp and produced in branched panicles of 500 to 900 fruits. The exocarp of the ripe fruits is a deep purple color, or green, depending on the kind of açaí and its maturity. The mesocarp is pulpy and thin, with a consistent thickness of 1 mm (0.04 in) or less. It surrounds the voluminous and hard endocarp, which contains a single large seed about 7–10 mm (0.3–0.4 in) in diameter. The seed makes up about 80% of the fruit. Two crops of fruit are produced each year and is harvested during the dry season between July and December.

A,A

The A,A is a sculpture by artist Jim Sanborn, located on the campus of the University of Houston, adjacent to the M.D. Anderson Library.

Completed in 2004, it was installed on campus at a reported cost of $240,000. The work of art took the sculptor a year to complete.

The A,A is composed of portions of poems, novels, and prose from a number of different languages from different parts of the world. Some languages included on the art includes Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese. At night, a built-in light projector casts light through the sculpture. This causes the effect of illuminating the sculpture's text onto the outside of the library's walls.

In addition to the sculpture in front of the M.D. Anderson Library, there are two additions from Sanborn inside the library. These include a 24-foot-long (7.3 m) bronze scroll detailing the history of papermaking that hang from the ceiling of the first floor and bronze panels along some of the guardrails containing portions of poems and other literature.