Sparks
Sparks may refer to:
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Sparks, Georgia
Sparks is a town in Cook County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,052 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Sparks is located near the center of Cook County at 31°10′09″N 83°26′23″W / 31.169210°N 83.439757°W. It is bordered on the south by the city of Adel, the county seat. U.S. Route 41 passes through the center of the town as Goodman Street. Interstate 75 runs through the west side of the town, with access from Exit 41. Tifton is 20 miles (32 km) to the north, and Valdosta is 26 miles (42 km) to the south.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Sparks has a total area of 4.1 square miles (10.7 km2), of which 3.9 square miles (10.1 km2) is land and 0.23 square miles (0.6 km2), or 5.64%, is water.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,755 people, 644 households, and 443 families residing in the town. The population density was 480.3 people per square mile (185.6/km²). There were 743 housing units at an average density of 203.3 per square mile (78.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 53.16% White, 43.65% African American, 0.40% Native American, 0.40% Asian, 1.60% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.42% of the population.
Sparks (Amtrak station)
The Sparks Amtrak Station is a former train station in Sparks, Nevada, United States. Prior to closing it was served daily by Amtrak's (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) California Zephyr, which runs once daily between Chicago, Illinois and Emeryville, California (in the San Francisco Bay Area). Although the California Zephyr still passes through Sparks, it does not stop any longer.
In May 2009, the station was closed because of its proximity to Reno. Safety issues also played a part, as the former station was in a freight yard and what appears to be the station building is actually a Union Pacific yard office.
External links
Media related to Sparks (Amtrak station) at Wikimedia Commons
Amulet
An amulet is an object whose most important characteristic is the power ascribed to it to protect its owner from danger or harm. Amulets are different from talismans as a talisman is believed to bring luck or some other benefit, though it can offer protection as well. Amulets are often confused with pendants—charms that hang from necklaces—any given pendant may indeed be an amulet, but so may any other charm which purports to protect its owner from danger.
Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants, and animals; even words in the form of a magical spell or incantation to repel evil or bad luck.
The word "amulet" comes from the Latin amulētum; the earliest extant use of the term is in Pliny's Natural History, meaning "an object that protects a person from trouble".
In cultures
Ancient Rome
Amulets were particularly prevalent in ancient Roman society, being the inheritor of the ancient Greek tradition, and inextricably linked to Roman religion and magic (see Magic in the Greco-Roman World). Amulets are usually outside of the normal sphere of religious experience though associations between certain gemstones and gods has been suggested, for example, Jupiter is represented on milky chalcedony, Sol on heliotrope, Mars on red jasper, Ceres on green jasper and Bacchus on amethyst. Amulets are worn to imbue the wearer with the associated powers of the gods rather than for any reasons of piety. The intrinsic power of the amulet is also evident from others bearing inscriptions, such as vterfexix (utere fexix) or "good luck to the user." Amulet boxes could also be used, such as the example from part of the Thetford treasure, Norfolk, UK, where a gold box intended for suspension around the neck was found to contain sulphur for its apotropaic qualities.
Amulet (disambiguation)
An Amulet is an object intended to bring good luck. It may also refer to:
- Amulet (Amulet album), their first album
Amulet (novel)
Amulet (Amuleto in Spanish) is a short novel by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003). It was published in 1999. An English translation, by Chris Andrews, was published by New Directions in 2006.
The book is dedicated to the author's poet friend Mario Santiago Papasquiaro (1953–1998), who died the year it was being written; as "Ulises Lima", Santiago was prominently featured in The Savage Detectives and gets a cameo in this story.
Plot summary
Amulet embodies in one woman’s voice the melancholy and violent history of Latin America. It begins: “This is going to be a horror story. A story of murder, detection and horror. But it won't appear to be, for the simple reason that I am the teller. Told by me, it won't seem like that. Although, in fact, it's the story of a terrible crime.”
The speaker is named Auxilio Lacouture, dubbed “the mother of Mexican poetry”, though her own take is, “I could say I am the mother of all Mexican poets, but I better not”. Tall, thin, blonde, and old enough to actually be their mother, she's a Uruguayan exile living illegally in Mexico City since the 1960s, lending a maternal hand to those in need (even her forename means "Help" in Spanish), doing odd jobs for old writers and at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature.
