What is an Embargo?

An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce with a country of group of countries. A famous embargo from history is the Continental System, the foreign policy of Napoleon I against Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, brought about in 1806.

Pale Rider (1985)

Pale Rider is a 1985 Western starring Clint Eastwood, and also produced and directed by him. It was filmed partly in Sun Valley, Idaho (to the West of Montana and Wyoming). It was the highest grossing Western of the 1980s.

The Legendary Bosphorus

The Bosphorus forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia and runs through the City of Istanbul. (Geographically speaking, it is a strait - a narrow, navigable waterway connecting two large bodies of water). It is part of the sovereign sea territory of Turkey and forms part of the Turkish Straits. Greek mythology is filled with references to the Straits. The Symplegades, or "Clashing Rocks" were meant to be rocks that crashed randomly together in the Bosphorus, defeated by Jason and the Argonauts. The Argonauts got their name from being sailors on the Argo, the ship whose name translated means "swift". The ship in turn got its name from its builder, Argus.

Photon Scattering

When photons are scattered from an atom or molecule (pit stop - what do mean by scattering - informally, the collision of a wave with a material object results in "scattering" of the wave) most photons are scattered such that they retain their "energy" (frequency and wavelength) which is known as Rayleigh or elastic scattering.  Raman scattering is inelastic scattering (whereby the photon is re-emitted from the medium with lower energy). It is the science behind the technique known as Raman spectroscopy and enabled Raman to win the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Seasons and The Tropics

The area between the northern and southern Tropics is know simply as "The Tropics". It has no seasons as the sun is always high in the sky.

Great Shack!

Sir Ernest Shackleton was a British Antarctic explorer.

Antarctica is the area that surrounds the South Pole. The Antarctic, or Colossal Squid, is native to Antarctica. Seals and penguins also live in Antarctica.

The first part of Antarctica to be discovered was the island of South Georgia which is now a British Overseas Territory.

Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas was born in Malaga, Andalucia, Spain in 1960. He has invested some of his film earnings in Andalucian products.

Costa Rica - From Ancient Stone Spheres to Modern Microprocessors

What is the Currency of Costa Rica?

The currency of Costa Rica is the Costa Rican Colon - one USD is worth approximately 540 Costa Rican Colon.

Where is Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is a country in Central America whose name, coined by the Spanish, means "rich coast".

Tell me about Costa Rica's Capital?

Its capital is San Jose. Looking at a map of San Jose, you cannot fail to miss the Merced District, mainly a commercial district. Other districts include Carmen, Catedral, Uruca (the second biggest district in San Jose), commonly known as "La Uruca".

Costa Rica is a land of "playa" (beaches), "montana" (mountains), "volcanes" (volcanos). Surfing in Costa Rica is awesome!

Costa Rica's Claims to Fame

Costa Rica is known for stone spheres, developed by a pre-Columbian civilization.  Intel makes microprocessors in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is known also for coffee beans. The population is 70% Catholic. Football is the most popular sport.

What kind of coastline does Costa Rica have?

Costa Rica is bordered to the West by the Pacific Ocean and to the East by the Caribbean Sea.

What is Costa Rica's Connection with Spain?

Costa Rica was a Spanish colony. In 1821, it was one of several Central American colonies that declared independence from Spain. Spanish is the official language.

What is the main airport in Costa Rica?

The largest airport in Costa Rica is Juan Santamaria (SJO) in Alajuela north of San Jose. Go to their website and "disfrutar" (relax)! The larger airlines that fly to SJO include United, American Airlines and Delta. There are also a number of landing fields around Costa Rica for local flights, some examples being La Fortuna, Tamarindo and San Vito.

What countries border Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is in Central America. To its North is Nicaragua, and to the South is Panama.

Physics of the Internal Combustion Engine

The crankshaft is responsible for converting the reciprocating motion of the pistons into rotational motion. The crankshaft was used in classical antiquity by the Romans, an example being the Hierapolis sawmill from the 3rd Century AD (found in modern day Turkey).

Who Designed the Enzo Ferrari 2002?

The Enzo 2002 was designed by designer Ken Okuyama. It has a V12 engine.

Where is Ghana?

Ghana is a country in West Africa. It is bordered to the North by Burkina Faso, to the West by Cote d'Ivoire and to the East by Togo. It is to the West of Nigeria.

Ghana has extremely good commodities resources. It is the second largest cocoa producer in the world, and one of the largest gold producers in the world. Its currency is known as the Ghanaian Cedi which is divided into one hundred Ghana pesewas (Gp).

Ghana became independent from British rule in 1957 having been colonised in 1901 as part of the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast name comes from the gold resources found in the area.  Elmina was the first European settlement in West Africa. It is west of Cape Coast which was once ruled by the Swedish.

Naples

Naples, or Napoli, is the capital of the Italian region Campania, and third-largest Italian city after Rome and Milan. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Travel Italian

Spiacenti - Sorry
Camere - rooms
Camere Disponible - available rooms
data selezionata - selected date
tua risorsa - your resource
sito non ufficiale - unofficial website

Le Nostre Propostre - our proposals

DISPONIBILITÀ E PREZZI - availability and prices
Per ricevere ulteriori informazioni - for further information

Days of week (i giorni della settimana): lunedi, martedi, mercoledi, giovedi, venerdi, sabato, domenica

oggi - today, domani - tomorrow

Festa della Repubblica

FDR is the Italian National Day, celebrated on 2 June each year.

The Las Fallas Festival of Fire

This festival is celebrated in Valencia and includes La Cabalgata del Fuego (Fire Parade). There is also a museum of Fallas in Valencia.

Kofta Meshwi

Kofta Meshwi is grilled minced meat on skewers.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

The official site here. It is directed by music video director Marc Webb, who made his feature length directorial debut with (500) Days of Summer. It stars Andrew Garfield in the lead role as Peter Parker. Garfield, whose name was adapted from Garfinkel, grew up in Epsom, a town in Surrey, UK, known for the eponymous Epsom Downs.

The Spider-Man character was co-created by Stan Lee. His parents came to America from Romania.

Actor, musician and comedian Jamie Foxx, who starred in Django Unchained, plays Electro, who starts the movie as electrician, Max. Jamie Foxx was born in the town of Terrell in the Lone Star State, named after the "white on blue" star on the Texas flag. Texas was an independent republic between 1836 to 1846, after it gained independence from Mexico.

Canadian-French Science Fiction in Splice (2009)

"Unbelievable!" says Clive Nicoli to Elsa Kast in this gripping science-fiction thriller. The film is directed by Vincenzo Natali, an American-Canadian film director, born in Detroit. He made his directorial debut with Cube.

Grammy's 2014 held at Staple's Center, Los Angeles

Las Vegas Nevada's Imagine Dragon's Radioactive came second in the Record of the Year category.

The Staple's Center is in Downtown Los Angeles on Figueroa Street (named after the former governor of Alta California). 

Drama Games

Getting to Know You Game

There are various variations of this game. It helps if the participants don't know anything about each other. In one form, individuals write something unusual about themselves and put them in a pot.

Sometimes players may need to fill out a list of set items: e.g. favourite place, favourite car et cetera.

Invite audience to guess whose answer is which.

Fortunately/Unfortunately

Pick a theme which will be the basis for the story.  Players take turns (alternating between Fortunately and Unfortunately to start their sentence).

Example run:

Theme: Beverly Hills
Player A: Fortunately, I decided to pay a visit to Beverly Hills in the summer.
Player B: Unfortunately, when I arrived, all the affordable hotels were booked.
Player C: Fortunately, ...

Party Quirks

One actor is the party host. Other three actors are given party quirks e.g. "thinks that they are a pinball machine", "represents a deadly sin e.g. Greed, Slothfulness", "thinks they are Darth Vader", "thinks they are John McEnroe", "thinks they are James Brown", "thinks they are Peter La Fleur in Dodgeball".

Mockumentaries

Ben Stiller (star of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty") stated his career making mockumentaries.

Mockumentaries are parodies of the earnest nature of documentaries and may include false newsreel footage for comedic effect.