White

White is an achromatic color, literally a "color without hue", that is a mixture of the frequencies of all the colors of the visible spectrum. It is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone and other common minerals. In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude.

In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, and Romans wore a white toga as a symbol of citizenship. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity; the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It sometimes symbolizes royalty; it was the color of the French kings (black being the color of the queens) and of the monarchist movement after the French Revolution as well as of the movement called the White Russians (not to be confounded with Belarus, literally "White Russia") who fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). Greek and Roman temples were faced with white marble, and beginning in the 18th century, with the advent of neoclassical architecture, white became the most common color of new churches, capitols and other government buildings, especially in the United States of America. It was also widely used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity and strength.

White and Black in chess

In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some other colors (usually a light color and a dark color, respectively). The 64 squares of the chessboard, which is colored in a checkered pattern, are likewise referred to as "white squares" or "light squares" on the one hand, and "black squares" or "dark squares" on the other. In most cases, the squares are not actually white and black, but a light color and a contrasting dark color. For example, the squares on plastic boards are often off-white ("buff") and green, while those on wood boards are often light brown and dark brown.

In old chess writings, the sides are often called Red and Black, because those were the two colors of ink then commonly available when hand-drawing or printing chess position diagrams.

White (political adjective)

White or White- (белый, бело-), was a political term used as an adjective, noun or a prefix by Bolsheviks to designate their real and alleged enemies of all sorts, by analogy with the White Army.

Dual (brand)

Dual (pronounced /duːˈɑːl/ or /-ˈæl/) is a brand name of audio and video electronics.

History

In 1907, brothers Christian and Joseph Steidinger began manufacturing clockwork and gramophone parts in the Black Forest town of St. Georgen. In 1927, Gebrüder Steidinger (Steidinger Bros.) adopted the name Dual in reference to the dual-mode power supplies it pioneered. The power supplies allowed gramophones to be powered from mains electricity or with a wind-up mechanism. Soon thereafter, Dual began producing turntables of its own.

After World War II, Dual became the biggest manufacturer of turntables in Europe, with more than 3,000 employees working in several factories. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Dual introduced audio cassette players, VCRs, CD players, and other consumer electronics.

But when Japanese consumer electronics started entering European markets in the 1970s on a large scale, Dual as most other traditional German manufacturers underwent a big crisis: Japanese products usually offered more features at a cheaper price in a much more modern package. Dual went bankrupt in 1982, and was sold to French electronic manufacturer Thomson SA. In 1988, Thomson sold Dual to German manufacturer Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG.

Duality (electrical circuits)

In electrical engineering, electrical terms are associated into pairs called duals. A dual of a relationship is formed by interchanging voltage and current in an expression. The dual expression thus produced is of the same form, and the reason that the dual is always a valid statement can be traced to the duality of electricity and magnetism.

Here is a partial list of electrical dualities:

History

The use of duality in circuit theory is due to Alexander Russell who published his ideas in 1904.

Examples

Constitutive relations

Voltage division — current division

Impedance and admittance

Dual (album)

Dual is an album by four acclaimed Irish and Scottish musicians: Éamonn Doorley, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (both prominently of Danú), Julie Fowlis and Ross Martin.

The artists released the album in October 2008 on their official websites. The album was planned to project the similarities and differences between the Irish and Scottish Gaelic song traditions. The album features Scottish waulking songs such as Alasdair Mhic Cholla Ghasda, and oddly an Irish Gaelic equivalent to the Gaidhlig Puirt a Beul. The songs are set in a traditional/folk accompaniment, very different from the recorded versions of a few of the songs by the likes of Capercaillie and Clannad.

The four musicians have been playing music together since a sing-song at the Tønder Festival in 2003. The four-piece has toured together twice a year both in Ireland and Scotland. Julie and Muireann have had very similar upbringings and found their music and languages shared many common threads. Hence the name, Dual, which means "to braid, to twine, inheritance or native" in both Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic. The album features songs in Irish and Scots-Gaelic, and tunes from both cultures.