Snow

Snow is precipitation in the form of flakes of crystalline water ice that falls from clouds.

Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft, white, and fluffy structure, unless subjected to external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types that fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing, rather than a flake, are hail, ice pellets or snow grains.

The process of precipitating snow is called snowfall. Snowfall tends to form within regions of upward movement of air around a type of low-pressure system known as an extratropical cyclone. Snow can fall poleward of these systems' associated warm fronts and within their comma head precipitation patterns (called such due to the comma-like shape of the cloud and precipitation pattern around the poleward and west sides of extratropical cyclones). Where relatively warm water bodies are present, for example because of water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be heavy locally. Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy snow is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, if the atmosphere is cold enough. Snowfall amount and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount are measured using a variety of different rain gauges.

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is a 1992 collection of short stories by Robert Olen Butler. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1993.

Each story in the collection is narrated by a different Vietnamese immigrant living in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The stories are largely character-driven, with cultural differences between Vietnam and the United States as an important theme. Many of the stories were first published in journals such as The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. The collection was re-released in 2001 with two additional stories, "Salem" and "Missing".

Synopsis

Open Arms

The opening story is set during the Vietnam War. The narrator, a translator for the Australian forces, recounts the story of a North Vietnamese communist named Thập who joins the Australian forces as a spy, after the communists massacre his family. When the Australian soldiers bring him to a screening of pornographic films, Thập seems overwhelmed and disgusted. The narrator speculates that, as a former Communist, he considers pornography immoral, and that it simultaneously reminds him of his longing for his dead wife. Thập later kills an Australian soldier and himself.

Snow cream

Snow cream can be one of two distinct desserts.

The cream-based dessert

The cream-based variety of Snow "Cream" is an old English recipe. It is known in continental Europe at least as early as the late 15th or early 16th century where it can be found in the Dutch recipe collection now known as KANTL Gent 15. It has been suggested that "Snow" may be even older than that.

The common ingredients for early recipes are cream, rosewater and sugar, whipped until stiff. Other flavouring agents, e.g., cloves or ginger, are also known from various recipes. It is the process of whipping cream until stiff that is often likened to snow as can be seen in passages such as "Beat your cream with a stick until the Snow rises ...". It was often draped over another item to give the appearance of snow having fallen over the item.

Fact (band)

Fact was a Japanese rock band, formed in December 1999 in Ibaraki Prefecture.

Clean and screamed singing styles are both used, and gang vocals are present in many choruses. Even though a Japanese band, the lyrics to most of the band's songs are written in English.

The members have hidden their faces during every video since 2009 wearing traditional Japanese Noh masks during the time they supported their second album, Fact (2009), but abandoned the imagery in videos the next year in favor of either partially or fully concealing their faces.

They are signed to Maximum10, an indie-rock imprint of the Avex Group.

History

The band was formed from members of other bands in the Tokyo area. They then began to tour the local music scene in and around Chiba, Mito and Tokyo. Originally, Tomohiro played bass and sang with support from Kazuki and Takahiro but, in 2002, main vocal duties as well as a third guitar were added when Hironobu joined. Hironobu had been a member of the band Second Base along with Kazuki before either of them joined Fact.

Question of fact

In law, a question of fact, also known as a point of fact, is a question which must be answered by reference to facts and evidence, and inferences arising from those facts. Such a question is distinct from a question of law, which must be answered by applying relevant legal principles. The answer to a question of fact (a "finding of fact") is usually dependent on particular circumstances or factual situations.

To illustrate the difference:

After hearing evidence, a U.S. court may issue a "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law," which separately examines the factual issues and then draws a legal conclusion. In the above example, the court might write that the facts have been established to a required standard of proof that Mr. and Mrs. Jones left their 10 year old child home alone with a baby for several days. The conclusion of law would then follow, outlining the given child neglect statute that Mr. and Mrs. Jones violated.

FACT (biology)

FACT (facilitates chromatin transcription) is a heterodimeric protein complex that affects eukaryotic RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription elongation both in vitro and in vivo. It was discovered in 1998 as a factor purified from human cells that was essential for productive in vitro Pol II transcription on a chromatinized DNA template.

FACT consists of 140 and 80 kilodalton (kDa) subunits. The 140 kDa subunit is encoded by a human gene (SUPT16H) which is 36% identical to the S. cerevisiae gene Spt16 and the 80 kDa subunit is human SSRP1 (POB3 in S. cerevisiae). Both of these subunits in yeast affect Pol II transcription elongation, and purified human FACT binds specifically to mononucleosomes and the histone H2A/H2B dimer, but not to the H3/H4 tetramer (see: Nucleosome core particle) or Pol II.

Co-immunoprecipitation assays with tagged recombinant proteins showed that the Spt16 subunit interacts with H2A/H2B dimers and mononucleosomes, but not H3/H4 tetramers, whereas the SSRP1 subunit interacts only with H3/H4 tetramers and not mononucleosomes. Deletion of the highly acidic carboxy-terminus of Spt16 (a common feature of known histone chaperones) does not prevent Spt16 from forming a stable complex with SSRP1, but it does eliminate interaction with mononucleosomes and ability to stimulate in vitro transcription on chromatinized templates. The two subunits together, but neither alone, can stimulate formation of nucleosomes from free histones and DNA (histone chaperone activity). These two subunits are highly conserved across all eukaryotes, and in addition to transcription, have been shown to affect DNA repair and replication as well.