Casio
Casio Computer Company, Limited (カシオ計算機株式会社, Kashio Keisanki Kabushiki-gaisha) is a multinational electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, cameras, musical instruments and watches. It was founded in 1946, and in 1957 released the world's first entirely electric compact calculator.
History
Casio was established in April 1946 by Tadao Kashio, an engineer specializing in fabrication technology. Kashio's first major product was the yubiwa pipe, a finger ring that would hold a cigarette, allowing the wearer to smoke the cigarette down to its nub while also leaving the wearer's hands free. Japan was impoverished immediately following World War II, so cigarettes were valuable, and the invention was a success.
After seeing the electric calculators at the first Business Show in Ginza, Tokyo in 1949, Kashio and his younger brothers (Toshio, Kazuo and Yukio) used their profits from the yubiwa pipe to develop their own calculators. Most of the calculators at that time worked using gears and could be operated by hand using a crank or using a motor (see adding machine). Toshio, Tadao's brother, possessed some knowledge of electronics, and set out to make a calculator using solenoids. The desk-sized calculator was finished in 1954 and was Japan's first electro-mechanical calculator. One of the central and more important innovations of the calculator was its adoption of the 10-key number pad; at that time other calculators were using a "full keypad", which meant that each place in the number (1s, 10s, 100s, etc...) had nine keys. Another distinguishing innovation was the use of a single display window instead of the three display windows (one for each argument and one for the answer) used in other calculators.
Calcium silicate
Calcium silicate (often referred to by its shortened trade name Cal-Sil or Calsil) is the chemical compound Ca2SiO4, also known as calcium orthosilicate and sometimes formulated 2CaO.SiO2. It is one of a group of compounds obtained by reacting calcium oxide and silica in various ratios e.g. 3CaO•SiO2, Ca3SiO5; 2CaO•SiO2, Ca2SiO4; 3CaO•2SiO2, Ca3Si2O7 and CaO•SiO2, CaSiO3. Calcium silicate is a white free-flowing powder derived from limestone and diatomaceous earth. It has a low bulk density and high physical water absorption. It is used in roads, insulation, bricks, roof tiles, table salt and occurs in cements, where it is known as belite (or in cement chemist notation C2S).
It is used as an anti-caking agent in food preparation and an antacid. It is approved by the United Nations' FAO and WHO bodies as a safe food additive in a large variety of products.
High temperature insulation
Calcium silicate is commonly used as a safe alternative to asbestos for high temperature insulation materials. Industrial grade piping and equipment insulation is often fabricated from calcium silicate. Its fabrication is a routine part of the curriculum for insulation apprentices. Calcium silicate competes in these realms against rockwool as well as proprietary insulation solids, such as perlite mixture and vermiculite bonded with sodium silicate. Although it is popularly considered an asbestos substitute, early uses of calcium silicate for insulation still made use of asbestos fibers.
Bud
In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have the potential for general shoot development. The term bud is also used in zoology, where it refers to an outgrowth from the body which can develop into a new individual.
Overview
The buds of many woody plants, especially in temperate or cold climates, are protected by a covering of modified leaves called scales which tightly enclose the more delicate parts of the bud. Many bud scales are covered by a gummy substance which serves as added protection. When the bud develops, the scales may enlarge somewhat but usually just drop off, leaving on the surface of the growing stem a series of horizontally-elongated scars. By means of these scars one can determine the age of any young branch, since each year's growth ends in the formation of a bud, the formation of which produces an additional group of bud scale scars. Continued growth of the branch causes these scars to be obliterated after a few years so that the total age of older branches cannot be determined by this means.
Budō
Budō (武道) is a Japanese term describing modern Japanese martial arts. Literally translated it means the "Martial Way", and may be thought of as the "Way of War".
Etymology
Budō is a compound of the root bu (武:ぶ), meaning 'war' or 'martial'; and dō (道:どう; tao in Chinese), meaning 'path' or 'way' (including the Buddhist conception of 'path', or mārga in Sanskrit). The term refers to the idea of formulating propositions, subjecting them to philosophical critique and then following a 'path' to realize them.Dō signifies a "way of life". Dō in the Japanese context, is an experiential term, experiential in the sense that practice (the way of life) is the norm to verify the validity of the discipline cultivated through a given art form. The modern budō has no external enemy, only the internal enemy, one's ego that must be fought.
Similarly to budō, bujutsu is a compound of the roots bu (武), and jutsu (術:じゅつ), meaning technique. Thus, budō is translated as "martial way", or "the way of war" while bujutsu is translated as "science of war" or "martial craft." However, both budō and bujutsu are used interchangeably in English with the term "martial arts". Budo and bujutsu have quite a delicate difference; whereas bujutsu only gives attention to the physical part of fighting (how to best defeat an enemy), budo also gives attention to the mind and how one should develop oneself.
Annual growth cycle of grapevines
The annual growth cycle of grapevines is the process that takes place in the vineyard each year, beginning with bud break in the spring and culminating in leaf fall in autumn followed by winter dormancy. From a winemaking perspective, each step in the process plays a vital role in the development of grapes with ideal characteristics for making wine. Viticulturalists and vineyard managers monitor the effect of climate, vine disease and pests in facilitating or impeding the vines progression from bud break, flowering, fruit set, veraison, harvesting, leaf fall and dormancy-reacting if need be with the use of viticultural practices like canopy management, irrigation, vine training and the use of agrochemicals. The stages of the annual growth cycle usually become observable within the first year of a vine's life. The amount of time spent at each stage of the growth cycle depends on a number of factors-most notably the type of climate (warm or cool) and the characteristics of the grape variety.
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