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Barnstar
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] |
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] |
Moravian Star
A Moravian star (german: Herrnhuter Stern) is an illuminated Advent, Christmas, or Epiphany decoration popular in Germany and in places in Europe and America where there are Moravian congregations, notably the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and the area surrounding Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The stars take their 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. 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-point star for the 50th anniversary of the ''Paedagogium'' (classical school for boys) in Niesky. Around 1880, Peter Verbeek, an alumnus of the school, began making the stars and their instructions available for sale through his bookstore. His son Harry went on to found the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anchor Plate
An anchor plate, floor plate or wall washer is a large plate or washer connected to a tie rod or bolt. Anchor plates are used on exterior walls of masonry buildings, for structural reinforcement against lateral bowing. Anchor plates are made of cast iron, sometimes wrought iron or steel, and are often made in a decorative style. They are commonly found in many older cities, towns and villages in Europe and in more recent cities with substantial 18th- and 19th-century brick construction, such as New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Charleston, South Carolina; and in older earthquake-prone cities such as San Francisco, as well as across all of Europe. One popular style is the ''star anchor,'' an anchor plate cast or wrought in the shape of a five-pointed star. Other names and styles of anchor plate include earthquake washer, triangular washer, S-iron, and T-head. In the United Kingdom, pattress plate is the term for circular restraints, tie bar being an alternativ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MeatballWiki
MeatballWiki is a wiki dedicated to online communities, network culture, and hypermedia. According to founder Sunir Shah, it ran on "a hacked-up version of UseModWiki". In April 2013, after several spam attacks and a period of downtime, the site was made read-only. In March 2021, the site was de-spammed and reopened for editing as part of a rebuilding effort alongside Ward's Wiki and Community Wiki. Founding MeatballWiki was started in 2000 by Sunir Shah, a forum administrator from Ontario, Canada, on Clifford Adams's Internet domain usemod.com. MeatballWiki was created as a place for discussion about Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb and its operation, which were beyond the scope of WikiWikiWeb. As Sunir Shah stated in the WikiWikiWeb page referring to MeatballWiki: "Community discussions about how to run the community itself should be left here. Abstract discussions, or objective analyses of community are encouraged on MeatballWiki." Shah created this site "as a friendly for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily Dot
''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newspaper", focuses on topics such as streaming entertainment, geek culture, memes, gadgets and social issues, such as LGBT, gender and race. In addition, an e-commerce arm produces branded video for advertisers and sells items from an online marketplace. History ''The Daily Dot'' was established in 2011 by Nicholas White, whose goal was to cover Internet communities such as Reddit and Tumblr in the same manner as hometown newspapers cover their own communities. White's family has been in the newspaper business since buying the '' Sandusky Register'' in Ohio in 1869, and White was a reporter and executive with the family's media company before establishing the site. White launched ''The Daily Dot'' with $600,000 and a handful of fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Architectural Elements
:''The following 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. Architecture is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visual Motifs
The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the ability to detect and process visible light) as well as enabling the formation of several non-image photo response functions. It detects and interprets information from the optical spectrum perceptible to that species to "build a representation" of the surrounding environment. The visual system carries out a number of complex tasks, including the reception of light and the formation of monocular neural representations, colour vision, the neural mechanisms underlying stereopsis and assessment of distances to and between objects, the identification of a particular object of interest, motion perception, the analysis and integration of visual information, pattern recognition, accurate motor coordination under visual guidance, and more. The neu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, certain notable ones can arise through truncation operations on regular simple and star polygons. Branko Grünbaum identified two primary definitions used by Johannes Kepler, one being the regular star polygons with intersecting edges that don't generate new vertices, and the second being simple isotoxal concave polygons. The first usage is included in polygrams which includes 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 2 or more turns (turning number and density), like in spirolaterals.Abelson, Harold, diSessa, Andera, 1980, ''Turtle Geometry'', MIT Press, p.24 Etymology Star polygon names combine a numeral prefix, such as ''penta-'', with the Greek suffix '' -gram'' (in this case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. One interpretation sees the five points as representing the five fingers of the worker's hand, as well as the five populated continents (counting the Americas as one). A lesser-known suggestion is that in communist symbolism, the five points on the star were intended to represent the five social groups that would lead Russia to communism: the youth, the military, the industrial labourers, the agricultural workers or peasantry and the intelligentsia. In Soviet heraldry, the red star symbolized the Red Army and military service, as opposed to the hammer and sickle, which symbolized peaceful labour. Different countries across Europe treat the symbol very di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pow-wow (folk Magic)
Powwow, also called ''Brauche'' or ''Braucherei'' in the Pennsylvania Dutch language, is a vernacular system of North American traditional medicine and folk magic originating in the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Blending aspects of folk religion with healing charms, "powwowing" includes a wide range of healing rituals used primarily for treating ailments in humans and livestock, as well as securing physical and spiritual protection, and good luck in everyday affairs. Although the word "powwow" is Native American, these ritual traditions are of European origin and were brought to colonial Pennsylvania in the transatlantic migrations of German-speaking people from Central Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A practitioner is sometimes referred to as a "Powwower" or , but terminology varies by region. These folk traditions continue to the present day in both rural and urban settings, and have spread across North America. Origins and practices Early colonial Pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hex Sign
Hex signs are a form of Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, related to fraktur, found in the Fancy Dutch tradition in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Barn paintings, usually in the form of "stars in circles", began to appear on the landscape in the early 19th century and became widespread decades later when commercial ready-mixed paint became readily available. By the 1950s commercialized hex signs, aimed at the tourist market, became popular and these often include stars, compass roses, stylized birds known as distelfinks, hearts, tulips, or a tree of life. Two schools of thought exist on the meaning of hex signs. One school ascribes a talismanic nature to the signs; the other sees them as purely decorative. Both schools recognize that there are sometimes superstitions associated with certain hex sign themes and neither ascribes strong magical power to them. The Amish do not use hex signs. Form and use Painted barn stars in circular borders are a common sight on Pennsylvania Dutch barns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pentagram
A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around the five points creates a similar symbol referred to as the pentacle, which is used widely by Wiccans and in paganism, or as a sign of life and connections. The word "pentagram" refers only to the five-pointed star, not the surrounding circle of a pentacle. Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia. Christians once commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus. Today the symbol is widely used by the Wiccans, witches, and pagans. The pentagram has magical associations. Many people who practice neopaganism wear jewelry incorporating the symbol. The word ''pentagram'' comes from the Greek word πεντάγραμμον (''pentagrammon''), from πέντε (''pente''), "five" + γραμμή (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
