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From what I heard they got so much flak about it that they sort of retracted their statements in a way about the song And not only that but Blender s folded and we re still here
When asked about why the song was listed as 1 on the review the editor of Blender magazine Craig Marks referenced the line of the song Marconi plays the mamba by asking
Who is Marconi And what is the mamba The mamba is the deadliest snake in the world so he must have meant the mambo but it sounds so much like mamba that every lyric web site writes it that way It makes sense neither way
The Richmond Times Dispatch listed other songs by Starship that would have made more sense for being on the top of the list than We Built This City concluding
No no They chose the song that references Marconi the father of the radio The song that inserted a cool snippet of DJ chatter from the band s beloved San Francisco The song that found Grace Slick enunciating the phrase corporation games with nutty abandon
In 2011 a Rolling Stone magazine online readers poll named We Built This City as the worst song of the 1980s The song s winning margin was so large that the magazine reported it could be the biggest blow out victory in the history of the Rolling Stone Readers Poll
In August 2016 Gentlemen s Quarterly magazine declared this song as the worst of all time referring to it as the most detested song in human history The article covered Bernie Taupin s role in writing an early version of the song the backlash against a video that no one liked and Grace Slick s inconsistent statements about whether she liked it or not
A ham and cheese sandwich is a common type of sandwich It is made by putting cheese and sliced ham between two slices of bread The bread is sometimes buttered and or toasted Vegetables like lettuce tomato onion or pickle slices can also be included Various kinds of mustard and mayonnaise are also common
Sliced bread sliced cheese and sliced cooked ham are very readily available in Western supermarkets and as a result ham and cheese sandwiches are quick and easy to prepare They are a common component of a packed lunch
As recalled by ballpark concessionaire Harry Stevens in a 1924 interview in 1894 ham and cheese sandwiches were the only food sold in New York baseball parks frankfurters were introduced in 1909
An Englishwoman writing in 1923 of her passage through Ellis Island on a trip to the US noted
Richard E Byrd took ham and cheese sandwiches on his 1926 polar flight as did 1927 transatlantic fliers Chamberlin and Levine
The origin of the ham and cheese sandwich has been debated for a number of years by culinary intellectuals The leading theory as to who first started to produce a ham cheese and bread dish is mentioned in The Larousse Gastronomique 1961 Here it notes that Patrick Connolly an 18th century Irish immigrant to England sold a bread dish which
combined the remains of pig cured and sliced with a topping of Leicester cheese and a kiss of egg yolk sauce a form of mayonnaise in a round bread roll The dish was rather unimaginatively known as a Connolly and is still sometimes referred to as this in some parts of the Midlands in the UK
In the UK a common addition to a ham and cheese sandwich is pickle a sweet vinegary chutney originally by Branston the snack is then known as a ham cheese and pickle sandwich
In French cuisine a croque monsieur is a type of ham and cheese sandwich It is topped with cheese and baked or fried
The Last One is the series finale of the television sitcom Friends The episode serves as the seventeenth and eighteenth episode of season ten the episode s two parts were classified as two separate episodes It was written by series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman and directed by executive producer Kevin S Bright The series finale first aired on NBC in the United States on May 6 2004 when it was watched by 659 million viewers making it the most watched entertainment telecast in six years and the fourth most watched overall television series finale in US history as well as the most watched episode from any television series throughout the decade 2000s on US television In Canada the finale aired simultaneously on May 6 2004 on Global and was viewed by 516 million viewers becoming the highest viewed episode of the series and also becoming highest viewed and highest rated episode ever in Canada for a sitcom
The series finale closes several long running storylines Ross Geller David Schwimmer confesses his love for Rachel Green Jennifer Aniston and they decide to resume their relationship and Monica Geller Courteney Cox and Chandler Bing Matthew Perry adopt twins and move to the suburbs The episode s final scene shows the group leaving their apartments for the final time and going to Central Perk for one last cup of coffee
Prior to writing the episode Crane Kauffman and Bright watched finales from other sitcoms for inspiration Kauffman found that she liked the ones that stayed true to the series Filming took place at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank California part one was taped on January 16 and part two on January 23 The finale was well received by critics and the cast members
Phoebe Buffay Lisa Kudrow and Joey Tribbiani Matt LeBlanc pack the belongings of Monica and Chandler who have accompanied Erica Anna Faris to the hospital Rachel leaves Ross bedroom after their apparent reunion in the previous episode Erica gives birth to twins much to the surprise of Monica and Chandler who were expecting only one child At his apartment Joey shows Phoebe his house warming gift for Monica and Chandler a chick and duckling to replace the ones that died Ross arrives and confesses to the pair that he slept with Rachel Rachel emerges from her bedroom and to his disappointment tells Ross that their night together was the perfect way to say goodbye
Later at the Central Perk caf Phoebe convinces Ross to tell Rachel how he feels about her before she leaves for her new job in Paris As he is about to tell her Central Perk manager Gunther James Michael Tyler confesses his love for Rachel Back at Monica and Chandler s apartment Ross decides not to tell Rachel for fear of rejection She prepares to leave to catch her flight but waits long enough for Monica and Chandler to return with the twins named Erica after their biological mother and Jack after Monica s father After Rachel leaves Ross has a change of heart and Phoebe takes him in her taxi to follow Rachel to the airport
Joey returns to his apartment to fetch the chick and the duck he was hiding but finds they have become trapped in the foosball table Chandler and Joey decide to break it open when they can not find any other way of getting the birds out Phoebe s reckless driving gets her and Ross to JFK Airport and after buying a ticket to get past security they search the information boards for Rachel s flight number When they can not locate her flight on any of the information boards Ross calls and checks the number with Monica but discovers they are at the wrong airport Ross and Phoebe drove to JFK while Rachel was flying out of nearby Newark Airport Phoebe phones Rachel who has already boarded her flight to stall her for time When a passenger Jim Rash overhears Phoebe saying there is a problem with the fictitious left phalange of the plane he gets off the plane prompting everyone else to leave Chandler and Joey who are emotionally attached to the foosball table find they are unable to bear breaking it open so Monica nonchalantly offers to do it for them After they retrieve the birds Chandler suggests Joey keeps them
Phoebe and Ross arrive at the airport as Rachel boards the plane again Ross tells her he loves her but she is unable to deal with his confession and gets on the plane anyway Ross returns home dejected and finds a message from Rachel on the phone She explains her actions and decides to get off the plane but the message cuts off Ross panickingly tries fixing the answering machine wondering to himself out loud if she got off the plane From behind him Rachel says she did They kiss and get back together for good both agreeing that this is where they want to be The following morning the friends gather in Monica and Chandler s empty apartment With some time remaining before Monica and Chandler leave for their new house the six all leave their keys to the apartment on the kitchen counter and decide to go for one last cup of coffee together to which Chandler sarcastically quips Where The final scene is a shot of the apartment panning round slowly from the living space to the front door
The series creators completed the first draft of the hour long finale in January 2004 four months prior to its airing on May 6 Before writing the episode David Crane Marta Kauffman and Kevin S Bright decided to watch the series finales of other sitcoms paying attention to what worked and what did not Kauffman found that they liked the ones which stayed true to the series and they found the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to be the gold standard The writers had difficulty writing the finale and spent several days thinking about the final scene without being able to write a word Crane said that they did not want to do something high concept or take the show out of the show
The music playing as the camera pans across the empty apartment at the end of the episode is Embryonic Journey by Jefferson Airplane The song Yellow Ledbetter by the band Pearl Jam is also featured in the episode after Rachel boards the plane for the first time making it the first Pearl Jam song to be licensed for a television show A spokesperson for the group said it was simply a matter of the show s producers asking permission
The episode was filmed in Los Angeles California on Stage 24 at Warner Bros Studios where Friends had been filmed since its second season The first part was taped on January 16 and the second on January 23 2004 After the series finale Stage 24 was renamed The Friends Stage
A month before the filming of the final episode Aniston said that with each episode it got harder just to read the lines She explained that the cast was all just nerves and raw emotions No one knows how to feel We may need to be sedated on the last night The producers promised a tearful ending and the cast admitted their crying was not faked when they filmed their scenes LeBlanc revealed it had been too much for him and the rest of the cast he said Kudrow started crying first and when he looked at Aniston and Cox they also appeared emotional Schwimmer who LeBlanc thought was the consummate professional was also upset so LeBlanc just lost it Maggie Wheeler who was Chandler s on and off girlfriend Janice told People the entire cast had to go back and have their makeup redone before starting and that Perry broke the tension by saying Somebody is gon na get fired Perry told the New York Daily News that he did not cry but I felt like I was about to for like seven hours
Although it was planned that some key scenes of the episode would be filmed without an audience in order to avoid leaks of plot spoilers the producers decided not to worry about the issue and filmed it all in front of the live studio audience The producers also instigated the rumor that multiple endings would be filmed in fact only one was planned and shot
At the start of each Friends episode filming the cast would ordinarily be introduced to the studio audience one at a time but this time the cast headed out for their precurtain bow together That made me cry said Diane Newman who was the script supervisor of the show Among the specially invited audience of the taping were Hank Azaria who played Phoebe s scientist boyfriend in several episodes over the years David Arquette who filmed his then wife Cox and the others backstage with a video camera and Wheeler Missing was Brad Pitt Aniston s then husband Pitt told the producers he wanted to be surprised when the finale aired on television Although some guests were invited around 75 of the studio audience were ordinary members of the public so that their reactions would be congruous with the rest of the series However friends family and colleagues of the cast and crew served as extras throughout the episode
NBC heavily promoted the series finale which was preceded by weeks of hype The top price for a 30 second commercial during the US broadcast was approximately 1 million USD Viewing parties were organized by local NBC affiliates around the United States including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen It was shown in New York City where over 3000 people watched it on big screens in parks The finale was the subject of two episodes of Dateline NBC one of which ran for two hours Prior to the airing of the episode a one hour retrospective of clips from previous episodes was shown Following the finale The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends Central Perk cafe which featured the series cast as guests The advertising rates for the finale averaged 2 million for 30 seconds of commercial time This currently remains as the largest advertising rate ever for a sitcom breaking the previous record held by the Seinfeld finale at 17 million
The finale was watched by 659 million American viewers making it the most watched entertainment telecast in six years and the most watched episode of the decade 2000s on US television The Friends finale was the fourth most watched overall series finale in US television history behind the finales of M A S H Cheers and Seinfeld which were watched by 1059 844 and 763 million viewers respectively The retrospective episode was watched by under 36 million viewers and the finale was the second most watched television show of the year behind the Super Bowl
The episode was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards at the 56th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding MultiCamera Sound Mixing for a Series or Special and Outstanding MultiCamera Picture Editing for a Series but lost to the final season of Frasier in both categories
Robert Bianco of USA Today described the finale as entertaining and satisfying and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while showcasing each of the stars Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting but felt that their characters reunion felt a bit too neat even if it was what most of the show s legions of fans wanted Newsday s Noel Holston called the episode sweet and dumb and satisfying while Roger Catlin of The Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be surprised at how laughless the affair could be and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters
An editorial in USA Today highlighted the view of many critics who found problem with the aging cast commenting Friends was getting creaky even as it remained popular Heather Havrilesky of Saloncom said that despite the nauseating hype and the disappointing season and the lackluster finale it s important to remember what a great show this was for such a very long time Ken Parish Perkins of the Fort Worth Star Telegram gave the finale a B grade calling it more touching than comical more satisfying in terms of closure than knee slappingly funny
The cast members reportedly got together in Los Angeles to watch the finale It was well received by the main cast who were confident that the fans would have the same reaction David Schwimmer said It s exactly what I had hoped We all end up with a sense of a new beginning and the audience has a sense that it s a new chapter in the lives of all these characters At the taping of the episode the cast and crew passed around yearbooks custom made by the production staff and signed them for each other The cast gave the producers inscribed Cartier SA watches while the producers gave the cast Neil Lane jewelry As the sets were broken down the cast and crew each got a chunk of the street outside Central Perk in a glass box as a keepsake
There were 3 separate wrap parties a dinner at the Aniston Pitt residence on January 19 2004 a sit down at cast hangout Il Sole in West Hollywood on January 22 and a big party for 1000 guests on January 24 at Los Angeles Park Plaza Hotel At the party at the Park Plaza Hotel The Rembrandts performed the theme song of Friends I ll Be There for You and the cast gave a reenactment of the pilot episode s first scene
Miracles is a song written by Marty Balin and originally recorded by Jefferson Starship appearing on their 1975 album Red Octopus
Miracles peaked at number 3 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 making it the highest charting single the band ever recorded under the name Jefferson Starship and also charting higher than any single the band had recorded in its previous incarnation as Jefferson Airplane However the band would go on to have three number 1 hits under its later incarnation as Starship
The song was inspired in part by the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba whose followers believe him to have been a miracle worker It was also inspired in part by a woman Balin was in love with at the time According to Jeff Tamarkin s book Got a Revolution The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane Balin labored over the song for some time and slowly but deliberately crafted it However author Robert Yehling has written that Balin wrote the song in 30 minutes or wrote the lyrics in 45 minutes According to Balin when he presented the song to the rest of the band members Everybody went I do nt know about that that s pretty weird man I was really worried nobody liked it But I told myself after about five days Maybe they re wrong
In order to secure more radio airplay for the song the full length album version of Miracles 6 minutes 52 seconds long was cut by more than half its length for the single which was released at a length of 3 minutes 25 seconds This edit was done not only for length but to remove the sexual reference in the line I had a taste of the real world when I went down on you girl
Commenting on the band s recording of Miracles Jeff Tamarkin wrote Larry Cox nailed the production there is nt a wasted out of place note Strings glisten the keyboard sound is contemporary and Grace Slick and Paul Kantner s harmonies are relatively traditional David Freiberg came up with the memorable signature organ riff that opens the song and Craig Chaquico with a fresh supply of delicious guitar sounds Marty is at his most open crooning his words of love like he has nt in years without a hint of irony or awkwardness he uses the word baby at least 25 times
Upon the single s release Billboard magazine listed Miracles among its Top Single Picks indicating that the review panel predicted it to reach the top 30 of the Hot 100 The magazine commented With a top 10 LP under their belts the rejuvenated Starship with Marty Balin back as a full fledged member come up with the kind of easy rocker that highlighted the early Airplane days Vocal interchanges between Balin and Grace Slick the high point of the record
Reviewing a Balin solo concert in 1981 New York Times critic Stephen Holden referred to Miracles as Balin s little masterpiece of pop pillow talk
Dave Marsh and James Bernard listed Miracles among the Best Songs to Pass the Censor in The New Book of Rock Lists In the same book they also described I had a taste of the real world When I went down on you girl as the Most Off Color Line in the LP Version of a Number One Hit although Miracles did not in fact hit 1
In 1998 Balin received a plaque from Broadcast Music Incorporated a performing rights organization which monitors music performances on radio and elsewhere recognizing that Miracles had achieved 2 million performances
William Ruhlmann writing in All Music Guide Required Listening Classic Rock commented T here can be little doubt that it was Balin s irresistible ballad Miracles the biggest hit single in the Jefferson Whatever catalog that propelled Red Octopus to the top of the charts This must have been sweet vindication for Balin who founded Jefferson Airplane but then drifted away from the group as it veered away from his musical vision Now the collective was incorporating his taste without quite integrating it Miracles with its strings and sax solo by nonband member Irv Cox was hardly a characteristic Airplane Starship track
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide published in 2004 stated that with Marty Balin s Miracles Octopus s massive hit the band began shifting toward schmaltz Balin now sounded like a lounge singer
Philip Dodd in The Book of Rock From the 1950s to Today described Miracles as magnificent
The 2005 film The Family Stone along with Count on Me
The 2006 film Crank It was used in the last 45 seconds in the scene where main character Chev Chelios Jason Statham falls to his apparent death
In 2011 in the TV series Supernatural S06E19 Mommy Dearest
A digit is a numeric symbol such as 2 or 5 used in combinations such as 25 to represent numbers such as the number 25 in positional numeral systems The name digit comes from the fact that the ten digits Latin digiti meaning fingers of the hands correspond to the ten symbols of the common base 10 numeral system ie the decimal ancient Latin adjective decem meaning ten digits
In a given numeral system if the base is an integer the number of digits required will always be equal to the absolute value of the base For example the decimal system base 10 has ten digits 0 through to 9 whereas binary base 2 has two digits 0 and 1
In a basic digital system a numeral is a sequence of digits which may be of arbitrary length Each position in the sequence has a place value and each digit has a value The value of the numeral is computed by multiplying each digit in the sequence by its place value and summing the results
Each digit in a number system represents an integer For example in decimal the digit 1 represents the integer one and in the hexadecimal system the letter A represents the number ten A positional number system must have a digit representing the integers from zero up to but not including the radix of the number system
Thus in the positional decimal system the numbers 0 to 9 can be expressed using their respective numerals 0 to 9 in the rightmost units position The number 12 can be expressed with the numeral 2 in the units position and with the numeral 1 in the tens position to the left of the 2 while the number 312 can be expressed by three numerals 3 in the hundreds position 1 in the tens position and 2 in the units position
The Hindu Arabic numeral system or the Hindu numeral system uses a decimal separator commonly a period in English or a comma in other European languages to denote the ones place or units place which has a place value one Each successive place to the left of this has a place value equal to the place value of the previous digit times the base Similarly each successive place to the right of the separator has a place value equal to the place value of the previous digit divided by the base For example in the numeral 1034 written in base 10
The total value of the number is 1 ten 0 ones 3 tenths and 4 hundredths Note that the zero which contributes no value to the number indicates that the 1 is in the tens place rather than the ones place
The place value of any given digit in a numeral can be given by a simple calculation which in itself is a compliment to the logic behind numeral systems The calculation involves the multiplication of the given digit by the base raised by the exponent n 1 where n represents the position of the digit from the separator the value of n is positive but this is only if the digit is to the left of the separator And to the right the digit is multiplied by the base raised by a negative n For example in the number 1034 written in base 10
The first true written positional numeral system is considered to be the Hindu Arabic numeral system This system was established by the 7th century in India but was not yet in its modern form because the use of the digit zero had not yet been widely accepted Instead of a zero a dot was left in the numeral as a placeholder The first widely acknowledged use of zero was in 876 The original numerals were very similar to the modern ones even down to the glyphs used to represent digits
By the 13th century Hindu Arabic numerals were accepted in European mathematical circles Fibonacci used them in his Liber Abaci They began to enter common use in the 15th century By the end of the 20th century virtually all noncomputerized calculations in the world were done with Arabic numerals which have replaced native numeral systems in most cultures
The exact age of the Maya numerals is unclear but it is possible that it is older than the Hindu Arabic system The system was vigesimal base 20 so it has twenty digits The Mayas used a shell symbol to represent zero Numerals were written vertically with the ones place at the bottom The Mayas had no equivalent of the modern decimal separator so their system could not represent fractions
The Thai numeral system is identical to the Hindu Arabic numeral system except for the symbols used to represent digits The use of these digits is less common in Thailand than it once was but they are still used alongside Hindu Arabic numerals
The rod numerals the written forms of counting rods once used by Chinese and Japanese mathematicians are a decimal positional system able to represent not only zero but also negative numbers Counting rods themselves predate the Hindu Arabic numeral system The Suzhou numerals are variants of rod numerals
The binary base 2 octal base 8 and hexadecimal base 16 systems extensively used in computer science all follow the conventions of the Hindu Arabic numeral system The binary system uses only the digits 0 and 1 while the octal system uses the digits from 0 through 7 The hexadecimal system uses all the digits from the decimal system plus the letters A through F which represent the numbers 10 to 15 respectively
The ternary and balanced ternary systems have sometimes been used They are both base 3 systems
Balanced ternary is unusual in having the digit values 1 0 and 1 Balanced ternary turns out to have some useful properties and the system has been used in the experimental Russian Setun computers
Several authors in the last 300 years have noted a facility of positional notation that amounts to a modified decimal representation Some advantages are cited for use of numerical digits that represent negative values In 1840 Augustin Louis Cauchy advocated use of signed digit representation of numbers and in 1928 Florian Cajori presented his collection of references for negative numerals The concept of signed digit representation has also been taken up in computer design
Despite the essential role of digits in describing numbers they are relatively unimportant to modern mathematics Nevertheless there are a few important mathematical concepts that make use of the representation of a number as a sequence of digits
The digital root is the single digit number obtained by summing the digits of a given number then summing the digits of the result and so on until a single digit number is obtained
Casting out nines is a procedure for checking arithmetic done by hand To describe it let f x displaystyle f x represent the digital root of x displaystyle x as described above Casting out nines makes use of the fact that if A B C displaystyle A B C then f f A f B f C displaystyle f f A f B f C In the process of casting out nines both sides of the latter equation are computed and if they are not equal the original addition must have been faulty
Repunits are integers that are represented with only the digit 1 For example 1111 one thousand one hundred and eleven is a repunit Repdigits are a generalization of repunits they are integers represented by repeated instances of the same digit For example 333 is a repdigit The primacy of repunits is of interest to mathematicians
Palindromic numbers are numbers that read the same when their digits are reversed A Lychrel number is a positive integer that never yields a palindromic number when subjected to the iterative process of being added to itself with digits reversed The question of whether there are any Lychrel numbers in base 10 is an open problem in recreational mathematics the smallest candidate is 196
Counting aids especially the use of body parts counting on fingers were certainly used in prehistoric times as today There are many variations Besides counting ten fingers some cultures have counted knuckles the space between fingers and toes as well as fingers The Oksapmin culture of New Guinea uses a system of 27 upper body locations to represent numbers
To preserve numerical information tallies carved in wood bone and stone have been used since prehistoric times Stone age cultures including ancient indigenous American groups used tallies for gambling personal services and trade goods
A method of preserving numeric information in clay was invented by the Sumerians between 8000 and 3500 BC This was done with small clay tokens of various shapes that were strung like beads on a string Beginning about 3500 BC clay tokens were gradually replaced by number signs impressed with a round stylus at different angles in clay tablets originally containers for tokens which were then baked About 3100 BC written numbers were dissociated from the things being counted and became abstract numerals
Between 2700 and 2000 BC in Sumer the round stylus was gradually replaced by a reed stylus that was used to press wedge shaped cuneiform signs in clay These cuneiform number signs resembled the round number signs they replaced and retained the additive sign value notation of the round number signs These systems gradually converged on a common sexagesimal number system this was a place value system consisting of only two impressed marks the vertical wedge and the chevron which could also represent fractions This sexagesimal number system was fully developed at the beginning of the Old Babylonia period about 1950 BC and became standard in Babylonia
Sexagesimal numerals were a mixed radix system that retained the alternating base 10 and base 6 in a sequence of cuneiform vertical wedges and chevrons By 1950 BC this was a positional notation system Sexagesimal numerals came to be widely used in commerce but were also used in astronomical and other calculations This system was exported from Babylonia and used throughout Mesopotamia and by every Mediterranean nation that used standard Babylonian units of measure and counting including the Greeks Romans and Egyptians Babylonian style sexagesimal numeration is still used in modern societies to measure time minutes per hour and angles degrees
In China armies and provisions were counted using modular tallies of prime numbers Unique numbers of troops and measures of rice appear as unique combinations of these tallies A great convenience of modular arithmetic is that it is easy to multiply though quite difficult to add This makes use of modular arithmetic for provisions especially attractive Conventional tallies are quite difficult to multiply and divide In modern times modular arithmetic is sometimes used in digital signal processing
The oldest Greek system was that of the Attic numerals but in the 4th century BC they began to use a quasidecimal alphabetic system see Greek numerals Jews began using a similar system Hebrew numerals with the oldest examples known being coins from around 100 BC
The Roman empire used tallies written on wax papyrus and stone and roughly followed the Greek custom of assigning letters to various numbers The Roman numerals system remained in common use in Europe until positional notation came into common use in the 16th century
The Maya of Central America used a mixed base 18 and base 20 system possibly inherited from the Olmec including advanced features such as positional notation and a zero They used this system to make advanced astronomical calculations including highly accurate calculations of the length of the solar year and the orbit of Venus
The Incan Empire ran a large command economy using quipu tallies made by knotting colored fibers Knowledge of the encodings of the knots and colors was suppressed by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century and has not survived although simple quipu like recording devices are still used in the Andean region
Some authorities believe that positional arithmetic began with the wide use of counting rods in China The earliest written positional records seem to be rod calculus results in China around 400 In particular zero was correctly described by Chinese mathematicians around 932
The modern positional Arabic numeral system was developed by mathematicians in India and passed on to Muslim mathematicians along with astronomical tables brought to Baghdad by an Indian ambassador around 773
From India the thriving trade between Islamic sultans and Africa carried the concept to Cairo Arabic mathematicians extended the system to include decimal fractions and Muammad ibn Ms al wrizm wrote an important work about it in the 9th century The modern Arabic numerals were introduced to Europe with the translation of this work in the 12th century in Spain and Leonardo of Pisa s Liber Abaci of 1201 In Europe the complete Indian system with the zero was derived from the Arabs in the 12th century
The binary system base 2 was propagated in the 17th century by Gottfried Leibniz Leibniz had developed the concept early in his career and had revisited it when he reviewed a copy of the I ching from China Binary numbers came into common use in the 20th century because of computer applications
This Sakoku Edict Sakoku rei of 1635 was a Japanese decree intended to eliminate foreign influence enforced by strict government rules and regulations to impose these ideas It was the third of a series issued by Tokugawa Iemitsu Shogun of Japan from 1623 to 1651 The Edict of 1635 is considered a prime example of the Japanese desire for seclusion The Edict of 1635 was written to the two commissioners of Nagasaki a port city located in southwestern Japan
Before the issuing of the exclusion edicts in 1633 Japanese fascination with European culture brought trade of various goods and commercial success to the country Items such as eyeglasses clocks firearms and artillery were in high demand in Japan and trade began to flourish between the Japanese and Europe
With the exchange of goods came the exchange of ideas as well Christian missionaries such as Francis Xavier were among the first to travel to Japan to teach Catholicism For a time they were encouraged to enlighten the Japanese people and Oda Nobunaga during his reign as military leader of Japan in the 1570s and 1580s encouraged the conversion of the Japanese to Catholicism His hopes of competing with his Buddhist rivals led him to allow Catholic missionary activity in Japan In Kyoto Japan s capital city a large portion of the population had already been converted to Christianity by the seventeenth century
Following Nobunaga was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who ruled over Japan from 1582 to 1598 AntiEuropean attitudes began under Hideyoshi whose suspicion of the Europeans first began with their intimidating appearance their armed ships and sophisticated military power produced doubt and distrust and following the conquest of the Philippines by the Spanish Hideyoshi was convinced they were not to be trusted The true motives of the Europeans came quickly into question