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Edinburgh Cowgate Fire
The Cowgate ( Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the elevated streets of South Bridge and George IV Bridge. It meets the Grassmarket at its west end and Holyrood Road to the east. History Early history The Cowgate developed around 1330 and represented Edinburgh’s first municipal extension. The original settlement on the Cowgate was concentrated on the south side because of a burn on the north, though that was filled in around 1490 and built upon. Archaeological excavations in the 2006 and 2007 found a boundary ditch, dating to the 14th century, near St Patrick's Church which might have been the full extent of the Cowgate at that time. The street's name is recorded from 1428, in various spellings, as Cowgate and in 1498 as Via Vaccarum. It is derived from the medieval practice of herd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pleasance
The Pleasance is a theatre, bar, sports and recreation complex in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on a street of the same name. It is owned by the University of Edinburgh, and for nine months of the year it serves the Edinburgh University Students' Association as a societies centre, sports complex, student union bar and entertainment venue. Every August, it is converted into one of the main venues for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Pleasance Theatre Trust operate the venue during this time, and in this guise the complex is sometimes referred to as Pleasance Edinburgh to distinguish it from a sister venue, also called The Pleasance, that the trust opened in Islington in London in 1995. Facilities The Pleasance complex consists of a number of separate buildings, with the main block situated around a central, cobbled courtyard. The main block houses two bars, The Pleasance Bar and The Cabaret Bar, situated in adjoining rooms with a removable partition in-between. Upstairs fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' of Oxford University Press defines artificial intelligence as: the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. AI applications include advanced web search engines (e.g., Google), recommendation systems (used by YouTube, Amazon and Netflix), understanding human speech (such as Siri and Alexa), self-driving cars (e.g., Tesla), automated decision-making and competing at the highest level in strategic game systems (such as chess and Go). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Wightman
Andrew Dearg Wightman is a Scottish Independent politician, who served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region from 2016 to 2021. He was elected as a member of the Scottish Greens, but resigned from the party in 2020 and served out the rest of his term as an independent. He is also a writer and researcher best known for his work on land ownership in Scotland. He is the author of ''Who Owns Scotland'' (1996) and ''The Poor Had No Lawyers'' (2015). Background Wightman was born in Dundee. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1985 with a degree in forestry. He was a co-founder of Reforesting Scotland, an environmental charity dedicated to substantial reforestation and the promotion of a sustainable forest culture. He began his career as a scientist working on renewable energy at the University of Aberdeen and then as a Projects Officer with Central Scotland Countryside Trust. He was appointed as the first development officer of Reforestin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Library, Edinburgh
Central Library in Edinburgh, Scotland, opened in 1890, was the first public library building in the city. Edinburgh Central library comprises six libraries: Lending, Reference, Music, Art and Design, Edinburgh and Scottish and the Children's Library. History Today there are 28 public libraries in Edinburgh but, as the first to open in the Scottish capital, the creation of Central Library was funded with £50,000 by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.Central Library City of Edinburgh CouncilEdinburgh Public Libraries 1890–1950, p. 2Armstrong & White, p. 3 At the opening ceremony a telegram from Carnegie was read out stating: "We trust that this Library is to grow in usefullness year after year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of World Heritage Sites In The United Kingdom And The British Overseas Territories
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. There are 33 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories. The UNESCO list contains one designated site in both England and Scotland (the Frontiers of the Roman Empire) plus eighteen exclusively in England, five in Scotland, four in Wales, one in Northern Ireland, and one in each of the overseas territories of Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Pitcairn Islands, and Saint Helena. There is an additional site partly in the UK territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, but is regarded to be part of Cyprus's list. The first sites in the UK to be inscribed on the World Heritage List were Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast; Durham Castle and Cathedral; Ironbridge Gorge; Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vennel
A vennel is a passageway between the gables of two buildings which can in effect be a minor street in Scotland and the north east of England, particularly in the old centre of Durham. Etymology In Scotland, the term originated in royal burghs created in the twelfth century, the word deriving from the Old French word ''venelle'' meaning "alley" or "lane". Unlike a tenement entry to private property, known as a "close", a vennel was a public way leading from a typical high street to the open ground beyond the burgage plots. The Latin form is ''venella'', related to the English word "funnel". Names The Scottish burghs established by David I (see Economy section of Scotland in the High Middle Ages) drew upon the burgh model of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and used a number of French or Germanic words for townscape features. Aberdeen City Council refers to vennels having been part of the old town and historical records suggest Arbroath had a vennel. In the City of Durham, like Newcastle, pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibis Hotel
The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word for this group of birds. It also occurs in the scientific name of the cattle egret (''Bubulcus ibis'') mistakenly identified in 1757 as being the sacred ibis. Description Ibises all have long, downcurved bills, and usually feed as a group, probing mud for food items, usually crustaceans. They are monogamous and highly territorial while nesting and feeding. Most nest in trees, often with spoonbills or herons. All extant species are capable of flight, but two extinct genera were flightless, namely the kiwi-like ''Apteribis'' in the Hawaiian Islands, and the peculiar '' Xenicibis'' in Jamaica. The word ''ibis'' comes from Latin ''ibis'' from Greek ἶβις ''ibis'' from Egyptian ''hb'', ''hīb''. Beekes, R. S. P. (2009) ''Etymological Dic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
