This article discusses structures for habitation.For other meanings of the word "house", see House (disambiguation).
A house in its most general sense consists of a human-built dwelling with enclosing walls, a floor, and a roof. It provides shelter against precipitation, wind, heat, cold and intruding humans and animals. When occupying a house routinely as a dwelling. English-speaking humans may call that house their home (though animals may often live in the house as well, both domestic pets and "unauthorised" animals such as mice living in the walls). People may leave their 'home' most of the day for work and recreation, but typically return home at least for sleeping.
A house generally has at least one entrance, usually in the form of a door or a portal - but note that some early houses such as those at Çatalhöyü ;k used roofs and ladders for access. Many houses have back doors that open into the back yard (American English) or garden. Houses may have any number of windows or none at all. [edit]
Word use
In English the word "house" on its own usually refers to a dwelling for one family, or for more than one family living together, sharing the house. In other languages the translation for "house" often covers other types of building, such as tower blocks or commercial property: in German, for example, a "Haus" can also refer to a hotel or a block of "flats" (UK) or "apartment" blocks (US).
English-speakers can use the word "house" in combination with other words in English to describe buildings other than residential dwellings, such as an opera house, a "monkey house" (a building for several cages) in a zoo, etc. The term "madhouse" refers disparagingly to a mental hospital or insane asylum (also see House (disambiguation) for more.) The White House has only a secondary use as a dwelling.
As a verb, to house (pronounced "haʊz") means "to provide a routine locale for an object, a person or an organization". Museums, for example, can house historic or artistic artifacts. A business may be housed in a storefront, or a family may be housed (by a local authority, for example) in an apartment or a house. Planners and the like often refer to a collection of domiciles (either for persons, for organizations, for animals or for objects) as housing. An individual person or a single object might also find housing in an appropriate domicile.
"House" and "home" are not synonymous. "House" refers to the physical object, "home" has a more abstract and poetic connotation as the center of family life. Enlisted men during World War II used the phrase "A house is not a home" - in part to justify infidelity during war-time. On the other hand, a stately home classifies as a house. [edit]
Types of house
See also list of house types.
Three basic house types exist:
* Single-family homes - detached and often standing on their own parcel of land * Semi-detached houses - attached to one or more houses * Terrace (architecture) (UK) or rowhouse (USA) - attached to other houses, possibly in a row (separated by a party wall)
In the United Kingdom, 27% of the population lives in terraced houses and 32% in semi-detached houses, as of 2002. In the United States in 2000, 61.4% of people lived in detached houses and 5.6% in semi-detached houses, the rest living in rowhouses or apartments, except for 7% living in mobile homes.
A "face house" is built in one or more faces; though it occurs most commonly as a fort or playhouse for children, this design sometimes serves as a house for adults.
Archaeologists have a particular interest in house shape: they see the transition over time from round huts to rectangular houses as a significant advance in optimising the use of space, and associate it with the growth of the idea of a personal area. [edit]
Inside the house Floor plan of a typical "4-square" house Enlarge Floor plan of a typical "4-square" house
Many houses have several rooms with specialised functions. These may include a living/eating area, a sleeping area, and (if indoor facilities are available) a washing/lavatory area. Often, in traditional agrarian societies, domestic animals such as chickens or larger livestock may share part of the house with human beings. In the West, with ready access to plumbing and a fairly high standard of living, each house will at least contain a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or kitchen area, and a living room. A typical "4-square house" (pictured) occurred commonly in the early history of the United States of America, with a staircase in the center of the house, surrounded by four rooms, and other sections of the house including a garage.
Ideally, builders of houses should design rooms to meet the needs of the people who live in the house. Such designing, known as interior design, has become a popular subject in universities. Feng shui, originally a Chinese method of situating houses according to such factors as sunlight and microclimates, has recently expanded its scope to include designing house interiors with the intention of giving harmonious effects to the people living inside the house. [edit]
Construction
Popular modern house construction techniques include light-frame construction (in areas with access to supplies of wood) and adobe or sometimes rammed-earth construction (in arid regions with scarce wood-resources). Some areas use brick almost exclusively, and quarried stone has long provided walling. Increasingly popular alternative construction materials include insulated concrete forms (foam forms filled with concrete), structural insulated panels (foam panels faced with oriented strand board or fiber cement), and light-gauge steel framing and heavy-gauge steel framing.
Some home designers have begun to collaborate with structural engineers who use computers and finite element analysis to design kitted and pre-cut steel-framed homes with known resistance to high wind loads and seismic forces. These newer products provide labor savings, more consistent quality, and possibly accelerated construction processes.
Lesser-used construction methods which have gained (or regained) popularity in recent years include:
* Cannabrick construction * cordwood construction * straw bale construction * geodesic domes.
These methods though not in wide use, frequently appeal to homeowners who may become actively involved in the construction process.
Compare wattle and daub. [edit]
Animal houses
Humans often build "houses" for domestic or wild animals, often resembling smaller versions of human domiciles. Familiar animal houses built by humans include bird houses, hen houses and dog houses ("kennels" in Commonwealth English), while housed agricultural animals more often live in barns. However, human interest in building houses for animals does not stop at the domestic pet. People build bird houses, bat houses, nesting sites for wild ducks, and more. [edit]
Heraldry
The house occurs as an exceedingly rare charge in heraldry. [edit]
Shelter
Forms of shelter simpler than a house include:
* dugouts * yaodongs * tents (see also camp) * campers * huts * roofs without walls, or a structure with roof and partial walls, such as often at a bus stop (see picture there), and a gazebo.
Compare houseboat. [edit]
See also [edit] Articles
* Affordable housing * Building material * Domotics and home automation * Earth-sheltered home * Housing bubble * Housing estate * Housing in Japan * Housewarming party * Hurricane proof house * Lustron * Lodging * Mobile home * Modular home * Prefabrication * Trailer
[edit] Lists
* List of house types * List of house styles * List of types of lodging * List of real estate topics * List of famous American Houses
[edit]
External links
* Photos of rare houses at Singleton Wealdland and Downland Museum, Nr Chichester
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Laboratory glassware refers to a variety of equipment, traditionally made of glass, used for scientific experiments and other work in science, especially in chemistry and biology laboratories. Some of the equipment is now made of plastic for cost, ruggedness, and convenience reasons, but glass is still used for some applications because it is relatively inert, transparent, more heat-resistant than some plastic up to a point, and relatively easy to customize. Borosilicate glasses such as Pyrex are often used because they are less subject to thermal stress. For some applications quartz is used for its ability to withstand high temperatures or its transparency in certain parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some applications, especially some storage bottles, darkened brown glass is used to keep out much of the outside light so that the effect of light on the contents inside is minimized. Special-purpose materials are also used; for example, hydrofluoric acid is stored and used in containers made of wax or polymer because it attacks glass.
Use of lab glassware
There are many different kinds of laboratory glassware items, the majority of which are covered in separate articles of their own; see the list further below. Such glassware is used for a wide variety of functions which include volumetric measuring, holding or storing chemicals or samples, mixing or preparing solutions or other mixtures, containing lab processes like chemical reactions, heating, cooling, distillation, separations including chromatography, synthesis, growing biological organisms, spectrophotometry, and containing a full or partial vacuum. This article covers aspects of laboratory glassware which may be common to several kinds of glassware and may briefly describe a few glassware items not covered in other articles. [edit]
Production of lab glassware
Most laboratory glassware is now mass-produced, but most large laboratories employ a glass blower to construct specialized pieces. This construction forms a specialized field of glassblowing requiring precise control of shape and dimension. In addition to repairing expensive or difficult to replace glassware, scientific glassblowing commonly involves fusing together various glass parts such as glass joints and tubing, stopcocks, transition pieces, and/or other glassware or parts of them to form items of glassware such as vacuum manifolds, special reaction flasks, etc. [edit]
Glass parts for making lab glassware
Various types of joints and stopcocks are available separately and come fused with a length of glass tubing which a glassblower may use to fuse to another piece of glassware. [edit]
Ground glass joints
In a lab experiment or process such as a distillation or a reflux, it is often desirable to assemble the set-up from component glassware items in a leak-tight but non-permanent way. Using old technology, this was often done with rubber (or possibly cork) stoppers inserted between the component glassware items. Holes could be made in such stoppers to insert glass tubes or the ends of some glass items. However, rubber (and of course cork) are not as chemically inert or heat-resistant as glass and degrade with age. For this reason, many glassware items are now made with convenient ground glass joints for connecting the items together. In order to connect the hollow inner spaces of the glassware components, these types of joints are hollow on the inside and open at the ends, except for stoppers.
Crude versions of conically-tapered ground glass joints have been made for quite a while, particularly for stoppers for glass bottles and retorts. These days, ground glass joints can be precisely ground to a reproducible taper or shape. They are made to join two glassware pieces together. One of the glassware items to be joined would have an inner (or male) joint with the ground glass surface facing outward and the other would have an outer (or female) joint of a correspondingly-fitting taper with the ground glass surface facing inward. A rather thin layer of grease particularly made for this application can be applied to the ground glass surfaces to be connected and the inner joint is inserted into the outer joint such that the ground glass surfaces of each are next to each other to make the connection. In addition to making a leak-tight connection, the grease allows to joints to be later separated more easily.
Two general types of ground glass joints are fairly commonly used: joints which are slightly conically-tapered and ball and socket joints(sometimes called spherical joints). Standard Taper symbol Standard Taper symbol
* The conically-tapered ground glass joints typically have a 1:10 taper and are often labeled with a symbol consisting of a capital T overlaid on a capital S which stands for "Standard Taper". This symbol is followed by a number, a slash, and another number. The first number represents the outer diameter in millimeters (mm) at the base of an inner joint or the inner diameter in mm at the tip of an outer joint, in both cases where the applicable diameter is at a maximum in the joint. The second number represents the ground glass length of the joint in mm. These joint sizes apply only to glassware in the US. There are also European ISO standard joints. The stopper joints of chemical bottles, volumetric flasks, and separatory funnels often do not use the precision standard taper ground glass joints. Stopper joints are designated (if at all) only by the maximum diameter number. Fairly recently, Teflon sleeves have been used in between joints to fit them together instead of grease.
Conically-tapered ground glass joints. Inner (male) joint shown on the left and outer (female) joint shown on the right. Ground glass surfaces are shown with gray shading. By putting them together in the direction of the arrows, they can be joined, usually with some grease applied to the ground glass surfaces. Conically-tapered ground glass joints. Inner (male) joint shown on the left and outer (female) joint shown on the right. Ground glass surfaces are shown with gray shading. By putting them together in the direction of the arrows, they can be joined, usually with some grease applied to the ground glass surfaces.
* For ball and socket joints, the inner joint is a ball and the outer joint is a socket, both having holes leading to the interior of their respective tube ends to which they are fused. The ball tip is a hemisphere with a ground glass surface on the outside which fits inside of the socket where the ground glass surface is on the inside. Ball and socket joints are labeled with a size code consisting of a number, a slash, and another number. The first number represents the outer diameter in mm of the ball at its base or the inner diameter in mm at the tip of a socket, in both cases where the diameters are their maximum in the joints. The second number represents the inner diameter of the hole in the middle of the ball or socket, which leads to the inner diameter of the tube fused to the joint.
For either standard taper joints or ball and socket joints, inner and outer joints with the same numbers are made to fit together. When the joint sizes are different, ground glass adapters may be available (or made) to place in between to connect them. Special clips or pinch clamps may be placed around the union of the joints to help keep them together.
Round-bottom flasks often have one or more conically-tapered ground glass joint openings or necks. Conventionally, these joints at the flask necks are outer joints. Other adapters such as distillation heads and vacuum adapters are made with joints that fit in with this convention. If a flask or other container has an extra outer ground glass joint on it which needs to be closed off for an experiment, there are often conically-tapered inner ground glass stoppers available for such a purpose. In some cases, small hook-like protrusions made of glass may be fused onto the rest of the glass item near a joint to allow an end loop of a small spring to be attached so the spring helps keep joints temporarily together. The use of a special very small size of conically-tapered fitting for glass, plastic, or metal parts called a Luer fitting or adapter has become more widespread. Originally, Luer fittings were mostly used to connect the hub of a needle to a syringe. Where the use of ground glass presents a problem such as in the production or distillation of diazomethane, which may explode on contact with rougher surfaces, equipment with smooth glass joints may be used. [edit]
Hose connections
Laboratory glassware such as Buchner flasks and Liebig condensers may have tubular glass tips serving as hose connectors with several ridged hose barbs around the diameter near the tip. This is so that the tips can have the end of a rubber or plastic tube mounted over them to connect the glassware to another system such as a vacuum, water supply, or drain. A special clip may be placed over the end of the flexible tube surrounding the connector tip to prevent the hose from slipping off the connector. [edit]
Stopcocks
Stopcocks are basically valves. They are often parts of laboratory glassware such as burettes, separatory funnels, and columns used for column chromatography. The stationary outer body of the stopcock is typically made of glass since it is fused with the rest of the glass item. The inner plug or rotor, which can be rotated inside the body to control flow through the stopcock, has one (or more) holes going through it which serve as a fluid pathway(s). This inner plug or rotor can be made of plastic or glass. When it is plastic, the stopcock body's inner glass surface contacting it is typically smooth glass. When it is made of glass, the contacting glass surfaces are typically both ground glass surfaces with stopcock grease used between them for lubrication. High vacuum glass manifolds typically use all glass stopcocks. Such stopcocks are often available separately with some lengths of glass tubing at the ports so that glass blowers can use them to make custom glass manifolds for vacuum lines. [edit]
O-ring joints
There are also glass joints available sometimes which use an O-ring between them to form a leak-tight seal. Such joints are more symmetrical in theory with a tubular joint on each side having a widened tip with a concentric circular groove into which an elastomer O-ring can be inserted between the two joints. O-ring joints are sized based on the inner diameter in mm of the joint. Since they can come apart rather easily, a clip or pinch clamp is needed to hold them together. The elastomer of the O-ring is more limited in high temperature resistance than other types of glass joints using high temperature grease. [edit]
Threaded connections
Round slightly spiral threaded connections are possible on tubular ends of glass items. Such glass threading can face the inside or the outside. In use, glass threading is screwed into or onto non-glass threaded material such as plastic. Glass vials typically have outer threaded glass openings onto which caps can be screwed on. Bottles and jars in which chemicals are sold, transported, and stored usually have threaded openings facing the outside and matching non-glass caps or lids. [edit]
Glass-to-metal transition joints
Occasionally, it may be desired to fuse a glassware item to a metal item with a tubular pathway between them. This requires the use of a glass-to-metal transition joint. Most glass used in laboratory glassware does not have the same coefficient of thermal expansion as metal, so fusing the usual type of glass with metal is likely to result in cracking of the glass. These special transition joints have several short sections of special types of glass fused together between the metal and the usual type of glass, each having more gradual changes in thermal expansion coefficients. [edit]
Fritted glass
Fritted glass is finely porous glass through which gas or liquid may pass. It is made by sintering together glass particles into a solid but porous body. This porous glass body can be called a frit. Applications in laboratory glassware include use in fritted glass filter items, scrubbers, or spargers. Other laboratory applications of fritted glass include packing in chromatography columns and resin beds for special chemical synthesis.
In a fritted glass filter, a disc or pane of fritted glass is used to filter out solid particles, precipitate, or residue from a fluid, similar to a piece of filter paper. The fluid can go through the pores in the fritted glass, but the frit will often stop a solid from going through. A fritted filter is often part of a glassware item, so fritted glass funnels and fritted glass crucibles are available. Gas-washing bottle Enlarge Gas-washing bottle
Laboratory scale spargers, scrubbers, and gas-washing bottles are similar glassware items which may use a fritted glass piece fused to the tip of a gas-inlet tube. This fritted glass tip is placed inside the vessel with liquid inside during use such that the fritted tip is submerged in the liquid. A gas stream is rather slowly blown into the vessel through the fritted glass tip so that it breaks up the gas entering the liquid into many tiny bubbles in order to maximize surface area contact of the gas to the liquid. The purpose of sparging is to saturate the enclosed liquid with the gas, often to displace another gaseous component. The purpose of a scrubber or gas-washing bottle is to scrub the gas such that the liquid absorbs one (or more) of the gaseous components to remove it from the gas stream, effectively purifying the gas stream. [edit]
Cleaning laboratory glassware
There are many different methods of cleaning laboratory glassware. Common methods are:
* base bath and acid bath * aqua regia * hydrogen peroxide * chromic acid ("piranha solution")
For all methods, as much contaminants as possible should be removed with solvent or by scrubbing with a brush or Scotchbrite.
Do note that the methods listed below vary from lab to lab. [edit]
Base Bath and Acid Bath
The glassware is soaked in a vat of ethanol saturated with sodium hydroxide overnight. It is rinsed in tap water, soaked in dilute hydrochloric acid for a few hours to remove remaining sodium hydroxide. Thereafter, it is rinsed several times with distilled water before drying in an oven.
This is a good general purpose method which removes most organic compounds (acidic, basic, and neutral). It is also good for removing hydrocarbon or silicone laboratory grease, but does not remove Krytox or similar fluorocarbon based greases. [edit]
Aqua Regia
Aqua regia is prepared with 3 volumes of concentrated hydrochloric acid with 1 volume of concentrated nitric acid. The colorless solution turns a deep yellow shortly, evolving a choking gas (Cl2? NO2?) - use a hood! The glassware (typically frits) to be cleaned is immersed in this solution.
This method is good for removing metals such as palladium black which get stuck in frits and are not easily removed. Aqua regia also oxidizes most organic compounds, but the hydrogen peroxide method may be preferred. This method is suitable for cleaning NMR tubes. [edit]
Hydrogen Peroxide
3 volumes of 30 % hydrogen peroxide is added to 1 volume of concentrated sulfuric acid. Caution! The container gets very hot! Once again, the glassware to be cleaned is immersed in this solution. Ensure that any acetone remaining is rinsed off with water to prevent the formation of explosive peroxides.
This method is good for removing intractable organics in frits and NMR tubes.
Some laboratories do not permit the use of concentrated hydrogen peroxide, due to the explosion risk. [edit]
Chromic Acid
Chromic acid is another strong oxidizer which can remove most organic compounds. Glassware is cleaned by soaking in a solution of sodium dichromate in c. sulfuric acid.
It is not suitable for cleaning NMR tubes due to traces of paramagnetic chromium which will remain on the glass surface.
This method is banned in many laboratories because of the possibility of explosions, as well as the toxicity of chromium. [edit]
List of laboratory glassware
Laboratory glassware includes:
* flasks
* Erlenmeyer flasks
* Buchner flasks - type of thick-walled Erlenmeyer flasks for vacuum
* test tubes and boiling tubes * beakers * Petri dishes * watch glasses * glass rods * microscope slides * graduated cylinders * traditional pipettes * crucibles -often made of porcelain or other materials for high temperature resistance * cuvettes -often special glass used for optical transparency * burettes * droppers and Pasteur pipettes * jars, glass bottles, and similar glass containers
* Winchester (bottle)
* vials (including special vials for scintillation counting) * ampoules * funnels including Buchner funnels, Thistle tubes, and fritted glass filters * separatory funnels * Soxhlet extractors * glass dessicators * gas syringes * other syringes * laboratory glass condensers * other distillation glassware including old-fashioned alembics and retorts * conical measures * bell jars * bubblers - vessels which can hold some liquid through which a gas can bubble through, often used for isolating an enclosed gas space from the atmosphere but keeping atmospheric pressure by letting excess gas bubble through the liquid. * gas-washing bottles, spargers, or scrubbers - for sparging (or scrubbing) gas * glass columns for fractional distillation and column chromatography and sometimes gas chromatography * glass joint adapters * pycnometer * vacuum line glassware including manifold with stopcocks and cold traps * drying tubes, acid trap tubes, scrubbing trap tubes and containers * thermometers and hydrometers are often largely made of glass
* glass parts for lab glassware
* stopcocks (essentially valves) * ground glass joints, including conically tapered and ball and socket * glass tubing in general and specifically capillary tubing * glass stoppers * glass-to-metal transition pieces * fritted glass pieces
[edit]
External links
* Using Glassware (.PDF) * The Glassware Gallery: Glassware Joints
* a name that is entered into a computer (e.g. as part of a Web site or other URL, or an e-mail address) and then looked up in the global Domain Name System which informs the computer of the IP address(es) with that name. * the product that registrars provide to their customers. * a name looked up in the DNS for other purposes.
They are sometimes colloquially (and incorrectly) referred to by marketers as "Web addresses".
* The authoritative definition is that given in the RFCs that define the DNS.
Domain names are hostnames that provide more easily memorable names to stand in for numeric IP addresses. They allow for any service to move to a different location in the topology of the Internet (or another internet), which would then have a different IP address.
Each string of letters, digits and hyphens between the dots is called a label in the parlance of the domain name system (DNS). Valid labels are subject to certain rules, which have relaxed over the course of time. Originally labels must start with a letter, and end with a letter or digit; any intervening characters may be letters, digits, or hyphens. Labels must be between 1 and 63 characters long (inclusive). Letters are ASCII A–Z and a–z; domain names are compared case-insensitively. Later it became permissible for labels to commence with a digit (but not for domain names to be entirely numeric), and for labels to contain internal underscores, but support for such domain names is uneven. These are the rules imposed by the way names are looked up ("resolved") by DNS. Some top level domains (see below) impose more rules, such as a longer minimum length, on some labels. Fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) are sometimes written with a final dot.
Translating numeric addresses to alphabetical ones, domain names allow Internet users to localize and visit Web sites. Additionally since more than one IP address can be assigned to a domain name, and more than one domain name assigned to an IP address, one server can have multiple roles, and one role can be spread among multiple servers. One IP address can even be assigned to several servers, such as with anycast and hijacked IP space.
Examples
The following examples illustrates the difference between a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a domain name:
As a general rule, the IP address and the server name are interchangeable. For most Internet services, the server will not have any way to know which was used. However, the explosion of interest in the Web means that there are far more Web sites than servers. To accommodate this, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) specifies that the client tells the server which name is being used. This way, one server with one IP address can provide different sites for different domain names. This feature goes under the name virtual hosting and is commonly used by Web hosts.
For example, the server at 192.0.34.166 handles all of the following sites:
example.com example.net example.org
[edit]
Top-level domains
Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of generic names (three or more characters), or a two characters territory code based on ISO-3166 (there are few exceptions and new codes are integrated case by case).
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has overall responsibility for managing the DNS. It controls the root domain, delegating control over each top-level domain to a domain name registry. For ccTLDs, the domain registry is typically controlled by the government of that country. ICANN has a consultation role in these domain registries but is in no position to regulate the terms and conditions of how a domain name is allocated or who allocates it in each of these country level domain registries. On the other hand, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are governed directly under ICANN which means all terms and conditions are defined by ICANN with the cooperation of the gTLD registries.
Domain names which are theoretically leased can be considered in the same way as real estate, due to a significant impact on online brand building, advertising, search engine optimization, etc.
A few companies have offered low-cost, below-cost or even free domain registrations, with a variety of models adopted to recoup the costs to the provider. These usually require that domains are hosted on their site in a framework or portal, with advertising wrapped around the user's content, revenue from which allows the provider to recoup the costs. When the DNS was new, domain registrations were free. A domain owner can generally give away or sell infinite subdomains of their domain, e.g. the owner of example.edu could provide domains that are subdomains, such as foo.example.edu and foo.bar.example.edu. [edit]
Uses and abuses
As domain names became attractive to marketers, rather than just the technical audience for which they were originally intended, they began to be used in manners that in many cases did not fit in their intended structure. As originally planned, the structure of domain names followed a strict hierarchy in which the top level domain indicated the type of organization (commercial, governmental, etc.), and addresses would be nested down to third, fourth, or further levels to express complex structures, where, for instance, branches, departments, and subsidiaries of a parent organization would have addresses which were subdomains of the parent domain. Also, hostnames were intended to correspond to actual physical machines on the network, generally with only one name per machine. However, once the World Wide Web became popular, site operators frequently wished to have memorable addresses, regardless of whether they fit properly in the structure; thus, since the .com domain was the most popular and memorable, even noncommercial sites would often get addresses under it, and sites of all sorts wished to have second-level domain registrations even if they were parts of a larger entity where a logical subdomain would have made sense (e.g., abcnews.com instead of news.abc.com). A Web site found at http://www.example.org will often be advertised without the "http://", and in most cases can be reached by just entering "example.org" into a Web browser. In the case of a .com, the Web site can sometimes be reached by just entering "example" (depending on browser versions and configuration settings, which vary in how they interpret incomplete addresses).
The popularity of domain names also led to uses which were regarded as abusive by established companies with trademark rights; this was known as cybersquatting, in which somebody took a name that resembled a trademark in order to profit from traffic to that address. To combat this, various laws and policies were enacted to allow abusive registrations to be forcibly transferred, but these were sometimes themselves abused by overzealous companies committing reverse domain hijacking against domain users who had legitimate grounds to hold their names, such as their being generic words as well as trademarks in a particular context, or their use in the context of fan or protest sites with free speech rights of their own. [edit]
Generic domain names — problems arising out of unregulated name selection
Within a particular top-level domain, parties are generally free to select an unallocated domain name as their own on a first come, first served basis. For generic or commonly used names, this may sometimes lead to the use of a domain name which is inaccurate or misleading. This problem can be seen with regard to the ownership or control of domain names for a generic product or service.
By way of illustration, there has been tremendous growth in the number and size of literary festivals around the world in recent years. In this context, currently a generic domain name such as literary.org is available to the first literary festival organisation which is able to obtain registration, even if the festival in question is very young or obscure. Some critics would argue that there is greater amenity in reserving such domain names for the use of, for example, a regional or umbrella grouping of festivals. Related issues may also arise in relation to non-commercial domain names. [edit]
Unconventional domain names
Due to the rarity of one-word dot-com domain names, many unconventional domain names, domain hacks, have been gaining popularity. They make use of the top-level domain as an integral part of the Web site's title. Two of the most visited domain hack Web sites are del.icio.us and blo.gs, which spell out "delicious" and "blogs", respectively.
Some unconventional domain names are also used to create unconventional email addresses. Non-working examples that spell 'James' are j@m.es and j@mes.com, which use the domain names m.es (of Spain's .es) and mes.com. [edit]
Commercial resale of domain names
An economic effect of the widespread usage of domain names has been the resale market for generic domain names that has sprung up in the last decade. Certain domains, especially those related to business, gambling, pornography, and other commercially lucrative fields have become very much in demand to corporations and entrepreneurs due to their intrinsic value in attracting clients. In fact, the most expensive Internet domain name to date, according to Guinness World Records, is business.com which was resold in 1999 for $7.5 million. Another high value domain name, sex.com, was stolen from its rightful owner by means of a forged transfer instruction via fax. During the height of the dot-com era, the domain was earning millions of dollars per month in advertising revenue from the large influx of visitors that arrived daily. Two long-running U.S. lawsuits resulted, one against the thief and one against the domain registrar VeriSign[1]. In one of the cases, Kremen v. Network Solutions, the court found in favor of the plaintiff, leading to an unprecendented ruling that classified domain names as property, granting them the same legal protections. In 1999, Microsoft traded the valuable name Bob.com for the name Windows2000.com which was the name of their new operating system.[2]
One of the reasons for the value of domain names is that even without advertising or marketing, they attract clients seeking services and products who simply type in the generic name. Furthermore, generic domain names such as Rent.com or Books.com are extremely easy for potential customers to remember, increasing the probability that they become repeat customers or regular clients.
Although the current domain market is nowhere as strong as it was during the dot-com heyday, it remains strong and is currently experiencing solid growth again. Annually tens of millions of dollars change hands due to the resale of domains. Large numbers of registered domain names lapse and are deleted each year. On average 25,000 domain names drop (are deleted) every day. [edit]
Caveat Emptor
Care should always be exercised when registering a domain name: DNS is case-insensitive and the modern trend of words run together with intercapping can be misinterpreted when converted to lowercase. Who Represents, a database of artists and agents, chose whorepresents.com; a therapists' network thought therapistfinder.com looked good; Experts Exchange, the programmers' site, for a long time had expertsexchange.com.
In such situations, the proper wording can be clarified by use of hyphens. For instance, expertsexchange.com changed its name to experts-exchange.com.
DNS is case-insensitive, so such Web sites can also be clarified by advertising them with proper capitalization. For instance, TherapistFinder.com. [edit]
See also
* Uniform Resource Locator * Web page * Web site * World Wide Web * domaining * cname * domain hack * Internationalized domain names
[edit]
External links
* STD 13/RFC 1034, Domain Names—Concepts and Facilities, an Internet Protocol Standard. * ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. * UDRP, Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. * Internic.net, public information regarding Internet domain name registration services.
Categories: Articles to be merged | Domain Name System | Internet | Information technology | Identifiers
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Korea (한국, Hanguk, or 조선, Choseon) is a civilization and geographical area situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, bordering China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast, with Japan situated to the southeast across the Korea Strait. It is often called the "Land of the Morning Calm".
One of the world's oldest civilizations, Korea has a recorded history dating back approximately 3,000 years. After unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea in 676 A.D, it was ruled by a single government and maintained political and cultural independence. Korea enjoyed a long period of relative peace, only punctuated by the Mongol invasions in the 13th century.
In 1905, Korea was occupied by Japan and remained a Japanese colony until the Empire of Japan's defeat in World War II. Following the end of the war, American and Soviet troops occupied Korea, beginning the division of the country into two political entities, South Korea and North Korea.
South Korea is a capitalist liberal democracy, and often referred to simply as "Korea". North Korea is a totalitarian Communist state that is sometimes described as Stalinist and isolationist.
Korea is populated by a relatively homogeneous ethnic group, the Koreans, who speak a distinct language called Korean and use the unique script hangul.
Names of Korea
The common name "Korea" derives from the Goryeo period of Korean history, which in turn referred to the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo. It is now commonly used in English contexts by both North Korea (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea).
In the Korean language, Korea as a whole is referred to as Hanguk (Korean hangul: 한국; hanja: 韓國; revised: Hanguk; McCune-Reischauer: Han'guk) by South Korea and Chosŏn (Korean chosŏn'gŭl: 조선; hanja: 朝鮮; McCune-Reischauer: Chosǒn; revised: Joseon) by North Korea. See also Korean romanization
History Buryeongsa Enlarge Buryeongsa
* Main article: History of Korea
History of Korea
Gojoseon, Jin Proto-Three Kingdoms: Buyeo, Okjeo, Dongye Samhan Gaya Three Kingdoms: Goguryeo Baekje Silla, Unified Silla Unified Silla, Balhae Later Three Kingdoms Goryeo Khitan wars Mongol invasions Joseon Seven Year War Japanese rule Provisional Gov't Divided Korea Korean War North, South Korea
Timeline Military history List of Monarchs KOREA PORTAL
There is archaeological evidence that people were living on the Korean Peninsula around 700,000 years ago, during the Lower Paleolithic.↑ The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 7000 BC, and the Neolithic period begins around 6000 BC. The Jeulmun Pottery Period spans from 3500 BC to 2000 BC.
Gojoseon
Korea was founded in 2333 BC, according to the Dangun legend. This kingdom, known as Joseon, is usually called Gojoseon (meaning Old Joseon) distinguishing it from the modern Joseon Dynasty. Gojoseon cultural artifacts and walled cities are found throughout Korea and southern Manchuria. Archeological and contemporary written records indicate it likely developed from a federation of walled cities into a centralized state sometime between the 7th and 4th centuries BC, when it declared itself a kingdom and warred with northern Zhou dynasty kingdoms. In 108 BC, the Chinese Han dynasty defeated Gojoseon and installed four commanderies in northern Korea (including one near present-day Pyongyang) and Manchuria primarily as commercial outposts. Three of those commanderies fell to local resistance by 75 BC.
A state called Jin existed in southern Korea prior to Gojoseon's fall. Although very little is known about its political organization, bronze artifacts from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC have been uncovered in the region. Samhan, three loose confederacies that claimed descent from Jin, followed. In the north, the expanding Goguryeo united Buyeo, Okjeo, and Dongye in the former Gojoseon territory, and destroyed the last Chinese commandery in 313 AD. Seokguram grotto, Unified Silla period Enlarge Seokguram grotto, Unified Silla period
The Three Kingdoms
The three kingdoms Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje (the latter two arising from the Samhan) competed with each other as minor statelets fell or merged with these regional powers. Sophisticated state organizations developed under Confucian and Buddhist paradigms. Goguryeo was the most dominant power, but was at constant war with the Chinese Sui and Tang dynasties. Emperor Yang of Sui, with one million troops, invaded Goguryeo, but in 612 AD, General Eulji Mundeok pushed the Chinese forces into retreat. The unsuccessful war against Goguryeo contributed to the collapse of the Sui Dynasty afterwards.
Silla was the least culturally advanced of the Three Kingdoms, but had established a strong military centered around noble warriors called the Hwarang. Silla first annexed Gaya, then conquered Baekje and later Goguryeo with Tang assistance.
Balhae and Unified Silla
Silla eventually repulsed Tang from most of Goguryeo territory. As a result, by the 8th century, Silla occupied most of the Korean peninsula and has been thus called Unified Silla. In the late 9th century, Unified Silla gave way to the brief Later Three Kingdoms period.
After the fall of Goguryeo, General Dae Joyeong led a group of his people to the Jilin area in Manchuria. The general founded the state of Balhae (Bohai in Chinese) as the successor to Goguryeo and regained control of lost northern territory. Eventually, Balhae's territory would extend from the Sungari and Amur Rivers in northern Manchuria down to the northern provinces of Korea. In the 10th century, Balhae was conquered by the Khitans. Traditional Korean wedding ceremony Enlarge Traditional Korean wedding ceremony
Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392)
The kingdom of Goryeo replaced Silla. Many members of the Balhae ruling class joined the newly founded Goryeo, which established its boundaries to an area slightly larger than the Korean peninsula (See Gando region which is now occupied by the Chinese). During this period, laws were codified, a civil service system was introduced, and Buddhism flourished in Korea.
In the 10th and 11th centuries, Korea continued to be plagued by attacks from Jurchen and Khitan tribes on the northern borders. Conflict increased between civil and military officials as the latter were degraded and poorly paid. This led to an uprising by military and forced some military officials to migrate from the country.
In 1238, the Mongols invaded. After nearly thirty years of resistance, Korea was in ruins and the two kingdoms signed a treaty that favored the Mongols. Under Mongol direction, Goryeo participated in two failed attempts at invading Japan. In the 1340s, the Mongol Empire declined rapidly due to internal strife. Korea was at last able to forge political reform without Mongol interference. At this time, General Yi Seong-gye distinguished himself by repelling Japanese pirates, known as Wokou, who raided and stole from Korean and Chinese merchant ships as well as causing havoc to Korea's coasts. A Korean pagoda Enlarge A Korean pagoda
Joseon Dynasty (1392-1905)
In 1392, Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty, moving the capital to Hanseong (now Seoul). During the first 200 years of the new dynasty, the northern territory was added, the area of cultivated land was doubled, science and technique state jumped up, new letters fitted for Korean language (hunminjeongeum) was established, many books were published for elementary education, and constitution and law were completed.
During the late 1590s, Japan invaded Korea in two failed attempts, known together as the Seven-Year War, causing great destruction. The invaders burnt down anything they could not take back to Japan and this is when major Korean cultural artifacts went missing. With the assistance of Ming Chinese troops and the ironclad warships of Admiral Yi Sunsin, Joseon forces were able to repel the Japanese.
After the invasion by Japan, however, in the 1620s and 1630s the Joseon Dynasty was not able to defend Korea from invasion by Manchu troops. It agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the new Qing Dynasty as rulers of China. Korea then enjoyed more than two centuries of peace. In fact, the country isolated itself from the outside world so much that it was often called the "Hermit Kingdom".
The Joseon Dynasty is believed to be the longest-lived actively ruling dynasty in East Asia.
Japanese occupation
* Main article: Korea under Japanese rule
Beginning in the 1870s, Japan began to force Korea to move out of China's sphere of influence into its own. In 1895, Empress Min of Korea was murdered by the Japanese under Miura Goro's directive (Kim et al. 1976). After the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, Japan gained dominance over Korea. In 1910, Japan forced Korea to sign the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.
Japanese occupation was brutal and led many Koreans to resist, eventually leading to the independence movement in 1919. This movement was brutally suppressed and thousands were killed by occupation forces.
During World War II, many Koreans were forced to support the Japanese war effort. Tens of thousands men were conscripted into Japan's military, while up to 200,000 women were used as forced laborers and sex slaves, often called "comfort women". About 60,000 Koreans working under harsh conditions in Japanese mines are known to have died between 1939 and 1945.
Anti-Japanese sentiment still runs fairly strong in Korea, especially in older generations, as a result of what Koreans see as continuing unrepentant actions.
Division
* Main article: Division of Korea
With the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Japanese colonial government was immediately replaced with American and Soviet presence. The Soviet Union supported the North Korean government, which was also associated with Communist China; the United States was closely allied to South Korea, helping Koreans with experience under the Japanese occupation to gain power and suppress Communists. Koreans faced bitter divisions: former collaborators were widely mistrusted and hated by Koreans, yet they possessed the most experience and remained in power. Communism began to take hold in Korea, and Koreans who had fought along with Communist China gained power and fame.
Korean War and hopes for reunification
* Main articles: Korean War, Korean reunification * See also: History of North Korea, History of South Korea
According to some political scientists, the Korean War resulted directly from the U.S. policy of Containment. The United States supported Korean nationalists who opposed Communism, funded and staffed the South Korean army, and influenced the United Nations to support the South Korean military (Cumings 1997). In 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations developed plans for a trusteeship administration, the United States effectively began administering the peninsula south of the 38th parallel and the Soviet Union administering north. The politics of the Cold War resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate governments.
However, it is certain that North Korea invaded South Korea long after the US army left South Korea except for some advisers and when the South Korean government did not take the possibility of N. Korea's invasion seriously. The day when the war broke out was Sunday, and more than two thirds of the military forces were off duty in South Korea, and the North Korean army's campaign began at 4 AM.
The Korean War began in June 1950 and lasted until 1953. The North Korean army invaded the South without any notice or warning, prompting U.S. and then Chinese intervention. Millions of Koreans died, and the United States waged a bombing campaign over North Korea that effectively destroyed most cities: "There were simply 'no more cities in North Korea'" (Cumings 1997: 298). After three devastating years of fighting, the war ended in a ceasefire agreement at approximately the same boundary, though South Korea gained slightly more territory than it lost. This boundary was set as the demilitarized zone which constitutes the border between the two countries. The two countries never signed a peace treaty. Both Korean states proclaim eventual reunification as a goal, and a united Korea is very much a part of Korean ethno-cultural identity.
Since the 1990s, with progressively liberal South Korean administrations, as well as the death of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, the two sides have taken halting, symbolic steps towards cooperation, in international sporting events, reunification of separated family members, economic matters, and tourism.
Recently, in effort to promote reconciliation, the two Koreas have adopted a single Unification Flag. While this flag may represent Korea at international sporting events, it is not the official flag of either North Korea or South Korea. Both states still officially retain the two separate national flags that they have used since their foundings in 1948.
Geography
* Main article: Korean peninsula * See also: Geography of North Korea, Geography of South Korea, Provinces of Korea
Korea is located on the Korean Peninsula in North-East Asia. It is bound by two countries and three seas. To the northwest, the Yalu River separates Korea from China and to the north, the Tumen River separates Korea from Russia. The Yellow Sea is to the west, the South China Sea is to the south, and the Sea of Japan (East Sea) is to the east of Korea. Notable islands include Jeju-do, Ulleung-do, and Dok-do.
The southern part and western part of the Korean mainland have well developed plains, while the eastern and northern parts are mountainous. The highest mountain in Korea is Mt. Baekdu (2744m, Changbaishan in chinese). The border with China runs through the mountain. The southern extension of Mt. Baekdu is a highland called Gaema Gowon. This highland was mainly raised during the Cenozoic orogeny and partly covered by volcanic matter. To the south of Gaema Gowon, successive high mountains are located along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. This series of mountains is named Baekdudaegan. Some significant mountains include Sobaeksan (2,184 m), Baeksan (1,724 m), Geumgangsan (1,638 m), Seoraksan (1,708 m), Taebaeksan (1,567 m) and Jirisan (1,915 m). There are several lower, secondary mountain series whose direction is almost perpendicular to that of Baekdudaegan. They are developed along the tectonic line of Mesozoic orogeny and their directions are NW, NWW.
As opposed to the old mountains on the mainland, some important islands in Korea were formed by volcanic activity in the recent Cenozoic. Jeju-do, situated off the south coastline of the Korean Peninsula, is a large volcanic island whose main mountain is Mt. Halla (1950 m). Ulleung-do and the Dok-do are volcanic islands in the Sea of Japan, whose composition is more feslic than Jeju. The volcanic islands tend to be younger as one moves westward.
Because the mountainous regions are biased toward the eastern part of the peninsula, the main rivers tend to flow to westwards. Two exceptions are the southward-flowing Nakdong River and the Seomjin River. Important rivers running westward include the Yalu, Cheongcheon River, Daedong River, Han River, Geum River, and Yeongsan River. These rivers have vast flood plains and they provide an ideal environment for rice cultivation.
The southern and southwestern coastline of the Korean Peninsula is a well-developed Lias coastline. It is known as Dadohae in Korean. Its complicated coastline provides mild seas, and the resulting calm environment allows for safe navigation, fishing, and seaweed farming. In addition to the complex coastline, the western coast of the Korean peninsula has an extremely high tidal amplitude (at Incheon, around the middle of the western coast, it is as high as 9 m). Vast tidal flats are developing on the south and west coastline of the Korean Peninsula.
Demographics
* Main article: Korean people * See also: Demographics of South Korea, Demographics of North Korea
The Korean Peninsula is populated almost exclusively by ethnic Koreans, although a significant minority of ethnic Chinese (about 20,000 [1]) exists in South Korea, and small communities of ethnic Chinese and Japanese are said to exist in North Korea ([2]). Foreign workforce in South Korea is estimated at over half a million. The combined population (including North and South Korea) of the Korean Peninsula is about 73,000,000 people.
Language
* Main articles: Korean language, Hangul * See also: Korean numerals, Korean name
Culture
* Main article: Culture of Korea * See also: Korean architecture, Korean art, Korean pottery
Korean buddhist architecture Enlarge Korean buddhist architecture
In ancient Chinese texts, Korea is referred to as "Rivers and Mountains Embroidered on Silk" (錦繡江山) and "Eastern Nation of Decorum" (東方禮儀之國). During the 7th and 8th centuries]], land and sea trading networks connected Korea to Arabia. As early as 845, Arab traders mentioned Korea saying, "Over the sea beyond China lies a mountainous country called 'Silla', rich in gold. Muslims who arrive there by accident are so attracted by its character that they stay there forever and do not want to leave."
According to Japanese records, Chinese knowledge and technology, including Chinese characters and the major classics, such as the Confucian Analects, were introduced to Japan by Korean scholars. In 554, the Korean kingdom of Baekje sent doctors, herb and calendar specialists, and diviners to Japan, and in 602, Kwalluk, a Baekje monk, was dispatched to Japan to deliver books on astronomy calendar-making, geography, and divination
Festivities showcase vibrant colors, which are attributed to Mongolian influences; bright red, yellow, and green often mark traditional Korean motifs [3]. Mongolian influence is also seen in the traditional dress called hanbok.
Religion and education Amitabha and Eight Great Bodhisattvas, Goryeo scroll from the 1300s Enlarge Amitabha and Eight Great Bodhisattvas, Goryeo scroll from the 1300s
* Main articles: Korean Confucianism, Korean Buddhism, Christianity in Korea
Confucian tradition has dominated Korean thought, along with contributions by Buddhism, Taoism, and Korean Shamanism. Since the middle of the 20th century, however, Christianity has competed with Buddhism to be the dominant religious force in South Korea, while religion has been suppressed in North Korea.
According to 2003 statistics compiled by the South Korean government, about 46 % of citizens profess to follow no particular religion. Christians account for 27.3% of the population and Buddhists 25.3%.
Koreans valued scholarship and rewarded education and study of Chinese classic texts; Yangban boys were highly educated in Hanja. Until modern times, Koreans placed a lot of emphasis on hereditary status. Until the 10th century, a man's "bone rank" (determined by the rank of his father and his mother) defined his social status and what government post he would be appointed to. From the 10th century through to the end of the 19th century, the social status of a man's father and mother determined which civil service examination, if any, he could take but did not guarantee him a post.
South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access to every primary, junior, and high school. [4]
Cuisine
* Main article: Korean cuisine * See also: Korean tea ceremony, Korean royal court cuisine
Korean cuisine is probably best known for kimchi, which uses a distinctive fermentation process of preserving vegetables. Chili peppers are also commonly used, which has given it a reputation for being spicy. Bulgogi (roasted marinated beef or pork), galbi (rib), and samgyeopsal (pork fatback) are popular meat entrees. Koreans meals are accompanied by a soup or stew, often made with dwenjang bean paste.
Sports
* See also: Korean martial arts
South Korea hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, giving the country an economic boost through increased tourism and greater world recognition. At the time, North Korea boycotted the event on the grounds that it was not made co-host. Unification Flag Enlarge Unification Flag
A unified Korean team competed under the Unification Flag in 1991 in both the 41st World Table Tennis Championship in Chiba, Japan and in the 6th World Youth Soccer Championship in Lisbon, Portugal. A unified Korean team marched under the Unification Flag in the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin but competed separately in sporting events. As of the 2006 Asian Games, South Korean officials have announced that the countries shall compete in the same unified sporting teams as well.
In the summer of 2002, the 2002 FIFA World Cup was hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan with 10 stadiums in each country. The two Koreas competed separately, however. There were suggestions that North Korea should host at least one or two matches, but nothing of the sort came to pass. While South Korea qualified automatically as co-hosts and even made it to the semi-finals (placing 4th in the end, losing to Turkey), North Korea failed to progress from the Asian Football Confederation regional qualifiers and missed the event.
Science and technology Cheomseongdae, oldest-known astronomical observatory in East Asia that still exist Enlarge Cheomseongdae, oldest-known astronomical observatory in East Asia that still exist
One of the best known artifacts of Korea's history of science and technology is Cheomseongdae, a 9-meter high observatory built in 633. It served as one of the world's oldest astronomical observatories.
The world's earliest known printed document is a Buddhist scripture printed in Korea in 750-751 CE. The world's first metal movable type was invented in Korea in 1232, before Johann Gutenberg developed metal letterset type (Cumings 1997: 65). Though Koreans used wooden printing blocks by 751, this was a significant development in printing allowing continued use of the same type. Hangul, one of the world's most scientifically phonetic written scripts, was created by King Sejong in 1443. One of the world's first automated water clocks was invented in 1434 by Chang Yong-sil, who later developed an even more complicated water-clock with additional astronomical devices, water gauge, and the rain gauge.
During the Joseon period, Korean silk was highly regarded by China and Korean pottery made with blue-green celadon was highly valued in Japan. Chinese thought Korean porcelains were of high quality, but this interest lived on only until the Koryo Dynasty. In this period, Korea advanced traditional arts and crafts, such as white celadon glazes, fine silk, and paper. Also, during this time, the world's first ironclad warships, the Geobukseon (or "Turtle ship") were invented.
However, stagnation set in and Korea fell behind the West, especially in arms technology.
Today, South Korea leads the world in per-capita high-speed Internet connections. South Korea is also a major producer of high technology products such as mobile phones and plasma screens. North Korea continues to use mostly outdated technology from the 1960s and 1970s. South Korea is also just second in leading the world in adopting new consumer technologies, right behind Taiwan [http://www.parksassociates.co...
References
* Cumings, Bruce. Korea's Place in the Sun, Norton, 1997. ISBN 0-393-31681-5 * Kim, et al. Women of Korea: A History from Ancient Times to 1945, Ewha Womans University Press, 1976. ISBN 89-7300-1167.
Further readings
* Chun, Tuk Chu. "Korea in the Pacific Community." Social Education 52 (March 1988), 182. EJ 368 177. * Cumings, Bruce. The Two Koreas. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1984. * Focus On Asian Studies. Special Issue: "Korea: A Teacher's Guide." No. 1, Fall 1986. * Lee Ki-baik. A New History Of Korea. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984. * Lee Sang-sup. "The Arts and Literature of Korea." The Social Studies 79 (July-August 1988): 153-60. EJ 376 894.
See also
Portal:Korea Korea Portal Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Korea
* Founding myth of Korea * Famous Korean people * East Asian age reckoning * Korean name * List of Korea-related topics * National treasures of Korea * Provinces of Korea * Rulers of Korea * Traditional Korean thought * Korean nationalism * List of divided nations
External links
* Korean Food Picture Glossary * Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea, and the great Loo-Choo island; with an appendix, containing charts, and various hydrographical and scientific notices. By Captain Basil Hall with a vocabulary of the Loo-Choo languages, by H. J. Clifford. Publisher: London, J. Murray, 1818. (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * CIA World Factbook Entry for South Korea * CIA World Factbook Entry for North Korea * Country study South Korea * Country study North Korea * Korea News * Korea in Manchuria * Korean communities in the US * Pre-20th-Century Korea * Paekche of Korea and the origin of Yamato Japan * Shinmiyangyo, The 1871 U.S. Korea Campaign * Teaching about the two Koreas * Learn Korean * Korean Music * Wikia has a wiki about: Korea * Incheon International Airport
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Flag of Norway Coat of arms of Norway Flag Coat of arms Motto: Royal Motto: Alt for Norge (All for Norway) 1814 Eidsvoll oath: Enig og tro til Dovre faller (United and Loyal until the Dovre Mountains fall) Anthem: Ja, vi elsker dette landet Location of Norway Capital Oslo 59°56′ N 10°41′ E Largest city Oslo Official language(s) Norwegian¹ Government King Prime Minister Constitutional monarchy Harald V Jens Stoltenberg Constitution Independence - Declared - Recognised 17 May 1814 From union with Sweden 7 June 1905 26 October 1905 Area - Total
- Water (%) 324,220 km² (68th ²) 125,149 sq mi 6.0% Population - February 2006 est. - 2001 census - Density 4,641,500 (114th) 4,520,947 14/km² (166th ²) 37/sq mi GDP (PPP) - Total - Per capita 2005 estimate $194.7 billion (42nd) $42,400 (4th) HDI (2003) 0.963 (1st) – high Currency Norwegian krone (NOK) Time zone - Summer (DST) CET (UTC+1) CEST (UTC+2) Internet TLD .no ³ Calling code +47 1Official national language is Norwegian bokmål and nynorsk. Additionally Sami is co-official language of six municipalities and Finnish of one municipality. 2 Excluding Svalbard and Jan Mayen 3 Two more TLDs assigned, but not used: .sj for Svalbard and Jan Mayen; .bv for Bouvet Island
Norway, or officially the Kingdom of Norway (Norwegian: Kongeriket Norge or Kongeriket Noreg) is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia. Norway's extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean is home to its famous fjords. The country has a very elongated shape. The Kingdom of Norway also includes the Arctic island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen. The Norwegian sovereignty on Svalbard is based on the Svalbard Treaty, but this does not apply to Jan Mayen. Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and a claim for Peter I Island in the South Pacific Ocean are also external dependencies, but these are not part of the Kingdom. Additionally, Norway has a claim on Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica.
History
Main article: History of Norway
In the 9th century Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to tradition, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one and in 872 with the battle of Hafrsfjord, he became the first king of a united Norway.
The Viking age (8th to 11th centuries) was one of national unification and expansion. The Norwegians settled on Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of the British Islands and attempted to settle at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada (it is the Vinland of The Saga of Eric the Red). Norwegians founded the modern day Irish cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford and captured the Anglo-Saxon city of Eoforwic renaming it Jorvik, today known as York. The Norwegian Rollo invaded and was ceded Normandy by the West Frankish king Charles the Simple in 911. Rollo's great-great-great-grandso n William the Conqueror successfully invaded and conquered England in 1066.
The Norwegian royal line died out in 1387, coinciding with a recession following the Black Plague in 1349, which wiped out nearly half the population, Royal politics at the time resulted in several personal unions between the Nordic countries, eventually bringing the thrones of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden under the control of Queen Margrethe. The country entered into the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden, and after 1450 remained in a union with Denmark alone that would last until 1814. As Norway was the weaker part of a union that kept all of its royal, intellectual, and administrative power in Copenhagen, Denmark, this period was in light of the national romanticism in the 19th century sometimes referred to as the "400-Year Night". Other factors also contributed to Norway's decline in this period. With the introduction of Protestantism in 1537, Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of St. Olav at the Nidaros shrine, and with them, much of the contact with the cultural and economic life of the rest of Europe. Additionally, Norway saw its land area decrease in the 17th century with the loss of the provinces Båhuslen, Jemtland, and Herjedalen to Sweden, as a result of the wars between Denmark-Norway and Sweden.
After Denmark-Norway was attacked by England, it entered into an alliance with Napoleon, and in 1814 found itself on the losing side in the Napoleonic Wars and in dire economic conditions. The Dano-Norwegian Oldenburg king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden. Norway took this opportunity to declare her independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models and elected the Danish crown prince Christian Fredrik as king on 17 May 1814. Nevertheless, Norway was militarily forced into a personal union with Sweden, but kept its liberal constitution and independent institutions, except for the foreign service.
This period also saw the rise of the Norwegian romantic nationalism movement in art and culture, as the Norwegians sought to define and express a distinct national character. The movement covered all branches of culture, including literature (Henrik Wergeland, Maurits Christopher Hansen, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe), painting (Hans Gude, Adolph Tiedemand), music (Edvard Grieg), and even language policy, where attempts to define a native written language for Norway led to today's two official written forms for Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk.
Norway's growing dissatisfaction with the union with Sweden during the late 19th century, combined with National Romanticism and the growing national culture coming from it, led to the dissolution of the union on 7 June 1905. The Norwegian government offered the throne of Norway to the Danish Prince Carl. After a referendum confirming the monarchy, the Parliament unanimously elected him king. He took the name of Haakon VII, after the medieval kings of independent Norway. In 1913, Norwegian women gained suffrage.
Norway was a neutral country during World War I. Norway also attempted to claim neutrality during World War II, but was invaded by German forces on the 9th of April 1940 (Operation Weserübung). The Allies also had plans to invade Norway, in order to take advantage of her strategically important Atlantic coast, but were thwarted by the German operation. Norway put up a stiff fight against the German occupation and armed resistance in Norway went on for two months. The battle of Vinjesvingen eventually became the last stronghold of Norwegian resistance in southern Norway in May, while the armed forces in the north surrendered in early June. King Haakon and the Norwegian government continued the fight from exile in Rotherhithe, London. On the day of the invasion, the collaborative leader of the small National-Socialist party Nasjonal Samling — Vidkun Quisling — tried to seize power, but was forced by the German occupiers to step aside. Real power was wielded by the leader of the German occupation authority, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. Quisling, as minister president, later formed a government under German control. During the five years of Nazi occupation, Norwegians built a strong resistance movement which fought the German occupation forces with both armed resistance and civil disobedience. Notable was also the effort of the Norwegian Merchant Navy. At the time of the invasion Norway had the third largest, fastest and the most effective Navy in the world. It was lead by the norwegian shipping company Nortraship under the allied force thorugout the war and took part in every war operation from the evacuation of Dunkirk until the Normandy landings.
In 1944, the Germans evacuated the provinces of Finnmark and northern Troms, using a scorched earth tactic to create a vast area of No-man's land in response to the Red Army attacking their positions in eastern Finnmark. The Soviets attacked into eastern Finnmark to create a buffer zone after pushing the German forces out of the arctic Kola peninsula. The Russians peacefully returned the area to Norwegian control after the war. The German forces in Norway surrendered on 8 May 1945.
The occupation during World War II disturbed the Norwegians' confidence in neutrality, and they turned instead to collective security. Norway was one of the signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 and was a founding member of the United Nations, providing its first secretary general – Trygve Lie. Norway has twice voted against joining the European Union (in 1972 and 1994), but is associated with the EU via the European Economic Area. However, Norway is a member of the much smaller European Free Trade Association (EFTA). [edit]
Politics
Main article: Politics of Norway
Norway is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government.
The Royal House is a branch of the princely family of Glücksburg, originally from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. [1] The functions of the King, Harald V, are mainly ceremonial, but he has influence as the symbol of national unity. Although the constitution of 1814 grants important executive powers to the King, these are almost always exercised by the Council of State in the name of the King (King's Council, or cabinet). The reserve powers vested in the Monarch by the constitution are significant and an important security part of the role of the Monarchy, and were last used during World War II. The Council of State consists of a Prime Minister and his council, formally appointed by the King. Parliamentarism has evolved since 1884 and entails that the cabinet must not have the parliament against it, and that the appointment by the King is a formality. Stortinget, Oslo Enlarge Stortinget, Oslo
The Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, currently has 169 members (increased from 165, effective from the elections of 12 September 2005). The members are elected from the 19 counties for 4-year terms according to a system of proportional representation. The Storting divides itself into two chambers, the Odelsting and the Lagting when voting on legislation. Laws are proposed by the government through a Member of the Council of State or by a member of the Odelsting and decided on by the Odelsting and Lagting, in case of repeated disagreement by the joint Storting. However, in modern time the Lagting rarely disagrees and mainly just rubber-stamps the Odelsting's decision. Before the present Storting is a proposed constitutional amendment which would repeal the division.
Impeachment cases are very rare (the last being held in 1927 when prime minister Abraham Berge was acquitted) and may be brought against Members of the Council of State, or of the Supreme Court or of the Storting, for criminal offences which they may have committed in their official capacity. Indictments are raised by the Odelsting and judged by the Lagting and the Supreme Court justices as part of the High Court of the Realm. Apart from this, the Storting functions as a unicameral parliament.
The regular courts include the Supreme Court or Høyesterett (17 permanent judges and a chief justice), courts of appeal, city and district courts, and conciliation councils. Judges attached to regular courts are appointed by the King in council after nomination by the Ministry of Justice. The special High Court of the Realm, which consists of the Supreme Court plus the Lagting, hears impeachment cases.
In order to form a government, more than half (currently at least 10 out of 19 members) of the Council of State are required to belong to the Church of Norway. [edit]
Human rights in Norway
Norway has mandatory military service of twelve months for men between the ages of 18 (17 with parental consent) and 44. Conscientious objectors serve 13 months in an alternative civilian national service. If a candidate refuses to attend the check-up ("sesjon") they are liable to prosecution.
Freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of press are set forth by the constitution. The press is not censored, but most editors adhere to self-imposed commandments of caution ("Vær Varsom-plakaten"). Public radio and TV broadcast mostly without interference from the government, although permission to broadcast depends on the program spectrum.
The use of swastika is forbidden by penal code 135a. Those who express themselves by raising the swastika can be punished with fines or prison sentence ranging up to a maximum of three years. [2]
Practicing homosexuality was legalized in 1972. [edit]
Subdivisions
Main article: Subdivisions of Norway
Map of Norway Enlarge Map of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called fylker (singular fylke) and 431 kommuner (singular kommune). Fylke and kommune are officially translated to English as county and munic
