Barnstars
A barnstar (or barn star, primitive star, or Pennsylvania star) is a painted object or image, often in the shape of a five-pointed star but occasionally in a circular "wagon wheel" style, used to decorate a barn in some parts of the United States. They have no structural purpose but may be considered lucky, akin to a horseshoe mounted over a doorway. They are especially common in Pennsylvania and frequently seen in German-American farming communities. They are also found in Canada, particularly in the province of Ontario. History Barnstars were meant to represent the mark of the builder but became more frequently used for aesthetic purposes and were added to the building after construction was complete. Enthusiasts have traced a number of wooden barnstars to individual builders in the Pennsylvania area, where numerous examples can still be seen. Barnstars were used in the United States during the 18th century and as late as 1870 in Pennsylvania, where their popularity increased ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or limited to use within an organization for maintaining its internal knowledge base. Its name derives from the first user-editable website called " WikiWikiWeb," with "wiki" being a Hawaiian word meaning "quick." Wikis are powered by wiki software, also known as wiki engines. Being a form of content management system, these differ from other web-based systems such as blog software or static site generators in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader. Wikis have little inherent structure, allowing one to emerge according to the needs of the users. Wiki engines usually allow content to be written using a lightweight markup language and sometimes edited with the help of a rich-text editor. There are dozens of differ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luck
Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to random and non-random natural and artificial processes, and that even improbable events can happen by random chance. In this view, the epithet "lucky" or "unlucky" is a descriptive label that refers to an event's positivity, negativity, or improbability. Supernatural interpretations of luck consider it to be an attribute of a person or object, or the result of a favorable or unfavorable view of a deity upon a person. These interpretations often ''prescribe'' how luckiness or unluckiness can be obtained, such as by carrying a lucky charm or offering sacrifices or prayers to a deity. Saying someone is "born lucky" may hold different meanings, depending on the interpretation: it could simply mean that they have been bor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fasteners
A fastener (US English) or fastening (UK English) is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Steel fasteners are usually made of stainless steel, carbon steel, or alloy steel. Other methods of joining materials, some of which may create permanent joints, include: crimping, welding, soldering, brazing, taping, gluing, cement, or the use of other adhesives. Force may also be used, such as with magnets, vacuum (like suction cups), or even friction (like sticky pads). Some types of woodworking joints make use of separate internal reinforcements, such as dowels or biscuits, which in a sense can be considered fasteners within the scope of the joint system, although on their own they are not general-purpose fasteners. Furniture supplied in flat-pack form often uses cam dowels locke ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Building Materials
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings and other structures, like bridges. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. The manufacturing of building materials is an established industry in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific specialty trades, such as carpentry, Building insulation, insulation, plumbing, and roofing material, roofing work. They provide the make-up of :Human habitats, habitats and architecture, structures including homes. The total cost of building materials In history, there are trends in building materials from being natural to becoming more human-made and Composite material, composite; biodegradable to imperishable; indigenous (local) to being transported globally; repairable to disposable; chosen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Architectural Elements
:''The following Outline (list), outline is an overview and topical guide to architecture:'' Architecture – the process and the product of designing and constructing buildings. Architectural works with a certain indefinable combination of design quality and external circumstances may become cultural symbols and / or be considered works of art. What type of thing is architecture? Architecture can be described as all of the following: * Academic discipline – focused study in one academic field or profession. A discipline incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with the given discipline. * Buildings – buildings and similar structures, the product of architecture, are referred to as architecture. * One of the arts – as an art form, architecture is an outlet of human expression, that is usually influenced by culture and which in turn helps to change culture. Archit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Visual Motifs
The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to perception, detect and process light). The system detects, phototransduction, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an imaging, image and build a mental model of the surrounding environment. The visual system is associated with the eye and functionally divided into the optics, optical system (including cornea and crystalline lens, lens) and the nervous system, neural system (including the retina and visual cortex). The visual system performs a number of complex tasks based on the ''image forming'' functionality of the eye, including the formation of monocular images, the neural mechanisms underlying stereopsis and assessment of distances to (depth perception) and between objects, motion perception, pattern recognition, accurate motor coordination under visual guidance, and colour vision. Together, these facilitate higher order tasks, such as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Star (polygon)
In geometry, a star polygon is a type of non-convex polygon. Regular star polygons have been studied in depth; while star polygons in general appear not to have been formally defined, Decagram (geometry)#Related figures, certain notable ones can arise through truncation operations on regular simple or star polygons. Branko Grünbaum identified two primary usages of this terminology by Johannes Kepler, one corresponding to the regular star polygons with List of self-intersecting polygons, intersecting edges that do not generate new vertices, and the other one to the isotoxal Concave polygon, concave simple polygons.Grünbaum & Shephard (1987). Tilings and Patterns. Section 2.5 Polygram (geometry), Polygrams include polygons like the pentagram, but also compound figures like the hexagram. One definition of a ''star polygon'', used in turtle graphics, is a polygon having ''q'' ≥ 2 Turn (geometry), turns (''q'' is called the turning number or Density (polygon), density), like in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Red Star
A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. It has been widely used in flags, state emblems, monuments, ornaments, and logos. A golden star or yellow star is also a closely-associated symbol to the red star in the context of contemporary China and Vietnam, similarly representing socialism, communism, and national unity. Some former Warsaw Pact nations have passed laws banning it, describing it as a symbol of far-left totalitarian ideology. The red star has also been used in a non-communist context and before the emergence of this movement, in symbols of countries and states since the 19th century. It appears for example on the flags of New Zealand and the U.S. state of California. The red star has also been used as logo by private agencies and corporations, such as the oil giant ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Moravian Star
A Moravian star () is an illuminated decoration used during the Christian liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphanytide, Epiphany representing the Star of Bethlehem pointing towards the infant Jesus. The Moravian Church teaches: The Moravian star is popular in places where there are Moravian Christian congregations world wide. The stars take their English language, English name from the Moravian Church, originating in Moravia. In Germany, they are known as Herrnhut stars, named after the Moravian Mother Community in Saxony, Germany, where they were first commercially produced. With the rise of ecumenism, the use of the Moravian star has spread beyond the Moravian Church to other Christian denominations, such as the Lutheran Church and Catholic Church, as well as the Methodist Church. History The first Moravian star is known to have originated in the 1830s at the Moravian Boys' School in Niesky, Germany, as a geometry lesson or project. The first mention is of a 110 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pow-wow (folk Magic)
''Braucherei'' or ''Brauche'' ( Pennsylvania Dutch language), in English called powwow or pow-wow, is a system of Christian folk practice originating in the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 1700s. ''Braucherei'' includes a range of healing rituals used primarily for treating ailments in humans, livestock, and crops, as well as securing physical and spiritual protection, and other boons. Along with folk plant medicine, ''braucherei'' forms one of two traditional healing practices among the Pennsylvania Dutch, although some researchers consider them to be the one and the same.Kriebel 2017: 341: "... the two characteristic forms of folk medical practice among Pennsylvania Germans-powwowing (known in the Pennsylvania German dialect as ''Braucherei'', or ''Brauche'') and herbal medicine. Some scholars would not distinguish the two, since powwowers have frequently employed plant substances as material components in spells and used herbal cures as an adjunct to their supernatur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |