EUROPEAN SCULPTURE OF THE 14TH-19TH CENTURIES

The National Gallery of Art holds approximately 2,100 works of Western sculpture. This selection includes many of the finest examples from the period 1300-1900. It covers a wide range of materials and techniques and gives some idea of the variety of purposes that sculpture has traditionally served.

The earliest works here—the Pisan Annunciation pair and the English Saint George—were devotional sculptures, made to stand on an altar or elsewhere in a church or chapel, to teach religious lessons, inspire faith, and invite divine favor for their donors. Another major task for sculptors throughout history was the portrait bust, especially in demand during the Renaissance. The Gallery holds many fine examples of these busts as well as of Renaissance portrait medals, which were made as gifts for friends or political allies, often to commemorate important events. Such medals might be worn or kept as desk or pocket objects. Statues of mythological subjects embellished the palaces and gardens of the powerful and now are displayed at the National Gallery. Great civic monuments were produced by sculptors in the nineteenth century; a small bronze version of Rodin's Jean d'Aire is part of the Gallery's collection. The most revolutionary sculpture in the present group is the last, The Tub in wax by Degas, a highly personal and experimental study combining freely modeled naturalistic forms with geometric composition and incorporating everyday objects.

Bridges

A bridge is a device that allows you to segment a large network into two smaller, more efficient networks. If you are adding to an older wiring scheme and want the new network to be up-to-date, a bridge can connect the two.

A bridge monitors the information traffic on both sides of the network so that it can pass packets of information to the correct location. Most bridges can "listen" to the network and automatically figure out the address of each computer on both sides of the bridge. The bridge can inspect each message and, if necessary, broadcast it on the other side of the network.

The bridge manages the traffic to maintain optimum performance on both sides of the network. You might say that the bridge is like a traffic cop at a busy intersection during rush hour. It keeps information flowing on both sides of the network, but it does not allow unnecessary traffic through. Bridges can be used to connect different types of cabling, or physical topologies. They must, however, be used between networks with the same protocol.

Use by drivers

Using Mobile phone while driving is a common but controversial. Using a mobile phone while driving is an obstruction to vehicle operation that can increase the risk of road traffic accidents, but different studies have found different relative risks (RR).

Meta-analysis by The Canadian Automobile Association and The University of Illinois found that response time while using both hands-free and hand-held phones was approximately 0.5 standard deviations higher than normal driving.

Other research has found that using a mobile phone while driving may reduce and also divert the driver's concentration and reaction time. People in or near their 20s who use a mobile phone while driving have the same reaction time as 72-year-olds.There is a law which restricts drivers under the age of 18 from using a mobile phone at all. According to this law $20 fine for the first offense and $50 fines for each subsequent conviction…