Climate change

The global summit on climate change is due to start in Copenhagen on 7 December, and the topic is the only issue on Commonwealth summit's agenda for the first day
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has described the meeting as "an important springboard towards Copenhagen".About half of the Commonwealth's members are island states, many of them threatened by rising sea levels.Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who is hosting the three-day meeting, said he hoped the summit could boost momentum for an agreement on carbon emissions at Copenhagen, amid "concerns about the way the negotiations were going"."We hope to arrive at a political statement that can add value to the process that will culminate in Copenhagen next month... what we can do is raise our voices politically," he said.

The Commonwealth's 53 nations comprise about two billion people, a third of the planet's population.The leaders are meeting days after pledges by the US and China to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, amid concerns that the Copenhagen meeting could fail to agree substantial cuts.The UK has indicated it will try to block Sri Lanka's bid to host the next Commonwealth summit over its handling of the recent war. A UK government source said Mr Brown had "real concerns about Sri Lanka's bid".

The source said: "We simply cannot be in a position where Sri Lanka - whose actions earlier this year had a huge impact on civilians, leading to thousands of displaced people without proper humanitarian access - is seen to be rewarded for its actions."

The UN estimates the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels left at least 7,000 civilians dead with 150,000 people still displaced and living in camps.The summit will also discuss Rwanda's entry into the English-speaking club.The Francophone nation has been seeking membership following disagreements with France over events leading up to the 1994 genocide.The issue is likely to be controversial. The nation's entry bid has received strong backing from some member states.However, some rights activists are angry that entry would reward a nation they say is guilty of abuses dating back to the 1994 genocide.
From BBC News

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty, was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms. It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han into two periods: the Western Han (206 BCE–9 CE) and Eastern Han . Spanning over four centuries, the period of the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to itself as the "Han people".

The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government, known as commanderies, and a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States. The Xiongnu, a nomadic confederation of Central Asian tribes which dominated the eastern Eurasian Steppe, defeated the Han in battle in 200 BCE. Following the defeat a political marriage alliance was negotiated in which the Han became the de facto inferior partner. When, despite the treaty, the Xiongnu continued to raid Han borders, Emperor Wu of Han launched several military campaigns against them, which eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries. These campaigns expanded Han sovereignty into the Tarim Basin of Central Asia, and helped establish the vast trade network known as the Silk Road, which reached as far as the Mediterranean world. Han forces managed to divide the Xiongnu into two competing nations, the Southern and Northern Xiongnu, and forced the Northern Xiongnu across the Ili River. Despite this victory, the territories north of Han's borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei Confederation.

After 92 CE, the palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between the various consort clans of the empresses and empress dowagers, causing the Han's ultimate downfall. Imperial authority was also seriously challenged by massive Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion. Following the death of Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 CE), the palace eunuchs suffered wholesale massacre by military officers, allowing warlords to divide the empire. When Cao Pi, King of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian, the Han Dynasty ceased to exist.

The Han Dynasty was an age of economic prosperity, and saw a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BCE). The coinage issued by the central government mint in 119 BCE remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). To pay for its military campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered frontier territories, the government nationalized the private salt and iron industries in 117 BCE. These government monopolies were repealed during the Eastern Han period, and the lost revenue was recouped through heavily taxing private entrepreneurs. The emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government, but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class. From the reign of Emperor Wu onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu. This policy endured until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 CE. Science and technology during the Han period saw significant advances, including papermaking, the nautical steering rudder, the use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map, the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere for astronomy, and a seismometer employing an inverted pendulum.
From Wikipedia

Manny Pacquiao

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao , more commonly known as Manny Pacquiao, is a Filipino professional boxer, and the only septuple world champion in boxing history. At present, Pacquiao fights in the welterweight division.

He is currently the WBO welterweight world champion, IBO and Ring Magazine light welterweight champion, and is rated by Ring Magazine as the pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

He is also the former WBC lightweight world champion, WBC super featherweight world champion, IBF super bantamweight world champion, and WBC flyweight world champion. Furthermore, he is the former Ring Magazine featherweight and super featherweight champion.

The Filipino boxing superstar is the first boxer to win seven world titles in seven different weight divisions. In addition, he is the only boxer to win the lineal championship the man who beat the man in four different weight classes.[5] Aside from being a boxer, Pacquiao has participated in politics, acting, filmmaking, and music recording.
Early career
Pacquiao started his professional boxing career at the age of 16 at 106 lbs (Light Flyweight). His early fights took place in small local venues and were shown on Vintage Sports' Blow by Blow, an evening boxing show. His professional debut was a 4-round bout against Edmund "Enting" Ignacio on January 22, 1995, which Pacquiao won via decision, becoming an instant star of the program. Close friend Mark Penaflorida's death in 1994 spurred the young Pacquiao to pursue a professional boxing career.

His weight increased from 106 to 113 lbs before losing in his 12th bout against Rustico Torrecampo via a third-round knockout (KO). Pacquiao had not made the weight. So he was forced to use heavier gloves than Torrecampo, thereby putting Pacquiao at a disadvantage.

Shortly after the Torrecampo fight, Pacquiao settled at 112 lbs, winning the WBC Flyweight title (his first major boxing world title as well as the flyweight lineal title) over Chatchai Sasakul in the eighth round only to lose it in his second defense against Medgoen Singsurat, also known as Medgoen 3K Battery, via a third-round knockout on a bout held at Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. Technically, Pacquiao lost the belt at the scales as he surpassed the weight limit of 112 lbs (51 kg).

Following his loss to Singsurat, Pacquiao gained weight anew. This time, Pacquiao went to the Super Bantamweight division of 122 lbs (55 kg), where he picked up the WBC International Super Bantamweight title. He defended the title five times before his chance for a world title fight came.

Pacquiao's big break came on June 23, 2001, against IBF Super Bantamweight champion Lehlohonolo Ledwaba. Pacquiao stepped into the fight as a late replacement and won the fight by technical knockout to become the IBF Super Bantamweight champion (his second major boxing world title) on a bout held at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. He defended this title five times and fought to a sixth-round draw against Agapito Sánchez in a bout that was stopped early after Pacquiao received two headbutts.

First fight with Barrera

Pacquiao with his trainer Freddie Roach at Pacquiao's Christmas and birthday bash, Los Angeles, CAPacquiao went on to defend his title four times with expert training from Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym, improving his hand speed and mental preparation before the match that many consider to have defined his career, a bout against Marco Antonio Barrera. Pacquiao, moving up in weight and in his first fight ever in the Featherweight division, brought his power with him and defeated Barrera via a TKO in the 11th round at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas. Although this fight was not recognized as a title fight by any sanctioning bodies, Pacquiao was recognized as world champion by Ring Magazine (as well as the lineal featherweight champion) after his victory,[10] and he held that title until relinquishing it in 2005.

First fight with Márquez
Only six months after Pacquiao's win over Mexican legend Barrera, Pacquiao went on to challenge another highly respected Mexican boxer in Juan Manuel Márquez, who at the time held both the World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) Featherweight titles. The fight took place at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, on May 8, 2004, and it ended in a controversial draw that left both sets of fans feeling bitter.

In the first round Márquez was caught cold, as he was knocked down three times by a more lively Pacquiao. However, Márquez showed great heart to recover from the early knockdowns, and went on to win the majority of rounds thereafter. This was largely due to Márquez's counterpunch style, which he managed to effectively utilize against the aggressive style of Pacquiao. At the end of a very close fight, the final scores were 115–110 for Márquez, 115–110 for Pacquiao, and 113–113. One of the judges (who scored the bout 113–113) later admitted to making an error on the scorecards, because he had scored the first round as "10–7" in favor of Pacquiao instead of the standard "10–6" for a three-knockdown round.[citation needed] Consequently, both parties felt they had done enough to win the fight.

Trial by Jury

Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire.

Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868. The opera premiered more than three years after Gilbert and Sullivan's only previous collaboration, Thespis, an 1871–72 Christmas season entertainment. In the intervening years, both the author and composer were busy with separate projects. Beginning in 1873, Gilbert tried several times to get the opera produced before the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte suggested that he collaborate on it with Sullivan. Sullivan was pleased with the piece and promptly wrote the music.

As with most Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the plot of Trial by Jury is ludicrous, but the characters behave as if the events were perfectly reasonable. This narrative technique blunts some of the pointed barbs aimed at hypocrisy, especially of those in authority, and the sometimes base motives of supposedly respectable people and institutions. These themes became favourites of Gilbert through the rest of his collaborations with Sullivan. Critics and audiences praised how well Sullivan's witty and good-humoured music complemented Gilbert's satire.[1] The success of Trial by Jury launched the famous series of 13 collaborative works between Gilbert and Sullivan that came to be known as the Savoy Operas.

After its original production in 1875, Trial by Jury toured widely in Britain and elsewhere and was frequently revived and recorded. It also became popular as a part of charity benefits. The work continues to be frequently played, especially as a companion piece to other short Gilbert and Sullivan operas or other works. According to theatre scholar Kurt Gänzl, it is "probably the most successful British one-act operetta of all time".
Background

Before Trial by Jury, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan had collaborated on one previous opera, Thespis; or, The Gods Grown Old, in 1871. Although reasonably successful, it was a Christmas entertainment, and such works were not expected to endure.[3] Between Thespis and Trial by Jury, Gilbert and Sullivan did not collaborate on any further operas. Gilbert wrote several short stories, edited the second volume of his comic Bab Ballads, and created 11 theatrical works, including The Happy Land (1873), Charity (1874) and Sweethearts (1874).[4] At the same time, Sullivan wrote various pieces of religious music, including the Festival Te Deum (1872) and an oratorio, The Light of the World (1873), and edited Church Hymns, with Tunes (1874), which included 45 of his own hymns and arrangements.[5] He also wrote many parlour ballads and other songs, including three in 1874–75 with words by Gilbert: "The Distant Shore", "Sweethearts" (inspired by Gilbert's play) and "The Love that Loves Me Not".[5]
[edit] Genesis of the opera
Gilbert's original sketch of Trial by Jury, published in Fun in 1868

The story of Trial by Jury started in 1868, when Gilbert wrote a single-page illustrated comic piece for the magazine Fun entitled Trial by Jury: An Operetta. Drawing on Gilbert's training and brief practice as a barrister, it detailed a "breach of promise" trial going awry, in the process spoofing the law, lawyers and the legal system. (In the Victorian era, a man could be required to pay compensation should he fail to marry a woman to whom he was engaged.) The outline of this story was followed in the later opera, and two of its numbers appeared in nearly their final form in Fun. The skit, however, ended abruptly: the moment the attractive plaintiff stepped into the witness box, the judge leapt into her arms and vowed to marry her, whereas in the opera, the case is allowed to proceed further before this conclusion is reached.[6][7]

In 1873, Gilbert arranged with the opera manager and composer, Carl Rosa, to expand the piece into a one-act libretto. Rosa was to write the music, and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa, his wife and an old friend of Gilbert's, was to sing the role of the Plaintiff, as part of a season of English opera that Rosa planned to present at the Drury Lane Theatre.[8] Euphrosyne died in childbirth in 1874, and the despondent Rosa dropped the project.[9] Later in the same year, Gilbert offered the libretto to the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte, but Carte knew of no composer available to set it to music.[10]

Meanwhile, Sullivan may have been considering a return to light opera: Cox and Box, his first comic opera, had received a London revival (co-starring his brother, Fred Sullivan) in September 1874. In November, Sullivan travelled to Paris and contacted Albert Millaud, one of the librettists for Jacques Offenbach's operettas. However, he returned to London empty-handed and worked on incidental music for the Gaiety Theatre's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.[11] By early 1875, Carte was managing Selina Dolaro's Royalty Theatre, and he needed a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to Offenbach's La Périchole, which was to open on 30 January, and in which Dolaro starred. Carte had asked Sullivan to compose something for the theatre and advertised in The Times in late January: "In Preparation, a New Comic Opera composed expressly for this theatre by Mr. Arthur Sullivan in which Madame Dolaro and Nellie Bromley will appear."[12][13] But around the same time, Carte also remembered Gilbert's Trial by Jury and knew that Gilbert had worked with Sullivan to create Thespis. He suggested to Gilbert that Sullivan was the man to write the music for Trial.[12]

Gilbert finally called on Sullivan and read the libretto to him on 20 February 1875. Sullivan was enthusiastic, later recalling, "[Gilbert] read it through... in the manner of a man considerably disappointed with what he had written. As soon as he had come to the last word, he closed up the manuscript violently, apparently unconscious of the fact that he had achieved his purpose so far as I was concerned, inasmuch as I was screaming with laughter the whole time."[14] Trial by Jury, described as "A Novel and Original Dramatic Cantata" in the original promotional material,[15] was composed and rehearsed in a matter of weeks .[14][16]

CSS defination

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation, including elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content (such as by allowing for tableless web design). CSS can also allow the same markup page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and on Braille-based, tactile devices. While the author of a document typically links that document to a CSS style sheet, readers can use a different style sheet, perhaps one on their own computer, to override the one the author has specified.

CSS specifies a priority scheme to determine which style rules apply if more than one rule matches against a particular element. In this so-called cascade, priorities or weights are calculated and assigned to rules, so that the results are predictable.

Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. It also may come in a diluted form. The acetic acid concentration typically ranges from 4 to 8 percent by volume for table vinegar[1] (typically 5%) and higher concentrations for pickling (up to 18%). Natural vinegars also contain small amounts of tartaric acid, citric acid, and other acids. Vinegar has been used since ancient times and is an important element in European, Asian, and other cuisines.

The word "vinegar" derives from the Old French vin aigre, meaning "sour wine".
History

Vinegar has been made and used by people for thousands of years. Traces of it have been found in Egyptian urns dating from around 3000 BC. According to Shennong's Herb Classic, vinegar was invented in China during the Xia Dynasty, around 2000 BC.

In the Bible, it is mentioned as something not very pleasant (Ps. 69:21, Prov. 25:20), but Boaz allows Ruth to "dip her piece of bread in the vinegar" (Ruth 2:14). Jesus was offered vinegar or sour wine while on the cross (Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:36). In Islamic traditions, vinegar is one of the four favored condiments of the Prophet Muhammad, who called it a "blessed seasoning".[2]

In 1864, Louis Pasteur showed that vinegar results from a natural fermentation process.
[edit] Production

Vinegar is made from the oxidation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. The ethanol may be derived from many different sources including wine, cider, beer or fermented fruit juice, or it may be made synthetically from natural gas and petroleum derivatives[3].

Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional vinegars and fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of weeks or months. The longer fermentation period allows for the accumulation of a nontoxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria and soluble cellulose, known as the mother of vinegar.

Fast methods add mother of vinegar (i.e. bacterial culture) to the source liquid before adding air using a Venturi pump system or a turbine to promote oxygenation to obtain the fastest fermentation. In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced in a period ranging from 20 hours to three days.
[edit] Malt
A bottle of malt vinegar

Malt vinegar is made by malting barley, causing the starch in the grain to turn to maltose. Then an ale is brewed from the maltose and allowed to turn into vinegar, which is then aged. It typically is light brown in color.
[edit] Wine
Sherry vinegar

Wine vinegar is made from red or white wine and is the most commonly used vinegar in Mediterranean countries and Central Europe. As with wine, there is a considerable range in quality. Better quality wine vinegars are matured in wood for up to two years and exhibit a complex, mellow flavor. Wine vinegar tends to have a lower acidity than that of white or cider vinegars. There are more expensive wine vinegars that are made from individual varieties of wine, such as Champagne, Sherry, or pinot grigio.
[edit] Apple cider

Apple cider vinegar, otherwise known simply as cider vinegar, is made from cider or apple must and has a brownish-yellow color. It often is sold unfiltered and unpasteurized with the mother of vinegar present, as a natural product. It is very popular, partly due to supposed beneficial health and beauty properties[citation needed]. Due to its acidity, apple cider vinegar may be very harsh even burning to the throat. If taken straight (as opposed to use in cooking), it can be diluted (e.g. with fruit juice or water) before drinking.[4] It is also sometimes sweetened with sugar or honey.[5] There have been reports of acid chemical burns of the throat in using the pill form.[6]
[edit] Fruit
Persimmon vinegar produced in South Korea

Fruit vinegars are made from fruit wines, usually without any additional flavoring. Common flavors of fruit vinegar include apple, black currant, raspberry, quince, and tomato. Typically, the flavors of the original fruits remain in the final product.

Most fruit vinegars are produced in Europe, where there is a growing market for high-priced vinegars made solely from specific fruits (as opposed to non-fruit vinegars which are infused with fruits or fruit flavors). Several varieties, however, also are produced in Asia. Persimmon vinegar, called gam sikcho (감식초), is popular in South Korea. Jujube vinegar photo (called 枣醋 or 红枣醋 in Chinese) and wolfberry vinegar photo (called 枸杞醋 in Chinese) are produced in China.

Umezu (梅酢; often translated as "umeboshi vinegar" or "ume vinegar"), a salty, sour liquid that is a by-product of umeboshi (pickled ume) production, is produced in Japan, but technically is not a true vinegar.

Chinese traditions

Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of the two standard sets of printed Chinese characters, the other being simplified Chinese characters. The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century (during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.) The retronym "traditional Chinese" is used to contrast traditional characters with another standardized set — simplified Chinese characters, introduced by the government of the People's Republic of China on Mainland China in the 1950s.

Traditional Chinese characters are currently used in Taiwan (Republic of China), Hong Kong and Macau. They were also used in mainland China before the People's Republic of China simplified them in the 1950s and 1960s. In overseas Chinese communities other than Singapore and Malaysia, traditional characters are most commonly used[1], although the number of printed materials in simplified characters is growing in Australia, USA and Canada, targeting or created by new arrivals from mainland China. A large number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia in official publications. The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities.

[edit] Chinese names
Traditional Chinese characters are referred to by several different names within the Chinese-speaking world. The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) officially calls traditional Chinese characters standard characters or orthodox characters (traditional Chinese: 正體字, simplified Chinese: 正体字; Hanyu Pinyin: zhèngtǐzì; Tongyong Pinyin: jhèngtǐzìh; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄓㄥˋ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ). However, the same term is used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard, simplified and traditional characters from variant and idiomatic characters.[2]

In contrast, users of traditional Chinese outside Taiwan, such as those in Hong Kong, Macau and [overseas Chinese communities, and also users of simplified Chinese characters, call them complex characters (traditional Chinese: 繁體字, simplified Chinese: 繁体字; pinyin: fántǐzì; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄈㄢˊ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ). An informal name sometimes used by users of simplified characters is "old characters" (Chinese: 老字; pinyin: lǎozì; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄌㄠˇ ㄗˋ).

Users of traditional characters also sometimes refer them as "Full Chinese characters" (simplified Chinese: 全体字; traditional Chinese: 全體字; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄑㄩㄢˊ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ) to distinguish them from simplified Chinese characters.

Some traditional character users argue that traditional characters are the original form of the Chinese characters and cannot be called "complex". Similarly, simplified characters cannot be "standard" because they are not used in all Chinese-speaking regions. Conversely, supporters of simplified Chinese characters object to the description of traditional characters as "standard," since they view the new simplified characters as the contemporary standard used by the vast majority of Chinese speakers. They also point out that traditional characters are not truly traditional as many Chinese characters have been made more elaborate over time.[3]

The Butterworth Building

The Butterworth Building[1] or Butterworth Block[2] at 1921 First Avenue in Seattle, Washington (U.S. state) was originally built as the Butterworth & Sons mortuary, which moved into this location in 1903 and moved to larger quarters in 1923.[2] Located on a steep hill, the building has only three stories on the First Avenue side, but five on Post Alley.[3] The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); adjacent to Pike Place Market, it falls within the NRHP's Pike Place Public Market Historic District and the city's Place Market Historical District.

The building was the city's first purpose-built mortuary building.[2] Jeannie Yandel in 2009 described it as "The city's first place for comprehensive death-related services from corpse retrieval to coffin sales."[4] Mercedes Yaeger, who runs Market Ghost Tours in Pike Place Market draws an analogy to a later Seattle business founded in the Market, and calls the 1903 mortuary "the Starbucks of the dead: in the same way Starbucks revolutionized the coffee business, E.R. Butterworth's mortuary revolutionized the death business."[4] The building is associated with several ghost stories.[4][5] The building had the first elevator on the West Coast of the United States, used to transport bodies.[4] A Seattle Mail and Herald account from August 1904, shortly after the building opened calls it "without question of doubt, the most complete establishment of its kind in the United States…"[3] A 2008 Seattle Times article describes the building, still extant, as "[b]eautifully appointed in stained mahogany, art glass, ornamental plaster and specially designed brass and bronze hardware…"[5] The basement, accessible through Post Alley at the rear, is now (as of 2009) home to Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub.[4][5] Several recent accounts describe the Kells space as the former embalming room and crematorium,[4][5] but the 1904 account says that the basement housed the building's heating plant, stables, and a storage space for funeral wagons.[3]

[edit] Original configuration
In the original configuration of the building, the upper floor consisted of three flats for employees of the firm. This floor was reached by a separate entrance at the south end of the First Avenue façade. The next floor below contained a showroom for coffins (caskets), a separate showroom of child-sized coffins, a room of women's burial garments, and a private reception and consulting room. The main showroom of coffins had a view out the back to Elliott Bay. The 35 caskets on display in August 1904 ranged from US$25 to 200 in price; garments ranged from a $4 robe to other garments costing as much as $125. These wide ranges of prices were typical of an establishment that intended to serve everyone from the poor to the city's wealthiest families. By policy, those who wished to remain with the bodies of their dead between encoffinment and obsequies were allowed to use the private rooms without additional charge.[3]

The next floor down was the main floor facing onto First Avenue. The floor contained private offices, morgues, an embalming room, and a "utensil room" to store canopies, pedestals, rugs, laying-out beds, etc. These rooms were reached through the main entrance. A separate door to the north led to a vestibule and a funeral chapel with a main floor capacity of 150 and seating for an additional 50 people in the balcony, as well as a separate choir balcony. An adjacent room for the use of clergy and family had a capacity of about 15, and connected to a "retiring room", which was basically a full bathroom. The room for the use of clergy and family had a private entrance separate from the entrance to the chapel itself. Also on the first floor was a special "best show room" with particularly fine caskets; even in 1904 some of these ranged in price as high as $890.[3]

The next floor down—below the First Avenue grade, but still above grade on Post Alley—contained a "stock room" with fireproof vaults in which bodies could be stored more or less indefinitely. The 1904 Seattle Mail and Herald account described these as "so much needed in Seattle when people are undecided as to the disposition of the dead, and up to the time of the construction of this building there was not such thing to be had in the city.[3] The basement, level with Post Alley, housed the building's heating plant, stables, and a storage space for funeral wagons.[3]

Snow

now is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types which fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing, rather than a flake, are known as graupel, with ice pellets and snow grains as examples of graupel. Snowfall amount, and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount, are determined using a variety of different rain gauges.

The process of precipitating snow is called snowfall. Snowfall tends to form within regions of upward motion of air around a type of low-pressure system known as an extratropical cyclone. Snow can fall poleward of their associated warm fronts and within their comma head precipitation patterns, which is called such due to its comma-like shape of the cloud and precipitation pattern around the poleward and west sides of extratropical cyclones. Where relatively warm water bodies are present, for example due to water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy. Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy snow is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, if the atmosphere is cold enough.
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v • d • e

Once on the ground, snow can be categorized as powdery when fluffy, granular when it begins the cycle of melting and refreezing, and eventually ice once it packs down, after multiple melting and refreezing cycles, into a dense mass called snow pack. When powdery, snow moves with the wind from the location where it originally landed, forming deposits called snowdrifts which may have a depth of several meters. After attaching to hillsides, blown snow can evolve into a snow slab, which is an avalanche hazard on steep slopes. The existence of a snowpack keeps temperatures colder than they would be otherwise, as the whiteness of the snow reflects most sunlight, and the absorbed heat goes into melting the snow rather than increasing its temperature. The water equivalent of snowfall is measured to monitor how much liquid is available to flood rivers from meltwater which will occur during the upcoming spring. Snow cover can protect crops from extreme cold. If snowfall stays on the ground for a series of years uninterrupted, the snowpack develops into a mass of ice called glacier. Fresh snow absorbs sound, lowering ambient noise over a landscape due to the trapped air between snowflakes acting to minimize vibration. These acoustic qualities quickly minimize, and reverse once a layer of freezing rain falls on top of snow cover. Walking across snowfall produces a squeaking sound at low temperatures. For motion pictures, the sound of people walking across snow are duplicated through the use cornstarch, salt, and cat litter.

The term snow storm can describe a heavy snowfall while a blizzard involves snow and wind, obscuring visibility. Snow shower is a term for an intermittent snowfall, while flurry is used for very light, brief snowfalls. Snow can fall more than a meter at a time during a single storm in flat areas, and meters at a time in rugged terrain, such as mountains. When snow falls in significant quantities, travel by foot, car, airplane and other means becomes highly restricted, but other methods of mobility become possible: the use of snowmobiles, snowshoes and skis. When heavy snow occurs early in the fall, significant damage occurs to trees still in leaf. Areas with significant snow each year can store the winter snow within an ice house, which can be used to cool structures during the following summer.
Cause
See also: Extratropical cyclone, Lake-effect snow, and Rainband
Preferred region of heavy snowfall ("Banded Snowfall") around the comma head of a wintertime low pressure area, shaded in green
Lake-effect snow bands near the Korean Peninsula

Extratropical cyclones can bring cold and dangerous conditions with heavy rain and snow with winds exceeding 119 km/h (74 mph),[1] (sometimes referred to as windstorms in Europe). The band of precipitation that is associated with their warm front is often extensive, forced by weak upward vertical motion of air over the frontal boundary which condenses as it cools and produces precipitation within an elongated band,[2] which is wide and stratiform, meaning falling out of nimbostratus clouds.[3] When moist air tries to dislodge an arctic air mass, overrunning snow can result within the poleward side of the elongated precipitation band. In the Northern Hemisphere, poleward is towards the North Pole, or north. Within the Southern Hemisphere, poleward is towards the South Pole, or south.

Within the cold sector, poleward and west of the cyclone center, small scale or mesoscale bands of heavy snow can occur within a cyclone's comma head pattern. The cyclone's comma head pattern is a comma-shaped area of clouds and precipitation found around mature extratropical cyclones. These snow bands typically have a width of 20 miles (32 km) to 50 miles (80 km).[4] These bands in the comma head are associated with areas of frontogenesis, or zones of strengthening temperature contrast.[5]

Southwest of extratropical cyclones, curved cyclonic flow bringing cold air across the relatively warm water bodies can lead to narrow lake-effect snow bands. Those bands bring strong localized snowfall which can be understood as follows: Large water bodies such as lakes efficiently store heat that results in significant temperature differences (larger than 13 °C or 23 °F) between the water surface and the air above.[6] Because of this temperature difference, warmth and moisture are transported upward, condensing into vertically oriented clouds (see satellite picture) which produce snow showers. The temperature decrease with height and cloud depth are directly affected by both the water temperature and the large-scale environment. The stronger the temperature decrease with height, the deeper the clouds get, and the greater the precipitation rate becomes.[7]

In mountainous areas, heavy snowfall accumulates when air is forced to ascend the mountains and squeeze out precipitation along their windward slopes, which in cold conditions, falls in the form of snow. Because of the ruggedness of terrain, forecasting the location of heavy snowfall remains a significant challenge.[8]

Enjoyment

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