The Alfa Romeo 147 is an Italian automobile produced in three- and five-door models since 2001 when it was voted European Car of the Year, before undergoing revisions in 2005. The Alfa Romeo 147 is marketed as a stylish family car and is powered by a 1.9 litre four-cylinder engine providing a top speed of 129 mph, acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in just under nine seconds and a combined fuel consumption of almost 48 mpg. The Alfa Romeo 147 has been plagued by reliability issues and in October 2003 models were recalled due to a fire risk caused by an engine bay wiring short circuit on cars built between January 2002 and April 2003. Another recall occurred in April 2004 due to the power-assisted steering which could fail on GTAs made between November 2000 and March 2003. In May 2005 another recall occurred due to fuel leaks discovered on cars built between May and September 2004, in September 2006 a braking fault was discovered with the space-saver spare fitted on non-GTAs made between June 2004 and February 2006 resulting in a recall of these vehicles and in October 2006 clutch issues were discovered on vehicles made between March 2003 and October 2005. Research Alfa Romeo 147
Assizes is a term chiefly used in England to signify the sessions of the courts held at Westminster prior to Magna Carta, but thereafter appointed by successive enactments to be held annually in every county. Twelve judges, who are members of the highest courts in England, twice in every year perform a circuit into all the counties into which the kingdom is divided (the counties being grouped into seven circuits), to hold these assizes, at which both civil and criminal cases are decided. Occasionally this circuit is performed a third time for the purpose of jail-delivery. In London and Middlesex, instead of circuits, courts of nisi prius are held. At the assizes all the justices of the peace of the county are bound to attend. Special commissions of assize are granted for inquest into certain causes.
Among the more important historic uses of the term assize are its application to any sitting or deliberative council, and its transference thence to their ordinances, decrees, or assessments. In the latter sense we have the Assizes of Jerusalem, a code of feudal laws formulated in 1099 under Godfrey of Bouillon; the Assizes of Clarendon (1166), of Northampton (1176), and of Woodstock (1184) ; also the assisoe venalium (1203), for regulating the prices of articles of common consumption; the Assize of Arms (1181), an ordinance for organizing the national militia, etc. Research Assizes
Bairam is a Muslim feast falling immediately after Ramadan and extending over one to three days. This feast during the course of thirty-three years makes a complete circuit of all the months and seasons, as the Turks reckon by lunar years. Sixty days after this first great Bairam begins the lesser Bairam which commemorates Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.. They are the only two feasts prescribed by the Muslim religion. Research Bairam
A comet is a small body orbiting the sun on an elliptical path with a long tail of dust and ice.
Some comets are only visible by the aid of the telescope, while others can be seen by the naked eye. In the latter case they usually appear like stars accompanied with a train of light, sometimes short and sometimes extending over half the sky, mostly single and more or less curved, but sometimes forked. In a comet which appeared in 1744 the train was divided into several branches, spreading out from the head like a fan. The train is not stationary relatively to the head, but is subject to remarkable movements. The direction in which it points is always opposite to the sun, and as the , comet passes its perihelion the train changes its apparent position with extraordinary velocity. The head of the comet is itself of different degrees of luminosity, there being usually a central core, called the nucleus, of greater brilliancy than the surrounding envelope, called the coma.
Comets were long regarded as supernatural objects, and usually as portents of impending calamity. Tycho Brahe was the first who expressed a rational opinion on the subject, coming to the conclusion that the comet of 1577 was a heavenly body at a greater distance from the earth than that of the moon. The general law of the motion of bodies, as well as his own observations on the comet of 1680, led Isaac Newton to conclude that the orbits of the comets must, like those of the planets, be ellipses, having the sun in one focus, but far more eccentric; and having their aphelions, or greater distances from the sun, far remote in the regions of space.
This idea was taken up by Halley, who collated the observations which had been made of all the twenty-four comets of which notice had been taken previous to 1680. The results were very interesting. With but few exceptions the comets had passed within less than the earth's shortest distance from the sun, some of them within less than one-third of it, and the average about one-half. Out of the number, too, nearly two-thirds had had their motions retrograde, or moved in the opposite direction to the planets. While Halley was engaged on these comparisons and deductions the comet of 1682 made its appearance, and he found that there was a wonderful resemblance between it and three other comets that he found recorded - the comets of 1456, of 1531, and of 1607. The times of the appearance of these comets had been at very nearly regular intervals, the average period being between seventy-five and seventy-six years. Their distances from the sun, when in perihelion, or when nearest to that luminary, had been nearly the same, being nearly six-tenths of that of the earth, and not varying more than one-sixtieth from each other.
The inclination of their orbits to that of the earth had also been nearly the same, between 17 degrees and 18 degrees; and their motions had all been retrograde. Putting these facts together, Halley concluded that the comets of 1456, 1531,1607, and 1682 were reappearances of one and the same comet, which revolved in an elliptic orbit round the sun, performing its circuit in a period varying from a little more than seventy-six years to a little less than seventy-five; or having, as far as the observations had been carried, a variation of about fifteen months in the absolute duration of its year, measured according to that of the earth. For this variation in the time of its revolution Halley accounted upon the supposition that the form of its orbit had been altered by the attraction of the remote planets Jupiter and Saturn as it passed near to them; and thence he concluded that the period of its next appearance would be lengthened, but that it would certainly reappear in 1758 or early in 1759. As the time of its expected reappearance approached, Clairaut calculated that it would be retarded 100 days by the attraction of Saturn, and 518 by that of Jupiter, so that it would not come to the perihelion, or point of its orbit nearest the 500 sun, until the 13th of April, 1759.
It actually reached its perihelion on the 13th of March, 1759, being thirty days earlier than he had calculated. Along with the period of this comet and its perihelion distance, the magnitude and form of its path were also calculated. Estimating the mean distance of the earth from the sun at 95,000,000 miles (the number which was at that time considered as the true one), the mean distance of the comet was calculated to be 1,705,250,000 miles; its greatest distance from the sun, 3,355,400,000; its least distance, 55,100,000; and the transverse or largest diameter of its orbit, 3,410,500,000. This comet, therefore, is a body belonging to the solar system, and quite beyond the attraction of any body which does not belong to that system; and as this is determined of one comet, analogy points it out as being the case with them all. In 1835 it again returned, being first seen at Rome, on August the 5th, and from that time continued to be observed until the end of the year in Europe, and through a great part of spring 1836 in the southern hemisphere.
The comet denominated Encke's comet, which has made repeated appearances, was first observed in 1818, and was identified with a comet observed in 1786, also with a comet discovered in 1795 by Miss Herschel in the constellation Cygnus, and with another seen in 1805. Its orbit is an ellipse of comparatively small dimensions, wholly within the orbit of Jupiter; its period is 1260 days, or about three years and three-tenths. It has been frequently observed since.
Another comet, the history of which is of the utmost importance in the latest theories regarding the connection of these bodies and the periodic showers of shooting-stars, is one known as Biela's comet, discovered in 1826. It revolved about the sun in about 6.75 years, and was identified as the same comet which was observed in 1772 and in 1806. Its returns were noted in 1832, 1839, and 1845. In 1846 it divided into two, returned double in 1852, but has not since been seen, the Supposition being that it has been dissipated, and that it was represented by a great shower of meteors that were seen in November 1872. One of the most remarkable comets of recent times was that known as Donati's, discovered by Dr. Donati of Florence in 1858. It was very brilliant in England in the autumn of that year, and on the 18th of October was near coming into collision with Venus, The year 1881 was remarkable for the number of comets recorded. During that year no fewer than seven comets, including the well-known short-period comet Encke's, were observed. Research Comet
A diocese (from the Greek, dioikesis, administration) is the circuit or extent of a bishop's jurisdiction. Each English diocese is divided into archdeaconries, each archdeaconry (nominally) into rural deaneries, and each deanery into parishes. Research D'ocese
The Dred Scott vs. Sanford case was a slave incident that occurred in America. In 1834 Dred Scott, a negro slave of Missouri, was taken by his master, who was a surgeon in the regular army, first into Illinois and then into Minnesota, a region from which slavery was expressly excluded by the celebrated Missouri Compromise of 1820. While in MinnesotaDred Scott was married with his master's consent, but on being brought back to Missouri in 1838, he and his wife and children were sold to another master.
Dred Scott brought action for trespass in a St Louiscourt, and a decision was made in his favour on the ground that, under the provisions of the Missouri Compromise, the negro was free. The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed this decision, and the case came before the Federal CircuitCourt in 1854. The defendant slave-holder pleaded that Dred Scott was not a citizen entitled to sue and be sued in the US Courts. The court held the contrary, but the jury's verdict decided the plaintiff still a slave. The case came before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1857. Here the judgment of the CircuitCourt was reversed, and the case dismissed on the ground that no negro, bond or free, could plead in the US Courts as a citizen. The court then, though denying its jurisdiction over the dispute, discussed the constitutional points. Dred Scott's status in Illinois was declared determined by his Missouridomicile. As regarded the Minnesota Territory the court declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and void, it being held that States alone could prohibit slavery from their boundaries. Chief Justice Taney read the opinion of a majority of the court, all slave-holders, declaring 'negroes so inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect'. Justices Curtis and McLean dissented. Dred Scott was afterwards freed by his master. The decision and case roused great excitement in the North. Research Dred Scott vs. Sanford
Fletcher versus Peck was an American breach of covenant case brought before the Supreme Court in 1809 and 1810, by writ of error from the Circuit Court of Massachusetts. Peck had sold to Fletcher certain lands in the State of Georgia, which had been purchased from the State. The breach assigned was that the Legislature of Georgia had no authority to dispose of the lands. Peck had averred that the title was good and that by the Act of the Georgia Legislature of January the 7th, 1795, the State was empowered to dispose of unappropriated lands. But in 1796 this act was repealed. The Supreme Court decided that the grant of land by the State was a contract, and that the Act of 1796, impairing the obligation of this contract of 1795, was therefore unconstitutional and void. Research Fletcher Versus Peck
The case of Hylton vs United States was a legal action in the US. In 1795 Hylton, of Virginia, was presented by the District Attorney before the CircuitCourt for refusing to pay duty upon certain carriages, which, he averred, were kept for his own private use. The decree was against the defendant, and the case was transferred to the Supreme Court of the United States. The argument turned entirely upon the question of the tax being direct or indirect. The court decided it to be
indirect since it must be incapable of apportionment and could not be uniform. Accordingly judgment was affirmed for the defendant. Research Hylton vs United States
Louisiana vs Jumel was an important case before the US Supreme Court, decided in 1882. The plaintiffs, holding bonds issued under the act of the Louisiana Legislature of 1874, known as Act No. 3, demanded payment of these bonds in 1880. Payment was refused in obedience to Article 3 of the Louisiana State Debt Act of 1880, carrying out provisions contained in the new Constitution of that State. This article recited that coupons of consolidated bonds falling due in January, 1880, were remitted. Suit was brought against officers of the State. The CircuitCourt of Louisiana decided for the defendant, and its decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States on the ground that relief could not be awarded against officers obeying the supreme power of the State; that the money is the State's property, not held in trust by the officers, except in the capacity of her servants. Research Louisiana Vs Jumel
In 1841 a portion of the people of Rhode Island had framed a new Constitution and elected Thomas W Dorr Governor in opposition to the charter government. That government, King being the executive, declared the State under martial law, and Luther's house was searched, he being implicated in the armed conspiracy against the constitutional government. Luther pleaded the constitutionality of the new government, but the CircuitCourt found judgment against him and this the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed, 1842. But it was decided that the question of the constitutionality of a State government lay rather with Congress than the judicial courts. Also it was decided that under martial law suspected persons might be legally arrested by State authority. Research Luther Vs Borden
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Alfa Romeo 147
