Grad (toponymy)

Grad (Cyrillic: Град) is an Old Slavic word meaning "town", "city", "castle" or "fortified settlement". Initially present in all related languages as Gord (archaeology), it can still be found as "grad", or as Horod or Gorod (toponymy) in many placenames today.

These places have grad as part of their name:

Gord (archaeology)

A gord is a medieval Slavonic fortified settlement, also occasionally known as a burgwall or Slavic burgwall after the German term for such sites. The ancient peoples were known for building wooden fortified settlements. The reconstructed Centum-satem isogloss word for such a settlement is g'herdh, gordъ, related to the Germanic *gard and *gart (as in Stuttgart etc.). This Proto-Slavic word (*gordъ) for town or city, later differentiated into grad (Cyrillic: град), gard,gorod (Cyrillic: город), etc.

Similar strongholds were built during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages by the Lusatian culture (ca. 1300 BC – 500 BC), and later in the 7th - 8th centuries BC in modern-day Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and eastern Germany. These settlements were usually founded on strategic sites such as hills, riverbanks, lake islands or peninsulas.

A typical gord was a group of wooden houses, built either in rows or in circles, surrounded by one or more rings of walls made of earth and wood, a palisade and/or moats. Some gords were ring-shaped, with a round, oval or occasionally polygonal fence or wall surrounding a hollow. Others, built on a natural hill or a man-made mound, were cone-shaped. Those with a natural defense on one side, such as a river or lake, were usually horseshoe-shaped.

Schisma

In music, the schisma (also spelled skhisma) is the interval between a Pythagorean comma (531441:524288) and a syntonic comma (81:80) and equals 32805:32768, which is 1.9537 cents ( Play ). It may also be defined as:

Schisma is a Greek word meaning a split (see schism) whose musical sense was introduced by Boethius at the beginning of the 6th century in the 3rd book of his 'De institutione musica'. Boethius was also the first to define diaschisma.

Andreas Werckmeister defined the grad as the twelfth root of the Pythagorean comma, or equivalently the difference between the justly tuned fifth and the equally tempered fifth of 700 cents. This value, 1.955 cents, may be approximated by the ratio 886:885. This interval is also sometimes called a schisma.

Curiously, 2^1/12 5^1/7 appears very close to 4:3, the just perfect fourth. That's because the difference between a grad and a schisma is so small. So, a rational intonation version of equal temperament may be realized by flattening the fifth by a schisma rather than a grad, a fact first noted by Johann Kirnberger, a pupil of Bach. Twelve of these Kirnberger fifths of 16384:10935 exceed seven octaves, and therefore fail to close, by the tiny interval of 2¹⁶¹ 3⁻⁸⁴ 5⁻¹², the atom of Kirnberger of 0.01536 cents.

Specialist

Specialist frequently refers to an expert in a profession. It can also mean:

List of Marvel Comics characters: S

Sabra

Sabre

Sabre I

The first Sabre was a former knife thrower named Paul Richarde until he was selected by Modred to oppose Black Knight. Paul Richarde was given an armor, an animated gargoyle. and Mordred's Ebony Dagger (the weapon with which Mordred had killed the first Black Knight). He was defeated by Black Knight after his horse Aragorn kicked the dagger from Le Sabre's hand.

Sabre II

The second Sabre is a mutant super villain. His first appearance was in X-Men #106. Young and reckless, Sabre was chosen by Mystique to join her new Brotherhood of Mutants, though never actually participated in any missions. He had the mutant ability of super speed, and took the name of the deceased Super Sabre. It is unknown if he continues to serve Mystique behind the scenes, or if he even retains his powers after Decimation. Hyper-accelerated metabolism augments his natural speed, reflexes, coordination, endurance, and the healing properties of his body.

Specialist degree

Specialist degree in the Commonwealth of Independent States

The specialist degree (Russian: специалист) was the only first degree in the former Soviet Union. It was traditionally inherited from the Engineering education of Russian empire, and currently is being phased out by the bakalavr's (Bachelor's) - magistr's (Master's) degrees.

In the early 1990s bakalavr (Bachelor's) and magistr (Master's) degrees were introduced in all countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, except in Turkmenistan. However, the specialist degree remains the most often granted degree in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine to this day. The specialist degrees in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were renamed to diplom degrees. A similar degree in the German-speaking countries is called the Diplom degree. According to Russian federal educational legislation, the specialist degree requires at least five years of full-time study (whereas bachelor's and master's degrees require at least four and two years respectively).