WWII flower class corvette

The Corvette is a type of warship that is known to be small and easy to manoeuver. If you came here lookign for info about the car you can click this text.

Originally, a corvette was defined as a warship larger than a sloop-of-war but smaller than a frigate, and would typically have a single gun deck. During the Age of Sail, corvettes were commonly used to patrol the coast, support large fleets, and engage in minor wars. They were also commonly used for show-the-flag mission. The name corvette was first used in the 1670s when the French army started to use them.

12-18 meters (40-60 feet) was the standard lenght for early corvettes and they measured 40-70 tons burthen. They were lightly armed with 4-8 small guns on the gun deck.

Eventually, larger and larger vessels were included in the term corvette and by the year 1800 some corvettes were over 30 m (100 feet) long and measured 400-600 tons burthen. One of the largest corvettes with sails was the 54 m (176 feet) long USS Constellation; a U.S. corvette built in 1855 and fitted with 24 guns. The sheer size of her made some naval experts refer to her as a frigate rather than a corvette.

As the Age of Sail came to an end, the corvettes changed to suit the new times. The first modern corvettes were the Flower class corvettes, a class of 267 UK Royal Navy vessels named after flowers. The Royal Canadian Navy vessels named after small Canadian cities and towns are also among the very fist modern corvettes. These two classes of corvettes were both used as anti submarine boats used to protect convoys from german subs during the battle of the atlantic.

The Flower class corvettes were originally designed for offshore patrol work and were therefore ill equipped when it came to protecting Allied convoys in the open ocean. A more heavily armed vessel would have been a better anti-aircraft defense and a longer vessel would have handled the conditions on the open sea better. Another problem with the flower class corvettes was that they were only marginally much faster than the transport ships, this was not a big problem at the beginning of that battle for the atlantic but did increasingly become one as german subsmarine got faster and faster. These problems forced the Royal navy to use frigates rather than the flower class corvettes as escort ships. From the smaller ship building yards that couldn’t construct frigates, a new corvette design emerged developed to suit the new needs. The new class was called the castle class and was introduced late in the war and than used well into the 1950s.

The Australian Navy had their own corvettes during WWII called the Bathurst class corvettes. They were minesweepers based on the Royal Navy’s Bangor class minesweepers and named after Australian towns. In total, 60 were commissioned; 36 for the Royal Australian Navy, 20 for the British Admiralty (although crewed by Australians), and 4 for the Indian Navy.

The bathurst class corvettes were as earlier mentioned designed to be mine sweepers but the WWII forced them to be used in a long row of different areas such as anti-submarine warfare, troop transportation, convoy transports and for bombarding enemy positions. It was common that the corvettes where used for mission and task they were not suited for due to their light armor.

However, medicinal plants are not a recent discovery, they have been in use since ancient times. One of the most early civilizations that used medicinal herbs extensively, were the sumerians, over 5000 years ago. They were known to use herbs like caraway and laurel very often.

Ancient Egyptians also used many medicinal herbs like mint, coriander, opium, garlic and many other. Even the Old Testament mentiones the use and cultivation of medicinal herbs like mandrake, caraway, rye, wheat and barley.

Indian and chinese civilizations were also known to use many herbs. The Indian Sushruta Samhita, which is a Sanskrit redaction text on all of the most important factors of ayurvedic medicine mentions over 700 different medicinal herbs, along with preparations from mineral and animal sources. The first Chinese book concerning medicinal herbs, Shennong Bencao Jing, mentioned even more plants – around 365 different plants, along with their uses.

Concerning the western civilization, the most important literary works were left by ancient Greeks and Romans. Theophrastus left the most important Greek book concerning herbal medicine called Historia Plantarum. Even more important was a compendium called Materia Medica, written by Dioscorides, that had more than 500 plants described and remained as one of the most important literary works regarding medicinal herbs.

The ancient civilizations already set the basis of this interesting field of science, and thanks to them and their work, today we have many medications that are based on the knowledge that they set thousands of years ago.

The flower language is one of many things invented during the Victorian Era

The Victorian era was an era of rapid change as the rural society turned into a urban society, it was also a time of contraditions.. A class system that permitted exploitation gave rise to a plethora of social movements, and phenomena such as child labour existed side by side with the widespread cultivation of an outward appearance of dignity and high morals.

Our preconceptions of Victorian era morals are often blurry and few people do for instance know that Queen Victoria drew and collected male nude figure drawings in a time when communication of romantic feelings was so proscribed that courting couples often preferred to use the highly fashionable flower language. The Victorian era was also a period when scientists studied and published articles on the female orgasm, and numerous erotic letters from the period has survived into our time. Written explicit erotica flourished, partly thanks to an increasing literacy rate within the United Kingdom, and there is for instance the famous memoir “My Secret Life” using the penname Walter and “The Pearl, A Magazine of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading”, this was a montly magazine that survived for a mere 18 months from 1879-1880.

My Secret Life is supposed to be a memoir wherein a Victorian gentleman truthfully describes his sexual development and his sexual experinces. No one knows how much of My Secret Life that is actually true and how much is nothing more than sexuall fantasies from the writer but there are signs that indicate that it might be true such as the fact that the story lacks elements common in Victorian Erotica. The book contains plenty of mundane detail and the writer isn’t shy of including incidents that do him little personal credit.

My Secret Life was first published as a private edition of eleven volumes which gradually appeared over the course of seven years, from 1888 and onward. The eleven volumes spans more than 4000 pages. The first edition of My Secret Life might have contained as few as 20 copies. Sections of My Secret Life was publsihed during the 1900s but censorship was a large problem for anyone trying to publish the work. An example of this is the fact that a New York publisher wa arrested in 1932 for printing the 3 first volumes and the entire work could not be published without censur untill 1966 when the entire My Secret Life was finally published as one book. It was published by Grove press which is famous for having published D. H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover ” and for being the first publisher to publish Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer“, they are also well know for publishing the works of controverial political icons such as Malcolm X and R©gis Debray.

The British weren’t as liberal as the Yankees and when British printer Arthur Dobson published a UK reprint of My Secret Life he was sentenced to two years in prison in 1969. Not until 1995 was the complete work published openly in the UK without repercussions. The publisher was Arrow Books.

The true identity of the writer of My Secret Life has never been unveiled, but book collector, writer and bibliographer Henry Spencer Ashbee is often cited as a possibility; either as the writer or as a compiler and editor of experiences, anecdotes and fantasies from friends as well as from his own life.

They were often made to actually fit inside a cabinet. It would have the appearance on the outside of an ordinary piece of furniture but when it was opened it revealed an impressive dolls house with many rooms. On the inside there was furniture all scaled down to size and the craftsmanship was of the highest standards.

The dolls which were usually made of wood or wax are extremely collectible toys today.

Wax dolls are usually made by pouring melted wax into a mould. Wax does’nt really seem to be the perfect medium for making dolls but they were less fragile than bisque or china and it could be tinted to give the doll a beautiful and realistic skin tone.

It is sometimes quite difficult to accurately date these dolls because they were tricky to mark and the only way they could do this was by labelling them.

It was in the 19th century that “baby houses” began to be known as dolls houses and were often found in nurseries of the children belonging to wealthy families.

They were sometimes furnished with exquisite needlepoint rugs and couches upholstered in silk. The furniture was often made of fine wood and was accurately cut down to scale.

By the end of the 19th century most the dolls were made of bisque and glazed china. The attention to detail was amazing and very often the dolls were even equipped with their own gloves, purses, fans and even sewing kits! This made them very easy to personalise and the accessories became very popular gifts for her.

In recent times plastic and metal dolls houses were introduced but undoubtedly it is the amazing craftsmanship of the early “baby houses” which have stood the test of time that will definately remain firm favourites with miniature collectors today.

One of the leading public aquariums in the world today Monteray Bay aquarium

People have been keeping aquariums for a very long time and the practice can be traced atleast back to Roman Empire, the Chinese also started to keep gold carps in ornamental ponds and indoor display a long time ago (during the Tang Dynasty 618-907). The word aquarium is derived from latin and consists of the two words aqua, meaning water, and the Latin suffix -arium, which can be translates as “a place for relating to”.

The word has stayed roughly the same in many languages around the world and can be understood in most languages and not just the romance languages that are based on latin such as Spanish and Italian. The German and Dutch word for aquarium is for instance aquarium, and the Scandinavian languages Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have only altered the spelling a bit to akvarium. Even outside Europe the word has been incorporated into numerous languages, such as akuarium in Bahasa a Indonesian language and akwaryum In a language from the Phillippines called Tagalog.

Roman aquarium designers starting using glass panels in their aquariums around the year 50, before that the aquariums had been more like marble ponds. The sea barble was one of the first fish species to become popular as aquarium fish in Ancient Rome. In China, ornamental fish tanks were traditionally made out of porcelain and in 1369 the hobby was so important that Emperor H³ngw founded a porcelain company for the manufacturing of large goldfish tubs.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the aquarium became rare in Europe even though some people kept indoor aquariums and the aquarium didn’t get popular again until during the 19^th century. Around 1830 Dr Nathaniel Ward invented the Wardian case; a closely-fitted glazed wooden case that served as protection for sensitive ferns and a few years later he proposed to use his tanks to keep tropical animals. In the early 1840s Dr Ward started keeping aquatic plants but only with toy fish to begin with.

A French biologist namned Felix Dujardin was another pioneer in the moden aquarium hobby and he noted that he owned a saltwater aquarium in 1838 allthough he didn’t use the term aquarium as the term didn’t come in use until 1854. The first cycled stable marine aquarium was managed by a Anna Thynne, a marine zoologist during the Victorian Era that kept stony corals and seeweed in her tank. She was the first one the discover that coral in the genus Madrepora (”mother of pores”) have 3 different ways of reproducing. In 1850, the Chemical Society journal published an article on the keeping of goldfish, snails and eelgrass together in a 13-gallon container a feat accomplished by agricultural chemist Robert Warington.

Aquarium keeping turned into a fashionable hobby in Victorian Britain, especially after the Great Exhibition of 1851 where an ornate cast iron framed aquaria was put on display. Two years after the exhibition, London Zoo opened the first large public aquarium in the world the Fish House.

I mentioned before that the term aquarium didn’t gain any widespread use before 1954 when Philip Henry Gosse used the term in his popular book “The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea”.

One of the leading public aquariums in the world today Monteray Bay aquarium

People have been keeping aquariums for a very long time and the practice can be traced atleast back to Roman Empire, the Chinese also started to keep gold carps in ornamental ponds and indoor display a long time ago (during the Tang Dynasty 618-907). The word aquarium is derived from latin and consists of the two words aqua, meaning water, and the Latin suffix -arium, which can be translates as “a place for relating to”.

The word has stayed roughly the same in many languages around the world and can be understood in most languages and not just the romance languages that are based on latin such as Spanish and Italian. The German and Dutch word for aquarium is for instance aquarium, and the Scandinavian languages Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have only altered the spelling a bit to akvarium. Even outside Europe the word has been incorporated into numerous languages, such as akuarium in Bahasa a Indonesian language and akwaryum In a language from the Phillippines called Tagalog.

Roman aquarium designers starting using glass panels in their aquariums around the year 50, before that the aquariums had been more like marble ponds. The sea barble was one of the first fish species to become popular as aquarium fish in Ancient Rome. In China, ornamental fish tanks were traditionally made out of porcelain and in 1369 the hobby was so important that Emperor H³ngw founded a porcelain company for the manufacturing of large goldfish tubs.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the aquarium became rare in Europe even though some people kept indoor aquariums and the aquarium didn’t get popular again until during the 19^th century. Around 1830 Dr Nathaniel Ward invented the Wardian case; a closely-fitted glazed wooden case that served as protection for sensitive ferns and a few years later he proposed to use his tanks to keep tropical animals. In the early 1840s Dr Ward started keeping aquatic plants but only with toy fish to begin with.

A French biologist namned Felix Dujardin was another pioneer in the moden aquarium hobby and he noted that he owned a saltwater aquarium in 1838 allthough he didn’t use the term aquarium as the term didn’t come in use until 1854. The first cycled stable marine aquarium was managed by a Anna Thynne, a marine zoologist during the Victorian Era that kept stony corals and seeweed in her tank. She was the first one the discover that coral in the genus Madrepora (”mother of pores”) have 3 different ways of reproducing. In 1850, the Chemical Society journal published an article on the keeping of goldfish, snails and eelgrass together in a 13-gallon container a feat accomplished by agricultural chemist Robert Warington.

Aquarium keeping turned into a fashionable hobby in Victorian Britain, especially after the Great Exhibition of 1851 where an ornate cast iron framed aquaria was put on display. Two years after the exhibition, London Zoo opened the first large public aquarium in the world the Fish House.

I mentioned before that the term aquarium didn’t gain any widespread use before 1954 when Philip Henry Gosse used the term in his popular book “The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea”.

Operation Blue spoon aka Just Cause

In the midst of more prolonged U.S. military operations like the Vietnam War, the ISAF/NATO invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is easy to forget about all the smaller but politically significant and controversial invasions carried out by the United States. If you wish to recap the 1989 United States invasion of Panama or read up on an event that took place when you were still a kid, this article provides a brief summary of the invasion and the events that led up to it.

It was know by the codename Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama took place in December 1989 during the administration of George H.W. Bush. The result of the invasion was the deposing and capturing of de factor Panamanian leader and dictator Manuel Noriega. President-elect Guillermo Endara who had been prevented from taking power by Noriega was put into office and the panamanian army was disbanded.

The operation was being planned under the name Blue Spoon but it was renamed Just Cause due to it sounding better and due to PR reasons. Operation Just Cause was the first time the US used what is now its backbone land vehicle, the HMMWV. (Click here for indepth info)

U.S. relations with General Noriega spanned back to 1959 when Noriega became a U.S. intelligence asset recieving his pay checks from the CIA; he kept this job for more and 20 years and was paid a salary upwards of USD 100 000 per year. During his time working for the CIA he helped sabotage missions against FMLN in El Salvador and sandinista forces in Nicaragua, he aslo helpedthe DEA in their war against drugs being smuggled into the U.Sfrom South America. He did however not back down to demands made by U.S Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North to provide military assistance to the U.S backed Contras in Nicaragua, and refused requests by Salvadoran rightist Roberto D’Aubuisson to restrict the movements of FMNL leaders in Panama.

In 1983 Noriega enforced his position as de facto ruler of Panama by promoting himself to full general. During the early 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan negotiated with Noriega, asking him to leave his position in exchange for not having to face a series of drug-related indictments in the U.S.

Noriega declared the presidential election null and void in May 1989 and tried to maintain power with the use of military force. The pressure on President Bush to but force behind his words increased after a fail coup to depose Noriega.

On the morning of December 20, a few hours after the start of the invasion, Bush announced the official U.S. justification for the attack.

• Safeguarding the lives of U.S. citizens in Panama. (An unarmed U.S. Marine had been murdered and other situations in which U.S. citizens had been subjected to bodily harm and brutally interrogated, there where also alleged incidents where U.S citizens had been treatened with sexual abuse
• Defending democracy and human rights in Panama.
• Combating drug trafficking.
• Protecting the neutrality of the Panama Canal.

Operation Just Cause caused international outrage. On December 23, a draft resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of United States forces from Panama was vetoed by France, United Kingdom and USA, but on December 29, the UN General Assembly voted 7520 with 40 abstentions to condemn the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law.

Operation Blue spoon aka Just Cause

In the midst of more prolonged U.S. military operations like the Vietnam War, the ISAF/NATO invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is easy to forget about all the smaller but politically significant and controversial invasions carried out by the United States. If you wish to recap the 1989 United States invasion of Panama or read up on an event that took place when you were still a kid, this article provides a brief summary of the invasion and the events that led up to it.

It was know by the codename Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama took place in December 1989 during the administration of George H.W. Bush. The result of the invasion was the deposing and capturing of de factor Panamanian leader and dictator Manuel Noriega. President-elect Guillermo Endara who had been prevented from taking power by Noriega was put into office and the panamanian army was disbanded.

The operation was being planned under the name Blue Spoon but it was renamed Just Cause due to it sounding better and due to PR reasons. Operation Just Cause was the first time the US used what is now its backbone land vehicle, the HMMWV. (Click here for indepth info)

U.S. relations with General Noriega spanned back to 1959 when Noriega became a U.S. intelligence asset recieving his pay checks from the CIA; he kept this job for more and 20 years and was paid a salary upwards of USD 100 000 per year. During his time working for the CIA he helped sabotage missions against FMLN in El Salvador and sandinista forces in Nicaragua, he aslo helpedthe DEA in their war against drugs being smuggled into the U.Sfrom South America. He did however not back down to demands made by U.S Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North to provide military assistance to the U.S backed Contras in Nicaragua, and refused requests by Salvadoran rightist Roberto D’Aubuisson to restrict the movements of FMNL leaders in Panama.

In 1983 Noriega enforced his position as de facto ruler of Panama by promoting himself to full general. During the early 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan negotiated with Noriega, asking him to leave his position in exchange for not having to face a series of drug-related indictments in the U.S.

Noriega declared the presidential election null and void in May 1989 and tried to maintain power with the use of military force. The pressure on President Bush to but force behind his words increased after a fail coup to depose Noriega.

On the morning of December 20, a few hours after the start of the invasion, Bush announced the official U.S. justification for the attack.

• Safeguarding the lives of U.S. citizens in Panama. (An unarmed U.S. Marine had been murdered and other situations in which U.S. citizens had been subjected to bodily harm and brutally interrogated, there where also alleged incidents where U.S citizens had been treatened with sexual abuse
• Defending democracy and human rights in Panama.
• Combating drug trafficking.
• Protecting the neutrality of the Panama Canal.

Operation Just Cause caused international outrage. On December 23, a draft resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of United States forces from Panama was vetoed by France, United Kingdom and USA, but on December 29, the UN General Assembly voted 7520 with 40 abstentions to condemn the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law.

The Choice to maintain full relations with Cuba

The relationship that Canada and Cuba have goes back hundreds of years. In the 18th century Canada trades codfish as well as beer, rum and sugar with Cuba. Cuba was the first country in the Caribbean chosen by Canada for diplomatic relations purposes. In fact Canada and Mexico were the only two countries to keep uninterrupted relations with Cuba once the Cuban revolution had started in 1959. The USA kept trying to convince Canada to stop communications with the Cubans they still continue to have a good relationship with them. Canadians also love to go to Cuba on vacations.

The decision not to take part in the Iraq War

This is something that would have hit the USA where it hurt due to the fact the countries are so close in the way the military is worked. Canada will not step foot into Iraq. To be fair it was never a good idea to trust George Bush, the war has turned into a disaster and Canada, so it would seem, were right to stay out of it.

However Canada is a beautiful country to visit so if you fancy one of those Canada holidays, or perhaps an escourted tours Canada or even if you are reading this and fancy an old fashioned USA holidays there is sure to be something out there for you.