Bast shoe

Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast—fiber from the bark of the linden tree or birch tree. They are a kind of basket, woven and fitted to the shape of a foot. Bast shoes are an obsolete traditional footwear of the forest areas of Northern Europe, formerly worn by poorer members of the Finnic peoples, Balts, and East Slavs. They were easy to manufacture, but not durable.

Bast shoes have been worn since prehistoric times. Wooden foot-shaped blocks (lasts) for shaping them have been found in neolithic excavations, e.g. 4900 years old. Bast shoes were still worn in the Russian countryside at the beginning of the 20th century. Today bast shoes are sold as souvenirs and sometimes worn by ethnographic music or dance troupes as part of their costumes.

In Russian, they are called lapti (лапти, sing. лапоть, lapot); this word is used as a derogatory term for cheap and short-lived footwear and also for uneducated people (лапотник, lapotnik: one who is too poor to afford good shoes and wears bast shoes instead).

Shoe

A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function. Additionally, fashion has often dictated many design elements, such as whether shoes have very high heels or flat ones. Contemporary footwear varies widely in style, complexity and cost. Basic sandals may consist of only a thin sole and simple strap. High fashion shoes may be made of very expensive materials in complex construction and sell for thousands of dollars a pair. Other shoes are for very specific purposes, such as boots designed specifically for mountaineering or skiing.

Traditionally, shoes have been made from leather, wood or canvas, but are increasingly made from rubber, plastics, and other petrochemical-derived materials.

Though it has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years in relation to vastly varied terrain and climate conditions, the human foot is still vulnerable to environmental hazards such as sharp rocks and hot ground, against which, shoes can protect.

Shoe (cards)

A dealing shoe or dealer's shoe is a gaming device, mainly used in casinos, to hold multiple decks of playing cards. The shoe allows for more games to be played by reducing the time between shuffles and less chance of dealer cheating. In some games, such as blackjack (where card counting is a possibility), using multiple decks of cards can increase the house edge.

History

Prior to 1961 in Las Vegas casinos, all blackjack was being dealt from a single deck. John Scarne proposed to the Nevada Gaming Control Board that a state ruling be enacted such that Blackjack must be dealt from a shoe (Scarne's invention). While no such ruling was ever passed, most Nevada casinos now deal from a multi-deck shoe. As gaming advisor to the Havana Hilton, Scarne also introduced the shoe to Puerto Rico and Cuba. The device is so named because the earliest versions of it resembled a woman's high-heel shoe, and was often painted red or black in color.

In use

Dealing shoes come in many colors and sizes, depending on the number of decks they are capable of holding (2, 4, 6, or 8 decks).

List of Robot Chicken episodes

This is a list of episodes for the stop-motion television series Robot Chicken. The first episode of Robot Chicken aired on February 20, 2005 at 11:30 PM EST on Adult Swim and the first season finished on July 18, 2005. The second season began on April 2, 2006 and ended on November 19, 2006. The show's third season premiered on August 12, 2007 and ended on October 5, 2008. The fourth season premiered on December 7, 2008 and ended on December 6, 2009. The series was put on hiatus after the premiere of "Dear Consumer" on December 6, 2009, but later on the fifth season premiered, on December 12, 2010, and ended on January 15, 2012. Season Six premiered on September 16, 2012 and included a half-hour special based on DC Comics.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2005)

Season 2 (2006)

Season 3 (2007–08)

Season 4 (2008–09)

Season 5 (2010–12)

Season 6 (2012–13)

Season 7 (2014)

Season 8 (2015–16)

Specials

References

External links