Comprachicos
Comprachicos is a compound Spanish language, Spanish neologism meaning "child-buyers", which was coined by Victor Hugo in his novel ''The Man Who Laughs''. The words Comprapequeños and Cheylas are also used. It refers to various groups in folklore who were said to change the physical appearance of human beings by manipulating growing children, in a similar way to the horticultural method of bonsai – that is, deliberate mutilation. The most common methods said to be used in this practice included stunting children's growth by physical restraint, Muzzle (device), muzzling their faces to deform them, slitting their eyes, dislocating their joints, and Artificial cranial deformation, malforming their bones. The resulting dwarfed and deformed adults made their living as Charlatan, mountebanks or were sold to lords and ladies to be used as pages or Jester, court fools or court dwarfs. Historical references Victor Hugo's novel ''The Man Who Laughs'' is the story of a young aristocrat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Immersion (album)
''Immersion'' is the third studio album by Australian band Pendulum. The album was announced in early 2009, with the name being confirmed in December 2009.Pendulum announce live tour . ''pendulum.com'' (1 December 2009). Retrieved on 4 December 2009. The album was released on 21 May 2010 in Australia and Ireland, and on 24 May for the rest of the world, followed by a UK tour of the album. In January 2010, Pendulum hosted the album preview Ear Storm event at in London in which many top DJs performed sets of their own with Pendulum being the headliners. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Man Who Laughs
''The Man Who Laughs'' (also published under the title ''By Order of the King'' from its subtitle in French) is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title ''L'Homme qui rit''. It takes place in England beginning in 1690 and extends into the early 18th century reign of Queen Anne. It depicts England's royalty and aristocracy of the time as cruel and power-hungry. Hugo intended parallels with the France of Louis-Philippe and the Régence. The novel concerns the life of a young nobleman, also known as Gwynplaine, disfigured as a child (on the orders of the king), who travels with his protector and companion, the vagabond philosopher Ursus, and Dea, the baby girl he rescues during a storm. The novel is famous for Gwynplaine's mutilated face, stuck in a permanent laugh. The book has inspired many artists, dramatists and film-makers. Background Hugo wrote ''The Man Who Laughs'' over a period of 15 months while he was living in the Channel Islan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spanish Language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish is the official language of List of countries where Spanish is an official language, 20 countries. It is the world's list of languages by number of native speakers, second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's list of languages by total number of speakers, fourth-most spoken language overall after English language, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani language, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance languages, Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico. Spanish is part of the Iberian Romance languages, Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in I ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paspalum Distichum
''Paspalum distichum'' is a species of grass. Common names include knotgrass, water finger-grass, couch paspalum, eternity grass, gingergrass, and Thompson grass. Its native range is obscure because it has long been present on most continents, and in most areas it is certainly an introduced species. Its native range probably includes parts of the tropical Americas. This is a perennial grass forming clumps and spreading via rhizomes and stolons. It grows decumbent or erect to a maximum height near 60 centimeters. The inflorescence is usually divided into two branches lined with spikelets. ''Paspalum distichum'' is a food source for several avian species, including the long-tailed widowbird The long-tailed widowbird (''Euplectes progne''), also known as the "sakabula", is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae.Mackworth-Praed, C.W., and C.H. Grant. (1960). ''Birds of Eastern and North Eastern Africa''. Longmans, Green and Co LTD. .... References External links Jepson Manu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Black Dahlia (novel)
''The Black Dahlia'' (1987) is a crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. Its subject is the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles, California, which received wide attention because her corpse was horrifically mutilated and discarded in an empty residential lot. The investigation ultimately led to a broad police corruption scandal. While rooted in the facts of the Short murder and featuring many real-life people, places and events, Ellroy's novel blends facts and fiction, most notably in providing a solution to the crime when in reality it has never been solved. James Ellroy dedicated ''The Black Dahlia'', "To Geneva Hilliker Ellroy 1915-1958 ''Mother: Twenty-nine Years Later, This Valediction in Blood''." The epigraph for ''The Black Dahlia'' is "Now I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, My first lost keeper, to love and look at later. -Anne Sexton." This book is considered the one that gained Ellroy critical attention as a serious writer of literature ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Ellroy
Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels ''The Black Dahlia'' (1987), ''The Big Nowhere'' (1988), ''L.A. Confidential'' (1990), ''White Jazz'' (1992), ''American Tabloid'' (1995), ''The Cold Six Thousand'' (2001), and ''Blood's a Rover'' (2009). Life Early life Lee Earle "James" Ellroy was born in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Geneva Odelia (née Hilliker), was a nurse. His father, Armand, was an accountant and a onetime business manager of Rita Hayworth. His parents divorced in 1954, after which Ellroy and his mother moved to El Monte, California. At the age of 7, Ellroy saw his mother naked and began to sexually fantasize about her. He struggled in youth with this obsession, as he held a psycho-sexual relationship with h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Educational Progressivism
Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''progressive'' was engaged to distinguish this education from the traditional curricula of the 19th century, which was rooted in classical preparation for the university and strongly differentiated by social class. By contrast, progressive education finds its roots in modern experience. Most progressive education programs have these qualities in common: * Emphasis on learning by doing – hands-on projects, expeditionary learning, experiential learning * Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units * Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking * Group work and development of social skills * Understanding and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote knowledge * Collaborative and cooperative learning projects * Educa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, ''The Fountainhead''. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel ''Atlas Shrugged''. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge; she rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism and rejected altruism. In politics, she condemned the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Slumdog Millionaire
''Slumdog Millionaire'' is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel '' Q & A'' (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel as Jamal, and filmed in India, the film was directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director. As a contestant on '' Kaun Banega Crorepati'', an Indian-Hindi version of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,'' Jamal surprises everyone by being able to answer every question correctly, winning . Accused of cheating, Jamal recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he is able to answer each question correctly. After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, ''Slumdog Millionaire'' had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in Ind ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Q & A (novel)
''Q & A'' was published in 2005 and is the first novel of Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup. It tells the rags to riches story of Ram Mohammad Thomas, a young waiter who becomes the biggest quiz show winner in history, only to be arrested and jailed on accusations that he cheated. His lawyer is the only thing standing between him and the producers' and police' attempt to force a false confession that would deprive him of the prize. The only way to prove his innocence is by sharing the episodes of his life and travels in India which explain where and how he learned the answers to the quiz show questions. The book was loosely adapted into the multiple Oscar Award, Oscar-winning 2008 film ''Slumdog Millionaire'', which features a new main character named Jamal and his brother Salim. Inspirations The idea for the story came from a report in a local newspaper, about children living in the Indian slums using mobile phones and the internet. At around the same time, Charles Ingram, a Briti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. Comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia, it shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be Boundaries between the continents of Earth#Asia and Europe, separated from Asia by the drainage divide, watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural (river), Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and E ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |