Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres (yarn or thread). Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting.

The words fabric and cloth are used in textile assembly trades (such as tailoring and dressmaking) as synonyms for textile. However, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. Textile refers to any material made of interlacing fibres. Fabric refers to any material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods (garments, etc.). Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but often refers to a finished piece of fabric used for a specific purpose (e.g., table cloth).

Etymology

The word 'textile' is from Latin, from the adjective textilis, meaning 'woven', from textus, the past participle of the verb texere, 'to weave'.

Rag (student society)

University Rag societies are student-run charitable fundraising organisations that are widespread in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Most universities in the UK and Ireland, as well as some in South Africa and the Netherlands have a Rag. In some universities Rags are known as Charities Campaigns, Charity Appeals, Charity Committees, or Karnivals, but they all share many attributes.

In the UK, the National Student Fundraising Association (NaSFA), set up in December 2011, exists as a support and resource sharing organisation run by those managing rags for others managing RAGs.

Origins

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the origin of the word "Rag" is from "An act of ragging; esp. an extensive display of noisy disorderly conduct, carried on in defiance of authority or discipline", and provides a citation from 1864, noting that the word was known in Oxford before this date. Early Rag collectors may have ragged passers-by until they made a donation.

Alternatively, it is thought to be from the Victorian era when students took time out of their studies to collect rags to clothe the poor.

Tabloid journalism

Tabloid journalism is a style of journalism that tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news. Such journalism is commonly associated with tabloid sized newspapers including the National Enquirer, Globe, or The Sun, and the former News of the World. Not all newspapers associated with such journalism are in tabloid size; for example, the format of Apple Daily is broadsheet, while the style is tabloid.

Often, tabloid newspaper allegations about the sexual practices, drug use, or private conduct of celebrities is borderline defamatory; in many cases, celebrities have successfully sued for libel, demonstrating that tabloid stories have defamed them.

History

An early pioneer of tabloid journalism was Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865–1922), who amassed a large publishing empire of halfpenny papers by rescuing failing stolid papers and transforming them to reflect the popular taste, which yielded him enormous profits. Harmsworth used his tabloids to influence public opinion, for example, by helping to bring down the wartime government of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith in the Shell Crisis of 1915.

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.