Braille Patterns

In Unicode, braille is represented in a block called Braille Patterns (U+2800..U+28FF). The block contains all 256 possible patterns of an 8-dot braille cell, thereby including the complete 6-dot cell range.

Symbols, not letters

In Unicode the braille characters are not defined into any script. That is, the patterns are available as symbols, without connection to an alphabetic letter or a number. This is because the same symbol can be used in multiple scripts, e.g. as a Latin character, a Vietnamese character, a Chinese character and a digit. For example: although U+2813 â “ BRAILLE PATTERN DOTS-125 represents the letter "H" in basic braille, its Unicode definition makes no reference to "H", and it is just as valid representing Korean á„? t-, or Japanese ã‚Š ri.

For this reason – a dot-pattern is not a letter – Unicode declares that, strictly speaking, braille patterns are 'symbols', not 'letters'. The General Property is "So" (Symbol, other), not "Lo" (Letter, other). Beyond that declaration, however, braille is treated as a script in multiple places. E.g., the character property "Script" for the 256 braille code points is ISO 15924 "Brai", for braille. This way, searching users and programs are led to the right place.

Smile

A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a "Duchenne smile". Smiles performed without the eye contraction can be perceived as "fake".

Among humans, smiling is an expression denoting pleasure, sociability, happiness, or amusement. It is distinct from a similar but usually involuntary expression of anxiety known as a grimace. Although cross-cultural studies have shown that smiling is a means of communication throughout the world, there are large differences between different cultures, with some using smiles to convey confusion or embarrassment.

Historical background

Primatologist Signe Preuschoft traces the smile back over 30 million years of evolution to a "fear grin" stemming from monkeys and apes who often used barely clenched teeth to portray to predators that they were harmless. The smile may have evolved differently among species and especially among humans. Apart from Biology as an academic discipline that interprets the smile, those who study kinesics and psychology such as Freitas-Magalhaes view the smile as an affect display that can communicate feelings such as love, happiness, pride, contempt, and embarrassment.

Smile! (novel)

Smile! is a children's book by Geraldine McCaughrean. In 2004 it won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Bronze Award.

References

Smile! (Vitas album)

Smile! (УлыбниÑ?ÑŒ!, Ulybnis!) is a Russian album by Vitas (ВитаÑ?), released in 2002. Several songs from this album featured in his Philosophy of Miracle concert programme, whose performance at the Kremlin earned Vitas a record as the youngest artist to perform a solo concert at the State Kremlin Palace; a DVD of this concert was later released.

The title track won the Russian Golden Gramophone and People's Hit awards.

Good-bye was released as a single, which included 5 different mixes of the song, the tracks Ave Maria and Byelorussia, and the music video for Opera #1 from his previous album Philosophy of Miracle.Good-bye is notable for Vitas' extreme bass vocals, in contrast to his more usual high-pitched vocals.Blessed Guru (sometimes translated Blissful Guru) also exercises his seldom-used bass range. The song titles Good-bye and Do Svidaniya (Russian: До Ñ?виданиÑ?, usually listed in English as See You Later, as in the tracklisting here) can cause some confusion because the latter is often translated as Goodbye

Permanent

In linear algebra, the permanent of a square matrix is a function of the matrix similar to the determinant. The permanent, as well as the determinant, is a polynomial in the entries of the matrix. Both permanent and determinant are special cases of a more general function of a matrix called the immanant.

Definition

The permanent of an n-by-n matrix A = (a_i,j) is defined as

The sum here extends over all elements σ of the symmetric group S_n; i.e. over all permutations of the numbers 1, 2, ..., n.

For example,

and

The definition of the permanent of A differs from that of the determinant of A in that the signatures of the permutations are not taken into account.

The permanent of a matrix A is denoted per A, perm A, or Per A, sometimes with parentheses around the argument. In his monograph, Minc (1984) uses Per(A) for the permanent of rectangular matrices, and uses per(A) when A is a square matrix. Muir (1882) uses the notation .

The word, permanent, originated with Cauchy in 1812 as “fonctions symétriques permanentes� for a related type of function, and was used by Muir (1882) in the modern, more specific, sense.

Randonneuring

Randonneuring (also known as Audax in the UK, Australia and Brazil) is a long-distance cycling sport with its origins in audax cycling. In randonneuring, riders attempt courses of 200 km or more, passing through predetermined "controls" (checkpoints) every few tens of kilometers. Riders aim to complete the course within specified time limits, and receive equal recognition regardless of their finishing order. Riders may travel in groups or alone as they wish, and are expected to be self-sufficient between controls. A randonneuring event is called a randonnée or brevet, and a rider who has completed a 200 km event is called a randonneur. The international governing body for randonneuring is Audax Club Parisien (ACP), which works with other randonneuring organisations worldwide through Les Randonneurs Mondiaux (RM). Randonneuring is popular in France, and has a following in the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Australia, USA, Canada, Brazil and India.

History

Permanent (song)

"'Permanent" is a song recorded by American rock singer David Cook. Written by Cook, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Raine Maida, its lyrics make allusions to Cook's late brother, Adam, who had battled with brain cancer before his death from this disease. The song was performed on the finale of season 8 of the TV show American Idol, and the performance then released onto iTunes as a charity single via RCA Records on May 18, 2009. It also appears on his debut studio album, David Cook (2008).

All proceeds from iTunes sales of the American Idol finale performance of the song will go to ABC² (Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure).

Commercial reception

"Permanent" debuted at number 24 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the chart week of May 29, 2009, and number 10 on the Digital Songs component chart, selling 103,000 downloads. It also debuted at number 26 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 and number 7 on the Canadian Digital Songs component chart. As of June 2009, the song has sold 159,000 units, of which 98,000 are of the version on David Cook and 61,000 are from the AI Charity Version.