Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock. Oldham is surrounded by several smaller towns which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, of which Oldham is the administrative centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, and with little early history to speak of, Oldham rose to prominence during the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and among the first ever industrialised towns, rapidly becoming "one of the most important centres of cotton and textile industries in England". At its zenith, it was the most productive cotton spinningmill town in the world, spinning more cotton than France and Germany combined. Oldham's textile industry began to fall into decline during the mid-20th century, and its last mill closed in 1998. The demise of textile processing in Oldham depressed the local economy. Today Oldham is a predominantly residential town, and a centre for further education and the performing arts. It is, however, still distinguished architecturally by the surviving cotton mills and other buildings associated with that industry. (more...)
The acorn is the nut of the oak tree and its close relatives, in the family Fagaceae. Acorns usually contain a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), enclosed in a tough shell known as the pericarp, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. This acorn of the species Quercus robur (the pedunculate oak), with a length of 25 millimetres (1 inch), was photographed in Keila, Estonia.
... that avant-garde musician Mabe Fratti's religious upbringing restricted her to classical and Christian music until she discovered file sharing on LimeWire?
... that a North Carolina TV station broadcast from a "residential showplace" that was considered to be "one of [the] finest" houses in town?
... that Lithuanian communist activist Valerija Narvydaitė spent more than 14 years in jails and detention centres?
... that "Not Strong Enough" by Boygenius describes conflicting mental states of self-hatred and self-importance?
.jpg)
