Saturday, December 29, 2007

Music

Music is an art form consisting of sound and silence expressed through time. Elements of sound as used in music are pitch, rhythm and sonic qualities of timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture.

The creation, performance, significance and even the definition of music, varies according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions and performances to improvisational or aleatoric forms. For purposes of discussion and exploration of the topic, music is divided into genres and sub-genres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often unclear and/or controversial. Within "the arts", music can be classified as a performing art, a fine art, or an auditory art form.

Music may also involve generative forms in time through the construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli, principally sound. Music may be used for artistic or aesthetic, communicative, entertainment, ceremonial or religious purposes and by many composers purely as an academic instrument for study.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball is an Olympic group sport played on sand. Two teams, positioned on either side of a net which divides rectangular court, hit volleyball, usually using the hands or arms.

It is evolved from indoor volleyball, and the two sports remain very similar: a team scores points by foundation the ball on the opponents' court, or when the opposing team commits a fault teams can contact the ball no more than three times before the ball crosses the net; and consecutive contacts must be made by unlike players. The most important differences between beach and indoor volleyball are the playing surface, and the team size. There are many minor differences as well, including each half of the court actions 8 by 8 meters.

If a jamming player touches the ball, but it continues onto his side of the net, the block counts as the first contact. Open-hand dinks, where a player uses his or her finger tips to redirect the ball into the opponent's court, are banned. It is legal to cross under the net as long as doing so does not hamper with the opponents' attempt to play the ball. Players are not necessary to rotate positions; they must alternate check, but there are no rotation errors.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Earth

Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system, third in order of distance from the Sun. It is the largest of its planetary system's terrestrial planets and the only place in the universe known to support life.

The most prominent features of the earth's climate are its two large polar regions, two relatively narrow temperate zones, and a wide equatorial tropical to subtropical region. Precipitation patterns vary widely according to location, ranging from several meters of water per year to less than a millimeter. About 70 percent of the surface is covered by salt-water oceans. The remainder consists of continents and islands, with the vast majority of the inhabited land in the Northern Hemisphere.

Earth has evolved through geological and biological processes that have left traces of the original conditions. The outer surface is divided into several tectonic plates that gradually migrate across the surface over geologic time spans, which at least several times have changed relatively quickly. The interior of the planet remains active, with a thick layer of molten Earth mantle and an iron-filled core that generates a magnetic field