The Agora was the marketplace, the center of Greek civilisation, where people went to talk, to trade, to teach, to learn and exchange tales of the strange lands beyond the Aegean.

"Agora, for those who cannot be in the Arena"

A part of WWW history, sadly (?) gone.

Agora the name of a WWW-E-mail gateway, written by Arthur Secret of W3C in 1994 (when access to web browsers was, understandably, not that certain). Last version was released in 1997. Although the source no longer seems to exist at hand, Agora appeared to have been written in Perl. (Reasonable Agora imitation could be written in Perl easily, though...)

The operation was simple: People sent message to Agora system E-mail address with body that said "SEND (url)". It was also apparently able to parse its own responses so that people could just reply to the message and tell, from Lynx-style reference list, where they would like to go from that page.

Along with sending formatted documents (send, www) It was also able to send replies to other addresses (rsend), send a lot of referenced documents as well (deep), and send document source (source, rsource).

The Israeli low denomination monetary unit, similar to United States Cents or United Kindom Pennies.

Since January 1st 1960, it complemented the Israeli pound and later the Sheqel (having a temporary reincarnation as a "New Agora" from 1980 to 1985, when it returned to being just "Agora"). At the time of writing (October 2001), the Agora is valued as 1/100th of the New Israeli Sheqel and is produced as coins only (5, 10 and 50 Agoras -- the 1 Agora coin is out of circulation). A matchbox costs about 30 Agoras.

The name originates from 1 Samuel 2:36. Note that in the King James Bible, the Hebrew "Agora" is translated as "piece of silver".

"Agorot", the Hebrew plural form, is often used instead of "Agoras".

The 4th song off of LA-based producer Will "Baths" Wiesenfeld's 5th studio album, Pop Music / False B-Sides II.

It's a difficult song to put words to. Baths sings off-tempo for most of the song, a beat behind where you'd expect him to be. But his cadence is conversational, almost talking to himself, and combined with the quiet, light imagery in the lyrics, it becomes a sort of mantra. It starts as heavily as the backing beat does

"Abyss slips on like a night gown / Wear it around, stay in the house"
But just as quickly as he laments, he lifts himself up:

"But all that's a bit out of body / I still feel the sun when it's foggy"

and raises his pitch up for the final stanza, his voice still quiet but still feeling as if he is screaming to the sky with all his heart and soul, just as powerful as any power rock/metal vocalist or Dragonforce song:

"Defiant, but tired, I'll come to town / I have to learn to live with myself / If I so desire, I will come around / I will come to town"
The title itself combined with the lyrics refers to the term agoraphobia, the fear of open or crowded spaces, or leaving your home. It's a powerful combination, one that dips into the depths of fear and sadness, but rising to a warm, sweet and quiet, melancholy-tinged feeling that uplifts in an unseen manner. Such is the genius of Will Wiesenfeld, able to masterfully delve into the whole of human emotion and surface with pure, distilled, whole emotion. And all under 3 minutes, no less! I have fallen deeply in love with the simplicity that Wiesenfeld composes with, and the complexity with which he performs. There is a deep serenity to this song (and others on the album) that would be hard to match elsewhere.

Ag"o*ra (#), n. [Gr. .]

An assembly; hence, the place of assembly, especially the market place, in an ancient Greek city.

 

© Webster 1913.

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