Louis (parrot)

Louis was a well-known parrot from Victoria, British Columbia. From the time of his reclusive owner's death in 1949 until 1966 he continued to on his owner's estate, well-provided for in her will, and preventing development of the prime real estate.

History

Victoria Jane Wilson (1878-1949) was born in Victoria and raised very privately by her parents. At age five she received Louis as a pet, and later obtained many other birds. The top floor of her house became an aviary. Around 1911, Victoria bought an electric car, reportedly in order to take Louis on rides.

Victoria led a reclusive life, entirely at the mansion on Courtney Street where she had been raised, until her death in 1949. Her will included a large amount of funds to take care of her birds (53 at the time), and Victoria's former servant Wah Wong was paid to be a caretaker, staying at the house to do so. Louis was well known for enjoying brandy, two bottles per year, though news reports at the time liked to refer to him as a lush. Eventually all the birds died except for Louis, whose presence still kept the property from being sold.

Louis d'or

4 Louis d’or of Louis XIII(1640), first year of issue, Paris Mint.

The Louis d'or is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was replaced by the French franc at the time of the revolution and later the similarly valued Napoleon, although a limited number of Louis were also minted during the "Bourbon Restoration" under Louis XVIII. The actual value of the coins fluctuated according to monetary and fiscal policy (see livre tournois), but in 1726 the value was stabilized.

The 1640 issue of Louis d’or contained five denominations: a half Louis and a one, two, four, and eight Louis. All subsequent issues through 1793 were only denominated in half, one, and two Louis.

Louis XIII

The Louis d'or (a gold coin) replaced the franc which had been in circulation (in theory) since John II of France. In actual practice the principal gold coin circulating in France in the earlier 17th century had been Spanish: the 6.7-gram double escudo or "doubloon", of which the Louis d'or was an explicit copy. There also existed a half-Louis coin (the demi-louis d'or) and a two-Louis coin (the double louis d'or).

Louis (singer)

Ljubiša Stojanović "Louis" (Љубиша Стојановић "Луис"; 25 June 1952 – 31 July 2011) was a Serbian singer, born in Leskovac. Louis was known for his unique musical style and was in the music business from 1970 until his death. His stage name Louis originated from when he was nine and successfully performed Louis Armstrong's songs. He graduated from the music high school in Niš. He got his B.A. in Music from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, majoring in voice and composing with arrangement and folklore.

He was among the first to combine jazz with Serbia's folklore. In 1980 he recorded his first record titled Ne kuni me, ne ruži me, majko (Do Not Scold Me, Do Not Rebuke Me, Mother), gaining high sales. Together with the Serbian band Flamingosi, he almost won the Beovizija 2006 festival for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece.

He died in a car accident on July 31, 2011, on the road between Feketić and Vrbas. His last show was on July 22, 2011 at Club Jez in Sarajevo.

Beta Doradus

Beta Doradus (Beta Dor, β Doradus, β Dor) is the second brightest star in the southern constellation of Dorado. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.63, making it visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. Based upon parallax measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope, it is located at a distance of 1,040 light-years (320 parsecs) from Earth.

Beta Doradus is a Cepheid variable that regularly changes magnitude from a low of 4.05 to a high of 3.45 over a period of 9.842 days. The light curve of this magnitude change follows a regular saw-tooth pattern. During each radial pulsation cycle, the radius of the star varies by ±3.9 times the Sun's radius around a mean of 67.8. Its spectral type and luminosity class are likewise variable, from F-type to G-type and from a supergiant to a bright giant.

Far ultraviolet emissions have been detected from this star with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, while X-ray emissions were detected with the XMM-Newton space telescope. The X-ray luminosity is about 1 × 10²⁹ergs/sec and the emission varies with the pulsation period, suggesting a connection with the pulsation process. The peak X-ray emissions are in the 0.6–0.8 keV energy range, which occurs for plasmas with temperatures of 7–10 million K.

Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It was originally thought to be a star, but in 1751 Nicolas Louis de Lacaille recognized its nebular nature.

The Tarantula Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8. Considering its distance of about 49 kpc (160,000 light-years), this is an extremely luminous non-stellar object. Its luminosity is so great that if it were as close to Earth as the Orion Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula would cast shadows. In fact it is the most active starburst region known in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also one of the largest such regions in the Local Group with an estimated diameter of 200 pc. The nebula resides on the leading edge of the LMC where ram pressure stripping, and the compression of the interstellar medium likely resulting from this, is at a maximum.

30 Doradus has at its centre the star cluster NGC 2070 which includes the compact concentration of stars known as R136 that produces most of the energy that makes the nebula visible. The estimated mass of the cluster is 450,000 solar masses, suggesting it will likely become a globular cluster in the future. In addition to NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula contains a number of other star clusters including the much older Hodge 301. The most massive stars of Hodge 301 have already exploded in supernovae.

Theta Doradus

Theta Doradus (Theta Dor, θ Doradus, θ Dor) is an orange K-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +4.81. It is approximately 546 light years from Earth.

Theta Doradus is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 31.9 km/s relative to the Sun. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 22,400 and 24,800 light years from the center of the Galaxy.

Naming

In Chinese caused by adaptation of the European southern hemisphere constellations into the Chinese system, 夾白 (Jiá Bái), meaning White Patches Attached, refers to an asterism consisting of θ Doradus and α Reticuli. Consequently, θ Doradus itself is known as 夾白一 (Jiá Bái yī, English: the First Star of White Patches Attached.)

References