Pearà

Pearà (Venetian term, literally "peppered") is a traditional Veronese sauce made with bread crumbs, beef and hen stock, beef marrow and black pepper. It is served exclusively together with bollito misto, making Lesso e pearà (lesso is Venetian for bollito), a typical dish unique to Verona and its surroundings.

Ingredients and preparation

Preparation of pearà is closely linked to that of lesso, from whose stock it's made and whose meats it accompanies. Stock is made by simmering beef, hen and herbs (carrot, onion and celery); the complete recipe also includes calf's head and oxtail.

Pearà requires a long, slow cooking; for its thermal properties, a traditional terracotta pot is to be preferred. First off the bread crumbs are mixed in the pot to the melted marrow and butter; afterwards scalding hot stock is added with a ladle while stirring continuously. The pot is then left to simmer for at least two hours, to obtain the desired creamy and thick texture. The sauce's namesake abundant, freshly ground black pepper is added towards the end of the cooking. Some recipes also add olive oil and grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano.

Pear

The pear is any of several tree and shrub species of genus Pyrus /ˈpaɪrəs/, in the family Rosaceae.

It is also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued for their edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamental trees.

Etymology

The English word “pear” is probably from Common West Germanic pera, probably a loanword of Vulgar Latin pira, the plural of pirum, akin to Greek ἄπιος apios (from Mycenaean ápisos), which is of Semitic origin (Aramaic/Syriac "pirâ", meaning "fruit", from the verb "pra", meaning "to beget, multiply, bear fruit"). The place name Perry can indicate the historical presence of pear trees. The term "pyriform" is sometimes used to describe something which is pear-shaped.

Description

The pear is native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of the Old World, from western Europe and north Africa east right across Asia. It is a medium-sized tree, reaching 10–17 metres (33–56 ft) tall, often with a tall, narrow crown; a few species are shrubby.

Chartreuse (color)

Chartreuse (traditional) (Chartreuse Yellow) (#DFFF00)

Chartreuse (web) (Chartreuse Green) (#7FFF00)

Chartreuse (US /ʃɑːrˈtruːz/, /ʃɑːrˈtruːs/ or RP /ʃɑːˈtrɜːz/;French pronunciation: ​[ʃaʁtʁøz]) (the web color) is a color halfway between yellow and green that was named because of its resemblance to the green color of one of the French liqueurs called green chartreuse, introduced in 1764. Similarly, chartreuse yellow is a yellow color mixed with a small amount of green that was named because of its resemblance to the color of one of the French liqueurs called yellow chartreuse, introduced in 1838.

Etymology

The French word chartreuse means "charterhouse". The monasteries that the monks of the Carthusian order (who started producing Chartreuse liqueur in 1764) live in, the first one of which was established in 1082 by Saint Bruno, are called charter houses because they were chartered—and given generous material support—by the Duke of Burgundy known as Philip the Bold when he took over the area in 1378. Philip the Bold's elaborately decorated tomb was initially installed at a Carthusian charterhouse when he died in 1404.

Mira

Mira (/ˈmaɪrə/, also known as Omicron Ceti, ο Ceti, ο Cet) is a red giant star estimated 200–400 light years away in the constellation Cetus. Mira is a binary star, consisting of the red giant Mira A along with Mira B. Mira A is also an oscillating variable star and was the first non-supernova variable star discovered, with the possible exception of Algol. Mira is the brightest periodic variable in the sky that is not visible to the naked eye for part of its cycle. Its distance is uncertain; pre-Hipparcos estimates centered on 220 light-years; while Hipparcos data from the 2007 reduction suggest a distance of 299 light-years, with a margin of error of 11%.

Observation history

Evidence that the variability of Mira was known in ancient China, Babylon or Greece is at best only circumstantial. What is certain is that the variability of Mira was recorded by the astronomer David Fabricius beginning on August 3, 1596. Observing what he thought was the planet Mercury (later identified as Jupiter), he needed a reference star for comparing positions and picked a previously unremarked third-magnitude star nearby. By August 21, however, it had increased in brightness by one magnitude, then by October had faded from view. Fabricius assumed it was a nova, but then saw it again on February 16, 1609.

Mira (film)

Mira is a 1971 Dutch-Belgian drama film directed by Fons Rademakers. It was entered into the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 44th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Cast

See also

References

External links

IBM Mira

Mira is a petascale Blue Gene/Q supercomputer. As of June 2013, it is listed on TOP500 as the fifth-fastest supercomputer in the world. It has a performance of 8.59 petaflops (LINPACK) and consumes 3.9 MW. The supercomputer was constructed by IBM for Argonne National Laboratory's Argonne Leadership Computing Facility with the support of the United States Department of Energy, and partially funded by the National Science Foundation. Mira will be used for scientific research, including studies in the fields of material science, climatology, seismology, and computational chemistry. The supercomputer is being utilized initially for sixteen projects, selected by the Department of Energy.

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, which commissioned the supercomputer, was established by the America COMPETES Act, signed by President Bush in 2007, and President Obama in 2011. The United States' emphasis on supercomputing has been seen as a response to China's progress in the field. China's Tianhe-1A, located at the Tianjin National Supercomputer Center, was ranked the most powerful supercomputer in the world from October 2010 to June 2011. Mira is, along with IBM Sequoia and Blue Waters, one of three American petascale supercomputers deployed in 2012.