In ordinary speech the horizon is line where the earth and the sky seem to meet, or the circle which bounds that part of the earth's surface visible to a spectator from a given point. This is termed the sensible, visible, or apparent horizon, as distinguished from the rational or celestial horizon, an imaginary great circle, parallel to the sensible horizon, whose plane passes through the earth's centre, whose poles are the zenith and the nadir, and which divides the sphere into two equal hemispheres. In observations with the sextant at sea, when the real horizon is invisible a small basin containing mercury may serve as an artificial horizon. The observation that is then made is the
angle between the sun or star and the image of the sun or star in the basin of mercury, and it is easily seen that half this angle is the altitude of the object above the real horizon. In geology, the term is applied to any well-marked formation which suffices as a starting-point from which to study the rest. Research Horizon
The Ku Klux Klan also called the White League, the Invisible Empire, and the Knights of the White Camelia are an American secret society. They were founded in 1866 at Pulaski, Tennessee in the southern USA after the American Civil War originally organized purposes of amusement, it soon developed into an organisation to oppose reconstruction and to maintain white supremacy. Famous for its white robes and hoods, it spread fear among blacks to prevent them from voting. Its use as a cover for petty racist persecution alienated public opinion and the Klan was supposedly disbanded in 1869 by the order of the Government. However, it wasn't disbanded and laws in 1870 and 1871 attempted to suppress the Klan. The Klan reappeared in Georgia in 1915 and during the 1920s spread into the north and mid-west. It was responsible for some 1500 racist murders by lynching. At its height, the Klan boasted four million members and elected high federal and state officials, but it also aroused intense opposition. A series of scandals and internecine rivalries sent it into rapid decline. Klan activity increased during the 1950s and 1960s, as it violently opposed the civil rights movement. It survives at the local level in the southern states and during the early 1990s there was concern that support for the Klan was increasing. Research Ku Klux Klan
During the 17th century it was claimed that witches possessed the
Mark of Satan on their body.
There were claimed to be two kinds of this mark: visible and invisible. Visible marks included moles, warts, birth-stains, supernumerary teats and spots of an unusual appearance. In an effort to find these visible marks, a woman suspected of witch craft was stripped naked and had all her hair shaved off. The witch finders claimed that the invisible kind of mark could be found because at that point the flesh of the victim was unsusceptible to pain, and would not bleed when punctured. If there existed on any part of the skin surface a spot that did not bleed when cut, then that was deemed evidence of a witch.
In searching for an invisible mark of Satan, a witch finder systematically pricked all parts of the victim's body so as to discover a spot that failed to yield blood, or until the accused woman ceased to cry out in pain. The test was usually successful because the torture was so severe that the woman would either pretend not to feel any pain so as to end the ordeal, or would become insensitive to pain and delirious. An account of such a trial appears in the 1785 edition of Beccaria's 'Essay on Crimes and Punishments':
'In the year 1652, a country woman, named Michelle Chaudron, of the little territory of Geneva, met the Devil in her way from the city. The Devil gave her a kiss, received her homage, and imprinted on her upper lip, and on her right breast, the mark which he is wont to bestow upon his favourites. This seal of the Devil is a little sign upon the skin, which renders it insensible, as we are assumed by all the demonographical civilians of those times. The devil ordered Michelle Chaudron to bewitch two young girls. She obeyed her master punctually, the parents of the two girls accusing her of dealing with the devil. The girls being confronted with the criminal, declared that they felt a continual pricking in some parts of their bodies, and that they were possessed. Physicians were called, at least men that passed for physicians in those days. They visited the girls. They sought for the seal of the devil on the body of Michelle, which seal is called, in the verbal process, the Satanical mark. Into one of these marks they plunged a long needle, which was already no small torture. Blood issued from the wound and Michelle testified by her cries, that the part was not insensible.
The judges not finding sufficient proof that Michelle Chaudron was a witch, ordered her to be tortured, which infallibly produced the proof they wanted. The poor wretch overcome by torment, confessed, at last, everything they desired. The physicians sought again for the Satanical mark, and found it in a little black spot on one of her thighs. Into this they plunged the needle. the poor creature, exhausted and almost expiring with the pain of the torture, was insensible to the needle, and did not cry out. She was instantly condemned to be burnt, but the world beginning at this time to be a little more civilised, she was previously strangled.' Research Mark of Satan
Spirit-worship is the form of ritual homage offered to incorporeal beings or powers conceived as dwelling in visible objects or in the invisible world. In its stricter sense, spirit-worship denotes the veneration of, or appeal through offering or prayer to, friendly agencies below the rank of deities. Its common usage embraces also the proposition of evil agencies or hostile demons under the impulse of fear. Research Spirit-Worship
Corylophidae (or Orthoperidae) is a family of tiny beetles. They are distinguished by an oval or round shape and the head invisible from behind as it is hidden by the pronotum. They live in mouldy wood, under bark, on rotting vegetation, in fungi and in wet, marshy situations. Research Corylophidae
The gemsbok (Oryx gazella) is a large powerful member of the antelope family inhabiting the plains of South Africa. Herds of ten or more gemsbok are still seen in south-western Africa, their sandy-grey flanks nearly invisible against the desert and brushland habitat. Both sexes have sharply pointed horns that extend up to about 1.2 m. The gemsbok stands more than 122 centimetres high and has a horse like posture and gallop. The horns are lowered parallel to the ground and the animals lunge with great accuracy when holding off lions and other predators. They are also swift runners that can outpace a horse or a pack of African hunting dogs. Gemsbok can survive dry seasons, eating melons and plant bulbs. Their long horns and striking facial markings have made them prized hunting trophies. Research Gemsbok
Democritus was a Greek philosopher of the new Eleatic school. He was born between 470 and 460 BC at Abdera and died in 370 BC. He travelled to Egypt, where he studied geometry, and probably visited other countries, to extend his knowledge of nature. Among the Greek philosophers he enjoyed the instruction of Leuoippus. He afterwards returned to his native city, where he was placed at the head of public affairs. Indignant at the follies of the Abderites, he resigned his office and retired to solitude, to devote himself exclusively to philosophical studies. According to later biographers he was called 'the laughing philosopher,' from his habit of laughing at the follies of mankind.
In his system he developed still further the mechanical or atomical theory of his master Leucippus. Thus he explained the origin of the world by the eternal motion of an infinite number of invisible and indivisible bodies or atoms, which differ from one another in form, position, and arrangement, and which have a primary motion, which brings them into contact, and forms innumerable combinations, the result of which is seen in the productions and phenomena of nature.
In this way the universe was formed, fortuitously, without the interposition of a First Cause. The eternal existence of atoms (of matter in general) he inferred from the consideration that time could be conceived only as eternal and without beginning. He applied his atomical theory, also, to natural philosophy and astronomy. Even the gods he considered to have arisen from atoms, and to be perishable like the rest of things existing. In his ethical philosophy Democritus considered the acquisition of peace of mind as the highest aim of existence. He is said to have written a great deal; but nothing has come to us except a few fragments. Research Democritus
Herbert George Wells was an English writer. He was born in 1866 at Bromley and died in 1946. Although he wanted to be a teacher, bad health meant he couldn't so he turned to writing. He wrote ' The Invisible Man', ' The Time Machine' and 'The War Of The Worlds'. Research H.G. Wells
Abbreviations
Research Horizon
