Thai silk

Thai silk is produced from the cocoons of Thai silkworms. Thai weavers, mainly from the Khorat Plateau in the northeast region of Thailand, raise the caterpillars on a steady diet of mulberry leaves. Khorat is the center of the silk industry in Thailand and a steady supplier of rose Thai silk for many generations.

Today, Thai silk is known for its special qualities, bearing unique patterns and colors.

Origin

After silk originated in ancient China and India where the practice of weaving silk began around 2,640 BCE, Chinese merchants spread the use of silk throughout Asia through trade. Some accounts indicate that archaeologists found the first fibers of silk in Thailand to be over 3,000 years old in the ruins of Baan Chiang. The site is considered by many to be Southeast Asia's oldest civilization.

However, silk produced on the Khorat plateau was generally only used for private consumption, with the Thai court preferring to purchase Chinese silk imports. There was an attempt in the early 20th century to develop the industry, with the help of a Japanese sericulture expert, Kametaro Toyama. But this attempt failed due to a lack of interest locally to produce for a larger market.

Thai

When used as an adjective, Thai refers to anything that originates from Thailand. As a noun it may refer to:

See also

Tamil calendar

The Tamil calendar is a sidereal Hindu calendar used in Tamil Nadu, India. It is also used in Puducherry, and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu farmers greatly refer to this. It is used today for cultural, religious and agricultural events, with the Gregorian calendar largely used for official purposes both within and outside India. The Tamil calendar is based on the classical Hindu solar calendar also used in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Odisha, Rajasthan and Punjab.

There are several festivals based on the Tamil Hindu calendar. The Tamil New Year follows the nirayanam vernal equinox and generally falls on 14 April of the Gregorian year. 14 April marks the first day of the traditional Tamil calendar and this remains a public holiday in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Tropical vernal equinox fall around 22 March, and adding 23 degrees of trepidation or oscillation to it, we get the Hindu sidereal or Nirayana Mesha Sankranti (Sun's transition into nirayana Aries). Hence, the Tamil calendar begins on the same date in April which is observed by most traditional calendars of the rest of India - Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Manipur, Punjab etc. This also coincides with the traditional new year in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh Nepal and Thailand. The 60-year cycle is also very ancient and is observed by most traditional calendars of India and China, and is related to 5 revolutions of Jupiter according to popular belief, or to 60-year orbit of Nakshatras (stars) as mentioned in Surya Siddhanta.

Thai alphabet

Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย; rtgs: akson thai;  [ʔàksɔ̌ːn tʰāj]  listen) is used to write the Thai language and other languages in Thailand. It has 44 consonant letters (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchana), 15 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least 28 vowel forms, and four tone diacritics (Thai: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayuk or wannayut).

Although commonly referred to as the "Thai alphabet", the script is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida, a writing system in which each consonant may invoke an inherent vowel sound. In the case of the Thai script this is an implied 'a' or 'o'. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, with vowels arranged above, below, to the left, or to the right of the corresponding consonant, or in a combination of positions.

Thai has its own set of Thai numerals that are based on the Hindu Arabic numeral system (Thai: เลขไทย, lek thai), but the standard western Hindu-Arabic numerals (Thai: เลขฮินดูอารบิก, lek hindu arabik) are also commonly used.

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity (sericulture). The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors.

Silk is produced by several insects, but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. There has been some research into other types of silk, which differ at the molecular level. Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, but some adult insects such as webspinners also produce silk, and some insects such as raspy crickets produce silk throughout their lives. Silk production also occurs in Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), silverfish, mayflies, thrips, leafhoppers, beetles, lacewings, fleas, flies, and midges. Other types of arthropod produce silk, most notably various arachnids such as spiders (see spider silk).

SILK

SILK is an audio compression format and audio codec developed by Skype Limited. It was developed for use in Skype, as a replacement for the SVOPC codec. Since licensing out, it has also been used by others. It has been extended to the Internet standard Opus codec.

Details

Skype Limited announced that SILK can use a sampling frequency of 8, 12, 16 or 24 kHz and a bit rate from 6 to 40 kbit/s. It can also use a low algorithmic delay of 25 ms (20 ms frame size + 5 ms look-ahead). The reference implementation is written in the C programming language. The codec technology is based on linear predictive coding (LPC). The SILK binary SDK is available.

License

The SILK codec is patented and licensed separately from the SILK SDK. The codec is open-source, freeware, available royalty free with restrictions on use and distribution. The SDK was initially available only by application by giving details of name, address, phone, and description of how SILK will be used.As of 2012 (version 1.0.9) the SDK can by downloaded without application, but the licence restricts the use to internal evaluation and testing purposes only, excluding software distribution or use in any commercial product or service.

Silk (album)

Silk is the self-titled second studio album from American R&B group Silk, released November 28, 1995 on Elektra Records.

The album peaked at number forty-six on the Billboard 200 chart.

Release and reception

The album peaked at forty-six on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine at Allmusic called the groups vocals on the album "impressive." Erlewine also gave note to the production, which he referred to as "seamless without being overly slick." The ballad "How Could You Say You Love Me," and third single "Don't Rush" were praised by Upscale magazine.

Track listing

Chart history

Album

Singles

"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Personnel

Information taken from Allmusic.