Picture of the day

The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family, invented in the 1840s by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. It is a transposing instrument tuned in B-flat, an octave above the tenor saxophone (or, rarely, slightly smaller in C). The soprano is the smallest of the four saxophones in common use (the others being the alto, the tenor and the baritone), although there are smaller rare instruments such as the soprillo and the sopranino. Richard Strauss's Symphonia Domestica includes a C soprano among four different saxophones, and Maurice Ravel's Boléro features a solo for the soprano saxophone immediately following the tenor saxophone's solo. The soprano saxophone also features in some jazz music, with players including the 1930s virtuoso Sidney Bechet, the 1950s innovator Steve Lacy, and John Coltrane. This photograph shows a soprano saxophone manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation.Photograph credit: Yamaha Corporation

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After I die I promise not to perform any miracles

Evgeny Ketov

• ... that SKA Saint Petersburg's longest-tenured player (pictured) was traded to SKA after losing a playoff series to them?
• ... that Neoliner Origin is the largest wind-propelled cargo ship currently in service?
• ... that Guillermo de Osma endowed his alma mater's De Osma Studentship to support Spanish studies at his Institute of Valencia de Don Juan?
• ... that Femke Bol passing three runners to win the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay was called "one of Paris' signature moments"?
• ... that Miho Karasawa's stage name, True, was influenced by her songwriting for anime representing her "true" self?
• ... that the Jack-be-little pumpkin can be turned into a serving bowl for soup?
• ... that, after two sisters married Armenian leaders in the War of the Antiochene Succession, a third sister, Melisende of Lusignan, married the Armenians' enemy?
• ... that the first edition of the Autostrada Biennale featured contemporary art exhibitions temporarily hosted in private homes?
• ... that after Hkam Hkai Hpa of Hsenwi requested military aid against the Kingdom of Ava, the Yongle Emperor dispatched a eunuch in response?

The Kizilbash (red-heads) were Turkmen tribes

http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif

• Standard diving dress - grandpa's picture (on the right)
• Codd's 12 rules - of RDBMS

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!