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James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger, PC (13 December 1769 – 17 April 1844), was an English lawyer, politician and judge. Scarlett was born in Jamaica, where his father, Robert Scarlett, had property. In the summer of 1785 he was sent to England to complete his education at Hawkshead Grammar School and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1789. Having entered the Inner Temple he took the advice of Samuel Romilly, studied law on his own for a year, and then was taught by George Wood. He was called to the bar in 1791, and joined the northern circuit and the Lancashire sessions.

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James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger

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16429

Jewish views on marriage The Jewish view on marriage, historically, provided Biblically mandated rights to the wife which were accepted by the husband. A marriage was ended either because of a divorce document given by the man to his wife, or by the death of either party. Certain details, primarily as protections for the wife, were added in Talmudic times. Non-Orthodox developments have brought changes in who may marry whom. Intermarriage is not encouraged. In traditional Judaism, marriage is viewed as a contractual bond commanded by God in which a man and a woman come together to create a relationship in which God is directly involved. () Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is traditionally expected to fulfil the commandment to have children. () In this view, marriage is understood to mean that the husband and wife are merging into a single soul, which is why a man is considered "incomplete" if he is not married, as his soul is only one part of a larger whole that remains to be unified. Non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, such as Reconstructionist, Reform, and Conservative Judaism, recognize same-sex marriage, and de-emphasize procreation, focusing on marriage as a bond between a couple. This view is considered as a diversion from the Jewish Law by the Orthodox denominations, rather than as a legitimate, alternative interpretation. In Jewish law, an engagement ("kiddushin") is a contract between a man and a woman where they mutually promise to marry each other, and the terms on which it shall take place. The promise may be made by the intending parties or by their respective parents or other relatives on their behalf. The promise is formalized in a document known as the , the "Document of Conditions", which is read prior to the . After the reading, the mothers of the future bride and groom break a plate. Today, some sign the contract on the day of the wedding, some do it as an earlier ceremony, and some do not do it at all. In Haredi communities, marriages may be arranged by the parents of the prospective bride and groom, who may arrange a shidduch by engaging a professional match-maker ("shadchan") who finds and introduces the prospective bride and groom and receives a fee for his or her services. The young couple is not forced to marry if either does not accept the other. In Jewish law, marriage consists of two separate acts, called "erusin" (or "kiddushin", meaning "sanctification"), which is the betrothal ceremony, and "nissu'in" or "chupah", the actual Jewish wedding ceremony. "Erusin" changes the couple's interpersonal status, while "nissu'in" brings about the legal consequences of the change of status. In Talmudic times, these two ceremonies usually took place up to a year apart; the bride lived with her parents until the actual marriage ceremony ("nissuin"), which would take place in a room or tent that the groom had set up for her. Since the Middle Ages the two ceremonies have taken place as a combined ceremony performed in public. According to the Talmud, "erusin" involves the groom handing an object to the bride - either an object of value such as a ring, or a document stating that she is being betrothed to him. In order to be valid, this must be done in the presence of two unrelated male witnesses. After erusin, the laws of adultery apply, and the marriage cannot be dissolved without a religious divorce. After "nisuin", the couple may live together. Marital harmony, known as ""shalom bayis"," is valued in Jewish tradition. The Talmud states that a man should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and honour her "more" than he honours himself; indeed, one who honours his wife was said, by the classical rabbis, to be rewarded with wealth. Similarly, a husband was expected to discuss with his wife any worldly matters that might arise in his life. The Talmud forbids a husband from being overbearing to his household, and domestic abuse by him was also condemned. It was said of a wife that "God counts her tears". As for the wife, the greatest praise the Talmudic rabbis offered to any woman was that given to a wife who fulfils the wishes of her husband; to this end, an early midrash states that a wife should not leave the home "too frequently". A wife, also, was expected to be modest, even if the only other person present with her was her husband. God's presence dwells in a pure and loving home. Marriage obligations and rights in Judaism are ultimately based on those apparent in the Bible, which have been clarified, defined, and expanded on by many prominent rabbinic authorities throughout history. Traditionally, the obligations of the husband include providing for his wife. He is obligated to provide for her sustenance for her benefit; in exchange, he is also entitled to her income. However, this is a right to the wife, and she can release her husband of the obligation of sustaining her, and she can then keep her income exclusively for herself. The document that provides for this is the ketuba. The Bible itself gives the wife protections, as per Exodus 21:10, although the rabbis may have added others later. The rights of the husband and wife are described in tractate Ketubot in the Talmud, which explains how the rabbis balanced the two sets of rights of the wife and the husband. According to the non-traditional view, in the Bible the wife is treated as a possession owned by her husband, but later Judaism imposed several obligations on the husband, effectively giving the wife several rights and freedoms; indeed, being a Jewish wife was often a more favourable situation than being a wife in many other cultures. For example, the Talmud establishes the principle that a wife is entitled, but not compelled, to the same dignity and social standing as her husband, and is entitled to keep any additional advantages she had as a result of her social status before her marriage. Biblical Hebrew has two words for "husband": "ba'al" (also meaning "master"), and "ish" (also meaning "man", parallel to "isha" meaning "woman" or "wife"). The words are contrasted in Hosea 2:18 (2:16 in Christian Bibles), where God speaks to Israel as though it is his wife: "On that day, says the Lord, you will call [me] 'my husband' ("ish"), and will no longer call me 'my master' ("ba'al")." Early nomadic communities practised a form of marriage known as "beena", in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retains complete independence from her husband; this principle appears to survive in parts of early Israelite society, as some early passages of the Bible appear to portray certain wives as each owning a tent as a personal possession (specifically, Jael, Sarah, and Jacob's wives). In later times, the Bible describes wives as being given the innermost room(s) of the husband's house, as her own private area to which men were not permitted; in the case of wealthy husbands, the Bible describes their wives as having each been given an entire house for this purpose. It was not, however, a life of complete freedom. The descriptions of the Bible suggest that a wife was expected to perform certain household tasks: spinning, sewing, weaving, manufacture of clothing, fetching of water, baking of bread, and animal husbandry. The Book of Proverbs contains an entire acrostic about the duties which would be performed by a "virtuous" wife. The husband, too, is indirectly implied to have responsibilities to his wife. The Torah obligates a man to not deprive his wife of food, clothing, or of sexual activity; if the husband does not provide the first wife with these things, she is to be divorced, without cost to her. The Talmud interprets this as a requirement for a man to provide food and clothing to, and have sex with, each of his wives, even if he only has one. As a polygynous society, the Israelites did not have any laws which imposed monogamy on men. Adulterous married women and adulterous betrothed women, and their male accomplices however, were subject to the death penalty by the biblical laws against adultery, According to the Priestly Code of the Book of Numbers, if a woman was suspected of adultery, she was to be subjected to the Ordeal of Bitter Water, a form of trial by ordeal, but one that took a miracle to convict. The literary prophets indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence, despite their strong protests against it, and these legal strictnesses. The Talmud sets a minimum provision which a husband must provide to his wife: Rabbinic courts could compel the husband to make this provision, if he fails to do so voluntarily. Moses Schreiber, a prominent 19th century halachic decisor, argued that if a man could not provide his wife with this minimum, he should be compelled to divorce her; other Jewish rabbis argued that a man should be compelled to hire himself out, as a day-labourer, if he cannot otherwise make this provision to his wife. According to prominent Jewish writers of the Middle Ages, if a man is absent from his wife for a long period, the wife should be allowed to sell her husband's property, if necessary to sustain herself. Similarly, they argued that if a wife had to take out a loan to pay for her sustenance during such absence, her husband had to pay the debt on his return. In order to offset the husband's duty to support his wife, she was required by the Talmud to surrender all her earnings to her husband, together with any profit she makes by accident, and the right of usufruct on her property; the wife was not required to do this if she wished to support herself. Although the wife always retained ownership of her property itself, if she died while still married to her husband, he was to be her heir, according to the opinion of the Talmud; this principle, though, was modified, in various ways, by the rabbis of the Middle Ages. In Jewish tradition, the husband was expected to provide a home for his wife, furnished in accordance to local custom and appropriate to his status; the marital couple were expected to live together in this home, although if the husband's choice of work made it difficult to do so, the Talmud excuses him from the obligation. Traditionally, if the husband changed his usual abode, the wife was considered to have a duty to move with him. In the Middle Ages, it was argued that if a person continued to refuse to live with their spouse, the spouse in question had sufficient grounds for divorce. Most Jewish religious authorities held that a husband must allow his wife to eat at the same table as him, even if he gave his wife enough money to provide for herself. By contrast, if a husband mistreated his wife, or lived in a disreputable neighbourhood, the Jewish religious authorities would permit the wife to move to another home elsewhere, and would compel the husband to finance her life there. Expanding on the household tasks which the Bible implies a wife should undertake, rabbinic literature requires her to perform all the housework (such as baking, cooking, washing, caring for her children, etc.), unless her marriage had given the husband a large dowry; in the latter situation, the wife was expected only to tend to "affectionate" tasks, such as making his bed and serving him his food. Jewish tradition expected the husband to provide the bed linen and kitchen utensils. If the wife had young twin children, the Talmud made her husband responsible for caring for one of them. The Talmud elaborates on the biblical requirement of the husband to provide his wife with clothing, by insisting that each year he must provide each wife with 50 zuzim's-worth of clothing, including garments appropriate to each season of the year. The Talmudic rabbis insist that this annual clothing gift should include one hat, one belt, and three pairs of shoes (one pair for each of the three main annual festivals: Passover, Shabu'ot, and Sukkoth). The husband was also expected by the classical rabbis to provide his wife with jewellery and perfumes if he lived in an area where this was customary. The Talmud argues that a husband is responsible for the protection of his wife's body. If his wife became ill, then he would be compelled, by the Talmud, to defray any medical expense which might be incurred in relation to this; the Talmud requires him to ensure that the wife receives care. Although he technically had the right to divorce his wife, enabling him to avoid paying for her medical costs, several prominent rabbis throughout history condemned such a course of action as "inhuman" behaviour, even if the wife was suffering from a prolonged illness. If the wife dies, even if not due to illness, the Talmud's stipulations require the husband to arrange, and pay for, her burial; the burial must, in the opinion of the Talmud, be one conducted in a manner befitting the husband's social status, and in accordance with the local custom. Prominent rabbis of the Middle Ages clarified this, stating that the husband must make any provisions required by local burial customs, potentially including the hiring of mourners and the erection of a tombstone. According to the Talmud, and later rabbinic writers, if the husband was absent, or refused to do these things, a rabbinical court should arrange the wife's funeral, selling some of the husband's property in order to defray the costs. If the wife was captured, the husband was required by the Talmud and later writers to pay the ransom demanded for her release; there is some debate whether the husband was required only to pay up to the wife's market value as a slave, or whether he must pay any ransom, even to the point of having to sell his possessions to raise the funds. If the husband and wife were both taken captive, the historic Jewish view was that the rabbinic courts should first pay the ransom for the wife, selling some of the husband's property in order to raise the funds. In the classical era of the rabbinic scholars, the death penalty for adultery was rarely applied. It forbids conviction if: These rules made it practically impossible to convict any woman of adultery; in nearly every case, women were acquitted. However, due to the belief that a priest should be untainted, a Kohen was compelled to divorce his wife if she had been raped. In Talmud times, once the death penalty was no longer enforced (for any crimes) , even when a woman was convicted, the punishment was comparatively mild: adulteresses were flogged instead. Nevertheless, the husbands of convicted adulteresses were not permitted by the Talmud to forgive their guilty wives, instead being compelled to divorce them; according to Maimonides, a conviction for adultery nullified any right that the wife's "marriage contract" (Hebrew: "ketubah") gave her to a compensation payment for being divorced. Once divorced, an adulteress was not permitted, according to the Talmudic writers, to marry her paramour. As for men who committed adultery (with another man's wife), Abba ben Joseph and Abba Arika are both quoted in the Talmud as expressing abhorrence, and arguing that such men would be condemned to Gehenna. The laws of "family purity" ("tehorat hamishpacha") are considered an important part of an Orthodox Jewish marriage, and adherence to them is (in Orthodox Judaism) regarded as a prerequisite of marriage. This involves observance of the various details of the menstrual niddah laws. Orthodox brides and grooms attend classes on this subject prior to the wedding. The niddah laws are regarded as an intrinsic part of marital life (rather than just associated with women). Together with a few other rules, including those about the ejaculation of semen, these are collectively termed "family purity". In marriage, conjugal relations are guaranteed as a fundamental right for a woman, along with food and clothing. This obligation is known as "onah". Sex within marriage is the woman's right, and the man's duty. The husband is forbidden from raping his wife, they are not to be intimate while drunk or while either party is angry at the other. A woman should be granted a "get" (divorce) if she seeks it because her husband is disgusting or loathsome to her. If either partner consistently refuses to participate, that person is considered rebellious, and the other spouse can sue for divorce. Citing the primacy of the divine command given in Genesis 1:28, the time between puberty and age twenty has been considered the ideal time for men and women to be wed in traditional Jewish thought. Some rabbis have gone further to commend the age of eighteen as most ideal, while others have advocated for the time immediately following puberty, closer to the age of fourteen, essentially "as early in life as possible." Babylonian rabbis understood marriage as God's means of keeping male sexuality from going out of control, so they advocated for early marriage to prevent men from succumbing to temptation in their youth. Some commended early marriage for its benefits: Rabbi Ḥisda maintained that early marriage could lead to increased intelligence. A large age gap between spouses, in either direction, is advised against as unwise. A younger woman marrying a significantly older man however is especially problematic: marrying one's young daughter to an old man was declared as reprehensible as forcing her into prostitution. Moreover, is problematic for an older man to be unmarried in the first place. Marriage is held to be uniquely mandatory for men, and an unmarried man over the age of twenty is considered "cursed by God Himself." There is evidence however that in some communities males did not marry until "thirty or older." In medieval Jewish Ashkenazi communities, women continued to be married young. Since the Enlightenment, young marriage has become rarer among Jewish communities. According to the Talmud, a father is commanded not to marry his daughter to anyone until she grows up and says, "I want this one". A marriage that takes place without the consent of the girl is not an effective legal marriage. A "ketannah" (literally meaning "little [one]") was any girl between the age of 3 years and that of 12 years plus one day; she was subject to her father's authority, and he could arrange a marriage for her without her agreement. However, after reaching the age of maturity, she would have to agree to the marriage to be considered as married. If the father was dead or missing, the brothers of the "ketannah", collectively, had the right to arrange a marriage for her, as had her mother. In these situations, a "ketannah" would always have the right to annul her marriage, even if it was the first. If the marriage did end (due to divorce or the husband's death), any further marriages were optional; the "ketannah" retained her right to annul them. The choice of a "ketannah" to annul a marriage, known in Hebrew as "mi'un" (literally meaning "refusal", "denial", "protest"), led to a true annulment, not a divorce; a divorce document ("get") was not necessary, and a "ketannah" who did this was not regarded by legal regulations as a divorcee, in relation to the marriage. Unlike divorce, "mi'un" was regarded with distaste by many rabbinic writers, even in the Talmud; in earlier classical Judaism, one major faction - the House of Shammai - argued that such annulment rights only existed during the betrothal period ("erusin") and not once the actual marriage ("nissu'in") had begun. Rates of marriage between Jews and non-Jews have increased in countries other than Israel (the Jewish diaspora). According to the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, 47% of marriages involving Jews in the United States between 1996 and 2001 were with non-Jewish partners. Jewish leaders in different branches generally agree that possible assimilation is a crisis, but they differ on the proper response to intermarriage. There are also differences between streams on what constitutes an intermarriage, arising from their differing criteria for being Jewish in the first place. Orthodox Jews do not accept as Jewish a person whose mother is not Jewish, nor a convert whose conversion was conducted under the authority of a more liberal stream. In Israel, the only institutionalized form of Jewish marriage is the religious one, i. e., a marriage conducted under the auspices of the rabbinate. Specifically, marriage of Israeli Jews must be conducted according to Jewish Law (halakha), as viewed by Orthodox Judaism. One consequence is that Jews in Israel who cannot marry according to Jewish law (e. g., a kohen and a divorcée, or a Jew and one who is not halachically Jewish), cannot marry each other. This has led for calls, mostly from the secular segment of the Israeli public, for the institution of civil marriage. Some secular-Jewish Israelis travel abroad to have civil marriages, either because they do not wish an Orthodox wedding or because their union cannot be sanctioned by "halakha". These marriages are legally recognized by the State, but are not recognized by the State Rabbinate. Marriages performed in Israel must be carried out by religious authorities of an official religion (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, or Druse), unless both parties are "without religion". Halakha (Jewish law) allows for divorce. The document of divorce is termed a "get". The final divorce ceremony involves the husband giving the "get" document into the hand of the wife or her agent, but the wife may sue in rabbinical court to initiate the divorce. In such a case, a husband may be compelled to give the "get", if he has violated any of his numerous obligations; this was traditionally accomplished by beating and or monetary coercion. The rationale was that since he was required to divorce his wife due to his (or her) violations of the contract, his good inclination desires to divorce her, and the community helps him to do what he wants to do anyway. In this case, the wife may or may not be entitled to a payment. Since around the 12th century, Judaism recognized the right of a wife abused physically or psychologically to a divorce. Conservative Judaism follows halacha, though differently than Orthodox Judaism. Reform Jews usually use an egalitarian form of the Ketubah at their weddings. They generally do not issue Jewish divorces, seeing a civil divorce as both necessary and sufficient; however, some Reform rabbis encourage the couple to go through a Jewish divorce procedure. Orthodox Judaism does not recognize civil law as overriding religious law, and thus does not view a civil divorce as sufficient. Therefore, a man or woman may be considered divorced by the Reform Jewish community, but still married by the Conservative community. Orthodox Judaism usually does not recognize Reform weddings because according to Talmudic law, the witnesses to the marriage must be Jews who observe halacha, which is seldom the case in reform weddings. Traditionally, when a husband fled, or his whereabouts were unknown for any reason, the woman was considered an "agunah" (literally "an anchored woman"), and was not allowed to remarry; in traditional Judaism, divorce can only be initiated by the husband. Prior to modern communication, the death of the husband while in a distant land was a common cause of this situation. In modern times, when a husband refuses to issue a "get" due to money, property, or custody battles, the woman who cannot remarry is considered a Michuseres Get, not an agunah. A man in this situation would not be termed a "Misarev Get" (literally, "a refuser of a divorce document"), unless a legitimate Beis Din had required him to issue a Get. The term "agunah" is often used in such circumstances, but it is not technically accurate. Within both the Conservative and Orthodox communities, there are efforts to avoid situations where a woman is not able to obtain a Jewish divorce from her husband. The ketubah serves this function in Conservative Judaism in order to prevent husbands from refusing to give their wives a divorce. To do this, the ketubah has built in provisions; so, if predetermined circumstances occur, the divorce goes into effect immediately. After the fact, various Jewish and secular legal methods are used to deal with such problems. None of the legal solutions addresses the agunah problem in the case of a missing husband. The Midrash is one of the few ancient religious texts that makes reference to same-sex marriage. The following teaching can be found twice in the Midrash: "Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Joseph, 'The generation of the Flood was not wiped out until they wrote גמומסיות (either sexual hymns or marriage documents) for the union of a man to a male or to an animal.'" Another important reference is found in the Babylonian Talmud: "'Ula said: Non-Jews [litt. Bnei Noach, the progeny of Noah] accepted upon themselves thirty mitzvot [divinely ordered laws], but they only abide by three of them: The first one is that they do not write marriage documents for male couples, the second one is that they do not sell dead [human] meat by the pound in stores, and the third one is that they respect the Torah.'" Orthodox Judaism does not have a Jewish legal construct of same-gender marriage. While any two Jewish adults may be joined by a Jewish legal contract, the rites of kiddushin are reserved for a union of a man and woman. Orthodox Judaism does not recognize civil marriages to have theological legal standing, be they civil marriages between male and female, or between two adults of the same gender. In June 2012, the American branch of Conservative Judaism formally approved same-sex marriage ceremonies in a 13-0 vote. In 1996, the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a resolution approving same-sex civil marriage. However, this same resolution made a distinction between civil marriages and religious marriages; this resolution thus stated: In 1998, an ad-hoc CCAR committee on human sexuality issued its majority report (11 to 1, 1 abstention) which stated that the holiness within a Jewish marriage "may be present in committed same gender relationships between two Jews and that these relationships can serve as the foundation of stable Jewish families, thus adding strength to the Jewish community." The report called for CCAR to support rabbis in officiating at same-sex marriages. Also in 1998, the Responsa Committee of the CCAR issued a lengthy "teshuvah" (rabbinical opinion) that offered detailed argumentation in support of both sides of the question whether a rabbi may officiate at a commitment ceremony for a same-sex couple. In March 2000, CCAR issued a new resolution stating that "We do hereby resolve that the relationship of a Jewish, same gender couple is worthy of affirmation through appropriate Jewish ritual, and further resolve, that we recognize the diversity of opinions within our ranks on this issue. We support the decision of those who choose to officiate at rituals of union for same-sex couples, and we support the decision of those who do not." The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) encourages its members to officiate at same-sex marriages, though it does not require it of them.

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Jewish views on marriage

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Janusz Zajdel Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (15 August 1938 – 19 July 1985) was a Polish science fiction author, second in popularity in Poland to Stanisław Lem. His major genres were social science fiction and dystopia. His main recurring theme involved the gloomy prospects for a space environment into which mankind carried totalitarian ideas and habits: Red Space Republics, or Space Labor Camps, or both. His heroes desperately try to find meaning in the world around them. His works include five social-science fiction novels: "Cylinder van Troffa" ("Van Troff's Cylinder", 1980); "Limes inferior" ("The Lower Limit", 1982); "Cała prawda o planecie Ksi" ("The Whole Truth about Planet Xi", 1983); "Wyjście z cienia" ("Coming out of the Shadow", 1983); and "Paradyzja" ("Paradise: World in Orbit", 1984). The Polish science fiction fandom award was named after him: the Janusz A. Zajdel Award. He was a trustee of World SF. Janusz Zajdel was born 15 August 1938 in Warsaw, Poland. He studied physics at the University of Warsaw. After graduating, he worked many years as a radiological engineer and an expert on nuclear physics at the Central Laboratory of Radiological Protection in Poland. He published a number of academic works, handbooks of safety regulations, and educational texts. In his spare time, he popularized science by writing science fiction. With his brother, he started a column in a Polish magazine for young people interested in science and engineering, "" ("Young Technician"), in which they proposed various futuristic gadgets. In 1961 "Młody Technik" published Zajdel's science-fiction debut, the short story ""Tau Ceti"" (). Other stories by him soon appeared in several other Polish magazines. His science-fiction book-writing career began in 1965 with the publication of a short-story anthology, "Jad mantezji" ("The Venom of Mantesia"), which included stories from "Młody Technik" and some others that had already appeared a year earlier in another anthology. By 1982 he had published four more collections: "Przejście przez lustro" (Through the Mirror, 1975); "Iluzyt" (1976); "Feniks" (The Phoenix, 1981); and "Ogon diabła" (The Devil's Tail, 1982). His first novel, "Lalande 21185", appeared in 1966, a year after his first short-story anthology, and was geared toward young adults. His first serious science-fiction novel was a "first contact"-type SF mystery, ' (Right of Return, 1975); but it was his novels of the late 1970s and early 1980s – "Cylinder van Troffa" (Van Troff's Cylinder, 1980); "Limes inferior" (The Lower Limit, 1982); "Cała prawda o planecie Ksi" (The Whole Truth about Planet Xi, 1983); ' (Out of the Shadows, 1983); and "Paradyzja" (Paradise: World in Orbit, 1984) – that earned him a reputation as one of the most important Polish science-fiction writers. He was an active member of Polish and international science fiction fandom, and a Trustee of World SF. In the 1980s he was an active supporter of the Polish Solidarity movement. On 19 July 1985 he died of lung cancer, after three years' struggle against the disease. Zajdel's early works, from the 1960s and early 1970s, focuses on scientific inventions and their role in space exploration, alien contact or artificial intelligence. As his writing career continued, however, his stories evolved to focus on the social aspects and often negative consequences of those inventions. Over time, a theme became increasingly visible in his works - a concern over dangers inherent in attempts to control the human society. He is also condemning human ignorance, warning against xenophobia, and asking philosophical questions about the nature of the universe, happiness and human destiny. Zajdel's works from his second period - late 1970s and 1980s - and represent the genres of social and dystopian fiction. In his works, he envisions totalitarian states and societies living under extreme forms of mass surveillance. His works are also recognized as being a critique of the totalitarian, communist state, a reality of his life in People's Republic of Poland. Science fiction genre, with its outer-worldly, clearly fictional, and often allegorical setting and invented jargon was able to debate fundamentals of such systems with frankness that more mainstream literature would not be allowed to. Zajdel has been described as the second science fiction writer in popularity in Poland after Stanisław Lem. He has also been described as the writer who replaced Lem as the "top Polish SF writer", after "Lem vacated [this position] earlier of his own volition". He is recognized as an originator of the social science fiction genre in Polish science fiction, known in Poland as the sociological speculative fiction ("fantastyka socjologiczna"). He has been an inspiration to a number of younger Polish science fiction authors such as Maciej Parowski and Marek Oramus. His works have been translated into Belorussian, Bulgarian, Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Russian and Slovenian. Almost none of his works have been translated into English; the only exception is the short story "Wyjątkowo trudny teren" ("Particularly Difficult Territory") that Zajdel wrote for the English language "Tales from the Planet Earth" anthology edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull. In 1973 Zajdel received an honorary award Magnum Trophaeum from the "Młody Technik" ("Young Technician") magazine for long-term cooperation. In 1980 Zajdel was recipient of the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts Award for "Van Troff's Cylinder". Zajdel also received the Golden Sepulka Award two times: for "Limes Inferior" (1982 novel; 1983 award) and "Wyjście z cienia" ("Out of the Shadow") (1983 novel; 1984 award). In 1984 Polish fantasy and science fiction fandom (associated with the Polish SF convention Polcon) decided to establish an annual award, initially named "Sfinks" ("Sphynx"). Janusz A. Zajdel became the first winner of this award, for his 1984 novel "Paradyzja". He won the award posthumously in 1985, shortly after his death, at which time it was decided to rename the award after him, and it became known as the Janusz A. Zajdel Award. Frederik Pohl dedicated the anthology "Tales From The Planet Earth" to Zajdel and A. Bertram Chandler. This book also contains the English translation of one of Zajdel's short stories, "Particularly Difficult Territory". It is his only work to have been translated into English to date (as of August 2015). In addition to the solo-authored works listed below, Zajdel's stories have also appeared in many anthologies of science-fiction stories, together with works by other authors.

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Rumi Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (, "my master"), and more popularly simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century [[Persian people|Persian]] [[poet]], [[faqih]], [[ulama|Islamic scholar]], [[theologian]], and [[Sufism|Sufi]] [[mysticism|mystic]] originally from [[Greater Khorasan]] in [[Greater Iran]]. Rumi's influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: [[Iran]]ians, [[Tajiks]], [[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Cappadocian Greeks|Greeks]], [[Pashtun people|Pashtuns]], other [[Central Asian peoples|Central Asian Muslims]], and the Muslims of the [[Indian subcontinent]] have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet" and the "best selling poet" in the United States. Rumi's works are written mostly in [[Persian language|Persian]], but occasionally he also used [[Old Anatolian Turkish|Turkish]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], and [[Cappadocian Greek|Greek]] in his verse. His "[[Masnavi]]" ("Mathnawi"), composed in [[Konya]], is considered one of the greatest poems of the Persian language. His works are widely read today in their original language across [[Greater Iran]] and the Persian-speaking world. Translations of his works are very popular, most notably in [[Turkey]], [[Azerbaijan]], the United States, and South Asia. His poetry has influenced not only [[Persian literature]], but also the literary traditions of the [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]], [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]], [[Urdu]] and [[Pashto language|Pashto]] languages. He is most commonly called "Rumi" in English. His full name is "Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī" () or "Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī" (). "Jalal ad-Din" is an [[Arabic]] name meaning "Glory of the Faith". "Balkhī" and "Rūmī" are his "[[Nisba (onomastics)|nisbas]]", meaning, respectively, "from [[Balkh]]" and "from [[Rûm]]" ('Roman,' what European history now calls [[Byzantine]], [[Byzantine Anatolia|Anatolia]]). According to the authoritative Rumi biographer [[Franklin Lewis]] of the [[University of Chicago]], "[t]he Anatolian peninsula which had belonged to the Byzantine, or eastern Roman empire, had only relatively recently been conquered by Muslims and even when it came to be controlled by Turkish Muslim rulers, it was still known to Arabs, Persians and Turks as the geographical area of Rum. As such, there are a number of historical personages born in or associated with Anatolia known as Rumi, a word borrowed from Arabic literally meaning 'Roman,' in which context Roman refers to subjects of the [[Byzantine Empire]] or simply to people living in or things associated with [[Anatolia]]." He was also known as "Mullah of Rum" ( "mullā-yi Rūm" or "mullā-yi Rūmī"). He is widely known by the [[sobriquet]] "Mawlānā"/"Molānā" ( ) in [[Iran]] and popularly known as in Turkey. "Mawlānā" () is a term of [[Arabic]] origin, meaning "our master". The term "Mawlawī"/"Mowlavi" (Persian) and (Turkish), also of Arabic origin, meaning "my master", is also frequently used for him. [[File:Jalal al-Din Rumi, Showing His Love for His Young Disciple Hussam al-Din Chelebi.jpg|thumb|Jalal ad-Din Rumi gathers [[Sufi]] mystics.]] [[File:Ahmad ibn Hajji Abi Bakr al-Katib - Double-page Illuminated Frontispiece - Walters W6252B - Full Page.jpg|thumb|Double-page illuminated frontispiece, 1st book (daftar) of the Collection of poems ([[Masnavi|"Masnavi-i ma'navi"]]), 1461 manuscript]] [[File:Bowl of Reflections, early 13th century.jpg|thumbnail|"Bowl of Reflections" with Rumi's poetry, early 13th century. [[Brooklyn Museum]].]] Rumi was born to native Persian-speaking parents, originally from the [[Balkh]], in present-day [[Afghanistan]]. He was born either in [[Vakhsh, Tajikistan|Wakhsh]], a village on the [[Vakhsh River]] in present-day [[Tajikistan]], or in the city of Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan. Greater Balkh was at that time a major centre of Persian culture and [[Sufism]] had developed there for several centuries. The most important influences upon Rumi, besides his father, were the Persian poets [[Attar of Nishapur|Attar]] and [[Sanai]]. Rumi expresses his appreciation: "Attar was the spirit, Sanai his eyes twain, And in time thereafter, Came we in their train" and mentions in another poem: "Attar has traversed the seven cities of Love, We are still at the turn of one street". His father was also connected to the spiritual lineage of [[Najm al-Din Kubra]]. Rumi lived most of his life under the [[Persianate society|Persianate]] [[Seljuk dynasty|Seljuk]] [[Sultanate of Rum]], where he produced his works and died in 1273AD. He was buried in [[Konya]], and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage. Upon his death, his followers and his son [[Sultan Walad]] founded the [[Mevlevi Order]], also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for the [[Sufi dance]] known as the [[Sama (Sufism)|Sama]] ceremony. He was laid to rest beside his father, and over his remains a shrine was erected. A hagiographical account of him is described in Shams ud-Din Ahmad Aflāki's "Manāqib ul-Ārifīn" (written between 1318 and 1353). This biography needs to be treated with care as it contains both legends and facts about Rumi. For example, Professor [[Franklin Lewis]] of the University of Chicago, author of the most complete biography on Rumi, has separate sections for the [[hagiography|hagiographical]] biography of Rumi and the actual biography about him. Rumi's father was [[:ru:Баха ад-Дин Валад|Bahā ud-Dīn Walad]], a theologian, jurist and a [[mysticism|mystic]] from Balkh, who was also known by the followers of Rumi as Sultan al-Ulama or "Sultan of the Scholars". The popular hagiographical assertions that have claimed the family's descent from the Caliph [[Abu Bakr]] does not hold on closer examination and is rejected by modern scholars. The claim of maternal descent from the [[Khwarazmshah]] for Rumi or his father is also seen as a non-historical hagiographical tradition designed to connect the family with royalty, but this claim is rejected for chronological and historical reasons. The most complete genealogy offered for the family stretches back to six or seven generations to famous Hanafi jurists. We do not learn the name of Baha al-Din's mother in the sources, only that he referred to her as "Māmi" (colloquial Persian for Māma), and that she was a simple woman who lived to the 1200s. The mother of Rumi was Mu'mina Khātūn. The profession of the family for several generations was that of Islamic preachers of the liberal [[Hanafi]] rite, and this family tradition was continued by Rumi (see his Fihi Ma Fih and Seven Sermons) and [[Sultan Walad]] (see Ma'rif Waladi for examples of his everyday sermons and lectures). When the [[Mongol]]s invaded [[Central Asia]] sometime between 1215 and 1220, Baha ud-Din Walad, with his whole family and a group of disciples, set out westwards. According to hagiographical account which is not agreed upon by all Rumi scholars, Rumi encountered one of the most famous mystic Persian poets, [[Attar of Nishapur|Attar]], in the Iranian city of [[Nishapur]], located in the province of Khorāsān. Attar immediately recognized Rumi's spiritual eminence. He saw the father walking ahead of the son and said, "Here comes a sea followed by an ocean." Attar gave the boy his "Asrārnāma", a book about the entanglement of the soul in the material world. This meeting had a deep impact on the eighteen-year-old Rumi and later on became the inspiration for his works. From Nishapur, Walad and his entourage set out for [[Baghdad]], meeting many of the scholars and Sufis of the city. From Baghdad they went to [[Hejaz]] and performed the [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] at [[Mecca]]. The migrating caravan then passed through [[Damascus]], [[Malatya]], [[Erzincan]], [[Sivas]], [[Kayseri]] and [[Nigde]]. They finally settled in [[Karaman]] for seven years; Rumi's mother and brother both died there. In 1225, Rumi married Gowhar Khatun in Karaman. They had two sons: [[Sultan Walad]] and Ala-eddin Chalabi. When his wife died, Rumi married again and had a son, Amir Alim Chalabi, and a daughter, Malakeh Khatun. On 1 May 1228, most likely as a result of the insistent invitation of [[Kayqubad I|'Alā' ud-Dīn Key-Qobād]], ruler of Anatolia, [[Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari|Baha' ud-Din]] came and finally settled in Konya in [[Anatolia]] within the westernmost territories of the [[Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm]]. Baha' ud-Din became the head of a [[madrassa]] (religious school) and when he died, Rumi, aged twenty-five, inherited his position as the Islamic molvi. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the [[Shariah]] as well as the [[Tariqa]], especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing [[fatwas]] and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to [[Damascus]] and is said to have spent four years there. It was his meeting with the dervish [[Shams-e Tabrizi]] on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic. [[File:Tomb of Shams Tabrizi 9.JPG|thumb|Tomb shrine of Shams Tabrizi, [[Khoy]]]] Shams had travelled throughout the Middle East searching and praying for someone who could "endure my company". A voice said to him, "What will you give in return?" Shams replied, "My head!" The voice then said, "The one you seek is Jalal ud-Din of Konya." On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. It is rumoured that Shams was murdered with the connivance of Rumi's son, 'Ala' ud-Din; if so, Shams indeed gave his head for the privilege of mystical friendship. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, [[Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi|"Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi"]]. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus. There, he realised: [[File:Maulana Jelaledin Muhammad Rumi in konya.jpg|thumb|Tomb shrine of Rumi, Konya]] Mewlana had been spontaneously composing "[[ghazal]]s" (Persian poems), and these had been collected in the "Divan-i Kabir" or Diwan Shams Tabrizi. Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. One day, the two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside Konya when Hussam described to Rumi an idea he had had: "If you were to write a book like the "Ilāhīnāma" of Sanai or the "Mantiq ut-Tayr" of 'Attar, it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would fill their hearts from your work and compose music to accompany it." Rumi smiled and took out a piece of paper on which were written the opening eighteen lines of his "Masnavi", beginning with: Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next twelve years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the "Masnavi", to Hussam. In December 1273, Rumi fell ill; he predicted his own death and composed the well-known "ghazal", which begins with the verse: Rumi died on 17 December 1273 in [[Konya]]. His death was mourned by the diverse community of Konya, with local Christians and Jews joining the crowd that converged to bid farewell as his body was carried through the city. Rumi's body was interred beside that of his father, and a splendid shrine, the "Yeşil Türbe" (Green Tomb, قبه الخضراء; today the [[Mevlana Museum|Mevlâna Museum]]), was erected over his place of burial. His epitaph reads: Georgian Queen [[Gürcü Hatun]] was a close friend of Rumi. She was the one who sponsored the construction of [[Mevlana Museum|his tomb]] in [[Konya]]. The 13th century [[Mevlana Museum|Mevlâna Mausoleum]], with its mosque, dance hall, schools and living quarters for dervishes, remains a destination of pilgrimage to this day, and is probably the most popular pilgrimage site to be regularly visited by adherents of every major religion. [[File:Shams ud-Din Tabriz 1502-1504 BNF Paris.jpg|thumb|A page of a copy c. 1503 of the "[[Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i]]". See [[Rumi ghazal 163]].]] Like other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, Rumi's poetry speaks of love which infuses the world. Rumi's teachings also express the tenets summarized in the Quranic verse which Shams-e Tabrizi cited as the essence of prophetic guidance: "Know that ‘There is no god but He,’ and ask forgiveness for your sin" (Q. 47:19). In the interpretation attributed to Shams, the first part of the verse commands the humanity to seek knowledge of "[[tawhid]]" (oneness of God), while the second instructs them to negate their own existence. In Rumi's terms, "tawhid" is lived most fully through love, with the connection being made explicit in his verse that describes love as "that flame which, when it blazes up, burns away everything except the Everlasting Beloved." Rumi's longing and desire to attain this ideal is evident in the following poem from his book the [[Masnavi]]: The "Masnavi" weaves fables, scenes from everyday life, Qur'anic revelations and exegesis, and metaphysics into a vast and intricate tapestry. Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of [[Sufi whirling|whirling Dervishes]] developed into a ritual form. His teachings became the base for the order of the Mevlevi, which his son Sultan Walad organised. Rumi encouraged [[Sama (Sufism)|Sama]], listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, "samāʿ" represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes and nations. In other verses in the "Masnavi", Rumi describes in detail the universal message of love: Rumi's favourite musical instrument was the [[ney]] (reed flute). [[File:Meeting of Jalal al-Din Rumi and Molla Shams al-Din.jpg|thumb|An [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] era manuscript depicting Rumi and [[Shams-e Tabrizi]].]] Rumi's poetry is often divided into various categories: the quatrains ("[[Ruba'i|rubayāt]]") and odes ("[[ghazal]]") of the "Divan", the six books of the "Masnavi". The prose works are divided into The Discourses, The Letters, and the "Seven Sermons". [[File:Turkey.Konya021.jpg|thumb|Maṭnawīye Ma'nawī [[Mevlana Museum|Mevlâna Museum]], [[Konya]], [[Turkey]] ]] (Khawaja Abdul Hamid Irfani, "The Sayings of Rumi and Iqbal", Bazm-e-Rumi, 1976.) Many commentators have regarded it as the greatest mystical poem in world literature. It contains approximately 27,000 lines, each consisting of a couplet with an internal rhyme. Rumi belongs to the class of Islamic philosophers which include [[Ibn Arabi]] and [[Mulla Sadra]]. These transcendental philosophers are often studied together in traditional schools of [[irfan]], philosophy and theosophy throughout the Muslim world. Rumi embeds his theosophy (transcendental philosophy) like a string through the beads of his poems and stories. His main point and emphasis is the unity of being. It is undeniable that Rumi was a Muslim scholar and took Islam seriously. Nonetheless, the depth of his spiritual vision extended beyond narrow understanding sectarian concerns. One rubaiyat reads: According to the Quran, Prophet Muhammad is a mercy sent by God to the [[Alamin]] (to all worlds), including humanity overall. In regards to this, Rumi states: "The Light of Muhammad does not abandon a Zoroastrian or Jew in the world. May the shade of his good fortune shine upon everyone! He brings all of those who are led astray into the Way out of the desert." Rumi, however, asserts the supremacy of [[Islam]] by stating: "The Light of Muhammad has become a thousand branches (of knowledge), a thousand, so that both this world and the next have been seized from end to end. If Muhammad rips the veil open from a single such branch, thousands of monks and priests will tear the string of false belief from around their waists." Many of Rumi's poems suggest the importance of outward religious observance and the primacy of the Qur'an. Rumi states: I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I have life. I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words. Rumi also states: On the first page of the Masnavi, Rumi states: "This is the book of the Masnavi, and it is the roots of the roots of the roots of the (Islamic) Religion and it is the Explainer of the Qur'ân." [[Hadi Sabzavari]], one of Iran's most important 19th-century philosophers, makes the following connection between the Masnavi and Islam, in the introduction to his philosophical commentary on the book: It is a commentary on the versified exegesis [of the Qur’ān] and its occult mystery, since all of it [all of the Mathnawī] is, as you will see, an elucidation of the clear verses [of the Qur’ān], a clarification of prophetic utterances, a glimmer of the light of the luminous Qur’ān, and burning embers irradiating their rays from its shining lamp. As respects to hunting through the treasure-trove of the Qur’ān, one can find in it [the Mathnawī] all [the Qur’ān’s] ancient philosophical wisdom; it [the Mathnawī] is all entirely eloquent philosophy. In truth, the pearly verse of the poem combines the Canon Law of Islam ([[sharia|sharīʿa]]) with the Sufi Path ([[tariqa|ṭarīqa]]) and the Divine Reality ([[haqiqa|ḥaqīqa]]); the author’s [Rūmī] achievement belongs to God in his bringing together of the Law (sharīʿa), the Path, and the Truth in a way that includes critical intellect, profound thought, a brilliant natural temperament, and integrity of character that is endowed with power, insight, inspiration, and illumination. [[Seyyed Hossein Nasr]] states: One of the greatest living authorities on Rûmî in Persia today, Hâdî Hâ'irî, has shown in an unpublished work that some 6,000 verses of the Dîwân and the Mathnawî are practically direct translations of Qur'ânic verses into Persian poetry. Rumi states in his [[Diwan (poetry)|Dīwān]]: The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like [[Abu Bakr]]. His [[Masnavi]] contains anecdotes and stories derived largely from the Quran and the hadith, as well as everyday tales. Rumi's poetry forms the basis of much classical [[Music of Iran|Iranian]] and [[Music of Afghanistan|Afghan]] music. Contemporary classical interpretations of his poetry are made by [[Muhammad Reza Shajarian]], [[Shahram Nazeri]], [[Davood Azad]] (the three from Iran) and [[Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti]] (Afghanistan). To many modern Westerners, his teachings are one of the best introductions to the philosophy and practice of [[Sufism]]. In the West [[Shahram Shiva]] has been teaching, performing and sharing the translations of the poetry of Rumi for nearly twenty years and has been instrumental in spreading Rumi's legacy in the English-speaking parts of the world. Pakistan's [[National Poet]], [[Muhammad Iqbal]], was also inspired by Rumi's works and considered him to be his spiritual leader, addressing him as "Pir Rumi" in his poems (the honorific "[[Pir (Sufism)|Pir]]" literally means "old man", but in the Sufi/mystic context it means founder, master, or guide). [[File:Rumipp.jpg|thumb|Molna Rumi Postal Stamp Pakistan Post]] Pakistan post also issued Postal stamp of Rumi [[Shahram Shiva]] asserts that "Rumi is able to verbalise the highly personal and often confusing world of personal growth and development in a very clear and direct fashion. He does not offend anyone, and he includes everyone... Today Rumi's poems can be heard in churches, synagogues, Zen monasteries, as well as in the downtown New York art/performance/music scene." According to Professor Majid M. Naini, "Rumi's life and transformation provide true testimony and proof that people of all religions and backgrounds can live together in peace and harmony. Rumi’s visions, words, and life teach us how to reach inner peace and happiness so we can finally stop the continual stream of hostility and hatred and achieve true global peace and harmony.” Rumi's work has been translated into many of the world's languages, including Russian, German, Urdu, Turkish, Arabic, Bengali, French, Italian, and Spanish, and is being presented in a growing number of formats, including concerts, workshops, readings, dance performances, and other artistic creations. The English interpretations of Rumi's poetry by [[Coleman Barks]] have sold more than half a million copies worldwide, and Rumi is one of the most widely read poets in the [[United States]]. [[Shahram Shiva]] book "Rending the Veil: Literal and Poetic Translations of Rumi" (1995, HOHM Press) is the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award. Recordings of Rumi poems have made it to the USA's Billboard's Top 20 list. A selection of American author [[Deepak Chopra]]'s editing of the translations by Fereydoun Kia of Rumi's love poems has been performed by Hollywood personalities such as [[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna]], [[Goldie Hawn]], [[Philip Glass]] and [[Demi Moore]]. There is a famous landmark in Northern India, known as [[Rumi Gate]], situated in Lucknow (the capital of Uttar Pradesh) named for Rumi. [[File:5000 TL A reverse.jpg|thumb|Rumi and his mausoleum on the reverse of the 5000 Turkish lira banknotes of 1981–1994]] Rumi and his mausoleum were depicted on the [[Obverse and reverse|reverse]] of the 5000 Turkish lira banknotes of 1981–1994. These cultural, historical and linguistic ties between Rumi and [[Iran]] have made Rumi an iconic Iranian poet, and some of the most important Rumi scholars including Foruzanfar, Naini, Sabzewari, etc., have come from modern Iran. Rumi's poetry is displayed on the walls of many cities across [[Iran]], sung in Persian music, and read in school books. The Mewlewī Sufi order was founded in 1273 by Rumi's followers after his death. His first successor in the rectorship of the order was "Husam Chalabi" himself, after whose death in 1284 Rumi's younger and only surviving son, [[Sultan Walad]] (died 1312), popularly known as author of the mystical "Maṭnawī Rabābnāma", or the "Book of the Rabab" was installed as grand master of the order. The leadership of the order has been kept within Rumi's family in Konya uninterruptedly since then. The Mewlewī Sufis, also known as Whirling Dervishes, believe in performing their "[[dhikr]]" in the form of [[Sama (Sufism)|Sama]]. During the time of Rumi (as attested in the "Manāqib ul-Ārefīn" of Aflākī), his followers gathered for musical and "turning" practices. According to tradition, Rumi was himself a notable musician who played the [[rebab|"robāb"]], although his favourite instrument was the "[[ney]]" or reed flute. The music accompanying the "samāʿ" consists of settings of poems from the "Maṭnawī" and "Dīwān-e Kabīr", or of Sultan Walad's poems. The Mawlawīyah was a well-established Sufi order in the [[Ottoman Empire]], and many of the members of the order served in various official positions of the Caliphate. The centre for the Mevlevi was in Konya. There is also a Mewlewī monastery (, "dargāh") in [[Istanbul]] near the [[Galata Tower]] in which the "samāʿ" is performed and accessible to the public. The Mewlewī order issues an invitation to people of all backgrounds: [[File:Turkey.Konya008.jpg|left|thumb|Rumi's tomb in [[Konya]], Turkey.]] During Ottoman times, the Mevlevi produced a number of notable poets and musicians, including Sheikh Ghalib, Ismail Rusuhi Dede of Ankara, Esrar Dede, Halet Efendi, and Gavsi Dede, who are all buried at the Galata Mewlewī Khāna (Turkish: "Mevlevi-Hane") in Istanbul. Music, especially that of the ney, plays an important part in the Mevlevi. With the foundation of the modern, secular [[Republic of Turkey]], [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] removed religion from the sphere of public policy and restricted it exclusively to that of personal morals, behaviour and faith. On 13 December 1925, a law was passed closing all the "[[Khanqah|tekke]]"s (dervish lodges) and "zāwiyas" (chief dervish lodges), and the centres of veneration to which visits ("ziyārat") were made. Istanbul alone had more than 250 "tekke"s as well as small centres for gatherings of various fraternities; this law dissolved the Sufi Orders, prohibited the use of mystical names, titles and costumes pertaining to their titles, impounded the Orders' assets, and banned their ceremonies and meetings. The law also provided penalties for those who tried to re-establish the Orders. Two years later, in 1927, the Mausoleum of Mevlâna in Konya was allowed to reopen as a Museum. In the 1950s, the Turkish government began allowing the Whirling Dervishes to perform once a year in Konya. The Mewlānā festival is held over two weeks in December; its culmination is on 17 December, the Urs of Mewlānā (anniversary of Rumi's death), called "Šabe Arūs" (شب عروس) (Persian meaning "nuptial night"), the night of Rumi's union with God. In 1974, the Whirling Dervishes were permitted to travel to the West for the first time. In 2005, [[UNESCO]] proclaimed "The [[Mevlevi Order|Mevlevi]] [[Sama (Sufism)|Sama]] Ceremony" of [[Turkey]] as one of the [[Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity]]. As [[Edward G. Browne]] noted, the three most prominent mystical Persian poets Rumi, [[Sanai]] and [[Farid al-Din Attar|Attar]] were all Sunni Muslims and their poetry abounds with praise for the first two caliphs [[Abu Bakr]] and [[Umar ibn al-Khattāb]]. According to [[Annemarie Schimmel]], the tendency among [[Shia]] authors to anachronistically include leading mystical poets such as Rumi and Attar among their own ranks, became stronger after the introduction of [[Twelver Shia]] as the state religion in the [[Safavid Empire]] in 1501. In Afghanistan, Rumi is known as "Mawlānā", in Turkey as "Mevlâna", and in Iran as "Molavī". At the proposal of the Permanent Delegations of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, and as approved by its executive board and General Conference in conformity with its mission of “constructing in the minds of men the defences of peace”, [[UNESCO]] was associated with the celebration, in 2007, of the eight hundredth anniversary of Rumi's birth. The commemoration at UNESCO itself took place on 6 September 2007; UNESCO issued a medal in Rumi's name in the hope that it would prove an encouragement to those who are engaged in research on and dissemination of Rumi's ideas and ideals, which would, in turn, enhance the diffusion of the ideals of UNESCO. The Afghan Ministry of Culture and Youth established a national committee, which organised an international seminar to celebrate the birth and life of the great ethical philosopher and world-renowned poet. This grand gathering of the intellectuals, diplomats, and followers of Mewlana was held in [[Kabul]] and in [[Balkh]], the Mewlana's place of birth. On 30 September 2007, Iranian school bells were rung throughout the country in honour of Mewlana. Also in that year, Iran held a Rumi Week from 26 October to 2 November. An international ceremony and conference were held in [[Tehran]]; the event was opened by the Iranian president and the chairman of the [[Iranian parliament]]. Scholars from twenty-nine countries attended the events, and 450 articles were presented at the conference. Iranian musician [[Shahram Nazeri]] was awarded the [[Légion d'honneur]] and Iran's House of Music Award in 2007 for his renowned works on Rumi masterpieces. 2007 was declared as the "International Rumi Year" by UNESCO. Also on 30 September 2007, Turkey celebrated Rumi’s eight-hundredth birthday with a giant Whirling Dervish ritual performance of the "samāʿ", which was televised using forty-eight cameras and broadcast live in eight countries. [[Ertugrul Gunay]], of the [[Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey)|Ministry of Culture and Tourism]], stated, "Three hundred dervishes are scheduled to take part in this ritual, making it the largest performance of sema in history." The "Mawlana Rumi Review" () is published annually by The Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the [[University of Exeter]] in collaboration with The Rumi Institute in [[Nicosia, Cyprus]], and Archetype Books in [[Cambridge]]. The first volume was published in 2010, and it has come out annually since then. According to the principal editor of the journal, Leonard Lewisohn: "Although a number of major Islamic poets easily rival the likes of [[Dante]], [[Shakespeare]] and [[John Milton|Milton]] in importance and output, they still enjoy only a marginal literary fame in the West because the works of Arabic and Persian thinkers, writers and poets are considered as negligible, frivolous, tawdry sideshows beside the grand narrative of the [[Western Canon]]. It is the aim of the Mawlana Rumi Review to redress this carelessly inattentive approach to [[world literature]], which is something far more serious than a minor faux pas committed by the Western literary imagination." [[Category:Rumi| ]] [[Category:1207 births]] [[Category:1273 deaths]] [[Category:Iranian Sufis]] [[Category:Iranian Sunni Muslims]] [[Category:Islamic philosophers]] [[Category:Persian philosophers]] [[Category:Persian spiritual writers]] [[Category:Medieval Persian people]] [[Category:Burials in Turkey]] [[Category:Sufi poets]] [[Category:Persian-language writers]] [[Category:Persian-language poets]] [[Category:Mevlevi Order]] [[Category:13th-century writers]] [[Category:13th-century philosophers]] [[Category:Medieval poets]] [[Category:Mystic poets]] [[Category:People of the Sultanate of Rum]] [[Category:Sufism]] [[Category:13th-century Iranian people]] [[Category:Seljuq-period poets]] [[Category:13th-century Persian poets]] [[Category:Persian writers]] [[Category:13th-century Islamic religious leaders]] [[Category:Iranian Sufi saints]] [[Category:13th-century jurists]] [[Category:Medieval Persian philosophers]]

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Rumi

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16437

James Norris Memorial Trophy The James Norris Memorial Trophy, or simply the Norris Trophy, is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's top "defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position". It is named after James E. Norris, the longtime owner of the Detroit Red Wings. The James Norris Memorial Trophy has been awarded 61 times to 26 different players since its beginnings in 1953–54. At the end of each season, members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association vote to determine the player who was the best defenseman during the regular season. The trophy is named in honour of James E. Norris, owner of the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings from 1932 to 1952. The trophy was first awarded at the conclusion of the 1953–54 NHL season. Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins won the award for a record eight consecutive seasons (1968–75). Doug Harvey and Nicklas Lidstrom won the award seven times, and Ray Bourque won it five times (Bourque was in the top 3 vote getters for the trophy a further 10 times). The Boston Bruins have had the most Norris Trophies winners with 14; the Montreal Canadiens have had the second most with 12. Only two players have won both the Norris and Hart Memorial Trophy for the league Most Valuable Player in the same season: Bobby Orr, who won both trophies in the 1969–70, 1970–71 and 1971–72 seasons, and Chris Pronger, who won the Hart and Norris in the 1999–2000 NHL season. As of 2019, no defensemen has won the Hart Trophy without also winning the Norris Trophy, since its inception in 1953–54. Six defensemen won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player before the Norris Trophy's establishment: Herb Gardiner, Eddie Shore (four times), Albert "Babe" Siebert, Ebbie Goodfellow, Tommy Anderson and Babe Pratt. Save for Randy Carlyle, every Norris winner eligible to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame has been. Members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association vote at the end of the regular season, and each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10–7–5–3–1 point(s) system. Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL awards ceremony after the conclusion of the playoffs.

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James Norris Memorial Trophy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16437

16438

JANET Janet is a high-speed network for the UK research and education community provided by Jisc, a not-for-profit company set up to provide computing support for education. It serves 18 million users and is the busiest National Research and Education Network in Europe by volume of data carried. JANET was previously a private, UK government-funded organisation, which provided the Janet computer network and related collaborative services to UK research and education. All further- and higher-education organisations in the UK are connected to the Janet network, as are all the Research Councils; the majority of these sites are connected via 20 metropolitan area networks across the UK (though Janet refers to these as regions, emphasising that Janet connections are not just confined to a metropolitan area). The network also carries traffic between schools within the UK, although many of the schools' networks maintain their own general Internet connectivity. The name was originally a contraction of Joint Academic NETwork but it is now known as Janet in its own right. The network is linked to other European and worldwide NRENs through GEANT and peers extensively with other ISPs at Internet Exchange Points in the UK. Any other networks are reached via transit services from commercial ISPs using Janet's Peering Policy. The Janet network is operated by Jisc Services Limited, part of Jisc. Janet is also responsible for the .ac.uk and .gov.uk domains. On 1 December 2012, Janet and Jisc Collections joined together to form Jisc Collections and Janet Limited, as subsidiary organisations to Jisc. In March 2015, Jisc Collections and Janet Limited was renamed to Jisc Services Limited. Jisc Services continues to operate under the brand name of Janet, with the same remit. Janet was previously known as the JNT Association, and prior to that, UKERNA (the United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association). Janet developed out of a number of local and research networks dating back to the 1970s. By 1980, a number of national computer facilities serving the Science and Engineering Research Council community had developed, each with their own star network (ULCC London, UMRCC Manchester, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory). There were also regional networks centred on Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle, where groups of institutions had pooled resources to provide better computing facilities than could be afforded individually. These networks were each based on one manufacturer's standards and were mutually incompatible and overlapping. In the early 1980s a standardisation and interconnection effort started, hosted on an expansion of the SERCnet X.25 research network. The system first went live on 1 April 1984, hosting about 50 sites with line speeds of 9.6 kbit/s. In the mid-80s the backbone was upgraded to a 2 Mbit/s backbone with 64 kbit/s access links, and a further upgrade in the early 1990s sped the backbone to 8 Mbit/s and the access links to 2 Mbit/s, making Janet the fastest X.25 network in the world. The Janet effort resulted in the standardisation known as the Coloured Book protocols, which provided the first complete X.25 standard. The naming scheme used on Janet (JANET NRS) had similarities to the Internet's Domain Name System, but with domains specified in big-endian format rather than the little-endian style used by DNS. There had been some talk of moving Janet to OSI protocols in the 1990s, but changes in the networking world meant this never happened. Planning began in January 1991 for the JANET IP Service (JIPS). It was set up as a pilot project in March 1991 to host IP traffic on the existing network. Within eight months the IP traffic had exceeded the levels of X.25 traffic, and the IP support became official in November. The X.25 service was closed in August 1997. Today Janet is primarily a high-speed IP network. In order to address speed concerns, several hardware upgrades have been incorporated into the Janet system. In 1989 SuperJanet was proposed, to re-host JANET on a fibre optic network. Work started in late 1992, and by late 1993 the first 14 sites had migrated to the new 34 Mbit/s ATM system. SuperJanet also moved solely to IP. In 1995 SuperJanet2 started, adding 155 Mbit/s ATM backbones and a 10 Mbit/s SMDS network encompassing some of the original JANET nodes. JANET's mandate now included running metropolitan area networks centred on these sites. SuperJanet3 created new 155 Mbit/s ATM nodes to fully connect all of the major sites at London, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds, with 34 Mbit/s links to smaller sites around the country. In March 2001 SuperJanet4 was launched. The key challenges for SuperJanet4 were the need to increase network capacity and to strengthen the design and management of the JANET network to allow it to meet a similar increase in the size of its userbase. SuperJanet4 saw the implementation of a 2.5 Gbit/s core backbone from which connections to regional network points of presence were made at speeds ranging between 155 Mbit/s to 2.5 Gbit/s depending upon the size of the regional network. In 2002 the core SuperJanet4 backbone was upgraded to 10 Gbit/s. SuperJanet4 also saw an increase in the userbase of the JANET network, with the inclusion of the Further Education Community and the use of the SuperJanet4 backbone to interconnect schools' networks. The core point of presence (Backbone) sites in SuperJanet4 were Edinburgh, Glasgow, Warrington, Reading, Bristol, Portsmouth, London and Leeds. In October 2006 the SuperJanet5 project was launched after £29 million of investment. It provides a 10 Gbit/s backbone, with an upgrade path to 40 Gbit/s over the next few years. The new backbone as a result of the SuperJanet5 project is a hybrid network offering, providing both a high speed IP transit service and private bandwidth channel services provisioned over a dedicated fibre network. It is designed not only to fully accommodate the requirements of the traditional JANET user base - all research institutes, universities and further education - but also to meet the needs of a new userbase in the UK's primary and secondary schools. In April 2011 Verizon helped Janet upgrade 4 central locations to run at 100 Gbit/s bringing it to a national research and education network performance parity with Internet2 (which upgraded its backbone to 100 Gbit/s in October 2007). As of October 2011 they have over 18 million end-users. Janet6 started to go live in July 2013, and was officially launched at an event at the London Film Museum on 26 November 2013. At launch, Janet6 had an initial capacity of 2 Tbit/s. The Janet network is implemented through 18 regions which connect universities, colleges and schools to the Janet network. Most regions are operated by Janet, although a few operate as independent entities working under contract. Each regional network covers a specific geographical area. As of 2014 the following regional networks are connected to Janet:

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JANET

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16438

16440

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel. The problem he solved was considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament offered financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £ in 2020) under the 1714 Longitude Act. In 1730, Harrison presented his first design, and worked over many years on improved designs, making several advances in time-keeping technology, finally turning to what were called sea watches. Harrison gained support from the Longitude Board in building and testing his designs. Toward the end of his life, he received recognition and a reward from Parliament. Harrison came 39th in the BBC's 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. John Harrison was born in Foulby in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the first of five children in his family. His step father worked as a carpenter at the nearby Nostell Priory estate. A house on the site of what may have been the family home bears a blue plaque. Around 1700, the Harrison family moved to the Lincolnshire village of Barrow upon Humber. Following his father's trade as a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time. Legend has it that at the age of six, while in bed with smallpox, he was given a watch to amuse himself and he spent hours listening to it and studying its moving parts. He also had a fascination for music, eventually becoming choirmaster for Barrow parish church.Harrison built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The mechanism was made entirely of wood. Three of Harrison's early wooden clocks have survived: the first (1713) is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' collection previously in the Guildhall in London, and since 2015 on display in the Science Museum. The second (1715) is also in the Science Museum in London; and the third (1717) is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, the face bearing the inscription "John Harrison Barrow". The Nostell example, in the billiards room of this stately home, has a Victorian outer case, which has small glass windows on each side of the movement so that the wooden workings may be inspected. On 30 August, 1718, John Harrison married Elizabeth Barret at Barrow-upon-Humber church After her death in 1726, he married Elizabeth Scott on 23 November, 1726, at the same church. In the early 1720s, Harrison was commissioned to make a new turret clock at Brocklesby Park, North Lincolnshire. The clock still works, and like his previous clocks has a wooden movement of oak and lignum vitae. Unlike his early clocks, it incorporates some original features to improve timekeeping, for example the grasshopper escapement. Between 1725 and 1728, John and his brother James, also a skilled joiner, made at least three precision longcase clocks, again with the movements and longcase made of oak and lignum vitae. The grid-iron pendulum was developed during this period. These precision clocks are thought by some to have been the most accurate clocks in the world at the time. Number 1, now in a private collection, belonged to the Time Museum, USA, until the museum closed in 2000 and its collection was dispersed at auction in 2004. Number 2 is in the Leeds City Museum. It forms the core of a permanent display dedicated to John Harrison's achievements, "John Harrison: The Clockmaker Who Changed the World" and had its official opening on 23 January 2014, the first longitude-related event marking the tercentenary of the Longitude Act. Number 3 is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' collection. Harrison was a man of many skills and he used these to systematically improve the performance of the pendulum clock. He invented the gridiron pendulum, consisting of alternating brass and iron rods assembled so that the thermal expansions and contractions essentially cancel each other out. Another example of his inventive genius was the grasshopper escapement – a control device for the step-by-step release of a clock's driving power. Developed from the anchor escapement, it was almost frictionless, requiring no lubrication because the pallets were made from wood. This was an important advantage at a time when lubricants and their degradation were little understood. In his earlier work on sea clocks, Harrison was continually assisted, both financially and in many other ways, by George Graham, the watchmaker and instrument maker. Harrison was introduced to Graham by the Astronomer Royal Edmond Halley, who championed Harrison and his work. This support was important to Harrison, as he was supposed to have found it difficult to communicate his ideas in a coherent manner. Longitude fixes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north–south line called the prime meridian. It is given as an angular measurement that ranges from 0° at the prime meridian to +180° eastward and −180° westward. Knowledge of a ship's east–west position was essential when approaching land. After a long voyage, cumulative errors in dead reckoning frequently led to shipwrecks and a great loss of life. Avoiding such disasters became vital in Harrison's lifetime, in an era when trade and navigation were increasing dramatically around the world. Many ideas were proposed for how to determine longitude during a sea voyage. Earlier methods attempted to compare local time with the known time at a reference place, such as Greenwich or Paris, based on a simple theory that had been first proposed by Gemma Frisius. The methods relied on astronomical observations that were themselves reliant on the predictable nature of the motions of different heavenly bodies. Such methods were problematic because of the difficulty in accurately estimating the time at the reference place. Harrison set out to solve the problem directly, by producing a reliable clock that could keep the time of the reference place. His difficulty was in producing a clock that was not affected by variations in temperature, pressure or humidity, remained accurate over long time intervals, resisted corrosion in salt air, and was able to function on board a constantly-moving ship. Many scientists, including Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens, doubted that such a clock could ever be built and favoured other methods for reckoning longitude, such as the method of lunar distances. Huygens ran trials using both a pendulum and a spiral balance spring clock as methods of determining longitude, with both types producing inconsistent results. Newton observed that "a good watch may serve to keep a reckoning at sea for some days and to know the time of a celestial observation; and for this end a good Jewel may suffice till a better sort of watch can be found out. But when longitude at sea is lost, it cannot be found again by any watch". In the 1720s, the English clockmaker Henry Sully invented a marine clock that was designed to determine longitude: this was in the form of a clock with a large balance wheel that was vertically mounted on friction rollers and impulsed by a frictional rest Debaufre type escapement. Very unconventionally, the balance oscillations were controlled by a weight at the end of a pivoted horizontal lever attached to the balance by a cord. This solution avoided temperature error due to thermal expansion, a problem which affects steel balance springs. Sully's clock only kept accurate time in calm weather, because the balance oscillations were affected by the pitching and rolling of the ship. However his clocks were amongst the first serious attempts to find longitude in this way. Harrison's machines, though much larger, are of similar layout: H3 has a vertically mounted balance wheel and is linked to another wheel of the same size, an arrangement that eliminates problems arising from the ship's motion. In 1716, Sully presented his first "Montre de la Mer" to the French Académie des Sciences and in 1726 he published "Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli". In 1730, Harrison designed a marine clock to compete for the Longitude prize and travelled to London, seeking financial assistance. He presented his ideas to Edmond Halley, the Astronomer Royal, who in turn referred him to George Graham, the country's foremost clockmaker. Graham must have been impressed by Harrison's ideas, for he loaned him money to build a model of his "Sea clock". As the clock was an attempt to make a seagoing version of his wooden pendulum clocks, which performed exceptionally well, he used wooden wheels, roller pinions and a version of the 'grasshopper' escapement. Instead of a pendulum, he used two dumbbell balances, linked together. It took Harrison five years to build his first sea clock (or H1). He demonstrated it to members of the Royal Society who spoke on his behalf to the Board of Longitude. The clock was the first proposal that the Board considered to be worthy of a sea trial. In 1736, Harrison sailed to Lisbon on HMS "Centurion" under the command of Captain George Proctor and returned on HMS "Orford" after Proctor died at Lisbon on 4 October 1736. The clock lost time on the outward voyage. However, it performed well on the return trip: both the captain and the sailing master of the "Orford" praised the design. The master noted that his own calculations had placed the ship sixty miles east of its true landfall which had been correctly predicted by Harrison using H1. This was not the transatlantic voyage demanded by the Board of Longitude, but the Board was impressed enough to grant Harrison £500 for further development. Harrison had moved to London by 1737 and went on to develop H2, a more compact and rugged version. In 1741, after three years of building and two of on-land testing, H2 was ready, but by then Britain was at war with Spain in the War of Austrian Succession and the mechanism was deemed too important to risk falling into Spanish hands. In any event, Harrison suddenly abandoned all work on this second machine when he discovered a serious design flaw in the concept of the bar balances. He had not recognized that the period of oscillation of the bar balances could be affected by the yawing action of the ship (when the ship turned such as 'coming about' while tacking). It was this that led him to adopt circular balances in the Third Sea Clock (H3). The Board granted him another £500, and while waiting for the war to end, he proceeded to work on H3. Harrison spent seventeen years working on this third 'sea clock', but despite every effort it did not perform exactly as he would have wished. The problem was that, because Harrison did not fully understand the physics behind the springs used to control the balance wheels, the timing of the wheels was not isochronous, a characteristic that affected its accuracy. The engineering world was not to fully understand the properties of springs for such applications for another two centuries. Despite this, it had proved a very valuable experiment as much was learned from its construction. Certainly in this machine Harrison left the world two enduring legacies – the bimetallic strip and the caged roller bearing. After steadfastly pursuing various methods during thirty years of experimentation, Harrison found to his surprise that some of the watches made by Graham's successor Thomas Mudge kept time just as accurately as his huge sea clocks. It is possible that Mudge was able to do this after the early 1740s thanks to the availability of the new "Huntsman" or "Crucible" steel produced by Benjamin Huntsman sometime in the early 1740s which enabled harder pinions but more importantly, a tougher and more highly polished cylinder escapement to be produced. Harrison then realized that a mere watch after all could be made accurate enough for the task and was a far more practical proposition for use as a marine timekeeper. He proceeded to redesign the concept of the watch as a timekeeping device, basing his design on sound scientific principles. He had already in the early 1750s designed a precision watch for his own use, which was made for him by the watchmaker John Jefferys 1752–1753. This watch incorporated a novel frictional rest escapement and was not only the first to have a compensation for temperature variations but also contained the first miniature 'going fusee' of Harrison's design which enabled the watch to continue running whilst being wound. These features led to the very successful performance of the "Jefferys" watch, which Harrison incorporated into the design of two new timekeepers which he proposed to build. These were in the form of a large watch and another of a smaller size but of similar pattern. However, only the larger No. 1 (or "H4" as it is sometimes called) watch appears ever to have been finished. (See the reference to "H6" below) Aided by some of London's finest workmen, he proceeded to design and make the world's first successful marine timekeeper that allowed a navigator to accurately assess his ship's position in longitude. Importantly, Harrison showed everyone that it could be done by using a watch to calculate longitude. This was to be Harrison's masterpiece – an instrument of beauty, resembling an oversized pocket watch from the period. It is engraved with Harrison's signature, marked Number 1 and dated AD 1759. Harrison's first "sea watch" (now known as H4) is housed in silver pair cases some in diameter. The clock's movement is highly complex for that period, resembling a larger version of the then-current conventional movement. A coiled steel spring inside a brass mainspring barrel provides 30 hours of power. This is covered by the fusee barrel which pulls a chain wrapped around the conically shaped pulley known as the fusee. The fusee is topped by the winding square (requiring separate key). The great wheel attached to the base of this fusee transmits power to the rest of the movement. The fusee contains the maintaining power, a mechanism for keeping the H4 going while being wound. From Gould, "The escapement is a modification of the verge fitted to the common watches of Harrison’s day, but the modifications are extensive. The pallets are very small, and have their faces set parallel, instead of at the usual angle of 95 or so. Moreover, instead of being steel, they are of diamond, and their backs are shaped to cycloidal curves.  The action of this escapement is quite different from that of the which it appears to resemble. In that escapement, the (15) teeth of the crown wheel act only upon the faces of the pallets. But in this, as will be seen from the points of the teeth rest, for a considerable portion of the supplementary arc from 90 to 145 (limit of banking) the dead point upon the backs of the pallets, and tend to assist the balance towards the extreme of its swing and to retard its return. This escapement is obviously a great improvement upon the verge, as the train has far less power over the motions of the balance. The latter is no longer checked in its swing by a force equal to that which originally impelled it, but by the balance spring, assisted only by the friction between the tooth and the back of the pallet." In comparison, the verge's escapement has a recoil with a limited balance arc and is sensitive to variations in driving torque. According to a review by H. M. Frodsham of the movement in 1878, H4's escapement had "a good deal of "set" and not so much recoil, and as a result the impulse came very near to a double chronometer action." The D shaped pallets of Harrison's escapement are both made of diamond, approx 2mm long with the curved side radius of 0.6 mm; a considerable feat of manufacture at the time. For technical reasons the balance was made much larger than in a conventional watch of the period, 2.2. inches (55.9 mm) in diameter weighing 28 5/8 Troy grains (1.85 g) and the vibrations controlled by a flat spiral steel spring of 3 turns with a long straight tail. The spring is tapered, being thicker at the stud end and tapering toward the collet at the centre. The movement also has centre seconds motion with a sweep seconds hand. The Third Wheel is equipped with internal teeth and has an elaborate bridge similar to the pierced and engraved bridge for the period. It runs at 5 beats (ticks) per second, and is equipped with a tiny 7 1/2 second remontoire. A balance-brake, activated by the position of the fusee, stops the watch half an hour before it is completely run down, in order that the remontoire does not run down also. Temperature compensation is in the form of a 'compensation curb' (or 'Thermometer Kirb' as Harrison called it). This takes the form of a bimetallic strip mounted on the regulating slide, and carrying the curb pins at the free end. During its initial testing, Harrison dispensed with this regulation using the slide, but left its indicating dial or figure piece in place. This first watch took six years to construct, following which the Board of Longitude determined to trial it on a voyage from Portsmouth to Kingston, Jamaica. For this purpose it was placed aboard the 50-gun , which set sail from Portsmouth on 18 November 1761. Harrison, by then 68 years old, sent it on this transatlantic trial in the care of his son, William. The watch was tested before departure by Robertson, Master of the Academy at Portsmouth, who reported that on 6 November 1761 at noon it was 3 seconds slow, having lost 24 seconds in 9 days on mean solar time. The daily rate of the watch was therefore fixed as losing 24/9 seconds per day. When "Deptford" reached its destination, after correction for the initial error of 3 seconds and accumulated loss of 3 minutes 36.5 seconds at the daily rate over the 81 days and 5 hours of the voyage, the watch was found to be 5 seconds slow compared to the known longitude of Kingston, corresponding to an error in longitude of 1.25 minutes, or approximately one nautical mile. William Harrison returned aboard the 14-gun , reaching England on 26 March 1762 to report the successful outcome of the experiment. Harrison senior thereupon waited for the £20,000 prize, but the Board were persuaded that the accuracy could have been just luck and demanded another trial. The board were also not convinced that a timekeeper which took six years to construct met the test of practicality required by the Longitude Act. The Harrisons were outraged and demanded their prize, a matter that eventually worked its way to Parliament, which offered £5,000 for the design. The Harrisons refused but were eventually obliged to make another trip to Bridgetown on the island of Barbados to settle the matter. At the time of this second trial, another method for measuring longitude was ready for testing: the Method of Lunar Distances. The moon moves fast enough, some thirteen degrees a day, to easily measure the movement from day to day. By comparing the angle between the moon and the sun for the day one left for Britain, the "proper position" (how it would appear in Greenwich, England, at that specific time) of the moon could be calculated. By comparing this with the angle of the moon over the horizon, the longitude could be calculated. During Harrison's second trial of his 'sea watch' (H4) the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne was asked to accompany HMS "Tartar" and test the Lunar Distances system. Once again the watch proved extremely accurate, keeping time to within 39 seconds, corresponding to an error in the longitude of Bridgetown of less than . Maskelyne's measures were also fairly good, at , but required considerable work and calculation in order to use. At a meeting of the Board in 1765 the results were presented, but they again attributed the accuracy of the measurements to luck. Once again the matter reached Parliament, which offered £10,000 in advance and the other half once he turned over the design to other watchmakers to duplicate. In the meantime Harrison's watch would have to be turned over to the Astronomer Royal for long-term on-land testing. Unfortunately, Nevil Maskelyne had been appointed Astronomer Royal on his return from Barbados, and was therefore also placed on the Board of Longitude. He returned a report of the watch that was negative, claiming that its "going rate" (the amount of time it gained or lost per day) was due to inaccuracies cancelling themselves out, and refused to allow it to be factored out when measuring longitude. Consequently, this first Marine Watch of Harrison's failed the needs of the Board despite the fact that it had succeeded in two previous trials. Harrison began working on his second 'sea watch' (H5) while testing was conducted on the first, which Harrison felt was being held hostage by the Board. After three years he had had enough; Harrison felt "extremely ill used by the gentlemen who I might have expected better treatment from" and decided to enlist the aid of King George III. He obtained an audience with the King, who was extremely annoyed with the Board. King George tested the watch No.2 (H5) himself at the palace and after ten weeks of daily observations between May and July in 1772, found it to be accurate to within one third of one second per day. King George then advised Harrison to petition Parliament for the full prize after threatening to appear in person to dress them down. Finally in 1773, when he was 80 years old, Harrison received a monetary award in the amount of £8,750 from Parliament for his achievements, but he never received the official award (which was never awarded to anyone). He was to survive for just three more years. In total, Harrison received £23,065 for his work on chronometers. He received £4,315 in increments from the Board of Longitude for his work, £10,000 as an interim payment for H4 in 1765 and £8,750 from Parliament in 1773. This gave him a reasonable income for most of his life (equivalent to roughly £450,000 per year in 2007, though all his costs, such as materials and subcontracting work to other horologists, had to come out of this). He became the equivalent of a multi-millionaire (in today's terms) in the final decade of his life. Captain James Cook used K1, a copy of H4, on his second and third voyages, having used the lunar distance method on his first voyage. K1 was made by Larcum Kendall, who had been apprenticed to John Jefferys. Cook's log is full of praise for the watch and the charts of the southern Pacific Ocean he made with its use were remarkably accurate. K2 was loaned to Lieutenant William Bligh, commander of HMS "Bounty" but it was retained by Fletcher Christian following the infamous mutiny. It was not recovered from Pitcairn Island until 1808 when it was given to Captain Folger, and then passed through several hands before reaching the National Maritime Museum in London. Initially, the cost of these chronometers was quite high (roughly 30% of a ship's cost). However, over time, the costs dropped to between £25 and £100 (half a year's to two years' salary for a skilled worker) in the early 19th century. Many historians point to relatively low production volumes over time as evidence that the chronometers were not widely used. However, Landes points out that the chronometers lasted for decades and did not need to be replaced frequently – indeed the number of makers of marine chronometers reduced over time due to the ease in supplying the demand even as the merchant marine expanded. Also, many merchant mariners would make do with a deck chronometer at half the price. These were not as accurate as the boxed marine chronometer but were adequate for many. While the Lunar Distances method would complement and rival the marine chronometer initially, the chronometer would overtake it in the 19th century. The more accurate Harrison timekeeping device led to the much-needed precise calculation of longitude, making the device a fundamental key to the modern age. Following Harrison, the marine timekeeper was reinvented yet again by John Arnold who while basing his design on Harrison's most important principles, at the same time simplified it enough for him to produce equally accurate but far less costly marine chronometers in quantity from around 1783. Nonetheless, for many years even towards the end of the 18th century, chronometers were expensive rarities, as their adoption and use proceeded slowly due to the high expense of precision manufacturing. The expiry of Arnold's patents at the end of the 1790s enabled many other watchmakers including Thomas Earnshaw to produce chronometers in greater quantities at less cost even than those of Arnold. By the early 19th century, navigation at sea without one was considered unwise to unthinkable. Using a chronometer to aid navigation simply saved lives and ships—the insurance industry, self-interest, and common sense did the rest in making the device a universal tool of maritime trade. Harrison died on 24 March 1776 at the age of eighty-two, just shy of his eighty-third birthday. He was buried in the graveyard of St John's Church, Hampstead, in north London, along with his second wife Elizabeth and later their son William. His tomb was restored in 1879 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, even though Harrison had never been a member of the Company. Harrison's last home was 12, Red Lion Square, in the Holborn district of London. There is a plaque dedicated to Harrison on the wall of Summit House, a 1925 modernist office block, on the south side of the square. A memorial tablet to Harrison was unveiled in Westminster Abbey on 24 March 2006, finally recognising him as a worthy companion to his friend George Graham and Thomas Tompion, 'The Father of English Watchmaking', who are both buried in the Abbey. The memorial shows a meridian line (line of constant longitude) in two metals to highlight Harrison's most widespread invention, the bimetallic strip thermometer. The strip is engraved with its own longitude of 0 degrees, 7 minutes and 35 seconds West. The Corpus Clock in Cambridge, unveiled in 2008, is a homage by the designer to Harrison's work but is of an electromechanical design. In appearance it features Harrison's grasshopper escapement, the 'pallet frame' being sculpted to resemble an actual grasshopper. This is the clock's defining feature. In 2014, Northern Rail named diesel railcar 153316 as the "John 'Longitude' Harrison". On 3 April 2018, Google celebrated his 325th birthday by making a Google Doodle for its homepage. In February 2020 a bronze statue of John Harrison was unveiled in Barrow-Upon-Humber. The statue was created by sculptor Marcus Cornish. After World War I, Harrison's timepieces were rediscovered at the Royal Greenwich Observatory by retired naval officer Lieutenant Commander Rupert T. Gould. The timepieces were in a highly decrepit state and Gould spent many years documenting, repairing and restoring them, without compensation for his efforts. Gould was the first to designate the timepieces from H1 to H5, initially calling them No.1 to No.5. Unfortunately, Gould made modifications and repairs that would not pass today's standards of good museum conservation practice, although most Harrison scholars give Gould credit for having ensured that the historical artifacts survived as working mechanisms to the present time. Gould wrote "The Marine Chronometer" published in 1923, which covered the history of chronometers from the Middle Ages through to the 1920s, and which included detailed descriptions of Harrison's work and the subsequent evolution of the chronometer. The book remains the authoritative work on the marine chronometer. Today the restored H1, H2, H3 and H4 timepieces can be seen on display in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. H1, H2 and H3 still work: H4 is kept in a stopped state because, unlike the first three, it requires oil for lubrication and so will degrade as it runs. H5 is owned by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of London, and was previously on display at the Clockmakers' Museum in the Guildhall, London, as part of the Company's collection; since 2015 the collection has been displayed in the Science Museum, London. In the final years of his life, John Harrison wrote about his research into musical tuning and manufacturing methods for bells. His tuning system, (a meantone system derived from pi), is described in his pamphlet "A Description Concerning Such Mechanism ... (CSM)". This system challenged the traditional view that harmonics occur at integer frequency ratios and in consequence all music using this tuning produces low frequency beating. In 2002, Harrison's last manuscript, "A true and short, but full Account of the Foundation of Musick, or, as principally therein, of the Existence of the Natural Notes of Melody", was rediscovered in the US Library of Congress. His theories on the mathematics of bell manufacturing (using "Radical Numbers") are yet to be clearly understood. One of the controversial claims of his last years was that of being able to build a land clock more accurate than any competing design. Specifically, he claimed to have designed a clock capable of keeping accurate time to within one second over a span of 100 days. At the time, such publications as "The London Review of English and Foreign Literature" ridiculed Harrison for what was considered an outlandish claim. Harrison drew a design but never built such a clock himself, but in 1970 Martin Burgess, a Harrison expert and himself a clockmaker, studied the plans and endeavored to build the timepiece as drawn. He built two versions, dubbed Clock A and Clock B. Clock A became the Gurney Clock which was given to the city of Norwich in 1975, while Clock B lay unfinished in his workshop for decades until it was acquired in 2009 by Donald Saff. The completed Clock B was submitted to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for further study. It was found that Clock B could potentially meet Harrison's original claim, so the clock's design was carefully checked and adjusted. Finally, over a 100-day period from 6 January to 17 April 2015, Clock B was secured in a transparent case in the Royal Observatory and left to run untouched, apart from regular winding. Upon completion of the run, the clock was measured to have lost only 5/8 of a second, meaning Harrison's design was fundamentally sound. If we ignore the fact that this clock uses materials such as duraluminium and invar unavailable to Harrison, had it been built in 1762, the date of Harrison's testing of his H4, and run continuously since then without correction, it would now ( 2020) be slow by just trunc (((+6556507200)*72.338e-9 round 0)/60) minutes and ((+6556507200)*72.338e-9 round 0) % 60 seconds. Guinness World Records has declared the Martin Burgess' Clock B the "most accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum swinging in free air." In 1995, inspired by a Harvard University symposium on the longitude problem organized by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Dava Sobel wrote a book on Harrison's work. "Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" became the first popular bestseller on the subject of horology. "The Illustrated Longitude", in which Sobel's text was accompanied by 180 images selected by William J. H. Andrewes, appeared in 1998. The book was dramatised for UK television by Charles Sturridge in a Granada Productions film for Channel 4 in 1999, under the title "Longitude". It was broadcast in the US later that same year by co-producer A&E. The production starred Michael Gambon as Harrison and Jeremy Irons as Gould. Sobel's book was also the basis for a PBS NOVA episode entitled "Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude". Harrison's marine time-keepers were an essential part of the plot in the 1996 Christmas special of long-running British sitcom "Only Fools And Horses", entitled "Time on Our Hands". The plot concerns the discovery and subsequent sale at auction of Harrison's Lesser Watch H6. The watch was auctioned off at Sotheby's for £6.2 million. The song "John Harrison's Hands", written by Brian McNeill and Dick Gaughan, appeared on the 2001 album "Outlaws & Dreamers". The song has also been covered by Steve Knightley, appearing on his album 2011 "Live in Somerset". It was further covered by the British band Show of Hands and appears on their 2016 album "The Long Way Home". In 1998, British composer Harrison Birtwistle wrote the piano piece "Harrison's clocks" that contains musical depictions of Harrison's various clocks. Composer Peter Graham's piece "Harrison's Dream" is about Harrison's forty-year quest to produce an accurate clock. Graham worked simultaneously on the brass band and wind band versions of the piece, which received their first performances just four months apart, in October 2000 and February 2001 respectively.

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John Harrison

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16440

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Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was "The French Chef", which premiered in 1963. On August 15, 1912, Child was born as Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California. Child's father was John McWilliams, Jr. (1880–1962), a Princeton University graduate and prominent land manager. Child's mother was Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston (1877–1937), a paper-company heiress. Child's maternal grandfather was Byron Curtis Weston, a lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Child was the eldest of three, followed by a brother, John McWilliams III, and sister, Dorothy Cousins. Child attended Polytechnic School from 4th grade to 9th grade in Pasadena, California. In high school, Child was sent to the Katherine Branson School in Ross, California, which was at the time a boarding school. At six feet, two inches (1.88 m) tall, Child played tennis, golf, and basketball as a youth. She also played sports while attending Smith College, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in history. Child grew up in a family with a cook, but she did not observe or learn cooking from this servant, and never learned until she met her husband to be, Paul, who grew up in a family very interested in food. Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked as a copywriter for the advertising department of W. & J. Sloane. Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after finding that she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES. She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington but, because of her education and experience, soon was given a more responsible position as a top-secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan. As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, she typed 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Rescue Equipment Section (ERES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. In 1944, she was posted to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia. She was later posted to Kunming, China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat. When Child was asked to solve the problem of too many OSS underwater explosives being set off by curious sharks, "Child's solution was to experiment with cooking various concoctions as a shark repellent," which were sprinkled in the water near the explosives and repelled sharks. Still in use today, the experimental shark repellent "marked Child's first foray into the world of cooking ..." For her service, Child received an award that cited her many virtues, including her "drive and inherent cheerfulness." As with other OSS records, her file was declassified in 2008; however, unlike other files, her complete file is available online. While in Kunming, she met Paul Cushing Child, also an OSS employee, and the two were married September 1, 1946, in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, later moving to Washington, D.C. A New Jersey native who had lived in Paris as an artist and poet, Paul was known for his sophisticated palate, and introduced his wife to fine cuisine. He joined the United States Foreign Service, and in 1948 the couple moved to Paris when the US State Department assigned Paul there as an exhibits officer with the United States Information Agency. The couple had no children. Child repeatedly recalled her first meal in Rouen as a culinary revelation; once, she described the meal of oysters, sole meunière, and fine wine to "The New York Times" as "an opening up of the soul and spirit for me." In 1951, she graduated from the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and later studied privately with Max Bugnard and other master chefs. She joined the women's cooking club "Le Cercle des Gourmettes", through which she met Simone Beck, who was writing a French cookbook for Americans with her friend Louisette Bertholle. Beck proposed that Child work with them to make the book appeal to Americans. In 1951, Child, Beck, and Bertholle began to teach cooking to American women in Child's Paris kitchen, calling their informal school "L'école des trois gourmandes" (The School of the Three Food Lovers). For the next decade, as the Childs moved around Europe and finally to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the three researched and repeatedly tested recipes. Child translated the French into English, making the recipes detailed, interesting, and practical. In 1963, the Childs built a home near the Provence town of Plascassier in the hills above Cannes on property belonging to co-author Simone Beck and her husband, Jean Fischbacher. The Childs named it "La Pitchoune", a Provençal word meaning "the little one" but over time the property was often affectionately referred to simply as "La Peetch". The three would-be authors initially signed a contract with publisher Houghton Mifflin, which later rejected the manuscript for seeming too much like an encyclopedia. Finally, when it was first published in 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf, the 726-page "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was a best-seller and received critical acclaim that derived in part from the American interest in French culture in the early 1960s. Lauded for its helpful illustrations and precise attention to detail, and for making fine cuisine accessible, the book is still in print and is considered a seminal culinary work. Following this success, Child wrote magazine articles and a regular column for "The Boston Globe" newspaper. She would go on to publish nearly twenty titles under her name and with others. Many, though not all, were related to her television shows. Her last book was the autobiographical "My Life in France", published posthumously in 2006 and written with her grandnephew, Alex Prud'homme. The book recounts Child's life with her husband, Paul Cushing Child, in post-World War II France. A 1962 appearance on a book review show on what was then the National Educational Television (NET) station of Boston, WGBH-TV (now a major Public Broadcasting Service station), led to the inception of her first television cooking show after viewers enjoyed her demonstration of how to cook an omelette. "The French Chef" had its debut on February 11, 1963, on WGBH and was immediately successful. The show ran nationally for ten years and won Peabody and Emmy Awards, including the first Emmy award for an educational program. Though she was not the first television cook, Child was the most widely seen. She attracted the broadest audience with her cheery enthusiasm, distinctively warbly voice, and unpatronizing, unaffected manner. In 1972, "The French Chef" became the first television program to be captioned for the deaf, even though this was done using the preliminary technology of open-captioning. Child's second book, "The French Chef Cookbook," was a collection of the recipes she had demonstrated on the show. It was soon followed in 1971 by "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two," again in collaboration with Simone Beck, but not with Louisette Bertholle, with whom the professional relationship had ended. Child's fourth book, "From Julia Child's Kitchen," was illustrated with her husband's photographs and documented the color series of "The French Chef," as well as provided an extensive library of kitchen notes compiled by Child during the course of the show. Julia Child had a large impact on American households and housewives. Because of the technology in the 1960s, the show was unedited, causing her blunders to appear in the final version and ultimately lend "authenticity and approachability to television." According to Toby Miller in "Screening Food: French Cuisine and the Television Palate," one mother he spoke to said that sometimes "all that stood between me and insanity was hearty Julia Child" because of Child's ability to soothe and transport her. In addition, Miller notes that Child's show began before the feminist movement of the 1960s, which meant that the issues housewives and women faced were somewhat ignored on television. In the 1970s and 1980s, she was the star of numerous television programs, including "Julia Child & Company", "Julia Child & More Company" and "Dinner at Julia's". For the 1979 book "Julia Child and More Company", she won a National Book Award in category Current Interest. In 1981, she founded the American Institute of Wine & Food, with vintners Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff, and others, to "advance the understanding, appreciation and quality of wine and food," a pursuit she had already begun with her books and television appearances. In 1989, she published what she considered her magnum opus, a book and instructional video series collectively entitled "The Way To Cook". In the mid 90s, as part of her work with the American Institute of Wine and Food, Julia Child became increasingly concerned about children's food education. This resulted in the initiative known as Days of Taste. Child starred in four more series in the 1990s that featured guest chefs: "Cooking with Master Chefs", "In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs", "Baking with Julia", and "Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home". She collaborated with Jacques Pépin many times for television programs and cookbooks. All of Child's books during this time stemmed from the television series of the same names. Child's use of ingredients like butter and cream has been questioned by food critics and modern-day nutritionists. She addressed these criticisms throughout her career, predicting that a "fanatical fear of food" would take over the country's dining habits, and that focusing too much on nutrition takes the pleasure from enjoying food. In a 1990 interview, Child said, "Everybody is overreacting. If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do. We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life." Julia Child's kitchen, designed by her husband, was the setting for three of her television shows. It is now on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Beginning with "In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs," the Childs' home kitchen in Cambridge was fully transformed into a functional set, with TV-quality lighting, three cameras positioned to catch all angles in the room, and a massive center island with a gas stovetop on one side and an electric stovetop on the other, but leaving the rest of the Childs' appliances alone, including "my wall oven with its squeaking door." This kitchen backdrop hosted nearly all of Child's 1990s television series. After the death of her beloved friend Simone Beck, Child relinquished La Pitchoune after a month long stay in June 1992 with her family, her niece, Phila, and close friend and biographer Noël Riley Fitch. She turned the keys over to Jean Fischbacher's sister, just as she and Paul had promised nearly 30 years earlier. Also in 1992, Julia spent five days in Sicily at the invitation of Regaleali Winery. American journalist Bob Spitz spent a brief time with Julia during that period while he was researching and writing his then working title, "History of Eating and Cooking in America". In 1993, Child provided the voice of Dr. Bleeb in the animated film, "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story". Spitz took notes and made many recordings of his conversation with Child, and these later formed the basis of a secondary biography on Child, published August 7, 2012 (Knopf), five days before the centennial of her birthdate. Paul Child, who was ten years older than his wife, died in 1994 after living in a nursing home for five years following a series of strokes in 1989. In 2001, Child moved to a retirement community, donating her house and office to Smith College, which later sold the house. She donated her kitchen, which her husband designed with high counters to accommodate her height, and which served as the set for three of her television series, to the National Museum of American History, where it is now on display. Her iconic copper pots and pans were on display at Copia in Napa, California, until August 2009 when they were reunited with her kitchen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In 2000, Child received the French Legion of Honour and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. She was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003; she received honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Johnson & Wales University (1995), Smith College (her alma mater), Brown University (2000), and several other universities. In 2007, Child was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. On August 13, 2004, Child died of kidney failure in Montecito, California, two days before her 92nd birthday. Child ended her last book, "My Life in France", with "...thinking back on it now reminds that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite – toujours bon appétit!" Her ashes were placed on the Neptune Memorial Reef. In 1995, Julia Child established The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and Culinary Arts, a private charitable foundation to make grants to further her life's work. The Foundation, originally set up in Massachusetts, later moved to Santa Barbara, California, where it is now headquartered. Inactive until after Julia's death in 2004, the Foundation makes grants to other non-profits. The grants support primarily gastronomy, the culinary arts and the further development of the professional food world, all matters of paramount importance to Julia Child during her lifetime. The Foundation's website provides a dedicated page listing the names of grant recipients with a description of the organization and the grant provided by the Foundation. One of the grant recipients is Heritage Radio Network which covers the world of food, drink and agriculture. Beyond making grants, the Foundation was also established to protect Julia Child's legacy; it is the organization to approach to seek permission to use images of Julia Child and/or excerpts of her work. Many of these rights are jointly held with other organizations like her publishers and the Schlesinger Library at The Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University who may also need to be contacted. Recently, the Foundation has been more active in protecting these posthumous rights. Well known for her opposition to endorsements, the Foundation follows a similar policy regarding the use of Julia's name and image for commercial purposes. The Julia Child rose, known in the UK as the "Absolutely Fabulous" rose, is a golden butter/gold floribunda rose named after Child. The exhibits in the West Wing (1 West) of the National Museum of American History address science and innovation. They include "Bon Appétit! Julia Child's Kitchen." On September 26, 2014, the US Postal Service issued 20 million copies of the "Celebrity Chefs Forever" stamp series, which featured portraits by Jason Seiler of five American chefs: Julia Child, Joyce Chen, James Beard, Edna Lewis, and Felipe Rojas-Lombardi. Awards Nominations Child was a favorite of audiences from the moment of her television debut on public television in 1963, and she was a familiar part of American culture and the subject of numerous references, including numerous parodies in television and radio programs and skits. Her great success on air may have been tied to her refreshingly pragmatic approach to the genre, "I think you have to decide who your audience is. If you don't pick your audience, you're lost because you're not really talking to anybody. My audience is people who like to cook, who want to really learn how to do it." In 1996, Julia Child was ranked No. 46 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. In 2002, Child was the inspiration for "The Julie/Julia Project", a popular cooking blog by Julie Powell that was the basis of Powell's bestselling book, "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," published in 2005, the year following Child's death. The paperback version of the book was retitled "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously." The blog and book, along with Child's own memoir "My Life in France", in turn inspired the 2009 feature film "Julie & Julia" in which Meryl Streep portrayed Child. For her performance, Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Child is reported to have been unimpressed by Powell's blog, believing Powell's determination to cook every recipe in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year to be a stunt. In an interview, Child's editor, Judith Jones, said of Powell's blog: "Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn't attractive, to me or Julia. She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt." The YouTube series "Epic Rap Battles of History" featured Child (portrayed by Mamrie Hart) in a rap battle against Scottish celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (portrayed by Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Alquist) in the 2nd episode of its 5th season. On March 15, 2016, Twitch started to stream Julia Child's show "The French Chef". This event was in celebration of both the launch of the cooking section of Twitch and the anniversary of Child's graduation from Le Cordon Bleu.

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Julia Child

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James Beard James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. Beard was a champion of American cuisine who taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. His legacy lives on in twenty books, other writings and his foundation's annual James Beard awards in a number of culinary genres. James Andrews Beard was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1903 to Elizabeth and John Beard. His mother operated the Gladstone Hotel, and his father worked at the city's customs house. The family vacationed on the Pacific coast in Gearhart, Oregon, where Beard was exposed to Pacific Northwest cuisine. Common ingredients of this cuisine are salmon, shellfish, and other fresh seafood; game meats such as moose, elk, or venison; mushrooms, berries, small fruits, potatoes, kale, and wild plants such as fiddleheads or young pushki ("Heracleum maximum", or cow parsnip). Beard's earliest memory of food was at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, when he was two years old. In his memoir he recalled: I was taken to the exposition two or three times. The thing that remained in my mind above all others—I think it marked my life—was watching Triscuits and shredded wheat biscuits being made. Isn't that crazy? At two years old that memory was made. It intrigued the hell out of me. At age three Beard was bedridden with malaria, and the illness gave him time to focus on the food prepared by his mother and their Chinese helper. According to Beard he was raised by Thema and Jue-Let, who instilled in him a passion for Chinese culture. Beard reportedly "attributes much of his upbringing to Jue-Let," whom he refers to as his Chinese godfather. David Kamp wrote, "In 1940 he realized that part of his mission [as a food connoisseur] was to defend the pleasure of real cooking and fresh ingredients against the assault of the Jell-O-mold people and the domestic scientists." Beard lived in France during the 1920s, where he experienced French cuisine at its bistros. After this exposure and the widespread influence of French food culture, he became a Francophile. Beard briefly attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Although he was expelled for homosexuality in 1922, the college granted Beard an honorary degree in 1976. In 1923, he joined a theatrical troupe and studied voice and theater abroad until 1927, when he returned to the United States. After training as a singer and actor, Beard moved to New York City in 1937. Unlucky in the theater, he and friend Bill Rhodes capitalized on the cocktail party craze by opening Hors d'Oeuvre, Inc., a catering company. This led to lecturing, teaching, writing, and the publication of Beard's first cookbook in 1940: "Hors D'Oeuvre and Canapés", a compilation of his catering recipes. According to fellow cooking enthusiast Julia Child, this book put him on the culinary map. World War II rationing ended Beard's catering business. From August 1946 to May 1947, he hosted "I Love to Eat", a live television cooking show on NBC, beginning his ascent as an American food authority. According to Child, "Through the years he gradually became not only the leading culinary figure in the country, but 'The Dean of American Cuisine'." In 1952, when Helen Evans Brown published her "Helen Brown's West Coast Cook Book", Beard wrote her a letter igniting a friendship that spanned until Brown's death. The two, along with her husband Phillip, developed a friendship which was both professional and personal. Beard and Brown became like siblings, admonishing and encouraging each other, as well as collaborating. According to the James Beard Foundation website, "In 1955, he established The James Beard Cooking School. He continued to teach cooking to men and women for the next thirty years, both at his own schools (in New York City and Seaside, Oregon), and around the country at women's clubs, other cooking schools, and civic groups. He was a tireless traveler, bringing his message of good food, honestly prepared with fresh, wholesome, American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage." Beard brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes during the 1950s, appearing on TV as a cooking personality. David Kamp (who discusses Beard at length in his book, "The United States of Arugula") noted that Beard's was the first cooking show on TV. He compares Dione Lucas' cooking show and school with Beard's, noting that their prominence during the 1950s marked the emergence of a sophisticated, New York-based, nationally and internationally known food culture. Kamp wrote, "It was in this decade [the 1950s] that Beard made his name as "James Beard", the brand name, the face and belly of American gastronomy." He noted that Beard met Alice B. Toklas on a trip to Paris, indicative of the network of fellow food celebrities who would follow him during his life and carry on his legacy after his death. Beard made endorsement deals to promote products that he might not have otherwise used or suggested in his own cuisine, including Omaha Steaks, French's Mustard, Green Giant Corn Niblets, Old Crow bourbon, Planters Peanuts, Shasta soft drinks, DuPont chemicals, and Adolph's Meat Tenderizer. According to Kamp, Beard later felt himself a "gastronomic whore" for doing so. Although he felt that mass-produced food that was neither fresh, local nor seasonal was a betrayal of his gastronomic beliefs, he needed the money for his cooking schools. According to Thomas McNamee, "Beard, a man of stupendous appetites—for food, sex, money, you name it—stunned his subtler colleagues." In 1981, Beard and friend Gael Greene founded Citymeals-on-Wheels, which continues to help feed the homebound elderly in New York City. Julia Child summed up Beard's personal life: Beard was the quintessential American cook. Well-educated and well-traveled during his eighty-two years, he was familiar with many cuisines but he remained fundamentally American. He was a big man, over six feet tall, with a big belly, and huge hands. An endearing and always lively teacher, he loved people, loved his work, loved gossip, loved to eat, loved a good time. Beard was gay. According to Beard's memoir, "By the time I was seven, I knew that I was gay. I think it's time to talk about that now." Beard came out in 1981, in "Delights and Prejudices", a revised version of his memoir. Of Beard’s “most significant romantic attachments” was his “lifetime companion” of thirty years, Gino Cofacci, who was given an apartment in Beard’s townhouse in the will and died in 1989, and Beard’s former cooking school assistant Carl Jerome. John Birdsall, a food writer who won two James Beard Awards, ties Beard’s sexuality to his food aesthetics, and said in 2016 it’s only recently that people are accepting the connection. Beard's also had an admission of having "until I was about forty-five, I guess I had a really violent temper." Mark Bittman described him in a manner similar to Child's description: In a time when serious cooking meant French Cooking, Beard was quintessentially American, a Westerner whose mother ran a boardinghouse, a man who grew up with hotcakes and salmon and meatloaf in his blood. A man who was born a hundred years ago on the other side of the country, in a city, Portland, that at the time was every bit as cosmopolitan as, say, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. James Beard died of heart failure on January 21, 1985 at his home in New York City at age 81. He was cremated and his ashes scattered over the beach in Gearhart, Oregon, where he spent summers as a child. In 1995, "Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles: Letters from Helen Evans Brown" was published. It contained excerpts from Beard's bi-weekly correspondence from 1952 to 1964 with friend and fellow chef Helen Evans Brown. The book gave insight to their relationship as well as the way that they developed ideas for recipes, projects and food. After Beard's death in 1985, Julia Child wanted to preserve his home in New York City as the gathering place that it had been during his life. Peter Kump, a former student of Beard's and the founder of the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump's New York Cooking School), spearheaded efforts to purchase the house and create the James Beard Foundation. Beard's renovated brownstone at 167 West 12th Street in Greenwich Village, is North America's only historic culinary center. It is preserved as a gathering place where the press and general public could appreciate the talents of emerging and established chefs. In 1986, the James Beard Foundation was established in Beard's honor to provide scholarships to aspiring food professionals and champion the American culinary tradition which Beard helped create. "Since its inception in 1991, the James Beard Foundation Scholarship Program has awarded over $4.6 million in financial aid to a variety of students—from recent high school graduates, to working culinary professionals, to career changers. Recipients come from many countries, and enhance their knowledge at schools around the world." The annual James Beard Foundation Awards celebrate fine cuisine around Beard's birthday. Held on the first Monday in May, the awards ceremony honors American chefs, restaurants, journalists, cookbook authors, restaurant designers and electronic-media professionals. It culminates in a reception featuring tastings of signature dishes of more than 30 of the foundation's chefs. A quarterly magazine, "Beard House", is a compendium of culinary journalism. The foundation also publishes the "James Beard Foundation Restaurant Directory", a directory of all chefs who have presented a meal at the Beard House or participated in one of the foundation's outside fundraising events. The foundation was affected by scandals; in 2004 its head, Leonard Pickell, resigned and was imprisoned for grand larceny and in 2005 the board of trustees resigned. During this period, chef and writer Anthony Bourdain called the foundation "a kind of benevolent shakedown operation." A new board of trustees has instituted an ethics policy and chosen a president, Susan Ungaro, to prevent future problems. The James Beard Papers are housed in the Fales Library at New York University.

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James Beard

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James Alan McPherson James Alan McPherson (September 16, 1943 – July 27, 2016) was an American essayist and short-story writer. He was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was included among the first group of artists who received a MacArthur Fellowship. At the time of his death, McPherson was a professor emeritus of fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. McPherson was born in Savannah, Georgia, on September 16, 1943, the second of four children. His father was a master electrician (the first African-American so recognized in Georgia), and his mother (born Mabel Small) was a maid. While McPherson was growing up, his father struggled with alcohol and time in jail. In the essay "Going Up To Atlanta," McPherson describes the many odd jobs he took on during this time to help support his mother, brother, and sisters. But it was his discovery of the "colored branch" of the public library that changed his life. When he started reading books, McPherson learned that words, even without pictures, "gave up their secret meanings, spoke of other worlds, made me know that pain was a part of other people's lives." He attended Morgan State University from 1963 to 1964 before receiving his undergraduate degree in history and English from Morris Brown College in 1965. In 1968, McPherson received a LL.B. from Harvard Law School, where he partially financed his studies by working as a janitor. While at Harvard, McPherson studied fiction writing with Alan Lebowitz in 1967 and worked on his stories when he found some spare time. It was the publication of his short story "Gold Coast" in "The Atlantic Monthly", following an "open reading" competition they had sponsored, that first brought him public recognition. During this period, McPherson established a close working relationship with Edward Weeks, an editor at "The Atlantic Monthly," which led to McPherson becoming a contributing editor at that magazine in 1969. His fiction would go on to appear in numerous journals and magazines throughout the following decade. Many of his stories were anthologized, beginning with "Gold Coast" when it appeared in "The Best American Stories" in 1969. His first collection of short stories, "Hue and Cry", was published by Atlantic Monthly Press that year. In 1971, he received an M.F.A. in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he studied briefly with the short-story writer and novelist Richard Yates. While studying creative writing, McPherson decided not to practice law; however, he would continue to utilize his legal training in various projects. In a 1972 "Atlantic Monthly" essay, he exposed exploitative business practices against black homeowners, presaging the later work of Ta-Nehisi Coates. During this period in his life, he gained the attention of Ralph Ellison (1913–1994), who became both a friend and mentor to the young McPherson. In December 1970, McPherson interviewed Ellison for an "Atlantic Monthly" cover story and collaborated with him on the essay "Indivisible Man." This relationship with Ellison would have a lasting influence on his own life and work, as McPherson acknowledges in his essay "Gravitas," which he published in 1999 as both a tribute to the (then) recently deceased writer, and to observe the posthumous publication of Ellison's novel "Juneteenth" that same year. McPherson also initiated a friendship with Albert Murray shortly after the publication of Murray's "The Omni-Americans: Black Experience & American Culture" (1970). McPherson taught English and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz (assistant professor; 1969–1971), the Harvard University summer school (1972), Morgan State University (assistant professor; 1975–1976) and the University of Virginia (associate professor; 1976–1981) before joining the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1981, with whom he was associated for the remainder of his life. He served as acting director of the program for two years following the death of Frank Conroy in 2005. Following the publication of "Elbow Room" (his final collection of fiction) in 1977, McPherson primarily focused on his teaching career, with the "Chicago Tribune" characterizing him as being "only slightly more gregarious than J.D. Salinger." He was also a visiting scholar at Yale Law School (1978–1979) and a fellow at Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1997–1998; 2002–2003). Significantly, McPherson lectured in Japan (at Meiji University and Chiba University), a country whose society and culture profoundly affected him. It was in Japan, he once wrote, where he went to lay down "the burden carried by all black Americans, especially the males." "Crabcakes: A Memoir", his first original work since "Elbow Room", was published in 1998. His final book ("A Region Not Home: Reflections on Exile", an essay collection) was published in 2000. In 1972, McPherson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for his short story collection "Elbow Room", becoming the first black writer to receive the program's Fiction Prize. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, a member of the first group (21 recipients in all) ever selected for one of the MacArthur Foundation's so-called "genius grants." In 1995, McPherson was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2000, John Updike selected McPherson's short story "Gold Coast" for his collection "Best American Short Stories of the Century" (Houghton Mifflin). In October 2011, McPherson was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Paul Engle Award from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature. According to the citation: McPherson died in hospice on July 27, 2016, in Iowa City, Iowa, due to complications of pneumonia. He was 72. He is survived by a daughter, Rachel McPherson (a child from his first marriage to the former Sarah Charlton, which had ended in divorce); a son from another relationship, Benjamin Miyamoto; a sister; and a brother. Nonfiction Fiction

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James Alan McPherson

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Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue "Three Men in a Boat" (1889). Other works include the essay collections "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" (1886) and "Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow"; "Three Men on the Bummel", a sequel to "Three Men in a Boat", and several other novels. Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England. He was the fourth child of Marguerite Jones and Jerome Clapp (who later renamed himself Jerome Clapp Jerome), an ironmonger and lay preacher who dabbled in architecture. He had two sisters, Paulina and Blandina, and one brother, Milton, who died at an early age. Jerome was registered as Jerome Clapp Jerome, like his father's amended name, and the Klapka appears to be a later variation (after the exiled Hungarian general György Klapka). The family fell into poverty owing to bad investments in the local mining industry, and debt collectors visited often, an experience that Jerome described vividly in his autobiography "My Life and Times" (1926). The young Jerome attended St Marylebone Grammar School. He wished to go into politics or be a man of letters, but the death of his father when Jerome was 13 and of his mother when he was 15 forced him to quit his studies and find work to support himself. He was employed at the London and North Western Railway, initially collecting coal that fell along the railway, and he remained there for four years. Jerome was inspired by his older sister Blandina's love for the theatre, and he decided to try his hand at acting in 1877, under the stage name Harold Crichton. He joined a repertory troupe that produced plays on a shoestring budget, often drawing on the actors' own meagre resources – Jerome was penniless at the time – to purchase costumes and props. After three years on the road with no evident success, the 21-year-old Jerome decided that he had enough of stage life and sought other occupations. He tried to become a journalist, writing essays, satires, and short stories, but most of these were rejected. Over the next few years, he was a school teacher, a packer, and a solicitor's clerk. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with "On the Stage – and Off" (1885), a comic memoir of his experiences with the acting troupe, followed by "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" (1886), a collection of humorous essays which had previously appeared in the newly founded magazine, "Home Chimes", the same magazine that would later serialise "Three Men in a Boat". On 21 June 1888, Jerome married Georgina Elizabeth Henrietta Stanley Marris ("Ettie"), nine days after she divorced her first husband. She had a daughter from her previous, five-year marriage nicknamed Elsie (her actual name was also Georgina). The honeymoon took place on the Thames "in a little boat," a fact that was to have a significant influence on his next and most important work, "Three Men in a Boat". Jerome sat down to write "Three Men in a Boat" as soon as the couple returned from their honeymoon. In the novel, his wife was replaced by his longtime friends George Wingrave (George) and Carl Hentschel (Harris). This allowed him to create comic (and non-sentimental) situations which were nonetheless intertwined with the history of the Thames region. The book, published in 1889, became an instant success and has never been out of print. Its popularity was such that the number of registered Thames boats went up fifty percent in the year following its publication, and it contributed significantly to the Thames becoming a tourist attraction. In its first twenty years alone, the book sold over a million copies worldwide. It has been adapted to films, TV and radio shows, stage plays, and a musical. Its writing style influenced many humourists and satirists in England and elsewhere. With the financial security that the sales of the book provided, Jerome was able to dedicate all of his time to writing. He wrote a number of plays, essays, and novels, but was never able to recapture the success of "Three Men in a Boat". In 1892, he was chosen by Robert Barr to edit "The Idler" (over Rudyard Kipling). The magazine was an illustrated satirical monthly catering to gentlemen (who, following the theme of the publication, appreciated idleness). In 1893, he founded "To-Day", but had to withdraw from both publications because of financial difficulties and a libel suit. Jerome's play "Biarritz" had a run of two months at the Prince of Wales Theatre between April and June 1896. In 1898, a short stay in Germany inspired "Three Men on the Bummel", the sequel to "Three Men in a Boat", reintroducing the same characters in the setting of a foreign bicycle tour. The book was nonetheless unable to capture the life-force and historic roots of its predecessor, and it enjoyed only a mild success. In 1902, he published the novel "Paul Kelver", which is widely regarded as autobiographical. His 1908 play "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" introduced a more sombre and religious Jerome. The main character was played by one of the leading actors of the time, Johnston Forbes-Robertson, and the play was a tremendous commercial success. It was twice made into film, in 1918 and in 1935. However, the play was condemned by critics – Max Beerbohm described it as "vilely stupid" and as written by a "tenth-rate writer". Jerome volunteered to serve his country at the outbreak of the war, but, being 56 years old, was rejected by the British Army. Eager to serve in some capacity, he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the French Army. In 1926, Jerome published his autobiography, "My Life and Times". Shortly afterwards, the Borough of Walsall conferred on him the title Freeman of the Borough. During these last years, Jerome spent more time at his farmhouse Gould's Grove southeast of Ewelme near Wallingford. Jerome suffered a paralytic stroke and a cerebral haemorrhage in June 1927, on a motoring tour from Devon to London via Cheltenham and Northampton. He lay in Northampton General Hospital for two weeks before dying on 14 June. He was cremated at Golders Green and his ashes buried at St Mary's Church, Ewelme, Oxfordshire. Elsie, Ettie, and his sister Blandina are buried beside him. His gravestone reads "For we are labourers together with God". A small museum dedicated to his life and works was opened in 1984 at his birth home in Walsall, but it closed in 2008, and the contents were returned to Walsall Museum.

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Jerome K. Jerome

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Takamine Jōkichi Takamine was born in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, in November 1854. His father was a doctor; his mother a member of a family of "sake" brewers. He spent his childhood in Kanazawa, capital of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, and was educated in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1879. He did postgraduate work at University of Glasgow and Anderson College in Scotland. He returned to Japan in 1883 and joined the division of chemistry at the newly established Department of Agriculture and Commerce. He learned English as a child from a Dutch family in Nagasaki and so always spoke English with a Dutch accent. While in the US, Takamine was married to Caroline Field Hitch. Takamine continued to work for the department of agriculture and commerce until 1887. He then founded the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company, where he later isolated the enzyme takadiastase, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of starch. Takamine developed his diastase from "koji," a fungus used in the manufacture of soy sauce and "miso". Its Latin name is "Aspergillus oryzae", and it is a "designated national fungus" ("kokkin") in Japan. In 1899, Takamine was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Engineering by what is now the University of Tokyo. Takamine went as co-commissioner of the Cotton Exposition to New Orleans in 1884, where he met Lafcadio Hearn and Caroline Hitch, his future wife. He later emigrated to the United States and established his own research laboratory in New York City but licensed the exclusive production rights for Takadiastase to one of the largest US pharmaceutical companies, Parke-Davis. This turned out to be a shrewd move - he became a millionaire in a relatively short time and by the early 20th century was estimated to be worth $30 million. In 1901 he isolated and purified the hormone adrenaline (the first effective bronchodilator for asthma) from animal glands, becoming the first to accomplish this for a glandular hormone. In 1894, Takamine applied for, and was granted, a patent titled "Process of Making Diastatic Enzyme" ()—the first patent on a microbial enzyme in the United States. In 1905 he founded the Nippon Club, which was for many years located at 161 West 93rd Street in Manhattan. Many of the beautiful cherry blossom trees in the West Potomac Park surrounding the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC were donated by the mayor of Tokyo (Yukio Ozaki) and Jokichi Takamine in 1912. The 1915 photo to the right presents Jōkichi Takamine as the host for a banquet honoring the visiting Japanese diplomat Baron Eiichi Shibusawa. This illustration is linked to Jōkichi Takamine's involvement in the gifting of the cherry blossom trees to Washington, D.C. in 1912, which has evolved into the National Cherry Blossom Festival which is celebrated yearly. In 1904, the Emperor Meiji of Japan honored Takamine with an unusual gift. In the context of the St. Louis World Fair (Louisiana Purchase Exposition), the Japanese government had replicated a historical Japanese structure, the "Pine and Maple Palace" ("Shofu-den"), modelled after the Kyoto Imperial Coronation Palace of 1,300 years ago. This structure was given to Dr. Takamine in grateful recognition of his efforts to further friendly relations between Japan and the United States. He had the structure transported in sections from Missouri to his summer home in upstate New York, seventy-five miles north of New York City. In 1909, the structure served as a guest house for Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi and Princess Kuni of Japan, who were visiting the area. Although the property was sold in 1922, the reconstructed structure remained in its serene setting. In 2008, it still continues to be one of the undervalued tourist attractions of New York's Sullivan County. The Takamine home in Kanazawa can still be seen today. It was relocated to near the grounds of Kanazawa Castle in 2001. Two films about the life of Takamine have been made. In the 2010 film "" directed by , Takamine was portrayed by Masaya Kato. A sequel titled "Takamine", also directed by Ichikawa and starring Hatsunori Hasegawa, was released in 2011.

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Takamine Jōkichi

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Jacob Neusner Jacob Neusner (July 28, 1932 – October 8, 2016) was an American academic scholar of Judaism. He was named as one of the most published authors in history, having written or edited more than 900 books. Neusner was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Reform Jewish parents. He graduated from William H. Hall High School in West Hartford. He then attended Harvard University, where he met Harry Austryn Wolfson and first encountered Jewish religious texts. After graduating from Harvard in 1953, Neusner spent a year at the University of Oxford. Neusner then attended the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained as a Conservative Jewish rabbi. After spending a year at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he returned to the Jewish Theological Seminary and studied the Talmud under Saul Lieberman, who would later write a famous, and highly negative, critique of Neusner's translation of the Jerusalem Talmud. He graduated in 1960 with a master's degree. Later that year, he received a doctorate in religion from Columbia University. Afterward, he briefly taught at Dartmouth College. Neusner also held positions at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Brandeis University, Brown University, and the University of South Florida. In 1994, Neusner began teaching at Bard College, working there until 2014. After leaving Bard College, he founded the Institute for Advanced Theology with Bruce Chilton. He was a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He was the only scholar to have served on both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Neusner's research centered on rabbinic Judaism of the Mishnaic and Talmudic eras. His work focused on bringing the study of rabbinical text into nonreligious educational institutions and treating them as non-religious documents. He was a pioneer in the application of "form criticism" approach to Rabbinic texts. Much of Neusner's work focused on deconstructing the prevailing approach that viewed Rabbinic Judaism as a single religious movement within which the various Rabbinic texts were produced. In contrast, Neusner viewed each rabbinic document as an individual piece of evidence that can only shed light on the more local Judaisms of such specific document's place of origin and the specific Judaism of the author. His 1981 book "Judaism: The Evidence of the Mishnah" is the classic statement of his work and the first of many comparable volumes on the other documents of the rabbinic canon. Neusner's five-volume "History of the Jews in Babylonia", published between 1965-1969, is said to be the first to consider the Babylonian Talmud in its Iranian context. Neusner studied Farsi and Middle Persian to do so. Neusner's method of studying documents individually without contextualizing them with other Rabbinic documents of the same era or genre led to a series of studies on the way Judaism creates categories of understanding, and how those categories relate to one another, even as they emerge diversely in discrete rabbinic documents. Neusner, with his contemporaries, translated into English nearly the entire Rabbinic canon. This work has opened up many Rabbinic documents to scholars of other fields unfamiliar with Hebrew and Aramaic, within the academic study of religion, as well as in ancient history, culture and Near and Middle Eastern Studies. His translation technique utilized a "Harvard-outline" format which attempts to make the argument flow of Rabbinic texts easier to understand for those unfamiliar with Talmudic reasoning. Neusner's enterprise was aimed at a humanistic and academic reading of classics of Judaism. Neusner was drawn from studying text to context. Treating a religion in its social setting, as something a group of people do together, rather than as a set of beliefs and opinions. In addition to his historical and textual works, Neusner also contributed to the area of Theology. He was the author of ""Israel:" Judaism and its Social Metaphors" and "The Incarnation of God: The Character of Divinity in Formative Judaism". In addition to his scholarly activities, Neusner was involved in Jewish Studies and Religious Studies. Neusner saw Judaism as "not particular but exemplary, and Jews not as special but (merely) interesting." Neusner wrote a number of works exploring the relationship of Judaism to other religions. His "A Rabbi Talks with Jesus" attempts to establish a religiously sound framework for Judaic-Christian interchange. It earned the praise of Pope Benedict XVI and the nickname "The Pope's Favorite Rabbi". In his book "Jesus of Nazareth," Benedict referred to it as "by far the most important book for the Jewish-Christian dialogue in the last decade." Neusner also collaborated with other scholars to produce comparisons of Judaism and Christianity, as in "The Bible and Us: A Priest and A Rabbi Read Scripture Together". He collaborated with scholars of Islam, conceiving "World Religions in America: An Introduction", which explores how diverse religions have developed in the distinctive American context. Neusner composed numerous textbooks and general trade books on Judaism. The two best-known examples are "The Way of Torah: An Introduction to Judaism" (Belmont 2003); and "Judaism: An Introduction". Throughout his career, Neusner established publication programs and series with various academic publishers. Through these series, through reference works that he conceived and edited, and through the conferences he sponsored, Neusner advanced the careers of dozens of younger scholars from across the globe. Neusner called himself a Zionist, but also said "Israel’s flag is not mine. My homeland is America." He was culturally conservative, and opposed feminism and affirmative action. Neusner was a signer of the conservative Christian Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, which expresses concern over the "unfounded or undue concerns" of environmentalists such as "fears of destructive manmade global warming, overpopulation, and rampant species loss". Although he was highly influential, Neusner was criticized by scholars in his field of study. Some were critical of his methodology, and asserted that many of his arguments were circular or attempts to prove "negative assumptions" from a lack of evidence, while others concentrated on Neusner's reading and interpretations of Rabbinic texts, finding that his account was forced and inaccurate. Neusner's view that the Second Commonwealth Pharisees were a sectarian group centered on "table fellowship" and ritual food purity practices, and his lack of interest in wider Jewish values or social issues, has been criticized by E. P. Sanders, Solomon Zeitlin and Hyam Maccoby. Some scholars questioned Neusner's grasp of Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic. The most famous and biting criticism came from Neusner's former teacher, Saul Lieberman, about Neusner's translation of the Jerusalem Talmud. Lieberman wrote: "...one begins to doubt the credibility of the translator [Neusner]. And indeed after a superficial perusal of the translation, the reader is stunned by the translator's ignorance of rabbinic Hebrew, of Aramaic grammar, and above all of the subject matter with which he deals." Ending his review, Lieberman states "I conclude with a clear conscience: The right place for [Neusner's] English translation is the waste basket" while at the same time qualifying that "[i]n fairness to the translator I must add that his various essays on Jewish topics are meritorious. They abound in brilliant insights and intelligent questions." Lieberman highlights his criticism as being of Neusner's "ignorance of the original languages," which Lieberman claims even Neusner was originally "well aware of" inasmuch as he had previously relied on responsible English renderings of rabbinic sources, e.g., Soncino Press, before later choosing to create his own renderings of rabbinic texts. Neusner died on October 8, 2016 at the age of 84.

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Jacob Neusner

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Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg Joachim I Nestor (21 February 1484 – 11 July 1535) was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1499–1535), the fifth member of the House of Hohenzollern. His nickname was taken from King Nestor of Greek mythology. The eldest son of John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg, Joachim received an excellent education under the supervision of Dietrich von Bülow, Bishop of Lebus and Chancellor of Frankfurt University. He became Elector of Brandenburg upon his father's death in January 1499, and soon afterwards married Elizabeth of Denmark, daughter of King John of Denmark. They had five children: Joachim took some part in the political complications of the Scandinavian kingdoms, but the early years of his reign were mainly spent in the administration of his electorate, where he succeeded in restoring some degree of order through stern measures. He also improved the administration of justice, aided the development of commerce, and was sympathetic to the needs to the towns. On the approach of the imperial election of 1519, Joachim's vote was eagerly solicited by the partisans of King Francis I of France, and Charles of Burgundy. Having treated with both parties, and received lavish promises from them, he appears to have hoped to be Emperor himself; but when the election came, he turned to the winning side and voted for Charles. In spite of this, relations between the Emperor and the Elector were not friendly, and during the next few years Joachim was frequently in communication with Charles' enemies. In the course of Hohenzollern power politics Joachim Nestor and his brother managed to get the latter, Albert of Mainz, first onto the sees of Magdeburg and then its suffragan of Halberstadt, both prince-bishoprics also comprising princely territories. Since prince-episcopal sees were so influential, competing candidates usually ran for them. A candidature could turn into a bribery competition, without ever knowing exactly how much competitors paid to obtain office. The expenditures involved, as far as they exceeded one's own potential, were usually advanced by creditors and had then to be recovered by levying dues from the subjects and parishioners in the prince-bishoprics and dioceses that were just acquired. The acquisition in 1514 of the very influential Prince-Archbishopric-Electorate of Mainz for Albert was a coup that provided the Hohenzollerns with control over two of the seven electoral votes in imperial elections and many suffragan dioceses to levy dues. According to canon law, Albert was too young to hold such a position and since he would not give up the archiepiscopal see of Magdeburg (in order to terminate the accumulation of archdioceses, which was also prohibited by canon law), the Hohenzollerns had to dispense ever greater briberies at the Holy See. This exhausted their means and caused them to incur vast debts with the Fuggers. To assist in the recovery of the enormous expenditures employed to assist Albert, mediators stipulated with the Holy See that the pope would allow Albert to sell indulgences to the believers in his archdioceses and their suffragans. The sales proceeds had to cover the amortisation and servicing of the debts; a share for the Holy See, for allowing this exploitation of the believers; the expenditure paid from the Hohenzollerns own pockets; and the charges involved with the sales. The neighbouring Electorate of Saxony also bid for the See of Mainz, but failed to secure it. The Saxon elector Frederick the Wise had debts of his own as a result, but no see to show for it and no privilege to sell indulgences to recover his expenditures. Frustrated, he forbade the sale of indulgences in his electorate and allowed Martin Luther to polemicize against them. Joachim Nestor, in contrast, became known as a pugnacious adherent of Roman Catholic orthodoxy who needed the sales of indulgences and the necessary intimidation of the believers in order to recover his expenditures. Joachim Nestor's brother, Archbishop Albert, was the initial object of Luther's attack. He urged on the Emperor the need to enforce the Edict of Worms, and at several diets was prominent among the enemies of the Reformers. A patron of learning, Joachim Nestor established the Viadrina university of Frankfurt (Oder) in 1506. He promoted Georg von Blumenthal, the "Pillar of Catholicism", as Chancellor of Frankfurt University, Bishop of Lebus and a Privy Counsellor. He was among those who met at Dessau in July 1525 and was a member of the league established at Halle in November 1533. But his wife, against his will, like her brother King Christian of Denmark, became Lutheran, and in 1528 fled for safety to Saxony. He experienced the mortification of seeing Protestantism also favoured by other members of his family. He died at Stendal in 1535.

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Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg

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John Keats John Keats (; 31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats' work was a great experience that he felt all of his life. The poetry of Keats is characterised by a style "... heavily loaded with sensualities", most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of the Romantic poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through an emphasis on natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. Some of his most acclaimed works are "Ode to a Nightingale", "Sleep and Poetry", and the famous sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer". John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795 to Thomas Keats and his wife, Frances Jennings. There is little evidence of his exact birthplace. Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October, baptism records give the date as the 31st. He was the eldest of four surviving children; his younger siblings were George (1797–1841), Thomas (1799–1818), and Frances Mary "Fanny" (1803–1889) who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez. Another son was lost in infancy. His father first worked as a hostler at the stables attached to the Swan and Hoop Inn, an establishment he later managed, and where the growing family lived for some years. Keats believed that he was born at the inn, a birthplace of humble origins, but there is no evidence to support his belief. The Globe pub now occupies the site (2012), a few yards from the modern-day Moorgate station. He was baptised at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, and sent to a local dame school as a child. His parents were unable to afford Eton or Harrow, so in the summer of 1803, he was sent to board at John Clarke's school in Enfield, close to his grandparents' house. The small school had a liberal outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools. In the family atmosphere at Clarke's, Keats developed an interest in classics and history, which would stay with him throughout his short life. The headmaster's son, Charles Cowden Clarke, also became an important mentor and friend, introducing Keats to Renaissance literature, including Tasso, Spenser, and Chapman's translations. The young Keats was described by his friend Edward Holmes as a volatile character, "always in extremes", given to indolence and fighting. However, at 13 he began focusing his energy on reading and study, winning his first academic prize in midsummer 1809. In April 1804, when Keats was eight, his father died from a skull fracture, suffered when he fell from his horse while returning from a visit to Keats and his brother George at school. Thomas Keats died intestate. Frances remarried two months later, but left her new husband soon afterwards, and the four children went to live with their grandmother, Alice Jennings, in the village of Edmonton. In March 1810, when Keats was 14, his mother died of tuberculosis, leaving the children in the custody of their grandmother. She appointed two guardians, Richard Abbey and John Sandell, to take care of them. That autumn, Keats left Clarke's school to apprentice with Thomas Hammond, a surgeon and apothecary who was a neighbour and the doctor of the Jennings family. Keats lodged in the attic above the surgery at 7 Church Street until 1813. Cowden Clarke, who remained a close friend of Keats, described this period as "the most placid time in Keats' life." From 1814, Keats had two bequests, held in trust for him until his 21st birthday: £800 willed by his grandfather John Jennings (about £50,000 in today's money) and a portion of his mother's legacy, £8000 (about £500,000 today), to be equally divided between her living children. It seems he was not told of either, since he never applied for any of the money. Historically, blame has often been laid on Abbey as legal guardian, but he may also have been unaware. William Walton, solicitor for Keats' mother and grandmother, definitely did know and had a duty of care to relay the information to Keats. It seems he did not. The money would have made a critical difference to the poet's expectations. Money was always a great concern and difficulty for him, as he struggled to stay out of debt and make his way in the world independently. Having finished his apprenticeship with Hammond, Keats registered as a medical student at Guy's Hospital (now part of King's College London) and began studying there in October 1815. Within a month of starting, he was accepted as a dresser at the hospital, assisting surgeons during operations, the equivalent of a junior house surgeon today. It was a significant promotion, that marked a distinct aptitude for medicine; it brought greater responsibility and a heavier workload. Keats' long and expensive medical training with Hammond and at Guy's Hospital led his family to assume he would pursue a lifelong career in medicine, assuring financial security, and it seems that at this point Keats had a genuine desire to become a doctor. He lodged near the hospital, at 28 St Thomas's Street in Southwark, with other medical students, including Henry Stephens who became a famous inventor and ink magnate. However, Keats' training took up increasing amounts of his writing time, and he was increasingly ambivalent about his medical career. He felt that he faced a stark choice. He had written his first extant poem, "An Imitation of Spenser," in 1814, when he was 19. Now, strongly drawn by ambition, inspired by fellow poets such as Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron, and beleaguered by family financial crises, he suffered periods of depression. His brother George wrote that John "feared that he should never be a poet, & if he was not he would destroy himself". In 1816, Keats received his apothecary's licence, which made him eligible to practise as an apothecary, physician, and surgeon, but before the end of the year he announced to his guardian that he was resolved to be a poet, not a surgeon. Although he continued his work and training at Guy's, Keats devoted more and more time to the study of literature, experimenting with verse forms, particularly the sonnet. In May 1816, Leigh Hunt agreed to publish the sonnet "O Solitude" in his magazine, "The Examiner", a leading liberal magazine of the day. It was the first appearance in print of Keats' poetry, and Charles Cowden Clarke described it as his friend's red letter day, the first proof that Keats' ambitions were valid. Among his poems of 1816 was "To My Brothers". In the summer of that year, Keats went with Clarke to the seaside town of Margate to write. There he began "Calidore" and initiated the era of his great letter writing. On his return to London, he took lodgings at 8 Dean Street, Southwark, and braced himself for further study in order to become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In October 1816, Clarke introduced Keats to the influential Leigh Hunt, a close friend of Byron and Shelley. Five months later came the publication of "Poems", the first volume of Keats' verse, which included "I stood tiptoe" and "Sleep and Poetry," both strongly influenced by Hunt. The book was a critical failure, arousing little interest, although Reynolds reviewed it favourably in "The Champion". Clarke commented that the book "might have emerged in Timbuctoo." Keats' publishers, Charles and James Ollier, felt ashamed of the book. Keats immediately changed publishers to Taylor and Hessey on Fleet Street. Unlike the Olliers, Keats' new publishers were enthusiastic about his work. Within a month of the publication of "Poems" they were planning a new Keats volume and had paid him an advance. Hessey became a steady friend to Keats and made the company's rooms available for young writers to meet. Their publishing lists eventually included Coleridge, Hazlitt, Clare, Hogg, Carlyle and Lamb. Through Taylor and Hessey, Keats met their Eton-educated lawyer, Richard Woodhouse, who advised them on literary as well as legal matters and was deeply impressed by "Poems". Although he noted that Keats could be "wayward, trembling, easily daunted," Woodhouse was convinced of Keats' genius, a poet to support as he became one of England's greatest writers. Soon after they met, the two became close friends, and Woodhouse started to collect Keatsiana, documenting as much as he could about Keats' poetry. This archive survives as one of the main sources of information on Keats' work. Andrew Motion represents him as Boswell to Keats' Johnson, ceaselessly promoting the writer's work, fighting his corner, and spurring his poetry to greater heights. In later years, Woodhouse was one of the few people to accompany Keats to Gravesend to embark on his final trip to Rome. In spite of the bad reviews of "Poems", Hunt published the essay "Three Young Poets" (Shelley, Keats, and Reynolds) and the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," foreseeing great things to come. He introduced Keats to many prominent men in his circle, including the editor of "The Times", Thomas Barnes; the writer Charles Lamb; the conductor Vincent Novello; and the poet John Hamilton Reynolds, who would become a close friend. He was also regularly meeting William Hazlitt, a powerful literary figure of the day. It was a decisive turning point for Keats, establishing him in the public eye as a figure in what Hunt termed "a new school of poetry." At this time Keats wrote to his friend Bailey: "I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of the imagination. What imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth." This passage would eventually be transmuted into the concluding lines of "Ode on a Grecian Urn": Beauty is truth, truth beauty' – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know". In early December 1816, under the heady influence of his artistic friends, Keats told Abbey that he had decided to give up medicine in favour of poetry, to Abbey's fury. Keats had spent a great deal on his medical training and, despite his state of financial hardship and indebtedness, had made large loans to friends such as painter Benjamin Haydon. Keats would go on to lend £700 to his brother George. By lending so much, Keats could no longer cover the interest of his own debts. Having left his training at the hospital, suffering from a succession of colds, and unhappy with living in damp rooms in London, Keats moved with his brothers into rooms at 1 Well Walk in the village of Hampstead in April 1817. Both John and George nursed their brother Tom, who was suffering from tuberculosis. The house was close to Hunt and others from his circle in Hampstead, as well as to Coleridge, respected elder of the first wave of Romantic poets, at that time living in Highgate. On 11 April 1818, Keats reported that he and Coleridge had a long walk together on Hampstead Heath. In a letter to his brother George, Keats wrote that they talked about "a thousand things... nightingales, poetry, poetical sensation, metaphysics." Around this time he was introduced to Charles Wentworth Dilke and James Rice. In June 1818, Keats began a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland, and the Lake District with his friend Charles Armitage Brown. Keats' brother George and his wife Georgina accompanied them as far as Lancaster and then continued to Liverpool, from where the couple emigrated to America. They lived in Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, until 1841, when George's investments failed. Like Keats' other brother, they both died penniless and racked by tuberculosis, for which there was no effective treatment until the next century. In July, while on the Isle of Mull, Keats caught a bad cold and "was too thin and fevered to proceed on the journey." After his return south in August, Keats continued to nurse Tom, exposing himself to infection. Some biographers suggest that this is when tuberculosis, his "family disease," first took hold. "Consumption" was not identified as a disease with a single infectious origin until 1820, and there was considerable stigma attached to the condition, as it was often associated with weakness, repressed sexual passion, or masturbation. Keats "refuses to give it a name" in his letters. Tom Keats died on 1 December 1818. John Keats moved to the newly built Wentworth Place, owned by his friend Charles Armitage Brown. It was on the edge of Hampstead Heath, ten minutes' walk south of his old home in Well Walk. The winter of 1818–19, though a difficult period for the poet, marked the beginning of his "annus mirabilis" in which he wrote his most mature work. He had been inspired by a series of recent lectures by Hazlitt on English poets and poetic identity and had also met Wordsworth. Keats may have seemed to his friends to be living on comfortable means, but in reality he was borrowing regularly from Abbey and his friends. He composed five of his six great odes at Wentworth Place in April and May and, although it is debated in which order they were written, "Ode to Psyche" opened the published series. According to Brown, "Ode to a Nightingale" was composed under a plum tree in the garden. Brown wrote, "In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast-table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours. When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the books. On inquiry, I found those scraps, four or five in number, contained his poetic feelings on the song of our nightingale." Dilke, co-owner of the house, strenuously denied the story, printed in Richard Monckton Milnes' 1848 biography of Keats, dismissing it as 'pure delusion'. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode on Melancholy" were inspired by sonnet forms and probably written after "Ode to a Nightingale". Keats' new and progressive publishers Taylor and Hessey issued "Endymion", which Keats dedicated to Thomas Chatterton, a work that he termed "a trial of my Powers of Imagination". It was damned by the critics, giving rise to Byron's quip that Keats was ultimately "snuffed out by an article", suggesting that he never truly got over it. A particularly harsh review by John Wilson Croker appeared in the April 1818 edition of "The Quarterly Review". John Gibson Lockhart writing in "Blackwood's Magazine", described "Endymion" as "imperturbable drivelling idiocy". With biting sarcasm, Lockhart advised, "It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop Mr John, back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes". It was Lockhart at "Blackwoods" who coined the defamatory term "the Cockney School" for Hunt and his circle, which included both Hazlitt and Keats. The dismissal was as much political as literary, aimed at upstart young writers deemed uncouth for their lack of education, non-formal rhyming and "low diction". They had not attended Eton, Harrow or Oxbridge and they were not from the upper classes. In 1819, Keats wrote "The Eve of St. Agnes", "La Belle Dame sans Merci", "Hyperion", "Lamia" and a play, "Otho the Great" (critically damned and not performed until 1950). The poems "Fancy" and "Bards of passion and of mirth" were inspired by the garden of Wentworth Place. In September, very short of money and in despair considering taking up journalism or a post as a ship's surgeon, he approached his publishers with a new book of poems. They were unimpressed with the collection, finding the presented versions of "Lamia" confusing, and describing "St Agnes" as having a "sense of pettish disgust" and "a 'Don Juan' style of mingling up sentiment and sneering" concluding it was "a poem unfit for ladies". The final volume Keats lived to see, "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems", was eventually published in July 1820. It received greater acclaim than had "Endymion" or "Poems", finding favourable notices in both "The Examiner" and "Edinburgh Review". It would come to be recognised as one of the most important poetic works ever published. Wentworth Place now houses the Keats House museum. Keats befriended Isabella Jones in May 1817, while on holiday in the village of Bo Peep, near Hastings. She is described as beautiful, talented and widely read, not of the top flight of society yet financially secure, an enigmatic figure who would become a part of Keats' circle. Throughout their friendship Keats never hesitates to own his sexual attraction to her, although they seem to enjoy circling each other rather than offering commitment. He writes that he "frequented her rooms" in the winter of 1818–19, and in his letters to George says that he "warmed with her" and "kissed her". The trysts may have been a sexual initiation for Keats according to Bate and Gittings. Jones inspired and was a steward of Keats' writing. The themes of "The Eve of St. Agnes" and "The Eve of St Mark" may well have been suggested by her, the lyric "Hush, Hush!" ["o sweet Isabel"] was about her, and that the first version of "Bright Star" may have originally been for her. In 1821, Jones was one of the first in England to be notified of Keats' death. Letters and drafts of poems suggest that Keats first met Frances (Fanny) Brawne between September and November 1818. It is likely that the 18-year-old Brawne visited the Dilke family at Wentworth Place before she lived there. She was born in the hamlet of West End (now in the district of West Hampstead), on 9 August 1800. Like Keats' grandfather, her grandfather kept a London inn, and both lost several family members to tuberculosis. She shared her first name with both Keats' sister and mother, and had a talent for dress-making and languages as well as a natural theatrical bent. During November 1818 she developed an intimacy with Keats, but it was shadowed by the illness of Tom Keats, whom John was nursing through this period. On 3 April 1819, Brawne and her widowed mother moved into the other half of Dilke's Wentworth Place, and Keats and Brawne were able to see each other every day. Keats began to lend Brawne books, such as Dante's "Inferno", and they would read together. He gave her the love sonnet "Bright Star" (perhaps revised for her) as a declaration. It was a work in progress which he continued at until the last months of his life, and the poem came to be associated with their relationship. "All his desires were concentrated on Fanny". From this point there is no further documented mention of Isabella Jones. Sometime before the end of June, he arrived at some sort of understanding with Brawne, far from a formal engagement as he still had too little to offer, with no prospects and financial stricture. Keats endured great conflict knowing his expectations as a struggling poet in increasingly hard straits would preclude marriage to Brawne. Their love remained unconsummated; jealousy for his 'star' began to gnaw at him. Darkness, disease and depression surrounded him, reflected in poems such as "The Eve of St. Agnes" and "La Belle Dame sans Merci" where love and death both stalk. "I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks;" he wrote to her, "...your loveliness, and the hour of my death". In one of his many hundreds of notes and letters, Keats wrote to Brawne on 13 October 1819: "My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you – I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again – my Life seems to stop there – I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving – I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you ... I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion – I have shudder'd at it – I shudder no more – I could be martyr'd for my Religion – Love is my religion – I could die for that – I could die for you." Tuberculosis took hold and he was advised by his doctors to move to a warmer climate. In September 1820 Keats left for Rome knowing he would probably never see Brawne again. After leaving he felt unable to write to her or read her letters, although he did correspond with her mother. He died there five months later. None of Brawne's letters to Keats survive. It took a month for the news of his death to reach London, after which Brawne stayed in mourning for six years. In 1833, more than 12 years after his death, she married and went on to have three children; she outlived Keats by more than 40 years. During 1820 Keats displayed increasingly serious symptoms of tuberculosis, suffering two lung haemorrhages in the first few days of February. On first coughing up blood, on 3 February 1820, he said to Charles Armitage Brown, "I know the colour of that blood! It is arterial blood. I cannot be deceived in that colour. That drop of blood is my death warrant. I must die." He lost large amounts of blood and was bled further by the attending physician. Hunt nursed him in London for much of the following summer. At the suggestion of his doctors, he agreed to move to Italy with his friend Joseph Severn. On 13 September, they left for Gravesend and four days later boarded the sailing brig "Maria Crowther", where he made the final revisions of "Bright Star". The journey was a minor catastrophe: storms broke out followed by a dead calm that slowed the ship's progress. When they finally docked in Naples, the ship was held in quarantine for ten days due to a suspected outbreak of cholera in Britain. Keats reached Rome on 14 November, by which time any hope of the warmer climate he sought had disappeared. Keats wrote his last letter on 30 November 1820 to Charles Armitage Brown; "Tis the most difficult thing in the world to me to write a letter. My stomach continues so bad, that I feel it worse on opening any book – yet I am much better than I was in Quarantine. Then I am afraid to encounter the proing and conning of any thing interesting to me in England. I have an habitual feeling of my real life having past, and that I am leading a posthumous existence". On arrival in Italy, he moved into a villa on the Spanish Steps in Rome, today the Keats–Shelley Memorial House museum. Despite care from Severn and Dr. James Clark, his health rapidly deteriorated. The medical attention Keats received may have hastened his death. In November 1820, Clark declared that the source of his illness was "mental exertion" and that the source was largely situated in his stomach. Clark eventually diagnosed consumption (tuberculosis) and placed Keats on a starvation diet of an anchovy and a piece of bread a day intended to reduce the blood flow to his stomach. He also bled the poet: a standard treatment of the day, but also likely a significant contributor to Keats' weakness. Severn's biographer Sue Brown writes: "They could have used opium in small doses, and Keats had asked Severn to buy a bottle of opium when they were setting off on their voyage. What Severn didn't realise was that Keats saw it as a possible resource if he wanted to commit suicide. He tried to get the bottle from Severn on the voyage but Severn wouldn't let him have it. Then in Rome he tried again... Severn was in such a quandary he didn't know what to do, so in the end he went to the doctor who took it away. As a result Keats went through dreadful agonies with nothing to ease the pain at all." Keats was angry with both Severn and Clark when they would not give him laudanum (opium). He repeatedly demanded "how long is this posthumous existence of mine to go on?" The first months of 1821 marked a slow and steady decline into the final stage of tuberculosis. Keats was coughing up blood and covered in sweat. Severn nursed him devotedly and observed in a letter how Keats would sometimes cry upon waking to find himself still alive. Severn writes, John Keats died in Rome on 23 February 1821. His body was buried in the city's Protestant Cemetery. His last request was to be placed under a tombstone bearing no name or date, only the words, "Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water." Severn and Brown erected the stone, which under a relief of a lyre with broken strings, includes the epitaph: The text bears an echo from Catullus LXX Severn and Brown added their lines to the stone in protest at the critical reception of Keats' work. Hunt blamed his death on the "Quarterly Review"s scathing attack of "Endymion". As Byron quipped in his narrative poem "Don Juan"; Seven weeks after the funeral, Shelley memorialised Keats in his poem "Adonais". Clark saw to the planting of daisies on the grave, saying that Keats would have wished it. For public health reasons, the Italian health authorities burned the furniture in Keats' room, scraped the walls and made new windows, doors and flooring. The ashes of Shelley, one of Keats' most fervent champions, are buried in the cemetery and Joseph Severn is buried next to Keats. Describing the site today, Marsh wrote, "In the old part of the graveyard, barely a field when Keats was buried here, there are now umbrella pines, myrtle shrubs, roses, and carpets of wild violets". When Keats died at 25, he had been writing poetry seriously for only about six years, from 1814 until the summer of 1820; and publishing for only four. In his lifetime, sales of Keats' three volumes of poetry probably amounted to only 200 copies. His first poem, the sonnet "O Solitude", appeared in "the Examiner" in May 1816, while his collection "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and other poems" was published in July 1820 before his last visit to Rome. The compression of his poetic apprenticeship and maturity into so short a time is just one remarkable aspect of Keats' work. Although prolific during his short career, and now one of the most studied and admired British poets, his reputation rests on a small body of work, centred on the Odes, and only in the creative outpouring of the last years of his short life was he able to express the inner intensity for which he has been lauded since his death. Keats was convinced that he had made no mark in his lifetime. Aware that he was dying, he wrote to Fanny Brawne in February 1820, "I have left no immortal work behind me – nothing to make my friends proud of my memory – but I have lov'd the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remember'd." Keats' ability and talent was acknowledged by several influential contemporary allies such as Shelley and Hunt. His admirers praised him for thinking "on his pulses", for having developed a style which was more heavily loaded with sensualities, more gorgeous in its effects, more voluptuously alive than any poet who had come before him: "loading every rift with ore". Shelley often corresponded with Keats in Rome and loudly declared that Keats' death had been brought on by bad reviews in the "Quarterly Review". Seven weeks after the funeral he wrote "Adonais", a despairing elegy, stating that Keats' early death was a personal and public tragedy: Although Keats wrote that "if poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all", poetry did not come easily to him; his work was the fruit of a deliberate and prolonged classical self-education. He may have possessed an innate poetic sensibility, but his early works were clearly those of a young man learning his craft. His first attempts at verse were often vague, languorously narcotic and lacking a clear eye. His poetic sense was based on the conventional tastes of his friend Charles Cowden Clarke, who first introduced him to the classics, and also came from the predilections of Hunt's "Examiner", which Keats read as a boy. Hunt scorned the Augustan or "French" school, dominated by Pope, and attacked the earlier Romantic poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, now in their forties, as unsophisticated, obscure and crude writers. Indeed, during Keats' few years as a published poet, the reputation of the older Romantic school was at its lowest ebb. Keats came to echo these sentiments in his work, identifying himself with a "new school" for a time, somewhat alienating him from Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron and providing the basis from the scathing attacks from "Blackwood's" and "The Quarterly". By the time of his death, Keats had therefore been associated with the taints of both old and new schools: the obscurity of the first-wave Romantics and the uneducated affectation of Hunt's "Cockney School". Keats' posthumous reputation mixed the reviewers' caricature of the simplistic bumbler with the image of the hyper-sensitive genius killed by high feeling, which Shelley later portrayed. The Victorian sense of poetry as the work of indulgence and luxuriant fancy offered a schema into which Keats was posthumously fitted. Marked as the standard-bearer of sensory writing, his reputation grew steadily and remarkably. His work had the full support of the influential Cambridge Apostles, whose members included the young Tennyson, later a popular Poet Laureate who came to regard Keats as the greatest poet of the 19th century. Constance Naden was a great admirer of his poems, arguing that his genius lay in his 'exquisite sensitiveness to all the elements of beauty'. In 1848, twenty-seven years after Keats' death, Richard Monckton Milnes published the first full biography, which helped place Keats within the canon of English literature. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Millais and Rossetti, were inspired by Keats and painted scenes from his poems including "The Eve of St. Agnes", "Isabella" and "La Belle Dame sans Merci", lush, arresting and popular images which remain closely associated with Keats' work. In 1882, Swinburne wrote in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" that "the Ode to a Nightingale, [is] one of the final masterpieces of human work in all time and for all ages". In the twentieth century, Keats remained the muse of poets such as Wilfred Owen, who kept his death date as a day of mourning, Yeats and T. S. Eliot. Critic Helen Vendler stated the odes "are a group of works in which the English language find ultimate embodiment". Bate declared of "To Autumn": "Each generation has found it one of the most nearly perfect poems in English" and M. R. Ridley claimed the ode "is the most serenely flawless poem in our language." The largest collection of the letters, manuscripts, and other papers of Keats is in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Other collections of material are archived at the British Library, Keats House, Hampstead, the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome and the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Since 1998 the British Keats-Shelley Memorial Association have annually awarded a prize for romantic poetry. A Royal Society of Arts blue plaque was unveiled in 1896 to commemorate Keats at Keats House. None of Keats' biographies were written by people who had known him. Shortly after his death, his publishers announced they would speedily publish "The memoirs and remains of John Keats" but his friends refused to cooperate and argued with each other to the extent that the project was abandoned. Leigh Hunt's "Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries" (1828) gives the first biographical account, strongly emphasising Keats' supposedly humble origins, a misconception which still continues. Given that he was becoming a significant figure within artistic circles, a succession of other publications followed, including anthologies of his many notes, chapters and letters. However, early accounts often gave contradictory or heavily biased versions of events and were subject to dispute. His friends Brown, Severn, Dilke, Shelley and his guardian Richard Abbey, his publisher Taylor, Fanny Brawne and many others issued posthumous commentary on Keats' life. These early writings coloured all subsequent biography and have become embedded in a body of Keats legend. Shelley promoted Keats as someone whose achievement could not be separated from agony, who was 'spiritualised' by his decline and too fine-tuned to endure the harshness of life; the consumptive, suffering image popularly held today. The first full biography was published in 1848 by Richard Monckton Milnes. Landmark Keats biographers since include Sidney Colvin, Robert Gittings, Walter Jackson Bate and Andrew Motion. The idealised image of the heroic romantic poet who battled poverty and died young was inflated by the late arrival of an authoritative biography and the lack of an accurate likeness. Most of the surviving portraits of Keats were painted after his death, and those who knew him held that they did not succeed in capturing his unique quality and intensity. "John Keats: His Life and Death", the first major motion picture about the life of Keats, was produced in 1973 by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. It was directed by John Barnes. John Stride played John Keats and Janina Faye played Fanny Brawne. The 2009 film "Bright Star", written and directed by Jane Campion, focuses on Keats' relationship with Fanny Brawne. Inspired by the 1997 Keats biography penned by Andrew Motion, it stars Ben Whishaw as Keats and Abbie Cornish as Fanny. In Dan Wells's book "A Night of Blacker Darkness", John Keats is portrayed in a comedic tone. He is the companion and sidekick of the protagonist. In Dan Simmons' book "Hyperion", one of the characters is a clone of John Keats, of whom he possesses personality and memories. In Tim Powers' book "The Stress of Her Regard", John Keats, along with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, is the victim of a vampire and his gift with language and poetry is a direct consequence of the vampire breed's attention. Keats' letters were first published in 1848 and 1878. During the 19th century, critics deemed them unworthy of attention, distractions from his poetic works. During the 20th century they became almost as admired and studied as his poetry, and are highly regarded within the canon of English literary correspondence. T. S. Eliot described them as "certainly the most notable and most important ever written by any English poet." Keats spent a great deal of time considering poetry itself, its constructs and impacts, displaying a deep interest unusual amongst his milieu who were more easily distracted by metaphysics or politics, fashions or science. Eliot wrote of Keats' conclusions; "There is hardly one statement of Keats' about poetry which ... will not be found to be true, and what is more, true for greater and more mature poetry than anything Keats ever wrote." Few of Keats' letters are extant from the period before he joined his literary circle. From spring 1817, however, there is a rich record of his prolific and impressive skills as letter writer. Keats and his friends, poets, critics, novelists, and editors wrote to each other daily, and Keats' ideas are bound up in the ordinary, his day-to-day missives sharing news, parody and social commentary. They glitter with humour and critical intelligence. Born of an "unself-conscious stream of consciousness," they are impulsive, full of awareness of his own nature and his weak spots. When his brother George went to America, Keats wrote to him in great detail, the body of letters becoming "the real diary" and self-revelation of Keats' life, as well as containing an exposition of his philosophy, and the first drafts of poems containing some of Keats' finest writing and thought. Gittings describes them as akin to a "spiritual journal" not written for a specific other, so much as for synthesis. Keats also reflected on the background and composition of his poetry, and specific letters often coincide with or anticipate the poems they describe. In February to May 1819 he produced many of his finest letters". Writing to his brother George, Keats explored the idea of the world as "the vale of Soul-making", anticipating the great odes that he would write some months later. In the letters, Keats coined ideas such as the Mansion of Many Apartments and the Chameleon Poet, concepts that came to gain common currency and capture the public imagination, despite only making single appearances as phrases in his correspondence. The poetical mind, Keats argued: has no self – it is every thing and nothing – It has no character – it enjoys light and shade;... What shocks the virtuous philosopher, delights the camelion [chameleon] Poet. It does no harm from its relish of the dark side of things any more than from its taste for the bright one; because they both end in speculation. A Poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity – he is continually in for – and filling some other Body – The Sun, the Moon, the Sea and Men and Women who are creatures of impulse are poetical and have about them an unchangeable attribute – the poet has none; no identity – he is certainly the most unpoetical of all God's Creatures. He used the term negative capability to discuss the state in which we are "capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason ...[Being] content with half knowledge" where one trusts in the heart's perceptions. He wrote later: "I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination – What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth – whether it existed before or not – for I have the same Idea of all our Passions as of Love they are all in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty" again and again turning to the question of what it means to be a poet. "My Imagination is a Monastery and I am its Monk", Keats notes to Shelley. In September 1819, Keats wrote to Reynolds "How beautiful the season is now – How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it  ... I never lik'd the stubbled fields as much as now – Aye, better than the chilly green of spring. Somehow the stubble plain looks warm – in the same way as some pictures look warm – this struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it". The final stanza of his last great ode: "To Autumn" runs: Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,- While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Later, "To Autumn" became one of the most highly regarded poems in the English language. There are areas of his life and daily routine that Keats does not describe. He mentions little about his childhood or his financial straits and is seemingly embarrassed to discuss them. There is a total absence of any reference to his parents. In his last year, as his health deteriorated, his concerns often gave way to despair and morbid obsessions. The publications of letters to Fanny Brawne in 1870 focused on this period and emphasised this tragic aspect, giving rise to widespread criticism at the time.

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John Nash John Nash may refer to:

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Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish religious-political organization in the United States, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It is classified as "a right wing terrorist group" by the FBI since 2001, and has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States. Most terrorism watch groups classify the group as inactive. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, the JDL's self-described purpose was to protect Jews from local manifestations of antisemitism. Its criticism of the Soviet Union increased support for the group, transforming it from a "vigilante club" into an organization with a stated membership numbering over 15,000 at one point. The group took to bombing Arab and Soviet properties in the United States, and targeting various alleged "enemies of the Jewish people", ranging from Arab-American political activists to neo-Nazis, for assassination. A number of JDL members have been linked to violent, and sometimes deadly, attacks in the United States and in other countries, including the murder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee regional director Alex Odeh in 1985, the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, and a plot to assassinate Congressman Darrell Issa in 2001. Several JDL members and leaders died violent deaths, including Kahane himself, who was assassinated by an Arab-American gunman. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the JDL consists only of "thugs and hooligans". The group's founder, Meir Kahane, "preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism," attitudes that were replicated by Irv Rubin, the successor to Kahane. In 1968, while Kahane served as the associate editor for the Jewish Press, the paper's office began receiving numerous calls and letters about crimes being committed against Jews and Jewish institutions. Violence in the New York City area was on the rise, with Jews comprising a disproportionately large percentage of the victims. Elderly Jews were being harassed and mugged, storeowners were held up and Jewish teachers were assaulted while Jewish synagogues were defaced and Jewish cemeteries desecrated. After discussing the matter with a few congregants, Kahane put out an ad in the Jewish Press on May 24, 1968, which read: "We are talking of JEWISH SURVIVAL! Are you willing to stand up for democracy and Jewish survival? Join and support the Jewish Defense Corps." Shortly after, Kahane renamed the group the "Jewish Defense League," fearing that "Corps" would be construed as too militant. The group's declared purpose was: "to combat anti-Semitism in the public and private sectors of life in the United States of America." Kahane stated that the League was formed to "do the job that the Anti-Defamation League should do but doesn't." Shortly afterward, the Jewish Defense League put out a 4-page manifesto which stated: "America has been good to the Jew and the Jew has been good to America. A land founded on the principles of democracy and freedom has given unprecedented opportunities to a people devoted to those ideals" yet now finds itself threatened by "political extremism" and "racist militancy." Furthermore, the manifesto stated that the organization rejects all hate and illegality, believes firmly in law and order, backs police forces and will work actively in the courts to strike down all discrimination. When asked about Jewish Defense League members breaking the law, Kahane responded: "We respect the right and the obligation of the American government to prosecute us and send us to jail. No one gripes about that." The group adopted the slogan "Never Again!" which was originally used by the Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto. While the phrase is usually interpreted to mean that the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews will never be permitted to recur, Kahane claimed that his intention was to declare that Jews should never again be caught by surprise or lulled into a foolish trust in others. The first Jewish Defense League demonstration took place August 5, 1968, at New York University with some 15 members chanting: "No Nazis at NYU, Jewish rights are precious too." On August 7, the JDL sent members to Passaic, New Jersey, to protect Jewish merchants from anti-Jewish rioting which had swept the area for days. On November 25, the JDL was invited to the Boston area by Jewish residents in response to a mounting wave of crime directed primarily against Jews. On December 3, JDL members attacked the Syrian Mission in New York. On December 31, 13 JDL members were arrested after a series of coordinated actions against Soviet property in Manhattan and at Kennedy Airport intended to protest the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. Several youths painted slogans on a Soviet airliner, two of them handcuffed themselves to the airliner, while others daubed the words "Am Yisroel Chai" (the Nation of Israel Lives) on the plane's doors. A similar slogan was painted on the walls of the office of Tass, the Soviet news agency, in Rockefeller Plaza, which was invaded by Rabbi Kahane and four other JDL members. The rest of the demonstrators were taken into custody after invading the midtown offices of the Soviet tourist bureau. Initially, the League was connected to a series of violent attacks against the Soviet Union's interests in the United States, protesting the former country's repression of Soviet Jews, who were often jailed and refused exit visas. The JDL decided that violence was necessary to draw attention to their plight, reasoning that Moscow would respond to the strain on Soviet–US relations by allowing more emigration to Israel. In 1970, according to Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, agents of the Soviet KGB forged and sent threatening letters to Arab missions claiming to be from the JDL to discredit it. They also were ordered to bomb a target in the "Negro section of New York" and blame it on the JDL. On January 25, JDL members staged anti-Soviet demonstrations at a concert of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in Brooklyn College's auditorium. JDL members "danced, sang and yelled" while trying to prevent people from entering the auditorium. On March 23, JDL members staged a sit-in in the office of the president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York to demand that the Federation allocate more funds for Jewish education and Jewish defense, assist institutions threatened by violence, and arrange for "popular" election of Federation officials. As a result, the Federation agreed to form a special committee to consider the request for additional funds for Jewish education, while other groups continued to demonstrate. On April 7, the JDL held memorial services on behalf of civilian victims of "Arab terrorism during the past half century" in front of the United Arab Republic Mission to the United Nations. On April 9, nine JDL members occupied the principal's office of Leeds Junior High School in Philadelphia after school authorities had allegedly failed to crack down on school violence. The JDL hoped to present six "suggestions" for protecting students from assault and theft by "troublemakers," including committing them to disciplinary schools, stationing policemen in the public schools and replacing "weak administrators." On April 20, fifteen JDL members were arrested after chaining themselves to the fence in front of the Soviet Mission to the UN to protest against the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. On May 8, about fifty JDL members demonstrated outside the Black Panther Party headquarters in Harlem due to an alleged "outrageous explosion of anti-Semitic hatred" by the Panthers. On May 19, the JDL issued a statement attacking American Jewish organizations which opposed the Vietnam War, accusing them of doing more to destroy the State of Israel "than all the Arab armies." On May 20, thirty-five JDL members took over the Park East Synagogue, opposite the Soviet Mission, and barricaded the entrances in order to hold a "liberation seder" for Soviet Jewry. On June 23, about forty JDL members seized two floors of an office building in New York housing Amtorg, the official Soviet Union trade office, and evicted the personnel in what the JDL deemed retaliation for the arrests of Jews and raids on Jewish homes in the Soviet Union. On June 28, 150 JDL members demonstrated over attacks against the Jews of Williamsburg in reprisal for the accidental killing of a black girl by a Jewish driver. Clashes broke out with other minority groups and arrests were made. On August 16, 400 JDL members began a week-long march from Philadelphia to Washington on behalf of Soviet Jewry, concluding with a rally at Lafayette Park urging President Nixon to "stand tall and firm in the Middle East as you have done elsewhere." In response, Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., a congressional candidate from Montgomery County (Md.), said he would sponsor a House resolution on Soviet Jewry. On September 27, two JDL members were arrested at Kennedy Airport while attempting to board a London-bound plane armed with four loaded guns and a live hand grenade. The two intended to hijack a United Arab Airlines plane and divert it to Israel. On October 6, the JDL is suspected of bombing the New York office of the Palestine Liberation Organization after the PLO hijacked four airliners the previous month. United Press International reported that an anonymous caller phoned in about a half hour before the explosion and proclaimed the JDL slogan, "Never again." On December 20, during a march to protest the treatment of Soviet Jewry, JDL members attempted to take over the Soviet Mission headquarters. The members were arrested after inciting demonstrators to break through police lines. On December 27, the JDL launched a 100-hour vigil for Soviet Jewry. Demonstrators tried to break through police barricades to reach the Soviet Mission to the UN to protest the sentencing of Jews in Leningrad. Several arrests were made. On December 29, an estimated 100 JDL members demonstrated in front of the offices of the New York Board of Rabbis, challenging them to get arrested "for Jews, as well as for blacks." Later that day, several JDL members scuffled with police outside the office of Aeroflot-In tourist, the official Soviet tourist agency, while JDL leader Meir Kahane demanded the right to purchase two tickets to Israel for two Russian Jews who were sentenced to death. About 75 JDL members marched near the office, chanting slogans such as "Freedom Now" and "Let My People Go." On December 30, several hundred JDL members participated in a rally for Soviet Jewry in Foley square, chanting "Let My People Go," "Open Up the Iron Door" and "Never Again!" On January 8, 1971, a bombing outside of the Soviet cultural center in Washington, D.C. was followed by a phone call including the JDL slogan "Never again." A JDL spokesperson denied the group's involvement in the bombing, but refused to condemn it. On January 17, in response to JDL tactics against Soviet personnel being condemned by the Israeli Cabinet and American Jewish leaders, eight former Soviet Jews living in Israel sent cables to American Jewish leaders denouncing their condemnation of the JDL and denying that the JDL's acts endangered Soviet Jews. The cables said they were convinced that the JDL's "policy and activities are most effective." The group also attacked Israeli authorities for alleged softness in fighting the Soviet Union on the issue of Jewish rights. One of the signatories, Dov Sperling, claimed that the recent cancellation of the Bolshoi Ballet's scheduled American tour was forced by the JDL and hailed it as the first public surrender by Soviet authorities to Jewish pressure. Herut leader Menachem Begin also declared support of acts of harassment against Soviet diplomatic establishments abroad. On January 19, twenty JDL members had conducted a half-hour sit-in at the offices of Columbia Artists Inc. in Manhattan, leaving only after they were assured a meeting would be set up with the company's president in the near future. On January 20, JDL national chairman Rabbi Meir Kahane announced that JDL will conduct "non-violent actions" against organizations engaged in cultural exchange programs with the Soviet Union and that there had been "unofficial contacts" between his group and "some Jewish establishment organizations" which were welcomed. In 1972, two JDL members were arrested and convicted of bomb possession and burglary in an attempt to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. In 1972, a smoke bomb was planted in the Manhattan office of music impresario Sol Hurok, who organized Soviet performers' U.S. tours. Iris Kones, a Jewish secretary from Long Island, died of smoke inhalation, and Hurok and 12 others were injured and hospitalized. Jerome Zeller of the JDL was indicted for the bombing and Kahane later admitted his part in the attack. JDL activities were condemned by Moscow refuseniks who felt that the group's actions were making it less likely that the Soviet Union would relax restrictions on Jewish emigration. In 1973, threatening phone calls made to the home of Ralph Riskin, one of the producers of "Bridget Loves Bernie", resulted in the arrest of Robert S. Manning, described as a member of the JDL. Manning was later indicted on separate murder charges, and fought extradition to the United States from Israel, where he had moved. In 1975, JDL leader Meir Kahane was accused of conspiracy to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. A hearing was held to revoke Kahane's probation for a 1971 incendiary device-making incident. He was found guilty of violating probation and served a one-year prison sentence. On December 31, 1975, 15 members of the League seized the office of the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in protest for Pope Paul VI's policy of support of Palestinian rights. The incident was over after one hour, as the activists left the location after being ordered to do so by the local police, and no arrests were made. On April 6, 1976, six prominent refuseniks – including Alexander Lerner, Anatoly Shcharansky, and Iosif Begun – condemned the JDL's anti-Soviet activities as terrorist acts, stating that their "actions constitute a danger for Soviet Jews ... as they might be used by the [Soviet] authorities as a pretext for new repressions and for instigating anti-Semitic hostilities." On March 16, 1978, Irv Rubin, chairman of the JDL, said about the planned American Nazi Party march in Skokie, Illinois: "We are offering $500, that I have in my hand, to any member of the community ... who kills, maims or seriously injures a member of the American Nazi party." Rubin was charged with solicitation of murder but was acquitted in 1981. During the 1980s, past-JDL member Victor Vancier (who later founded the Jewish Task Force), and two other former JDL members were arrested in connection with six incidents: a 1984 firebombing of an automobile at a Soviet diplomatic residence, the 1985 and 1986 pipe bombings of rival JDL members' cars, the 1986 firebombing at a hall where the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra was performing, and two 1986 detonations of tear gas grenades to protest performances by Soviet dance troupes. In a 1984 interview, the JDL leader Meir Kahane admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here [Washington] in 1971, the Soviet trade offices." The attacks, which caused minor diplomatic crisis in relations between the U.S. and the USSR, prompted the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to infiltrate the group and one undercover officer discovered a chain of weapon caches across Brooklyn, containing "enough shotguns and rifles to arm a small militia." On October 26, 1981, after two firebombs damaged the Egyptian tourist office at Rockefeller Center, JDL Chairman Meir Kahane said at a press conference: "I'm not going to say that the JDL bombed that office. There are laws against that in this country. But I'm not going to say I mourn for it either." The next day, after an anonymous caller claimed responsibility on behalf of the JDL, the group's spokesman later denied his group's involvement, but said, "we support the act." JDL members had often been suspected of involvement in attacks against neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers and antisemites. On October 11, 1985, Alex Odeh, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was killed in a mail bombing at his office in Santa Ana, California. Shortly before his killing, Odeh had appeared on the television show "Nightline", where he engaged in a tense dialogue with a representative from the JDL. Irv Rubin immediately made several controversial public statements in reaction to the incident: "I have no tears for Mr. Odeh. He got exactly what he deserved. ... My tears were used up crying for Leon Klinghoffer." The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee both condemned the murder. Four weeks after Odeh's death, FBI spokesperson Lane Bonner stated the FBI attributed the bombing and two others to the JDL. In February 1986, the FBI classified the bombing that killed Alex Odeh as a terrorist act. Rubin denied JDL involvement: "What the FBI is doing is simple. ... Some character calls up a news agency or whatever and uses the phrase "Never Again" ... and on that assumption they can go and slander a whole group. That's tragic." In 1987, Floyd Clarke, then assistant director of the FBI, wrote in an internal memo that key suspects had fled to Israel and were living in the West Bank urban settlement of Kiryat Arba. In 1988, the FBI arrested Rochelle Manning as a suspect in the bombing, and also charged her husband, Robert Steven Manning, whom they considered a prime suspect in the attack; both were members of the JDL. Rochelle's jury deadlocked, and after the mistrial, she left for Israel to join her husband. Robert Manning was extradited from Israel to the U.S. in 1993. He was subsequently found guilty of involvement in the killing of the secretary of computer firm ProWest, Patricia Wilkerson, in another, unrelated mail bomb blast. In addition, he and other JDL members were also suspected in a string of other violent attacks through 1985, including the bombing of Boston ADC office that seriously injured two police officers, the bomb killing of suspected Nazi war criminal Tscherim Soobzokov in Paterson, New Jersey, and a bombing in Long Island that maimed a passerby. William Ross, another JDL member, was also found guilty for his participation in the bombing that killed Wilkerson. Rochelle Manning was re-indicted for her alleged involvement, and was detained in Israel, pending extradition, when she died of a heart attack in 1994. When Ruthless Records recording artist and former N.W.A member Dr. Dre sought to work instead with Death Row Records, Ruthless Records executives, Mike Klein and Jerry Heller were fearful of possible physical intimidation from Death Row Entertainment executives including chief executive officer Suge Knight and requested security assistance from the violent JDL. The FBI launched a money laundering investigation, on the presumption that the JDL was extorting money from Ruthless Records and several rap artists, including Tupac Shakur and Eazy-E. Heller has speculated that the FBI did not investigate these threats because of the song "Fuck Tha Police". Heller said, "It was no secret that in the aftermath of the Suge Knight shake down incident where Eazy was forced to sign over Dr. Dre, Michel'le and The D.O.C., that Ruthless was protected by Israeli trained/connected security forces." The FBI documents refer to the JDL death threats and extortion scheme but do not make a direct connection between the group and the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur. In 1995, when the Toronto residence of the Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel was the target of an arson attack, a group calling itself the "Jewish Armed Resistance Movement" claimed responsibility; according to the "Toronto Sun", the group had ties to the JDL and to Kahane Chai. The leader of the Toronto wing of the Jewish Defense League, Meir Halevi, denied involvement in the attack, although, just five days later, Halevi was caught trying to break into Zündel's property, where he was apprehended by police. Later the same month Zündel was the recipient of a parcel bomb that was detonated by the Toronto police bomb squad. In 2011, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had launched an investigation against at least nine members of the JDL in regards to an anonymous tip that the JDL was plotting to bomb the Palestine House in Mississauga. On December 12, 2001, JDL leader Irv Rubin and JDL member Earl Krugel were charged with planning a series of bomb attacks against the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California, and the San Clemente office of Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Rubin, who also was charged with unlawful possession of an automatic firearm, claimed that he was innocent. On November 4, 2002, at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Rubin slit his throat with a safety razor and jumped out of a third story window. Rubin's suicide would be contested by his widow and the JDL, particularly after his co-defendant pleaded guilty to the charges and implicated Rubin in the plot. On February 4, 2003, Krugel pleaded guilty to conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the plot, and was expected to serve up to 20 years in prison. The core of the evidence against Krugel and Rubin was in a number of conversations taped by an informant, Danny Gillis, who was hired by the men to plant the bombs but who turned to the FBI instead. According to one tape, Krugel thought the attacks would serve as "a wakeup call" to Arabs. Krugel was subsequently murdered in prison by a fellow inmate in 2005. In 2002, in France, attackers from Betar and Ligue de Défense Juive (LDJ) violently assaulted Jewish demonstrators from Peace Now, journalists, police officers (one of whom was stabbed), and Arab bystanders. At least two of the suspects in the 2010 murder of a French Muslim Saïd Bourarach appeared to have ties to the French chapter of the JDL. In 2011, Israeli daily "Haaretz" reported members of the "French branch of Jewish terror group coming to Israel 'to defend settlements'." In 2013, a French Arab man was critically injured in a "revenge attack" by LDJ, sparking calls for further attacks against the Jews and a condemnation of the militant group by the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF; as of 2013, there have been least 115 violent incidents were attributed to LDJ "soldiers" since the group's registration in France in 2001, including many vigilante reprisals to antisemitic attacks. Earlier that year, two LDJ members were sentenced for an attack at a pro-Palestinian bookstore that injured two people and a LDJ propaganda video called for "five cops for every Jew, 10 Arabs for each rabbi." In June 2014, two LDJ supporters were sentenced to prison in France for targeting the car of Jonathan Moadab, the Jewish co-founder of the blog "Cercle des Volontaires (Circle of Volunteers)", with a home-made bomb in September 2012. In October 2015, around 100 people brandishing JDL flags, and Israeli flags and letting off flares attacked the Agence France Presse building in Paris. Around 12 of them, armed with batons, assaulted David Perrotin, a leading French journalist. All were linked to the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Kahane immigrated to Israel from the United States in September 1971, where he initiated protests advocating the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 1972 JDL leaflets were distributed around Hebron, calling for the mayor to stand trial for the 1929 Hebron massacre. Kahane nominally lead the JDL until April 1974. In 1971 he founded a new political party in Israel, which ran in the 1973 elections under the name "The League List". The party won 12,811 votes (0.82%), just 2,857 (0.18%) short of the electoral threshold at the time (1%) for winning a seat. Following the elections, the party's name was changed to Kach, taken from the Irgun motto ""Rak Kach"" ("Only thus"). Kach failed to gain any Knesset seats in the 1977 and 1980 elections as well. In the 1984 elections the party won 25,907 votes (1.2%), passing the electoral threshold for the first time, and winning one seat, which was duly taken by Kahane. Kahane's popularity grew, with polls showing that Kach would have likely received three to four seats in the coming November 1988 elections, and some forecasting as many as twelve seats, possibly making Kach the third largest party. However, after the Knesset passed an amendment to the Elections Law, Kach was disqualified from running in the 1988 elections by the Central Elections Committee, on the grounds of incitement to racism and negation of the democratic character of the State. On 5 November 1990, Kahane was assassinated after making a speech in New York. The prime suspect, El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-born American citizen, was subsequently acquitted of murder, but convicted on gun possession charges. The Kach party subsequently split in two, with Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane (Meir Kahane's son) leading a breakaway faction, Kahane Chai. Both parties were banned from participating in the 1992 elections on the basis that they were followers of the original Kach. Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane and his wife Talya were shot and killed by Palestinian terrorists on December 31, 2000. On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli member of Kach, who in his youth was a JDL activist, opened fire on Muslims kneeling in prayer at the revered Cave of the Patriarchs mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing 29 worshippers and injuring 125 before he ran out of ammunition and was himself killed. The attack set off riots and protests throughout the West Bank and 19 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces within 48 hours of the massacre. On its website, the JDL described the massacre as a "preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews" and noted that they "do not consider his assault to qualify under the label of terrorism". Furthermore, they noted that "we teach that violence is never a good solution but is unfortunately sometimes necessary as a last resort when innocent lives are threatened; we therefore view Dr. Goldstein as a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism. And we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League." In a similar attack nearly twelve years earlier, on April 11, 1982, an American-born JDL member and immigrant to Israel, Allan H. Goodman, opened fire with his military-issue rifle at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the sacred Temple Mount in Jerusalem, killing one Palestinian Arab and injuring four others. The 1982 shooting sparked an Arab riot in which another Palestinian was shot dead by the police. In 1983, Goodman was sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison (which usually means 25 years in Israel); he was released after serving 15 1/2 years on the condition of returning to the United States. In a 2004 congressional testimony, John S. Pistole, Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described the JDL as "a known violent extremist Jewish organization." FBI statistics show that, from 1980 through 1985, there were 18 officially classified terrorist attacks in the U.S. committed by Jews; 15 of those by members of the JDL. In its report, "Terrorism 2000/2001", the FBI referred to the JDL as a "violent extremist Jewish organization" and stated that the FBI was responsible for thwarting at least one of its terrorist acts. The National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization." The JDL was specifically referenced by the FBI's Executive Assistant Director Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence, John S. Pistole, in his formal report before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. JDL is suspected of being behind the 1972 bombing of the Manhattan offices of theater empresario Sol Hurok in which 2 employees were killed. A number of senior JDL personnel and associates have died violently. Meir Kahane, the JDL's founding chairman, was assassinated in 1990 as was his son, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, in 2000. Long-time JDL chairman Irv Rubin died in 2002 in a Los Angeles federal detention center "after allegedly cutting his throat with a jail-issued razor and then jumping or falling over a railing and plummeting to his death." Rubin's deputy, Earl Krugel, was murdered by a fellow prison inmate in 2005. Rubin's son and JDL vice-chairman Ari Rubin committed suicide in 2012. According to the organization's official list of Chairmen or Highest Ranking Directors: After Rubin's death in prison in November 2002, Bill Maniaci was appointed interim chairman by Shelley Rubin. Two years later, the Jewish Defense League became mired in a state of upheaval over legal control of the organization. In October 2004, Maniaci rejected Shelley Rubin's call for him to resign; as a result, Maniaci was stripped of his title and membership. At that point, the JDL split into two separate factions, each vying for legal control of the associated "intellectual property." The two operated as separate organizations with the same name while a lengthy legal battle ensued. In April 2005, the original domain name of the organization, "jdl.org", was suspended by Network Solutions due to allegations of infringement; the organization went back online soon thereafter at domain name "jewishdefenseleague.org". In April 2006, news of a settlement was announced in which signatories agreed to not object to "Shelley Rubin's titles of permanent chairman and CEO of JDL." The agreement also confirmed that "the name 'Jewish Defense League,' the acronym 'JDL,' and the 'Fist and Star' logo are the exclusive intellectual property of JDL." (Opponents of both groups claim that these are Kahanist symbols and not the exclusive property of JDL. At this time, however, the logo is no longer in general use by the Kahanist groups.) The agreement also states: "Domain names registered on behalf of JDL, including but not limited to jdl.org and jewishdefenseleague.org, are owned and operated by JDL." Meanwhile, the opposing group formed B'nai Elim, which is the latest of many JDL splinter groups to have formed over the years (previous splinter groups included the Jewish Direct Action and the United Jewish Underground that have been active during the 1980s). The JDL upholds five fundamental principles The JDL encourages, per its principle of the "Love of Jewry," that "... in the end ... the Jew can look to no one but another Jew for help and that the true solution to the Jewish problem is the liquidation of the Exile and the return of all Jews to Eretz Yisroel – the land of Israel." The JDL elaborates on this fundamental principle by insisting upon an "immediate need to place Judaism over any other 'ism' and ideology and ... use of the yardstick: 'Is it good for Jews?'" The JDL argues that, outside of Jews, there are historically no people corresponding to the Palestinian ethnicity. Writing on its official website, the JDL claims: "[T]he first mention of a 'Palestinian people' dates from the aftermath of the 1967 war, when the local Arabic-speaking communities ... were retrospectively endowed with a contrived 'nationhood' ... taken from Jewish history ..." and that "[c]learly, since Roman times 'Palestinian' had meant Jews until the Arab's recent adoption of this identity in order to claim it as their land." On this basis, the JDL argues that "Zionism [should be] under no obligation to accommodate a separate 'Palestinian' claim, there being no historical evidence or witness for any such Arab category," and it considers Palestinian claims to be "Arab usurpation" of proper Jewish title. In 1971, Kahane aligned the JDL with the Italian-American Civil Rights League, created the previous year by the Italian American mob boss Joseph Colombo, head of the Colombo crime family. In 2011, the Canadian JDL organized a "support rally" for the English Defence League (EDL) featuring a live speech, via Skype, by EDL leader Tommy Robinson. The event was denounced and condemned by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) leader Bernie Farber and general counsel Benjamin Shinewald. The rally, held at the Toronto Zionist Centre, attracted a counter-protest organized by Anti-Racist Action (ARA) resulting in four ARA members being arrested. The JDL Canada has also organized rallies in support of right-wing Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin and Dutch politician and well-known Islam critic Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom, and announced its support for the increasingly anti-Islamic Freedom Party of Austria.

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Jewish Defense League

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JMS JMS may refer to:

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JMS

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the city of La Cañada Flintridge with a Pasadena mailing address , within the state of California, United States. Founded in the 1930s, JPL is currently owned by NASA and managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for NASA. The laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network. Among the laboratory's major active projects are the Mars Science Laboratory mission (which includes the "Curiosity" rover), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the "Juno" spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, the NuSTAR X-ray telescope, the SMAP satellite for earth surface soil moisture monitoring, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. It is also responsible for managing the JPL Small-Body Database, and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies. JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks. JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) when the first set of rocket experiments were carried out in the Arroyo Seco. Caltech graduate students Frank Malina, Qian Xuesen, Weld Arnold, and Apollo M. O. Smith, along with Jack Parsons and Edward S. Forman, tested a small, alcohol-fueled motor to gather data for Malina's graduate thesis. Malina's thesis advisor was engineer/aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, who eventually arranged for U.S. Army financial support for this "GALCIT Rocket Project" in 1939. In 1941, Malina, Parsons, Forman, Martin Summerfield, and pilot Homer Bushey demonstrated the first jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) rockets to the Army. In 1943, von Kármán, Malina, Parsons, and Forman established the Aerojet Corporation to manufacture JATO rockets. The project took on the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November 1943, formally becoming an Army facility operated under contract by the university. In 1944, Parsons was expelled due to his "unorthodox and unsafe working methods" following one of several FBI investigations into his involvement with the occult, drugs and sexual promiscuity. During JPL's Army years, the laboratory developed two deployed weapon systems, the MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant intermediate-range ballistic missiles. These missiles were the first US ballistic missiles developed at JPL. It also developed a number of other weapons system prototypes, such as the Loki anti-aircraft missile system, and the forerunner of the Aerobee sounding rocket. At various times, it carried out rocket testing at the White Sands Proving Ground, Edwards Air Force Base, and Goldstone, California. In 1954, JPL teamed up with Wernher von Braun's engineers at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to propose orbiting a satellite during the International Geophysical Year. The team lost that proposal to Project Vanguard, and instead embarked on a classified project to demonstrate ablative re-entry technology using a Jupiter-C rocket. They carried out three successful sub-orbital flights in 1956 and 1957. Using a spare Juno I (a modified Jupiter-C with a fourth stage), the two organizations then launched the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. JPL was transferred to NASA in December 1958, becoming the agency's primary planetary spacecraft center. JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that prepared the way for Apollo. JPL also led the way in interplanetary exploration with the Mariner missions to Venus, Mars, and Mercury. In 1998, JPL opened the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA. As of 2013, it has found 95% of asteroids that are a kilometer or more in diameter that cross Earth's orbit. JPL was early to employ female mathematicians. In the 1940s and 1950s, using mechanical calculators, women in an all-female computations group performed trajectory calculations. In 1961, JPL hired Dana Ulery as the first female engineer to work alongside male engineers as part of the Ranger and Mariner mission tracking teams. JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation: with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998; and with the John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 (as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team), 2006 and 2005. When it was founded, JPL's site was immediately west of a rocky flood-plain – the Arroyo Seco riverbed – above the Devil's Gate dam in the northwestern panhandle of the city of Pasadena. While the first few buildings were constructed in land bought from the city of Pasadena, subsequent buildings were constructed in neighboring unincorporated land that later became part of La Cañada Flintridge. Nowadays, most of the of the U.S. federal government-owned NASA property that makes up the JPL campus is located in La Cañada Flintridge. Despite this, JPL still uses a Pasadena address (4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109) as its official mailing address. There has been occasional rivalry between the two cities over the issue of which one should be mentioned in the media as the home of the laboratory. There are approximately 6,000 full-time Caltech employees, and typically a few thousand additional contractors working on any given day. NASA also has a resident office at the facility staffed by federal managers who oversee JPL's activities and work for NASA. There are also some Caltech graduate students, college student interns and co-op students. The JPL Education Office serves educators and students by providing them with activities, resources, materials and opportunities tied to NASA missions and science. The mission of its programs is to introduce and further students' interest in pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. JPL offers research, internship and fellowship opportunities in the summer and throughout the year to high school through postdoctoral and faculty students. (In most cases, students must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents to apply, although foreign nationals studying at U.S. universities are eligible for limited programs.) Interns are sponsored through NASA programs, university partnerships and JPL mentors for research opportunities at the laboratory in areas including technology, robotics, planetary science, aerospace engineering, and astrophysics. In August 2013, JPL was named one of "The 10 Most Awesome College Labs of 2013" by Popular Science, which noted that about 100 students who intern at the laboratory are considered for permanent jobs at JPL after they graduate. The JPL Education Office also hosts the Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS), an annual week-long workshop for graduate and postdoctoral students. The program involves a one-week team design exercise developing an early mission concept study, working with JPL's Advanced Projects Design Team ("Team X") and other concurrent engineering teams. JPL created the NASA Museum Alliance in 2003 out of a desire to provide museums, planetariums, visitor centers and other kinds of informal educators with exhibit materials, professional development and information related to the then-upcoming landings of the Mars rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity". The Alliance now has more than 500 members, who get access to NASA displays, models, educational workshops and networking opportunities through the program. Staff at educational organizations that meet the Museum Alliance requirements can register to participate online. The Museum Alliance is a subset of the JPL Education Office's Informal Education group, which also serves after-school and summer programs, parents and other kinds of informal educators. The NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, which is moving from its location at the Indian Hill Mall in Pomona, Calif. at the end of 2013, offers resources, materials and free workshops for formal and informal educators covering science, technology, engineering and science topics related to NASA missions and science. The lab had an open house once a year on a Saturday and Sunday in May or June, when the public was invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology. More limited private tours are also available throughout the year if scheduled well in advance. Thousands of schoolchildren from Southern California and elsewhere visit the lab every year. Due to federal spending cuts mandated by budget sequestration, the open house has been previously cancelled. JPL open house for 2014 was October 11 and 12 and 2015 was October 10 and 11. Starting from 2016, JPL replaced the annual Open House with "Ticket to Explore JPL", which features the same exhibits but requires tickets and advance reservation. Roboticist and Mars rover driver Vandi Verma frequently acts as science communicator at open house type events to encourage children (and particularly girls) into STEM careers. In addition to its government work, JPL has also assisted the nearby motion picture and television industries, by advising them about scientific accuracy in their productions. Science fiction shows advised by JPL include "Babylon 5" and its sequel series, "Crusade". JPL also works with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHSSTD). JPL and DHSSTD developed a search and rescue tool for first responders called FINDER. First responders can use FINDER to locate people still alive who are buried in rubble after a disaster or terrorist attack. FINDER uses microwave radar to detect breathing and pulses. Additionally, JPL is home to the JPL-RPIF (Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Regional Planetary Image Facility) which is chartered as a repository for all robotic spacecraft hard-copy data and thus provides a valuable resource to NASA funded science investigators, and an important conduit for distribution of NASA generated materials to local educators in the Los Angeles/southern California area. JPL is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed and operated by Caltech under a contract from NASA. In fiscal year 2012, the laboratory's budget was slightly under $1.5 billion, with the largest share going to Earth Science and Technology development. There is a tradition at JPL to eat "good luck peanuts" before critical mission events, such as orbital insertions or landings. As the story goes, after the Ranger program had experienced failure after failure during the 1960s, the first successful Ranger mission to impact the Moon occurred after a JPL staff member had decided to pass out peanuts to relieve tension. The staff jokingly decided that the peanuts must have been a good luck charm, and the tradition persisted. These are some of the missions partially sponsored by JPL: The JPL Advanced Projects Design Team, also known as Team X, is an interdisciplinary team of engineers that utilizes "concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs". On February 25, 2005, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 was approved by the Secretary of Commerce. This was followed by Federal Information Processing Standards 201 (FIPS 201), which specified how the federal government should implement personal identity verification. These specifications led to a need for rebadging to meet the updated requirements. On August 30, 2007, a group of JPL employees filed suit in federal court against NASA, Caltech, and the Department of Commerce, claiming their constitutional rights were being violated by the new, overly invasive background investigations. 97% of JPL employees were classified at the low-risk level and would be subjected to the same clearance procedures as those obtaining moderate/high risk clearance. Under HSPD 12 and FIPS 201, investigators have the right to obtain any information on employees, which includes questioning acquaintances on the status of the employee's mental, emotional, and financial stability. Additionally, if employees depart JPL before the end of the two-year validity of the background check, no investigation ability is terminated; former employees can still be legally monitored. Employees were told that if they did not sign an unlimited waiver of privacy, they would be deemed to have "voluntarily resigned". The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found the process violated the employees' privacy rights and issued a preliminary injunction. NASA appealed and the US Supreme Court granted certiorari on March 8, 2010. On January 19, 2011, the Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit decision, ruling that the background checks did not violate any constitutional privacy right that the employees may have had. On March 12, 2012, the Los Angeles Superior Court took opening statements on the case in which former JPL employee David Coppedge brought suit against the lab due to workplace discrimination and wrongful termination. In the suit, Coppedge alleges that he first lost his "team lead" status on JPL's Cassini-Huygens mission in 2009 and then was fired in 2011 because of his evangelical Christian beliefs and specifically his belief in intelligent design. Conversely, JPL, through the Caltech lawyers representing the laboratory, allege that Coppedge's termination was simply due to budget cuts and his demotion from team lead was because of harassment complaints and from on-going conflicts with his co-workers. Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige issued a final ruling in favor of JPL on January 16, 2013.

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John Rutsey John Howard Rutsey (July 23, 1952 – May 11, 2008) was a Canadian musician best known as a founding member and original drummer of Rush. He performed on the band's 1974 debut album but left shortly after its release due to health problems which limited his ability to tour with the band. He was replaced by Neil Peart, who would remain the band's drummer until they retired in 2015. Rutsey was the son of "Toronto Telegram" crime reporter Howard Rutsey. He had an older brother named Bill, and a younger brother named Mike who became a baseball writer. Following the death of their father by heart attack, the brothers were raised by their mother, Eva. Rutsey was a student at St. Patrick’s School, and it was there that he met Gary Weinrib and Alex Zivojinovich (who would later change their names to Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson respectively). Whereas Lee and Lifeson were listening to progressive rock bands such as Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis at that time, Rutsey drew more inspiration from the harder styles of bands such as Bad Company. Rutsey and Lifeson became close friends while attending St. Paschals School, and the pair would play street hockey together in their neighborhood. Both were interested in rock music, and talked often about forming a band. Together, they initially were members of the bands The Projection with Bill Fitzgerald and "Doc" Cooper. Eventually another school friend, Lee, joined them and the earliest version of Rush was formed. Rutsey's commitment has been credited with providing the band's early direction, as it was he who took the band most seriously and he who would insist on regular practice sessions. According to Ian Grandy, a member of the band's early roadcrew, "I've said it before and I'll say it again: There would have been no 'Rush' without John." At Rutsey's suggestion, Rush was initially a glam rock band. "John led the guys as far as being 'glam rockers', with really flashy jackets and pants, and eight-inch high boots", according to Grandy. "One time, he was speaking to me at the Gasworks and I said, 'Didn't we used to be the same height (5'8")?' He laughed and said 'Well, maybe a long time ago! It was Rutsey's brother, Bill, who came up with the name Rush for the band during a rehearsal in the Rutsey family basement in the early 1970s. The band formed with Rutsey on drums, Lifeson on guitars, and Jeff Jones on vocals and bass, but after their first concert Jones left and was succeeded by Lee. During these early years, Rutsey played on the "Not Fade Away"/"You Can't Fight It" single as well as the debut album. Lee and Lifeson have each acknowledged that during the writing and recording sessions for the band's debut album, Rutsey was given the role of chief lyricist. When the time came to start recording, however, he did not deliver any lyrics. In interviews, Lee and Lifeson have both said that Rutsey was dissatisfied with what he had written and had torn up the lyric sheets. Lee hastily wrote the lyrics to all the songs before recording the vocal tracks. Soon after Rush released its debut album, Rutsey left the band, due to musical differences and health concerns related to diabetes. Rutsey's final performance with the group was on July 25, 1974, at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario. He was replaced by Neil Peart. Lifeson stated in a 1989 interview that he still often had seen him, and after leaving the band he went into bodybuilding. Lifeson remarked, "He competed on an amateur level for a while, doing that for a few years, and has sort of been in and out of that, but he still works out, and I work out with him a few times a week at a local gym – at a Gold's, here in Toronto." In 2005, Lifeson said that he had not seen Rutsey since around 1990. On May 11, 2008, Rutsey died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack, related to complications from diabetes. Rutsey's family wished to keep the funeral a private affair, although donations would be sent to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Markham, Ontario. After Rutsey's death, Lee and Lifeson released this statement: "Our memories of the early years of Rush when John was in the band are very fond to us. Those years spent in our teens dreaming of one day doing what we continue to do decades later are special. Although our paths diverged many years ago, we smile today, thinking back on those exciting times and remembering John's wonderful sense of humour and impeccable timing. He will be deeply missed by all he touched." Rutsey's part in the band's early history is acknowledged in the 2010 documentary "". Tape-recorded comments from him are heard during the film, and the DVD release includes two performances with him on drums in its bonus features. A third performance is included as a bonus feature on the "" home video release. Rutsey is buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Single: Studio album:

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John Rutsey

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John von Neumann Theory Prize The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences. The Prize named after mathematician John von Neumann is awarded for a body of work, rather than a single piece. The Prize was intended to reflect contributions that have stood the test of time. The criteria include significance, innovation, depth, and scientific excellence. The award is $5,000, a medallion and a citation. The Prize has been awarded since 1975. The first recipient was George B. Dantzig for his work on linear programming. There is also an IEEE John von Neumann Medal awarded by the IEEE annually "for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology".

en.wikipedia.org

John von Neumann Theory Prize

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Jean Richard Jean Richard (18 April 1921 – 12 December 2001) was a French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur. He is best remembered for his role as Georges Simenon's "Maigret" in the eponymous French television series, which he played for more than twenty years, and for his circus activities. Richard was born in Bessines, Deux-Sevres. In the 1970s–1980s, he owned and managed three major circuses, two theme parks near Paris, La Mer de Sable and La Vallée des Peaux-Rouges, and a private zoo in his property of Ermenonville, Oise. He died in Senlis, aged

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Jean Richard

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John Walker John Walker may refer to:

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John Walker

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John Walker Lindh John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. He was captured and detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, used as a prison. He denied participating in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent uprising of the Taliban prisoners, during which all but 86 of the estimated 300–500 prisoners were killed, along with CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, and Lindh was never charged in connection with Spann's death. Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released on supervision on May 23, 2019, for a three-year period of supervised release. A convert to Sunni Islam in California at age 16, Lindh traveled to Yemen in 1998 to study Arabic and stayed there for 10 months. He later returned in 2000, then went to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. He received training at Al-Farouq, a training camp associated with al-Qaeda, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries. While at the camp, he attended a lecture by Osama bin Laden. After the 9/11 attacks, he remained there to join opposing military forces after he learned that the U.S. was allied with the Afghan Northern Alliance. Lindh had previously received training with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, an internationally designated terrorist organization based in Pakistan. Lindh went by the name Sulayman al-Faris during his time in Afghanistan, but prefers the name Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi today. In early reports following his capture, when the press learned that he was a U.S. citizen, he was usually referred to by the news media as just "John Walker". Lindh was born in Washington, D.C., to Marilyn Walker and Frank R. Lindh, as the middle of three children in the family. He was named "John" after John Lennon, who was murdered two months before Lindh's birth. He was baptized a Catholic, and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to San Anselmo, California. Lindh suffered from an intestinal disorder as a child. At age 14, his health improved. He enrolled at Redwood High School as a freshman. He then transferred to Tamiscal High School in the Tamalpais Union High School District, an alternative school offering self-directed, individualized study programs. While there, he studied world culture, including Sunni Islam and the Middle East. Lindh dropped out of the school and eventually earned an equivalent of a high school diploma by passing the California High School Proficiency Exam at age 16. As an adolescent, Lindh participated in IRC chat rooms with the IRC nickname Mujahid. He became a devoted fan of hip-hop music and engaged in extensive discussions on Usenet newsgroups, sometimes pretending to be an African American rapper who would criticize others for "acting black." Spike Lee's film "Malcolm X" impressed him deeply and sparked his interest in Islam. Although his parents did not divorce until 1999, their marriage was in serious trouble throughout Lindh's adolescence. His father often left their Marin residence for extended periods to live in San Francisco with a male lover. Frank Lindh said he and Marilyn had been separated since 1997. In 1997, at the age of 16, Lindh converted to Islam. He began regularly attending mosques in Mill Valley and later in nearby San Francisco. In 1998, Lindh traveled to Yemen and stayed for about 10 months to learn Arabic so that he could read the Qur'an in its original language. He returned to the United States in 1999, living with his family for about eight months. Lindh returned to Yemen in February 2000 and left for Pakistan to study at a "madrasa". While abroad, Lindh exchanged numerous emails with his family. In one, his father told him about the USS "Cole" bombing, to which Lindh replied that the American naval destroyers being in the Yemen harbor had been an act of war, and that the bombing was justified. "This raised my concerns," his father told "Newsweek", "but my days of molding him were over." At the age of 20, Lindh decided to travel to Afghanistan to fight for the Afghan Taliban government forces against Northern Alliance fighters. His parents said that he was moved by stories of atrocities allegedly perpetrated by the Northern Alliance army against civilians. He traveled to Afghanistan in May 2001. Tony West, his lawyer, explained it as follows: "One of the first things he told Army interrogators when they questioned him on December 3, 2001, was that after 9/11 happened, he wanted to leave the front lines but couldn't for fear of his life. John never wanted to be in a position where he was opposing the United States (and never thought he would be), and in fact he never opposed any American military." Lindh was captured on November 25, 2001, by Afghan Northern Alliance forces after his foreign fighters unit surrendered at Kunduz after retreating from Takar. He and other fighters were to be questioned by the CIA officers Johnny "Mike" Spann and Dave "Dawson" Tyson at General Dostum's military garrison, Qala-i-Jangi, near Mazār-e Sharīf. During the initial questioning, Lindh was not advised of his rights and his request for a lawyer was denied. After being detained, Lindh first said that he was Irish. While being interviewed by the CIA, he did not reveal that he was American. Spann asked Lindh, "Are you a member of the IRA?" He was asked this question because, when questioned by Spann, an Iraqi in the group identified Lindh as an English speaker. Lindh had been told to say he was "Irish" to avoid problems. Moments later, around 11 a.m., the makeshift prison was the scene of a violent Taliban uprising, which became known as the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi. Spann and hundreds of foreign fighters were killed; only 86 prisoners survived. According to other detainees interviewed by journalist Robert Young Pelton for CNN, Lindh was fully aware of the planned uprising, yet remained silent and did not cooperate with the Americans. Sometime during the initial uprising, Lindh was shot in the right upper thigh and found refuge in a basement, hiding with a group of Arab, Uzbek, and Pakistani detainees. On the second day, the Red Cross sent in workers to collect the dead. As soon as they entered, the workers were shot by the prisoners, who killed one. The Northern Alliance repeatedly bombarded the area with RPGs and grenade attacks, and set alight fuel it poured in. Finally, on December 2, 2001, Northern Alliance forces diverted an irrigation stream into the middle of the camp to flush the remaining prisoners out of their underground shelters, drowning many in the process. Lindh and about 85 survivors from the original 300–500 were forced out of hiding. Northern Alliance soldiers bound Lindh's elbows behind his back. Shortly after his recapture, Lindh was noticed and interviewed by Pelton, who was working as a stringer for CNN. Lindh initially gave his name as "Abd-al-Hamid" but later gave his birth name. Pelton brought a medic and food for Lindh and interviewed him about how he got there. During the interview, Lindh said that he was a member of al-Ansar, a group of Arabic-speaking fighters financed by Osama bin Laden. Lindh said that the prison uprising was sparked by some of the prisoner guards smuggling grenades into the basement: "This is against what we had agreed upon with the Northern Alliance, and this is against Islam. It is a major sin to break a contract, especially in military situations". A U.S. Army Special Forces operator, fresh from three weeks of combat, gave up his bed so that the wounded Lindh could sleep there. Pelton repeatedly asked Lindh if he wanted to call his parents or have the journalist do so, but Lindh declined. After capture, Lindh was given basic first aid and questioned for a week at Mazār-e Sharīf. He was taken to Camp Rhino on December 7, 2001, the bullet still within his thigh. When Lindh arrived at Camp Rhino, he was stripped and restrained on a stretcher, blindfolded and placed in a metal shipping container, which was procedure for dealing with a potentially dangerous detainee associated with a terrorist organization. While bound to the stretcher, he was photographed by some American military personnel. At Camp Rhino, he was given oxycodone/paracetamol for pain and diazepam. On December 8 and 9, he was interviewed by the FBI and was mirandized on December 9 or 10. He was held at Camp Rhino until he was transferred to the on December 14, 2001 with other wounded detainees, where his wound was operated on and he received further care. He was interrogated before the operation on December 14. While on the "Peleliu", he signed confession documents while he was held by the United States Marine Corps. On December 31, 2001, Lindh was transferred to the USS "Bataan", where he was held until January 22, 2002. He was flown back to the United States to face criminal charges. On January 16, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that Lindh would be tried in the United States. In 2002, former President George H. W. Bush referred to Lindh as "some misguided Marin County hot-tubber". The comment, in which Bush also mispronounced the county's name, provoked a minor furor and prompted a retraction of the statement by Bush. Lindh's attorney told the press that his client had asked for a lawyer repeatedly before being interviewed by the FBI but he did not get one, and that "highly coercive" prison conditions forced Lindh to waive his right to remain silent. Although the FBI asked Jesselyn Radack, a Justice Department ethics adviser, whether Lindh could be questioned without a lawyer present, they did not follow her advice to avoid that scenario. On February 5, 2002, Lindh was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten charges: If convicted of these charges, Lindh could have received up to three life sentences and 90 additional years in prison. On February 13, 2002, he pleaded not guilty to all 10 charges. The court scheduled an evidence suppression hearing, at which Lindh would have been able to testify about the details of the torture to which he claimed he was subjected. The government faced the problem that a key piece of evidence – Lindh's confession – might be excluded from evidence as having been forced under duress (i.e. torture). Michael Chertoff, then-head of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, then directed the prosecutors to offer Lindh a plea bargain. Lindh could plead guilty to two charges: supplying services to the Taliban (, , , and ) and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony (). He would have to consent to a gag order that would prevent him from making any public statements on the matter for the duration of his 20-year sentence, and he would have to drop any claims that he had been mistreated or tortured by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and aboard two military ships during December 2001 and January 2002. In return, all other charges would be dropped. The gag order was said to be at the request of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Lindh accepted this offer. On July 15, 2002, he entered his plea of guilty to the two remaining charges. The judge asked Lindh to say, in his own words, what he was admitting to: "I plead guilty. I provided my services as a soldier to the Taliban last year from about August to December. In the course of doing so, I carried a rifle and two grenades. I did so knowingly and willingly knowing that it was illegal." Lindh said that he "went to Afghanistan with the intention of fighting against terrorism and oppression", fighting for the suffering of ordinary people at the hands of the Northern Alliance. On October 4, 2002, Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed a sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Some activists and academics have called for Lindh to eventually tell his story. The government invoked the Son of Sam law and informed Lindh that any and all profits made from book deals or any movies about Lindh's experience would be automatically transferred to the federal government. Lindh, his family, his relatives, his associates and his friends will be unable to profit financially from his crimes and/or experiences. Lindh's attorney, James Brosnahan, said Lindh would be eligible for release in 17 years, with good behavior. Lindh agreed to cooperate "fully, truthfully and completely" with both military intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the terrorism investigation. In January 2003, Lindh was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary, Victorville, a high-security facility northeast of Los Angeles. On March 3, 2003, Lindh was tackled by inmate Richard Dale Morrison. He assaulted Lindh at prayer, causing bruises on his forehead. On July 2, 2003, Morrison was charged with a misdemeanor count of assault. Lindh was held in Federal Supermax ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado for a short time. He served his sentence as prisoner 45426-083, at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute, Indiana in the Communication Management Unit. In April 2007, citing the reduced sentence for the Australian prisoner David Matthew Hicks, Lindh's attorneys made a public plea for a Presidential commutation to lessen his 20-year sentence. In January 2009, the Lindh family's petition for clemency was denied by President Bush in one of his final acts in office. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, all "special administrative measures" in place against Lindh expired on March 20, 2009, as part of a gradual easing of restrictions on him. In 2010, Lindh and the Syrian-American prisoner Enaam Arnaout sued to lift restrictions on group prayer by Muslim inmates in the Communication Management Unit. On January 11, 2013, a federal judge ruled in their favor, saying that the government had shown no compelling interest in restricting the religious speech of the inmates by prohibiting them from praying together. "Foreign Policy magazine" reported an internal report by the National Counterterrorism Center asserted Lindh told a visiting television news producer that he had not renounced extremist violence. Lindh secured Irish citizenship in 2013 through his paternal grandmother, Kathleen Maguire, who was born in Donegal. On May 23, 2019, Lindh was released from the Terre Haute, Indiana federal prison prior to the end of his 20-year sentence for good behavior, although he accepted several probation requirements due to his continued support of Islamist ideology. The probation lasts for the remaining three years of his sentence.

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John Walker Lindh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16467

16472

Jet stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering air currents in the atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds (flowing west to east). Their paths typically have a meandering shape. Jet streams may start, stop, split into two or more parts, combine into one stream, or flow in various directions including opposite to the direction of the remainder of the jet. The strongest jet streams are the polar jets, at above sea level, and the higher altitude and somewhat weaker subtropical jets at . The Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere each have a polar jet and a subtropical jet. The northern hemisphere polar jet flows over the middle to northern latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia and their intervening oceans, while the southern hemisphere polar jet mostly circles Antarctica all year round. The southern hemisphere mid-latitude jet is a relatively narrow band of strong winds stretching from the Earth's surface to the top of the troposphere at about 12 km increasing steadily in strength with height. Jet streams are the product of two factors: the atmospheric heating by solar radiation that produces the large-scale Polar, Ferrel, and Hadley circulation cells, and the action of the Coriolis force acting on those moving masses. The Coriolis force is caused by the planet's rotation on its axis. On other planets, internal heat rather than solar heating drives their jet streams. The Polar jet stream forms near the interface of the Polar and Ferrel circulation cells; the subtropical jet forms near the boundary of the Ferrel and Hadley circulation cells. Other jet streams also exist. During the Northern Hemisphere summer, easterly jets can form in tropical regions, typically where dry air encounters more humid air at high altitudes. Low-level jets also are typical of various regions such as the central United States. There are also jet streams in the thermosphere. Meteorologists use the location of some of the jet streams as an aid in weather forecasting. The main commercial relevance of the jet streams is in air travel, as flight time can be dramatically affected by either flying with the flow or against, which results in significant fuel and time cost savings for airlines. Often, the airlines work to fly 'with' the jet stream for this reason. Dynamic North Atlantic Tracks are one example of how airlines and air traffic control work together to accommodate the jet stream and winds aloft that results in the maximum benefit for airlines and other users. Clear-air turbulence, a potential hazard to aircraft passenger safety, is often found in a jet stream's vicinity, but it does not create a substantial alteration on flight times. After the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, weather watchers tracked and mapped the effects on the sky over several years. They labelled the phenomenon the "equatorial smoke stream".

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Jet stream

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16472

16474

Joint Interoperability of Tactical Command and Control Systems Joint Interoperability of Tactical Command and Control Systems or JINTACCS is a United States military program for the development and maintenance of tactical information exchange configuration items (CIs) and operational procedures. It was originated to ensure that the command and control (C2 and C3) and weapons systems of all US military services and NATO forces would be interoperable. It is made up of standard Message Text Formats (MTF) for man-readable and machine-processable information, a core set of common warfighting symbols, and data link standards called Tactical Data Links (TDLs).

en.wikipedia.org

Joint Interoperability of Tactical Command and Control Systems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16474

16476

John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General (2001–2005), in the George W. Bush Administration. He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm. Ashcroft previously served as Attorney General of Missouri (1976–1985), and as the 50th Governor of Missouri (1985–1993), having been elected for two consecutive terms in succession (a historical first for a Republican candidate in the state), and he also served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri (1995–2001). He had early appointments in Missouri state government and was mentored by John Danforth. He has written several books about politics and ethics. Since 2011 he sits on the board of directors for the private military company Academi (formerly Blackwater), has been a member of the Federalist Society, and is a professor at the Regent University School of Law, a conservative Christian institution affiliated with televangelist Pat Robertson. His son, Jay Ashcroft, is also a politician, serving as Secretary of State of Missouri since January, 2017. Ashcroft was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Grace P. (née Larsen) and James Robert Ashcroft. The family later lived in Springfield, Missouri, where his father was a minister in an Assemblies of God congregation, served as president of Evangel University (1958–74), and jointly as President of Central Bible College (1958–63). His mother was a homemaker, whose parents had emigrated from Norway. Ashcroft graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1960. He attended Yale University, where he was a member of the St. Elmo Society, graduating in 1964. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago School of Law (1967). After law school, Ashcroft briefly taught Business Law and worked as an administrator at Southwest Missouri State University. During the Vietnam War, he was not drafted because he received six student draft deferments and one occupational deferment because of his teaching work. In 1972, Ashcroft ran for a Congressional seat in southwest Missouri in the Republican primary election, narrowly losing to Gene Taylor. After the primary, Missouri Governor Kit Bond appointed Ashcroft to the office of State Auditor, which Bond had vacated when he became governor. In 1974, Ashcroft was narrowly defeated for election to that post by Jackson County County Executive George W. Lehr. He had argued that Ashcroft, who is not an accountant, was not qualified to be the State Auditor. Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, who was then in his second term, hired Ashcroft as an Assistant State Attorney General. During his service, Ashcroft shared an office with Clarence Thomas, a future U.S. Supreme Court Supreme Court Justice. (In 2001, Thomas administered Ashcroft's oath of office as U.S. Attorney General.) In 1976, Danforth was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Ashcroft was elected to replace him as State Attorney General. He was sworn in on December 27, 1976. In 1980, Ashcroft was re-elected with 64.5 percent of the vote, winning 96 of Missouri's 114 counties. In 1983, Ashcroft wrote the leading "amicus curiae" brief in the U.S. Supreme Court Case "Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.", supporting the use of video cassette recorders for time shifting of television programs. Ashcroft was elected governor in 1984 and re-elected in 1988, becoming the first (and, to date, the only) Republican in Missouri history elected to two consecutive terms. In 1984, his opponent was the Democratic Lt. Governor Ken Rothman. The campaign was so negative on both sides that a reporter described the contest as "two alley cats [scrapping] over truth in advertising". In his campaign ads, Ashcroft showed the contrast between his rural-base and the supporters of his urban-based opponent from St. Louis. Democrats did not close ranks on primary night. The defeated candidate Mel Carnahan endorsed Rothman. In the end, Ashcroft won 57 percent of the vote and carried 106 counties—then the largest Republican gubernatorial victory in Missouri history. In 1988, Ashcroft won by a larger margin over his Democratic opponent, Betty Cooper Hearnes, the wife of the former governor Warren Hearnes. Ashcroft received 64 percent of the vote in the general election—the largest landslide for governor in Missouri history since the U.S. Civil War. During his second term, Ashcroft served as chairman of the National Governors Association (1991–92). As governor, Ashcroft helped enact tougher standards and sentencing for gun crimes, increased funding for local law enforcement, and tougher standards and punishment for people bringing guns into schools. While Ashcroft was in office: In 1994 Ashcroft was elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri, again succeeding John Danforth, who retired from the position. Ashcroft won 59.8% of the vote against Democratic Congressman Alan Wheat. As Senator: In 1998, Ashcroft briefly considered running for U.S. President; but on January 5, 1999, he announced that he would not seek the presidency and would defend his Senate seat in the 2000 election. In the Republican primary, Ashcroft defeated Marc Perkel. In the general election, Ashcroft faced a challenge from Governor Mel Carnahan. In the midst of a tight race, Carnahan died in an airplane crash three weeks prior to the election. Ashcroft suspended all campaigning after the plane crash. Because of Missouri state election laws and the short time to election, Carnahan's name remained on the ballot. Lieutenant Governor Roger B. Wilson became governor upon Carnahan's death. Wilson said that should Carnahan be elected, he wanted to appoint his widow, Jean Carnahan, to serve in her husband's place; Mrs. Carnahan announced that, in accordance with her late husband's goal, she would serve in the Senate if voters elected his name. Following these developments, Ashcroft resumed campaigning. Carnahan won the election 51% to 49%. No one had ever posthumously won election to the Senate, though voters had on at least three occasions chosen deceased candidates for the House of Representatives. Ashcroft also has the unique distinction of being the only incumbent U.S. Senator defeated for re-election by a dead person. In December 2000, following his Senatorial defeat, Ashcroft was chosen for the position of U.S. attorney general by president-elect George W. Bush. He was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 58 to 42, with most Democratic senators voting against him, citing his prior opposition to using forced busing to achieve desegregation, and their opposition to Ashcroft's anti-abortionism. At the time of his appointment he was known to be a member of the Federalist Society. In May 2001, the FBI revealed that they had misplaced thousands of documents related to the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. Ashcroft granted a 30-day stay of execution for Timothy McVeigh, the man convicted and sentenced to death for the bombing. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Ashcroft was a key administration supporter of passage of the USA Patriot Act. One of its provisions, Section 215, allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to apply for an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to require production of "any tangible thing" for an investigation. This provision was criticized by citizen and professional groups concerned about violations of privacy. Ashcroft referred to the American Library Association's opposition to Section 215 as "hysteria" in two separate speeches given in September 2003. While Attorney General, Ashcroft consistently denied that the FBI or any other law enforcement agency had used the Patriot Act to obtain library circulation records or those of retail sales. According to the sworn testimony of two FBI agents interviewed by the 9/11 Commission, Ashcroft ignored warnings of an imminent al-Qaida attack. In 2002, under Ashcroft, curtains were installed blocking the Spirit of Justice statue in the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, which is of a woman wearing a toga-like dress with one breast revealed, from view during speeches. The curtains were first used on a rental basis during the administration of Dick Thornburgh. Justice officials long insisted that the curtains were put up to improve the room's use as a television backdrop and that Ashcroft had nothing to do with it. Ashcroft's successor, Alberto Gonzales, removed the curtains in June 2005. Ashcroft also held daily prayer meetings. In March 2004, the Justice Department under Ashcroft ruled that the President Bush's domestic intelligence program—code name Stellar Wind—was illegal; some time after the ruling, Ashcroft became critically ill with acute pancreatitis. President Bush's White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card Jr., went to Ashcroft's bedside in the hospital intensive-care unit, to persuade the incapacitated Attorney General to sign a document to "reauthorize" the program that Justice had declared illegal and at end. According to his account before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Acting Attorney General James Comey alerted then-FBI Director Robert Mueller III of the reauthorization plan, and "raced" to the hospital, "sirens blaring" , arriving ahead of Gonzales and Card, Jr. Ashcroft, "summoning the strength to lift his head and speak", refused to sign; by his description in interview, Jack Goldsmith, head of the Office of Legal Counsel for Justice, was also there to support Ashcroft, as was Patrick Philbin, an Associate Deputy Attorney General (according to congressional testimony from Comey). FBI Director Robert Mueller, who also was rushing to the hospital, spoke by phone to Ashcroft's security detail, ordering them not to allow Card or Gonzales to have Comey removed from the hospital room. Following accounts of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, one of the Torture memos was leaked to the press in June 2004. Jack Goldsmith, then head of the Office of Legal Counsel, had already withdrawn the Yoo memos and advised agencies not to rely on them. After Goldsmith was forced to resign because of his objections, Attorney General Ashcroft issued a one paragraph opinion re-authorizing the use of torture. On November 9, 2004, following George W. Bush's re-election, Ashcroft announced his resignation, which took effect on February 3, 2005, after the Senate confirmed White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as the next attorney general. Ashcroft said in his hand-written resignation letter, dated November 2, "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." In May 2005, Ashcroft laid the groundwork for a strategic consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group, LLC. He started operation in the fall of 2005 and as of March 2006 had twenty-one clients, turning down two for every one accepted. In 2005 year-end filings, Ashcroft's firm reported collecting $269,000, including $220,000 from Oracle Corporation, which won Department of Justice approval of a multibillion-dollar acquisition less than a month after hiring Ashcroft. The year-end filing represented, in some cases, only initial payments. According to government filings, Oracle is one of five Ashcroft Group clients that seek help in selling data or software with security applications. Another client, Israel Aircraft Industries International, is competing with Seattle's Boeing Company to sell the government of South Korea a billion dollar airborne radar system. In March 2006, "The New York Times" reported that Ashcroft had positioned himself as an "anti-Abramoff." In an hour-long interview, Ashcroft used the word "integrity" scores of times. In May 2006, based on conversations with members of Congress, key aides and lobbyists, "The Hill" magazine listed Ashcroft as one of the top 50 "hired guns" (lobbyists) that K Street had to offer. In August 2006, the "Washington Post" reported that Ashcroft's firm had 30 clients, many of which made products or technology aimed at homeland security. The firm had not disclosed about a third of its client list on grounds of confidentiality. The firm also had equity stakes in eight client companies. It reported receiving $1.4 million in lobbying fees in the past six months, a small fraction of its total earnings. After the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., Ashcroft offered the firm his consulting services, according to a spokesman for XM. The spokesman said XM declined Ashcroft's offer. Ashcroft was subsequently hired by the National Association of Broadcasters, which is strongly opposed to the merger. In 2011, Ashcroft became an “independent director” on the board of Xe Services (now Academi), the controversial private military company formerly known as Blackwater (Nisour Square massacre), which faced scores of charges related to weapons trafficking, unlawful force, and corruption had named Ted Wright as CEO in May 2011. Wright hired a new governance chief to oversee ethical and legal compliance and established a new board composed of former government officials, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn and Ashcroft. In December 2011, Xe Services rebranded to Academi to convey a more "boring" image. The firm also has a law firm under its umbrella, called the Ashcroft Law Firm. In December 2014, the law firm was hired by convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout to overturn his 2011 conviction. In June 2017, Ashcroft was hired by the government of Qatar to carry out a compliance and regulatory review of Qatar's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework, to help challenge accusations of supporting terrorism by its neighbors, following a regional blockade, as well as claims by U.S. President Donald Trump. In June 2018, it is reported that Ashcroft was hired by Najib Razak among other top U.S lawyers to defend him in the 1MDB scandal, back in 2016. According to the document, the firm was hired to provide legal advice and counsel to Najib regarding "improper actions by third parties to attempt to destabilise the government of Malaysia". Although it is unsure whether Najib will retain the services of Ashcroft on the issue due to the United States Department of Justice's probe into 1MDB. In January 2002, the partially nude female statue of the "Spirit of Justice", which stands in the Great Hall of the Justice Department, where Ashcroft held press conferences, was covered with blue curtains, along with its male counterpart, the "Majesty of Justice". Some speculated that Ashcroft thought that reporters were photographing him with the female statue in the background to make fun of his church's opposition to pornography. A Justice Department spokeswoman said that Ashcroft knew nothing of the decision to spend $8,000 for the curtains; a spokesman said the decision for permanent curtains was intended to save on the $2,000 per use rental costs of temporary curtains used for formal events. In July 2002, Ashcroft proposed the creation of Operation TIPS, a domestic program in which workers and government employees would inform law enforcement agencies about suspicious behavior they encounter while performing their duties. The program was widely criticized from the beginning, with critics deriding the program as essentially a Domestic Informant Network along the lines of the East German Stasi or the Soviet KGB, and an encroachment upon the First and Fourth amendments. The United States Postal Service refused to be a party to it. Ashcroft defended the program as a necessary component of the ongoing War on Terrorism, but the proposal was eventually abandoned. Ashcroft proposed a draft of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, legislation to expand the powers of the U.S. government to fight crime and terrorism, while simultaneously eliminating or curtailing judicial review of these powers for incidents related to domestic terrorism. The bill was leaked and posted to the Internet on February 7, 2003. On May 26, 2004, Ashcroft held a news conference at which he said that intelligence from multiple sources indicated that the terrorist organization, al Qaeda, intended to attack the United States in the coming months. Critics suggested he was trying to distract attention from a drop in the approval ratings of President Bush, who was campaigning for re-election. Groups supporting individual gun ownership praised Ashcroft's support through DOJ for the Second Amendment. He said specifically, "the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms," expressing the position that the second amendment expresses a right. In 2009 in "Ashcroft v. al-Kidd", the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found that Ashcroft could be sued and held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of Abdullah al-Kidd. The American citizen was arrested at Dulles Airport in March 2003 on his way to Saudi Arabia for study. He was held for 15 days in maximum security in three states, and 13 months in supervised release, to be used as a material witness in the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen. (The latter was acquitted of all charges of supporting terrorism). Al-Kidd was never charged and was not called as a witness in the Al-Hussayen case.) The panels court described the government's assertions under the USA Patriot Act (2001) as "repugnant of the Constitution". In a detailed and at times passionate opinion, Judge Milan Smith likened allegations against al-Kidd as similar to the repressive practices of the British Crown that sparked the American Revolution. He wrote that the government asserts it can detain American citizens "not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing". He called it "a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history". Abdullah Al-Kidd was held in a maximum security prison for 16 days, and in supervised release for 13 months. Al-Kidd was born Lavoni T. Kidd in 1973 in Wichita, Kansas. When he converted to Islam as a student at the University of Idaho, where he was a prominent football player, he changed his name. He asserts that Ashcroft violated his civil liberties as an American citizen, as he was treated like a terrorist and not allowed to consult an attorney. Al-Kidd's lawyers say Ashcroft, as US Attorney General, encouraged authorities after 9/11 to arrest potential suspects as material witnesses when they lacked probable cause to believe the suspects had committed a crime. The US Supreme Court agreed on October 18, 2010 to hear the case. On May 31, 2011, the US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the lower court's decision, saying that al-Kidd could not personally sue Ashcroft, as he was protected by limited immunity as a government official. A majority of the justices held that al-Kidd could not have won his case on the merits, because Ashcroft did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights. Ashcroft has been a proponent of the War on Drugs. In a 2001 interview on "Larry King Live," Ashcroft announced his intention to escalate efforts in this area. In 2003, Ashcroft and John B. Brown, the acting DEA Administrator, announced a series of indictments resulting from two nationwide investigations code-named Operation Pipe Dream and Operation Headhunter. The investigations targeted businesses selling drug paraphernalia, mostly for cannabis use, under a little-used statute (Title 21, Section 863(a) of the U.S. Code). Tommy Chong, a counterculture icon, was one of those charged, for his part in financing and promoting Chong Glass/Nice Dreams, a company started by his son Paris. Of the 55 individuals charged as a result of the operations, only Chong was given a prison sentence after conviction (nine months in a federal prison, plus forfeiting $103,000 and a year of probation). The other 54 individuals were given fines and home detentions. While the DOJ denied that Chong was treated any differently from the other defendants, critics thought the government was trying to make an example of him. Chong's experience as a target of Ashcroft's sting operation is the subject of Josh Gilbert's feature-length documentary "a/k/a Tommy Chong", which premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. In a pre-sentencing brief, the Department of Justice specifically cited Chong's entertainment career as a consideration against leniency. When Karl Rove was being questioned in 2005 by the FBI over the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity in the press (the Valerie Plame affair), Ashcroft was allegedly briefed about the investigation. The Democratic U.S. Representative John Conyers described this as a "stunning ethical breach that cries out for an immediate investigation." Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked, in a statement, for a formal investigation of the time between the start of Rove's investigation and John Ashcroft's recusal. Since his service in government, Ashcroft has continued to oppose proposals for physician-assisted suicide, which some states have passed by referenda. When interviewed about it in 2012, when a case had reached the US Supreme Court after California voters had approved a law to permit it under regulated conditions, he said, I certainly believe that people who are in pain should be helped and assisted in every way possible, that the drugs should be used to mitigate their pain but I believe the law of the United States of America which requires that drugs not be used except for legitimate health purposes. In 2015, Human Rights Watch called for the investigation of Ashcroft "for conspiracy to torture as well as other crimes." Ashcroft is a member of the Assemblies of God church. He is married to Janet E. Ashcroft and has three children with her. His son, Jay, is the Missouri Secretary of State. Ashcroft had long enjoyed inspirational music and singing. In the 1970s, he recorded a gospel record entitled "Truth: Volume One, Edition One", with the Missouri legislator Max Bacon, a Democrat. With fellow U.S. senators Trent Lott, Larry Craig, and Jim Jeffords, Ashcroft formed a barbershop quartet called The Singing Senators. The men performed at social events with other senators. Ashcroft composed a paean titled "Let the Eagle Soar," which he sang at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in February 2002. Ashcroft has written and sung a number of other songs. He has collected these on compilation tapes, including "In the Spirit of Life and Liberty" and "Gospel (Music) According to John". In 1998, he wrote a book with author Gary Thomas titled "Lessons from a Father to His Son". Ashcroft was given an honorary doctorate before giving the commencement at Toccoa Falls College in 2018.

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John Ashcroft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16476

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Japheth Japheth ( "Yép̄eṯ", in pausa "Yā́p̄eṯ"; ""; ), is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, in which he plays a role in the story of Noah's drunkenness and the curse of Ham, and subsequently in the Table of Nations as the ancestor of the peoples of the Aegean Sea, Anatolia, and elsewhere. In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples. The meaning of the name Japheth is disputable. There are two possible sources to the meaning of the name: Japheth first appears in the Book of Genesis as one of the three sons of Noah, saved from the flood through the Ark. In the bible, they are always in the order "Shem, Ham, and Japheth" when all three are listed (Genesis 5:32, 9:18 and 10:1). However Genesis 9:24 calls Ham the youngest, and Genesis 10:21 refers ambiguously to Shem as "brother of Japheth the elder," which could mean that either is the eldest. Most modern writers accept Shem-Ham-Japheth as reflecting birth order, but this is not always the case: Moses and Rachel also appear at the head of such lists despite explicit descriptions of them as younger siblings. Following the Flood Japheth is featured in the story of Noah's drunkenness. Ham sees Noah drunk and naked in his tent and tells his brothers, who then cover their father with a cloak while avoiding the sight; when Noah awakes he curses Canaan, the son of Ham, and blesses Shem and Japheth: "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem and may Canaan be his slave; and may God enlarge Japheth and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave!” (Genesis 9:20-27). Chapter 10 of Genesis, the Table of Nations, describes how the entire Earth was populated by the sons of Noah following the Flood, beginning with the descendants of Japheth: The Book of Genesis is the first of the five books of the Torah, that contains the account of Israel's origins as a people. Scholars increasingly see this as a product of the Achaemenid Empire (probably 450-350 BCE), although some would place its production in the Hellenistic period (333-164 BCE) or even the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE). As almost none of the persons, places and stories in the first eleven chapters of Genesis (called the primeval history) are ever mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, leading scholars to surmise that the story of Japheth and his brothers is a late composition, attached to Genesis to serve as an introduction to that book and to the Torah. Japheth (in Hebrew, Yafet or Yefet) may be a transliteration of the Greek Iapetos, the ancestor of the Hellenic peoples. His sons and grandsons associate him with the geographic area of the eastern Mediterranean and Asia — Ionia/Javan, Rhodes/Rodanim, Cyprus/Kittim, and other points in the region of Greece and Asia Minor — approximating to one of the kingdoms (Lysimachus) into which the generals of Alexander the Great divided his empire on his death (the descendants of Shem and Ham respectively correspond to the other two, those of the Ptolemies and Seleucids). The point of the "blessing of Japheth" seems to be that Japheth (a Greek-descended people) and Shem (the Israelites) would rule jointly over Canaan (Palestine). From the 19th century until the late 20th century it was usual to see Japheth as a reference to the Philistines, who shared dominion over Canaan during the pre-monarchic and early monarchic period of Israel's history. This view accorded with earlier understanding of the origin of the Book of Genesis, which was seen as having been composed in stages beginning with the time of Solomon, when the Philistines still existed (they vanish from history after the Babylonian conquest of Canaan). However, Genesis 10:14 identifies their ancestor as Ham rather than Japheth. For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of Europeans. The link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10:5, which states: According to that book, Japheth and his two brothers formed the three major races: William Shakespeare's play "Henry IV, Part II" contains a wry comment about people who claim to be related to royal families. Prince Hal notes of such people, In the Bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Tiras, Javan, Meshech, Tubal, and Madai. According to Josephus ("Antiquities of the Jews" I.6): Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven sons of Japheth. The "Book of Jasher", published by Talmudic rabbis in the 17th century, provides some new names for Japheth's grandchildren not found in the Bible, and provided a much more detailed genealogy (see Japhetic). In the seventh century, Isidore of Seville published his noted history, in which he traces the origins of most of the nations of Europe back to Japheth. Scholars in almost every European nation continued to repeat and develop Saint Isidore's assertion of descent from Noah through Japheth into the nineteenth century. Ivane Javakhishvili associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called Tubals (Tabals, Greek: "Tibarenoi") and Meshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, Greek: "Moschoi"), who they claim represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes of Asia Minor of the 3rd-1st millennia BC. In the Polish tradition of Sarmatism, the Sarmatians, an Iranic people, were said to be descended from Japheth, son of Noah, enabling the Polish nobility to imagine that their ancestry could be traced directly to Noah. In Scotland, histories tracing the Scottish people to Japheth were published as late as George Chalmers' well-received "Caledonia," published in 3 volumes from 1807 to 1824. Japheth is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an but is referred to indirectly in the narrative of Noah (7:64, 10:73, 11:40, 23:27, 26:119). Muslim exegesis, however, names all of Noah's sons, and these include Japheth. In identifying Japheth's descendants, Muslim exegesis mostly agrees with the Biblical traditions. He is usually regarded as the ancestor of the Gog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of the Turks, Khazars, and Slavs. Some traditions narrated that 36 languages of the world could be traced back to Japheth.

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Japheth

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16480

Jason Alexander Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known by his stage name Jason Alexander, is an American actor, comedian, singer, and director. Alexander is best known for his role as George Costanza in the television series "Seinfeld" (1989–1998), for which he was nominated for seven consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Other well-known roles include Phillip Stuckey in the film "Pretty Woman" (1990), comic relief gargoyle Hugo in the Disney animated feature "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996), and the title character in the animated series "Duckman" (1994–1997). He has also made guest appearances on shows such as "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2001, 2009) and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (2019). Alexander has had an active career on stage, appearing in several Broadway musicals, including "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" in 1989, for which he won the Tony Award as Best Leading Actor in a Musical and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. He appeared in the Los Angeles production of "The Producers". He was the artistic director of "Reprise! Broadway's Best in Los Angeles", where he has directed several musicals. Alexander was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Jewish parents Ruth Minnie (née Simon), a nurse and health care administrator, and Alexander B. Greenspan, an accounting manager whose first name Jay later borrowed to create his stage name. He has a half-sister, Karen Van Horne, and a half-brother, Michael Greenspan. Alexander grew up in Livingston, New Jersey, and is a 1977 graduate of Livingston High School. Interested in magic from an early age, Alexander initially hoped to be a magician, but while attending a magic camp was told that his hands were too small to palm a card, making card magic virtually impossible. He then became interested in theater, eventually coming to realize, "Wait a minute—the whole thing's an illusion. Nothing up there is real" and that theater was "a magic trick". He then decided to pursue it as a career. He attended Boston University, but left the summer before his senior year after getting work in New York City. At Boston University, Alexander wanted to pursue classical acting, but a professor redirected him toward comedy after noticing his physique, remarking, "I know your heart and soul are Hamlet, but you will never play Hamlet." He was awarded an honorary degree in 1995. Alexander began his acting career on the New York stage and is an accomplished singer and dancer. On Broadway he appeared in Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along," Kander & Ebb's "The Rink", Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound", "Accomplice", and "Jerome Robbins' Broadway", for which he garnered the 1989 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. In 2003, Alexander was cast opposite Martin Short in the Los Angeles production of Mel Brooks's "The Producers". Alexander also appeared with Kelsey Grammer in the 2004 musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", as Jacob Marley. He continues to appear in live stage shows, including Barbra Streisand's memorable birthday party for Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl, in which he performed selections from ""with Angela Lansbury. Alexander was recently named the artistic director of Reprise Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where he previously directed "Sunday in the Park with George". He is scheduled to direct its upcoming revival of "Damn Yankees". In 2015, he replaced Larry David as the lead in David's Broadway play "Fish in the Dark." Alexander co-starred opposite Sherie Rene Scott in the September 2017 world premiere of John Patrick Shanley's "The Portuguese Kid" at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Alexander is best known as one of the key cast members of the award-winning television sitcom "Seinfeld", on which he played the bumbling but lovable George Costanza (Jerry Seinfeld's character's best friend since childhood). Alexander was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards for his performance as Costanza, but did not win any, mainly due to his co-star Michael Richards being nominated and winning for his role as Cosmo Kramer. He did, however, win the 1995 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series. Before "Seinfeld", Alexander starred in commercials for John Deere and McDonald’s, as well as in the short-lived CBS sitcom "Everything's Relative" (1987). Concurrently with his "Seinfeld" role, he provided the voice of the lead character in the animated series "Duckman" (1994–1997). Alexander voiced Catbert, the evil director of human resources, in the short-lived animated series "Dilbert", based on the popular comic strip. Alexander made cameo appearances as himself in the second season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and appeared in the seventh season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" along with the other three principal "Seinfeld" cast members. He had a part in the ABC sitcom "Dinosaurs" as Al "Sexual" Harris (who frequently engaged in sexual harassment), as well as other voices. Despite a successful career in film and stage, Alexander never managed to repeat his "Seinfeld"-level of success in television. 2001 marked his first post-"Seinfeld" return to prime-time television: the heavily promoted but short-lived ABC sitcom "Bob Patterson" (which was canceled after five episodes). Alexander partially blames the show's failure on the country's mood after 9/11. Alexander's second chance as a TV series lead, the CBS sitcom "Listen Up!" (2004-05), also fell short of a second season. Alexander was the principal executive producer of the series, based very loosely on the life of the popular sports-media personality Tony Kornheiser. Alexander appeared on the "" CD and sang a verse in a song. He was featured in the "Friends" episode "The One Where Rosita Dies" as Earl, a suicidal supply manager. Phoebe calls him trying to sell him toner, learns about his problem, and tries to persuade him not to commit suicide. This is referenced in an episode of "Malcolm in the Middle" where Alexander appears as Leonard. a neurotic and critical loner. He describes himself as "free" and says he makes money "selling toner over the phone". Later in the episode, he is repeatedly harassed by a man named George. Alexander appeared in the 1995 TV version of the Broadway musical "Bye Bye Birdie", as Conrad Birdie's agent, Albert Peterson. He guest-starred in episode 8 of the 1996 variety show "Muppets Tonight". In 1999, Alexander presided over the "New York Friars Club Roast" event honoring Jerry Stiller, who played his father on "Seinfeld"; it also featured appearances by Kevin James and Patton Oswalt, both Stiller's costars on "The King of Queens". Alexander appeared in the "" episode "" as Kurros, a genius alien trying to get Seven of Nine to serve on his ship. He appeared in "One Night at Mercy", the first episode of the short-lived 2002 revival of "The Twilight Zone", playing Death. He featured in the 2005 "Monk" episode "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective" as Monk's rival, Marty Eels. On the June 26, 2006, episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Alexander demonstrated several self-defense techniques. He hosted the July 4, 2006, PBS "A Capitol Fourth" celebrations in Washington, D.C., singing, dancing, and playing tuned drums. In 2006, Alexander signed on to feature as a regular cast member in the second season of "Everybody Hates Chris". He hosted the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner on August 13, 2006 (first airdate: August 20, 2006). In 2007, Alexander was a guest star in the third episode of the improv comedy series "Thank God You're Here". He has been a frequent guest and panelist on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" and "Real Time"; "Hollywood Squares"; the "Late Late Show", with both Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson; and the "Late Show with David Letterman". In 2008, Alexander guest-starred in the season four episode "Masterpiece" of the CBS show "Criminal Minds" as Professor Rothschild, a well-educated serial killer obsessed with the Fibonacci sequence who sends the team into a race against time to save his last victims. He returned in the same season to direct the episode "Conflicted", featuring the actor Jackson Rathbone. In 2011, Alexander was the guest star in an episode of "Harry's Law", playing a high school teacher bringing a wrongful dismissal suit. In 2018, Alexander played Olix the bartender in "The Orville". The same year, he portrayed Gene Lundy, a drama teacher, on two episodes of "Young Sheldon". In 2019, Alexander appeared on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" as Asher Friedman, a blacklisted Broadway playwright who is an old friend of Midge Maisel's father Abe Weissman. In addition to his roles as an insensitive, money-hungry lawyer in "Pretty Woman" and as inept womanizer Mauricio in "Shallow Hal", Alexander has appeared in "Love! Valour! Compassion!", "Dunston Checks In", "Love and Action in Chicago", "The Last Supper" and "Jacob's Ladder". He voiced the gargoyle Hugo in Disney's 1996 animated film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and its direct-to-video sequel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame II". His other Disney voice work includes "House of Mouse" and the video game "". He has dabbled in directing, starting with 1996's "For Better or Worse" and 1999's "Just Looking". He also played the toymaker A.C. Gilbert in the 2002 movie "The Man Who Saved Christmas". In 2009, Alexander had a small role in the movie "" as a train station manager. He starred as Cosmo in "". In January 1995, Alexander did a commercial for Rold Gold pretzels to be broadcast during the Super Bowl. The commercial depicts him with "Frasier" dog "Eddie" jumping out of an airplane with a parachute over the stadium. After the commercial, the audience is brought back to a supposedly "live feed" of the playing field hearing startled sports commentators as Alexander and the dog land in the field to wild applause. One of Alexander's earliest television roles was in a McDonald's commercial advertising the McDLT, in which he sings. He appeared in Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) commercials in 2002, including one with Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and another with Trista Rehn of "The Bachelorette". It was rumored that he quit doing these commercials due to KFC suppliers and slaughterhouses' alleged cruelty to animals, but he denied that in the August 2, 2006, issue of "Adweek", saying, "That's PETA bullcrap. I loved working for KFC. I was targeted by PETA to broker something between them. I think KFC really stepped up to the plate; unfortunately PETA did not." In 2007, Alexander appeared in a commercial for the ASPCA, which has aired on cable TV stations. In 1987, Alexander appeared in a commercial for Miller Lite, with Yogi Berra speaking about Miller Lite at a bar with many others. In August 2018, Alexander became one of several celebrities to play Colonel Sanders in commercials for KFC, reprising his role from the 2002 ad campaign. Alexander voiced the character Abis Mal in "The Return of Jafar" and the TV series based on Disney's 1992 film "Aladdin". In 2009, he played Joseph in the Thomas Nelson audio Bible production "The Word of Promise". The project featured a large ensemble of actors, including Jim Caviezel, Lou Gossett Jr., John Rhys-Davies, Jon Voight, Gary Sinise, Christopher McDonald, Marisa Tomei and John Schneider. It was announced in July 2010 that Alexander would be joining the cast of the Nickelodeon films based on their series "The Fairly OddParents", "" and "A Fairly Odd Christmas". He played Cosmo, one of Timmy Turner's fairies. Magic interests Alexander performed a mentalism and magic act at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, California, from April 24 to 30, 2006, and was later named The Academy of Magical Arts Parlor Magician of the Year for this act. He won the Academy's Junior Achievement Award in 1989. Alexander hosted the LOL Sudbury opening night gala in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada on May 29, 2008, which was simulcast throughout Canada at 60 Cineplex theaters, a first for any comedy festival. He has lent his voice to several episodes of the "Twilight Zone Radio Dramas". In 2008 and again in 2009, Alexander fronted "Jason Alexander's Comedy Spectacular", a routine exclusive to Australia. The show consists of stand-up and improvisation and incorporates Alexander's musical talent. He is backed up by a number of well-known Australian comedians. His first time performing a similar show of this nature was in 2006's "Jason Alexander's Comedy Christmas". In February/March 2010, Alexander starred in his own show, "The Donny Clay Experience", at the Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Donny Clay, whom he has portrayed in a tour of the United States, is a self-help guru in a similar mold to his "Bob Patterson" character. In 2020, Alexander hosted the Saturday Night Seder, an online Passover Seder that featured many celebrities and benefited the CDC Foundation. Alexander was the national spokesman for the Scleroderma Foundation, a leading organization dedicated to raising awareness of the disease and assisting those who are afflicted. On January 6, 2010, it was announced that he would be the new face of the weight loss company Jenny Craig. In summer 2005, he appeared with Lee Iacocca in ads for DaimlerChrysler. Iacocca did the ads as part of a way to raise money for Denise Faustman's research on autoimmunity. Iacocca and Alexander both have loved ones whose lives have been adversely affected by autoimmunity. More recently, Alexander has competed on televised poker shows and in various tournaments. He appeared twice on Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown", winning the final table of the 8th season. Alexander won the $500,000 prize for the charity of his choice, The United Way of America, to help benefit the New Orleans area. Alexander played in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event, but he was eliminated on the second day. He returned in 2009, making it to day 3 of the event and finishing in the top 30% of the field. Alexander has appeared on NBC's "Poker After Dark" in the "Celebrities and Mentors" episode, finishing in 6th place after being eliminated by professional poker player Gavin Smith. He signed with PokerStars, where he plays under the screen name "J. Alexander". Alexander has been married to Daena E. Title, cousin of director Stacy Title, since May 31, 1982. They have two sons, Gabriel and Noah. Alexander has been a prominent public supporter of the OneVoice initiative, which seeks out opinions from moderate Israelis and Palestinians who want to achieve a mutual peace agreement. On "Real Time with Bill Maher" he said he had visited Israel many times and spoke about progress toward peace he had observed. In 2012, Alexander announced his support for President Barack Obama's reelection. As actor As director Music videos Video games

en.wikipedia.org

Jason Alexander

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16480

16483

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled "Wyclif", "Wycliff", "Wiclef", "Wicliffe", "Wickliffe"; c. 1320s – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford. He became an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. Wycliffe attacked the privileged status of the clergy which had bolstered their powerful role in England and the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies. Wycliffe advocated translation of the Bible into the common vernacular. In 1382 he completed a translation directly from the Vulgate into Middle English – a version now known as Wycliffe's Bible. It is probable that he personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament, while his associates translated the Old Testament. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed by 1384, additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey and others in 1388 and 1395. Wycliffe's followers, known as Lollards, followed his lead in advocating predestination, iconoclasm, and the notion of caesaropapism, while attacking the veneration of saints, the sacraments, requiem masses, transubstantiation, monasticism, and the existence of the Papacy. From the 16th century, the Lollard movement is sometimes regarded as the precursor to the Protestant Reformation. Wycliffe was accordingly characterised as the evening star of scholasticism and as the morning star of the English Reformation. Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus ( 1369–1415), whose execution in 1415 sparked a revolt and led to the Hussite Wars of 1419–1434. Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, around the 1320s His family was long settled in Yorkshire. The family was quite large, covering considerable territory, principally centred on Wycliffe-on-Tees, about ten miles to the north of Hipswell. Wycliffe received his early education close to his home. It is not known when he first came to Oxford, with which he was so closely connected until the end of his life, but he is known to have been at Oxford around 1345. Thomas Bradwardine was the archbishop of Canterbury, and his book "On the Cause of God against the Pelagians", a bold recovery of the Pauline-Augustine doctrine of grace, would greatly shape young Wycliffe's views, as did the Black Death which reached England in the summer of 1348. From his frequent references to it in later life, it appears to have made a deep and abiding impression upon him. According to Robert Vaughn, the effect was to give Wycliffe "Very gloomy views in regard to the condition and prospects of the human race." Wycliffe would have been at Oxford during the St Scholastica Day riot in which sixty-three students and a number of townspeople were killed. Wycliffe completed his arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow in 1356. That same year he produced a small treatise, "The Last Age of the Church". In the light of the virulence of the plague that had subsided seven years previously, Wycliffe's studies led him to the opinion that the close of the 14th century would mark the end of the world. While other writers viewed the plague as God's judgment on sinful people, Wycliffe saw it as an indictment of an unworthy clergy. The mortality rate among the clergy had been particularly high, and those who replaced them were, in his opinion, uneducated or generally disreputable. He was Master of Balliol College in 1361. In this same year, he was presented by the college to the parish of Fillingham in Lincolnshire, which he visited rarely during long vacations from Oxford. For this he had to give up the headship of Balliol College, though he could continue to live at Oxford. He is said to have had rooms in the buildings of The Queen's College. In 1362 he was granted a prebend at Aust in Westbury-on-Trym, which he held in addition to the post at Fillingham. His performance led Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, to place him in 1365 at the head of Canterbury Hall, where twelve young men were preparing for the priesthood. In December 1365 Islip appointed Wycliffe as warden but when Islip died the following year his successor, Simon Langham, a man of monastic training, turned the leadership of the college over to a monk. In 1367 Wycliffe appealed to Rome. In 1371 Wycliffe's appeal was decided and the outcome was unfavourable to him. The incident was typical of the ongoing rivalry between monks and secular clergy at Oxford at this time. In 1368, he gave up his living at Fillingham and took over the rectory of Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire, not far from Oxford, which enabled him to retain his connection with the university. In 1369 Wycliffe obtained a bachelor's degree in theology, and his doctorate in 1372. In 1374, he received the crown living of St Mary's Church, Lutterworth in Leicestershire, which he retained until his death. In 1374 his name appears second, after a bishop, on a commission which the English Government sent to Bruges to discuss with the representatives of Gregory XI a number of points in dispute between the king and the pope. He was no longer satisfied with his chair as the means of propagating his ideas, and soon after his return from Bruges he began to express them in tracts and longer works. In a book concerned with the government of God and the Ten Commandments, he attacked the temporal rule of the clergy, the collection of annates, indulgences, and simony. He entered the politics of the day with his great work "De civili dominio" ("On Civil Dominion"). This called for the royal divestment of all church property. His ideas on lordship and church wealth caused his first official condemnation in 1377 by Pope Gregory XI, who censured 19 articles. Wycliffe argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property and that the clergy should live in complete poverty. The tendency of the high offices of state to be held by clerics was resented by many of the nobles. John of Gaunt most likely had his own reasons for opposing the wealth and power of the clergy. Wycliffe was summoned before William Courtenay, Bishop of London, on 19 February 1377. The exact charges are not known, as the matter did not get as far as a definite examination. Lechler suggests that Wycliffe was targeted by John of Gaunt's opponents among the nobles and church hierarchy. Gaunt, the Earl Marshal Henry Percy, and a number of other supporters accompanied Wycliffe. A crowd gathered at the church, and at the entrance, party animosities began to show, especially in an angry exchange between the bishop and Wycliffe's protectors. Gaunt declared that he would humble the pride of the English clergy and their partisans, hinting at the intent to secularise the possessions of the Church. The assembly broke up and Gaunt and his partisans departed with their protégé. Most of the English clergy were irritated by this encounter, and attacks upon Wycliffe began. The second and third books of his work dealing with civil government carry a sharp polemic. On 22 May 1377 Pope Gregory XI sent five copies of a bull against Wycliffe, dispatching one to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the others to the Bishop of London, King Edward III, the Chancellor, and the university; among the enclosures were 18 theses of his, which were denounced as erroneous and dangerous to Church and State. Stephen Lahey suggests that Gregory's action against Wycliffe was an attempt to put pressure on King Edward to make peace with France. Edward III died on 21 June 1377, and the bull against Wycliffe did not reach England before December. Wycliffe was asked to give the king's council his opinion on whether it was lawful to withhold traditional payments to Rome, and he responded that it was. Back at Oxford the Vice-Chancellor confined Wycliffe for some time in Black Hall, but his friends soon obtained his release. In March 1378, he was summoned to appear at Lambeth Palace to defend himself. However, Sir Lewis Clifford entered the chapel and in the name of the queen mother (Joan of Kent), forbade the bishops to proceed to a definite sentence concerning Wycliffe's conduct or opinions. The bishops, who were divided, satisfied themselves with forbidding him to speak further on the controversy. Wycliffe then wrote his "De incarcerandis fedelibus", in which he demanded that it should be legal for the excommunicated to appeal to the king and his council against the excommunication; in this writing he laid open the entire case, in such a way that it was understood by the laity. He wrote his 33 conclusions in Latin and English. The masses, some of the nobility, and his former protector, John of Gaunt, rallied to him. Before any further steps could be taken at Rome, Gregory XI died in 1378. The attacks on Pope Gregory XI grow ever more extreme. Wycliffe's stand concerning the ideal of poverty became continually firmer, as well as his position with regard to the temporal rule of the clergy. Closely related to this attitude was his book "De officio regis", the content of which was foreshadowed in his 33 conclusions. This book, like those that preceded and followed, was concerned with the reform of the Church, in which the temporal arm was to have an influential part. From 1380 onwards, Wycliffe devoted himself to writings that argued his rejection of transubstantiation, and strongly criticised the friars who supported it. Wycliffe had come to regard the scriptures as the only reliable guide to the truth about God, and maintained that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He said that there was no scriptural justification for the papacy. Theologically, his preaching expressed a strong belief in predestination that enabled him to declare an "invisible church of the elect", made up of those predestined to be saved, rather than in the "visible" Catholic Church. To Wycliffe, the Church was the totality of those who are predestined to blessedness. No one who is eternally lost has part in it. There is one universal Church, and outside of it there is no salvation. His first tracts and greater works of ecclesiastical-political content defended the privileges of the State. By 1379 in his "De ecclesia" ("On the Church"), Wycliffe clearly claimed the supremacy of the king over the priesthood. He rejected the concept of purgatory, and disapproved of clerical celibacy, pilgrimages, the selling of indulgences and praying to saints. So far as his polemics accord with those of earlier antagonists of the papacy, it is fair to assume that he was not ignorant of them and was influenced by them. It was Wycliffe who recognised and formulated one of the two major formal principles of the Reformation – the unique authority of the Bible for the belief and life of the Christian. The battle against what he saw as an imperialised papacy and its supporters, the "sects", as he called the monastic orders, takes up a large space not only in his later works as the "Trialogus", "Dialogus", "Opus evangelicum", and in his sermons, but also in a series of sharp tracts and polemical productions in Latin and English (of which those issued in his later years have been collected as "Polemical Writings"). In the 1380 "Objections to Friars", he calls monks the pests of society, enemies of religion, and patrons and promoters of every crime. He directed his strongest criticism against the friars, whose preaching he considered neither scriptural nor sincere, but motivated by "temporal gain". While others were content to seek the reform of particular errors and abuses, Wycliffe sought nothing less than the extinction of the institution itself, as being repugnant to scripture, and inconsistent with the order and prosperity of the Church. He advocated the dissolution of the monasteries. Rudolph Buddensieg finds two distinct aspects in Wycliffe's work. The first, from 1366 to 1378, reflects a political struggle with Rome, while 1378 to 1384 is more a religious struggle. In each Wycliffe has two approaches: he attacks both the Papacy and its institutions, and also Roman Catholic doctrine. Wycliffe's influence was never greater than at the moment when pope and antipope sent their ambassadors to England to gain recognition for themselves. In 1378, in the ambassadors' presence, he delivered an opinion before Parliament that showed, in an important ecclesiastical political question (the matter of the right of asylum in Westminster Abbey), a position that was to the liking of the State. He argued that criminals who had taken sanctuary in churches might lawfully be dragged out of sanctuary. The books and tracts of Wycliffe's last six years include continual attacks upon the papacy and the entire hierarchy of his times. Each year they focus more and more, and at the last, the pope and the Antichrist seem to him practically equivalent concepts. Yet there are passages which are moderate in tone: G. V. Lechler identifies three stages in Wycliffe's relations with the papacy. The first step, which carried him to the outbreak of the schism, involves moderate recognition of the papal primacy; the second, which carried him to 1381, is marked by an estrangement from the papacy; and the third shows him in sharp contest. In keeping with Wycliffe's belief that scripture was the only authoritative reliable guide to the truth about God, he became involved in efforts to translate the Bible into English. While Wycliffe is credited, it is not possible exactly to define his part in the translation, which was based on the Vulgate. There is no doubt that it was his initiative, and that the success of the project was due to his leadership. From him comes the translation of the New Testament, which was smoother, clearer, and more readable than the rendering of the Old Testament by his friend Nicholas of Hereford. The whole was revised by Wycliffe's younger contemporary John Purvey in 1388. There still exist about 150 manuscripts, complete or partial, containing the translation in its revised form. From this, one may easily infer how widely diffused it was in the 15th century. For this reason the Wycliffites in England were often designated by their opponents as "Bible men". In the summer of 1381 Wycliffe formulated his doctrine of the Lord's Supper in twelve short sentences, and made it a duty to advocate it everywhere. Then the English hierarchy proceeded against him. The chancellor of the University of Oxford had some of the declarations pronounced heretical. When this was announced to Wycliffe, he declared that no one could change his convictions. He then appealed – not to the pope nor to the ecclesiastical authorities of the land, but to the king. He published his great confession upon the subject and also a second writing in English intended for the common people. As long as Wycliffe limited his attacks to abuses and the wealth of the Church, he could rely on the support of part of the clergy and aristocracy, but once he dismissed the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation, his theses could not be defended any more. This view cost him the support of John of Gaunt and many others. In the midst of this came the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The revolt was sparked in part by Wycliffe's preaching carried throughout the realm by "poor priests" appointed by Wycliffe (mostly laymen). The preachers didn't limit their criticism of the accumulation of wealth and property to that of the monasteries, but rather included secular properties belonging to the nobility as well. Although Wycliffe disapproved of the revolt, some of his disciples justified the killing of Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1382 Wycliffe's old enemy William Courtenay, now Archbishop of Canterbury, called an ecclesiastical assembly of notables at London. During the consultations on 21 May an earthquake occurred; the participants were terrified and wished to break up the assembly, but Courtenay declared the earthquake a favourable sign which meant the purification of the earth from erroneous doctrine, and the result of the "Earthquake Synod" was assured. Of the 24 propositions attributed to Wycliffe without mentioning his name, ten were declared heretical and fourteen erroneous. The former had reference to the transformation in the sacrament, the latter to matters of church order and institutions. It was forbidden from that time to hold these opinions or to advance them in sermons or in academic discussions. All persons disregarding this order were to be subject to prosecution. To accomplish this the help of the State was necessary; but the Commons rejected the bill. The king, however, had a decree issued which permitted the arrest of those in error. The citadel of the reformatory movement was Oxford, where Wycliffe's most active helpers were; these were laid under the ban and summoned to recant, and Nicholas of Hereford went to Rome to appeal. On 17 November 1382, Wycliffe was summoned before a synod at Oxford. He still commanded the favour of the court and of Parliament, to which he addressed a memorial. He was neither excommunicated then, nor deprived of his living. Wycliffe aimed to do away with the existing hierarchy and replace it with the "poor priests" who lived in poverty, were bound by no vows, had received no formal consecration, and preached the Gospel to the people. Itinerant preachers spread the teachings of Wycliffe. The bull of Gregory XI impressed upon them the name of Lollards, intended as an opprobrious epithet, but it became, to them, a name of honour. Even in Wycliffe's time the "Lollards" had reached wide circles in England and preached "God's law, without which no one could be justified." In the years before his death in 1384 he increasingly argued for Scriptures as the authoritative centre of Christianity, that the claims of the papacy were unhistorical, that monasticism was irredeemably corrupt, and that the moral unworthiness of priests invalidated their office and sacraments. Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth, and sent out tracts against the monks and Urban VI, since the latter, contrary to Wycliffe's hopes, had not turned out to be a reforming pope. The literary achievements of Wycliffe's last days, such as the "Trialogus", stand at the peak of the knowledge of his day. His last work, the "Opus evangelicum", the last part of which he named in characteristic fashion "Of Antichrist", remained uncompleted. While he was saying Mass in the parish church on Holy Innocents' Day, 28 December 1384, he suffered a stroke, and died as the year ended. The Anti-Wycliffite Statute of 1401 extended persecution to Wycliffe's remaining followers. The "Constitutions of Oxford" of 1408 aimed to reclaim authority in all ecclesiastical matters, and specifically named John Wycliffe as it banned certain writings, and noted that translation of Scripture into English by unlicensed laity was a crime punishable by charges of heresy. The Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic on 4 May 1415, and banned his writings, effectively both excommunicating him retroactively and making him an early forerunner of Protestantism. The Council decreed that Wycliffe's works should be burned and his bodily remains removed from consecrated ground. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V, was carried out in 1428. Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth. None of Wycliffe's contemporaries left a complete picture of his person, his life, and his activities. Paintings representing Wycliffe are from a later period. In the history of the trial by William Thorpe (1407), Wycliffe appears wasted and physically weak. Thorpe says Wycliffe was of unblemished walk in life, and regarded affectionately by people of rank, who often consorted with him, took down his sayings, and clung to him. "I indeed clove to none closer than to him, the wisest and most blessed of all men whom I have ever found." Thomas Netter highly esteemed John Kynyngham in that he "so bravely offered himself to the biting speech of the heretic and to words that stung as being without the religion of Christ". But this example of Netter is not well chosen, since the tone of Wycliffe toward Kynyngham is that of a junior toward an elder whom one respects, and he handled other opponents in similar fashion. Wycliffe was the most prominent English philosopher of the second half of the 14th century. He earned his great repute as a philosopher at an early date. Henry Knighton says that in philosophy he was second to none, and in scholastic discipline incomparable. There was a period in his life when he devoted himself exclusively to scholastic philosophy. His first book, "De Logica" (1360), explores the fundamentals of Scholastic Theology. He believed that "one should study Logic in order to better understand the human mind because ...human thoughts, feelings and actions bear God’s image and likeness". The centre of Wycliffe's philosophical system is formed by the doctrine of the prior existence in the thought of God of all things and events. While Platonic realism would view "beauty' as a property that exists in an ideal form independently of any mind or thing, "for Wycliffe every universal, as part of creation, derived its existence from God, the Creator". Wycliffe was a close follower of Augustine, and always upheld the primacy of the Creator over the created reality. A second key point of Wycliffe's is his emphasis on the notion of divine Lordship, explored in "De dominio Divino" (c. 1373), which examines the relationship between God and his creatures. The practical application of this for Wycliffe was seen in the rebellious attitude of individuals (particulars) towards rightful authority (universals). In "De civili dominio" he discusses the appropriate circumstance under which an entity may be seen as possessing authority over lesser subjects. "Dominium" is always conferred by God. "Beyond all doubt, intellectual and emotional error about universals is the cause of all sin that reigns in the world." In some of his teachings, as in "De annihilatione", the influence of Thomas Aquinas can be detected. He said that Democritus, Plato, Augustine, and Grosseteste far outranked Aristotle. So far as his relations to the philosophers of the Middle Ages are concerned, he held to realism as opposed to the nominalism advanced by William of Ockham. A number of Wycliffe's ideas have been carried forward in the twentieth century by philosopher and Reformed theologian Cornelius Van Til. Wycliffe's fundamental principle of the preexistence in thought of all reality involves the most serious obstacle to freedom of the will; the philosopher could assist himself only by the formula that the free will of man was something predetermined of God. He demanded strict dialectical training as the means of distinguishing the true from the false, and asserted that logic (or the syllogism) furthered the knowledge of catholic verities; ignorance of logic was the reason why men misunderstood Scripture, since men overlooked the connection, the distinction between idea and appearance. Wycliffe was not merely conscious of the distinction between theology and philosophy, but his sense of reality led him to pass by scholastic questions. He left aside philosophical discussions that seemed to have no significance for the religious consciousness and those that pertained purely to scholasticism: "We concern ourselves with the verities that are, and leave aside the errors which arise from speculation on matters which are not." Wycliffe is honoured in the Church of England on 31 December, and in the Anglican Church of Canada and in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 30 October. Wycliffe was instrumental in the development of a translation of the Bible in English, thus making it accessible to laypeople. He also had a strong influence on Jan Hus. Several institutions are named after him:

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Just another Perl hacker Just another Perl hacker, or JAPH, typically refers to a Perl program that prints "Just another Perl hacker," (the comma is canonical but is occasionally omitted). Short JAPH programs are often used as signatures in online forums, or as T-shirt designs. The phrase or acronym is also occasionally used (without code) for a signature. JAPH programs are classically done using extremely obfuscated methods, in the spirit of the Obfuscated C Contest. More recently, as the phenomenon has become so well known, the phrase is sometimes used in ordinary examples (without obfuscation). The idea of using tiny Perl programs which print a signature "as a signature" was originated by Randal L. Schwartz, in his postings to the newsgroup comp.lang.perl. He wrote many of the JAPHs which are shown below. JAPH program without obfuscation: print "Just another Perl hacker,"; Embedding JAPH in opaque code: $_='987;s/^(\d+)/$1-1/e;$1?eval:print"Just another Perl hacker,"';eval; Decoding JAPH from a transposed string literal: $_="krJhruaesrltre c a cnP,ohet";$_.=$1,print$2while s/(..)(.)//; Printing out JAPH as separate processes: for $i (0..4) { kill INT => $$; Appearing as if it does something completely unrelated to printing JAPH: $_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgc"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print; Forking processes to print out one letter each in the correct order: @P=split//,".URRUU\c8R";@d=split//,"\nrekcah xinU / lreP rehtona tsuJ";sub p{ @p{"r$p","u$p"}=(P,P);pipe"r$p","u$p";++$p;($q*=2)+=$f=!fork;map{$P=$P[$f^ord ($p{$_})&6];$p{$_}=/ ^$P/ix?$P:close$_}keys%p}p;p;p;p;p;map{$p{$_}=~/^[P.]/&& close$_}%p;wait until$?;map{/^r/&&}%p;$_=$d[$q];sleep rand(2)if/\S/;print Using only Perl keywords (no punctuation): not exp log srand xor s qq qx xor s x x length uc ord and print chr ord for qw q join use sub tied qx xor eval xor print qq q q xor int eval lc q m cos and print chr ord for qw y abs ne open tied hex exp ref y m xor scalar srand print qq q q xor int eval lc qq y sqrt cos and print chr ord for qw x printf each return local x y or print qq s s and eval q s undef or oct xor time xor ref print chr int ord lc foreach qw y hex alarm chdir kill exec return y s gt sin sort split Using only punctuation, no alphanumeric characters. This breaks after Perl 5.30.0, as using $# and $* create fatal errors. This JAPH was written by Eric Roode and only works on Unix and Unix-like systems: `$=`;$_=\%!;($_)=/(.)/;$==++$|;($.,$/,$,$\,$",$;,$^,$#,$~,$*,$:,@%)=( $_++;$_++;($_,$\,$,)=($~.$"."$;$/$%[$?]$_$\$,$:$%[$?]",$"&$~,$#,);$,++ A much shorter one, using only punctuation, based on the EyeDrops module: "=~('(?{'.('-)@.)@_*([]@!@/)(@)@-@),@(@@+@)' ASCII art (to make this dromedary-shaped code work, the console size needs to be set to at least 119×48): [[Category:Perl]] [[Category:English phrases]] [[Category:Obfuscation]] [[Category:Test items in computer languages]] [[Category:Computer programming folklore]]

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Just another Perl hacker

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Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known under the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author and diarist. His public career—from 1964 until his death in 1967—was short but highly influential. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. The adjective "Ortonesque" refers to work characterised by a similarly dark yet farcical cynicism. Orton was born at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester, to William A. Orton and Elsie M. Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. When Joe was two years old, they moved from 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester, to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lane council estate. He had a younger brother, Douglas, and two younger sisters, Marilyn and Leonie. Orton attended Marriot Road Primary School, but failed the eleven-plus exam after extended bouts of asthma, and so took a secretarial course at Clark's College in Leicester from 1945 to 1947. He began working as a junior clerk for £3 a week. Orton became interested in performing in theatre around 1949 and joined a number of dramatic societies, including the Leicester Dramatic Society. While working on amateur productions he was determined to improve his appearance and physique, buying bodybuilding courses, taking elocution lessons. He was accepted for a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in November 1950, and he left the East Midlands for London. His entrance into RADA was delayed until May 1951 by appendicitis. Orton met Kenneth Halliwell at RADA in 1951 and moved into a West Hampstead flat with him and two other students in June of that year. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton; they quickly formed a strong relationship and became lovers. After graduating, both Orton and Halliwell went into regional repertory work: Orton spent four months in Ipswich as an assistant stage manager; Halliwell in Llandudno, Wales. Both returned to London and began to write together. They collaborated on a number of unpublished novels (often imitating Ronald Firbank) with no success at gaining publication. The rejection of their great hope, "The Last Days of Sodom," in 1957 led them to solo works. Orton wrote his last novel, "The Vision of Gombold Proval" (posthumously published as "Head to Toe"), in 1959. He later drew on these manuscripts for ideas; many show glimpses of his stage-play style. Confident of their "specialness," Orton and Halliwell refused to work for long periods. They subsisted on Halliwell's money (and unemployment benefits) and were forced to follow an ascetic life to restrict their spending to £5 a week. From 1957 to 1959, they worked in six-month stretches at Cadbury's to raise money for a new flat; they moved into a small, austere flat at 25 Noel Road in Islington in 1959. A lack of serious work led them to amuse themselves with pranks and hoaxes. Orton created the second self Edna Welthorpe, an elderly theatre snob, whom he later revived to stir controversy over his plays. Orton chose the name as an allusion to Terence Rattigan's archetypal playgoer Aunt Edna. From January 1959, Orton and Halliwell began surreptitiously to remove books from several local public libraries and modify the cover art or the blurbs before returning them. A volume of poems by John Betjeman was returned to the library with a new dust jacket featuring a photograph of a nearly naked, heavily tattooed, middle-aged man. The couple decorated their flat with many of the prints. They were discovered and prosecuted in May 1962. They were found guilty on five counts of theft and malicious damage, admitted damaging more than 70 books, and were sentenced to prison for six months (released September 1962) and fined £262. The incident was reported in the "Daily Mirror" as "Gorilla in the Roses", illustrated with the altered "Collins Guide to Roses" by Bertram Park. Orton and Halliwell felt that sentence being unduly harsh "because we were queers". Prison was a crucial formative experience; the isolation from Halliwell allowed Orton to break free of him creatively; and he saw what he considered the corruption, priggishness, and double standards of a purportedly liberal country. As Orton put it: "It affected my attitude towards society. Before I had been vaguely conscious of something rotten somewhere, prison crystallised this. The old whore society really lifted up her skirts and the stench was pretty foul... Being in the nick brought detachment to my writing. I wasn't involved any more. And suddenly it worked." The book covers that Orton and Halliwell vandalised have since become a valued part of the Islington Local History Centre collection. Some are exhibited in the Islington Museum. A collection of the book covers is available online. Orton began writing plays in 1959 with "Fred and Madge"; "The Visitors" followed two years later. In 1963, the BBC paid £65 for the radio play "The Ruffian on the Stair", broadcast on 31 August 1964. It was substantially rewritten for the stage in 1966. He had completed "Entertaining Mr Sloane" by the time "Ruffian" was broadcast. He sent a copy to theatre agent Peggy Ramsay in December 1963. It premiered at the New Arts Theatre in Westminster 6 May 1964, produced by Michael Codron. Reviews ranged from praise to outrage. "The Times" described it as making "the blood boil more than any other British play in the last 10 years". "Entertaining Mr Sloane" lost money in its three-week run, but critical praise from playwright Terence Rattigan, who invested £3,000 in it, ensured its survival. The play was transferred to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End at the end of June and to the Queen's Theatre in October. "Sloane" tied for first in the "Variety" Critics' Poll for Best New Play and Orton came second for Most Promising Playwright. Within a year, "Sloane" was performed in New York, Spain, Israel, and Australia as well as made into a film (after Orton's death) and a television play. Orton's next performed work was "Loot". The first draft was written from June to October 1964 and was called "Funeral Games", a title Orton dropped at Halliwell's suggestion but later reused. The play is a wild parody of detective fiction, adding the blackest farce and jabs at established ideas on death, the police, religion, and justice. Orton offered the play to Codron in October 1964 and it underwent sweeping rewrites before it was judged fit for the West End. Codron had manoeuvred Orton into meeting his colleague Kenneth Williams in August 1964. Orton reworked "Loot" with Williams in mind for Truscott. His other inspiration for the role was DS Harold Challenor. With the success of "Sloane", "Loot" was hurried into pre-production despite its flaws. Rehearsals began in January 1965, with plans for a six-week tour culminating in a West End debut. The play opened in Cambridge on 1 February to scathing reviews. Orton, disputing director Peter Wood over the plot, produced 133 pages of new material to replace, or add to, the original 90. The play received poor reviews in Brighton, Oxford, Bournemouth, Manchester, and finally Wimbledon in mid-March. Discouraged, Orton and Halliwell went on an 80-day holiday in Tangier, Morocco. In January 1966, "Loot" was revived, with Oscar Lewenstein taking up an option. Before his production, it had a short run (11–23 April) at the University Theatre, Manchester. Orton's growing experience led him to cut over 600 lines, raising the tempo and improving the characters' interactions. Directed by Braham Murray, the play garnered more favourable reviews. Lewenstein put the London production in a "sort of Off-West End theatre," the Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre in Bloomsbury, under the direction of Charles Marowitz. Orton clashed with Marowitz, although the additional cuts they agreed to further improved the play. This production was first staged in London on 27 September 1966, to rave reviews. Ronald Bryden in "The Observer" asserted that it had "established Orton's niche in English drama". "Loot" moved to the Criterion Theatre in November where it ran for 342 performances. This time it won several awards, and he sold the film rights for £25,000. "Loot", when performed on Broadway in 1968, repeated the failure of "Sloane", and the film version of the play was not a success when it surfaced in 1970. Over the next ten months, he revised "The Ruffian on the Stair" and "The Erpingham Camp" for the stage as a double called "Crimes of Passion", wrote "Funeral Games", the screenplay "Up Against It" for the Beatles, and his final full-length play, "What the Butler Saw". "The Erpingham Camp", Orton's take on "The Bacchae", written through mid-1965 and offered to Associated-Rediffusion in October of that year, was broadcast on 27 June 1966 as the "pride" segment in their series "Seven Deadly Sins". "The Good and Faithful Servant" was a transitional work for Orton. A one-act television play, it was completed by June 1964 but first broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion on 6 April 1967, representing "faith" in the series "Seven Deadly Virtues". Orton rewrote "Funeral Games" four times from July to November 1966. Also intended for "The Seven Deadly Virtues", it dealt with charity — Christian charity — in a confusion of adultery and murder. Rediffusion did not use the play; instead, it was made as one of the first productions of the new ITV company Yorkshire Television, and broadcast posthumously in the "Playhouse" series on 26 August 1968, five weeks after an adaptation of "Mr Sloane". In March 1967, Orton and Halliwell had intended another extended holiday in Libya, but they returned home after one day because the only hotel accommodation they could find was a boat that had been converted into a hotel/nightclub. Orton's controversial farce "What The Butler Saw" debuted in the West End in 1969, more than 18 months after his death. It opened in March at the Queen's Theatre with Sir Ralph Richardson, Coral Browne, Stanley Baxter, and Hayward Morse. On 9 August 1967, Kenneth Halliwell bludgeoned 34-year-old Orton to death at their home in Islington, London with nine hammer blows to the head, and then killed himself with an overdose of Nembutal. In 1970 "The Sunday Times" reported that four days before the murder, Orton had told a friend that he wanted to end his relationship with Halliwell, but did not know how to go about it. Halliwell's doctor spoke to him by telephone three times on the day of the murder, and had arranged for him to see a psychiatrist the following morning. The last call was at 10 o'clock, during which Halliwell told the doctor, "Don't worry, I'm feeling better now. I'll go and see the doctor tomorrow morning." Halliwell had felt increasingly threatened and isolated by Orton's success, and had come to rely on antidepressants and barbiturates. The bodies were discovered the following morning when a chauffeur arrived to take Orton to a meeting with director Richard Lester to discuss filming options on "Up Against It". Halliwell left a suicide note: "If you read his diary, all will be explained. KH PS: Especially the latter part." This is presumed to be a reference to Orton's description of his promiscuity; the diary contains numerous incidents of cottaging publicly lavatories and other casual sexual encounters, including with rent boys on holiday in North Africa. The diaries have since been published. Orton was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, his maroon cloth-draped coffin being brought into the west chapel to a recording of The Beatles song "A Day in the Life". Harold Pinter read the eulogy, concluding with "He was a bloody marvellous writer." According to Dennis Dewsnap's memoir, "What's Sex Got to Do with It" (The Syden Press, 2004), Orton and Halliwell had their ashes mixed and were buried together. Dewsnap writes about Orton's agent Peggy Ramsay: "...At the scattering of Joe's and Kenneth's ashes, his sister took a handful from both urns and said, 'A little bit of Joe, and a little bit of Kenneth. I think perhaps a bit more of our Joe, and then some more of Kenneth.' At which Peggy snapped, 'Come on, dearie, it's only a gesture, not a recipe. She described Orton's relatives as simply "the little people in Leicester", leaving a cold, nondescript note and bouquet at the funeral on their behalf. Orton's ashes lie in section 3-C of the Garden of Remembrance at Golders Green. There is no memorial. John Lahr's biography of Orton, entitled "Prick Up Your Ears" (a title Orton himself had considered using), was published in 1978. A 1987 film adaptation of the same name was released based on Orton's diaries and on Lahr's research. Directed by Stephen Frears, it stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay. Alan Bennett wrote the screenplay. Carlos Be wrote a play about Orton and Halliwell's last days, "Noel Road 25: A Genius Like Us", first performed in 2001. It received its New York premiere in 2012, produced by Repertorio Español. Joe Orton was played by the actor Kenny Doughty in the 2006 BBC film "", starring Michael Sheen as Kenneth Williams. Leonie Orton Barnett's memoir "I Had It in Me" was published in 2016 containing new information about her brother's life growing up in Leicester. In 2017, film-maker Chris Shepherd made an animated short inspired by Orton's Edna Welthorpe letters, 'Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs)', starring Alison Steadman as Edna Two archive recordings of Orton are known to survive: a short BBC radio interview first transmitted in August 1967 and a video recording, held by the British Film Institute, of his appearance on Eamonn Andrews' ITV chat show transmitted 23 April 1967. A pedestrian concourse in front of the Curve theatre in Leicester has been renamed Orton Square. In July 2019 Dr Emma Parker, professor at the University of Leicester and an Orton expert, launched a campaign to install a statue of him in Leicester, the city of his birth. The campaign drew support from a number of notable actors including Sheila Hancock, Kenneth Cranham and Alec Baldwin.

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Julian Jaynes Julian Jaynes (February 27, 1920 – November 21, 1997) was an American researcher in psychology at Yale and Princeton for nearly 25 years and best known for his 1976 book "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind". His career was dedicated to the problem of consciousness, “…the difference between what others see of us and our sense of our inner selves and the deep feelings that sustain it. … Men have been conscious of the problem of consciousness almost since consciousness began.” Jaynes's solution touches on many disciplines, including neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, archeology, history, religion and analysis of ancient texts. Jaynes was born in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Julian Clifford Jaynes (1854–1922), a Unitarian minister, and Clara Bullard Jaynes (1884–1980). He attended Harvard University, was an undergraduate at McGill University and afterwards received master's and doctorate degrees from Yale University. He was mentored by Frank A. Beach and was a close friend of Edwin G. Boring. Jaynes also spent several years in prison for refusing to participate in the second World War. During this time period Jaynes made significant contributions in the fields of animal behavior and ethology. After Yale, Jaynes spent several years in England working as an actor and playwright. Jaynes later returned to the United States and lectured in psychology at Princeton University from 1966 to 1990, teaching a popular class on consciousness for much of that time. He was in high demand as a lecturer and was frequently invited to lecture at conferences and as a guest lecturer at other universities. In 1984, he was invited to give the plenary lecture at the Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg, Austria. He gave six major lectures in 1985 and nine in 1986. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by Rhode Island College in 1979 and another from Elizabethtown College in 1985. He died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on November 21, 1997. In his book, Jaynes reviews what one of his early critics acknowledged as the “spectacular history of failure” to explain consciousness – “the human ability to introspect”. Abandoning the assumption that consciousness is innate, Jaynes explains it instead as a learned behavior that “arises ... from language, and specifically from metaphor.” With this understanding, Jaynes then demonstrated that ancient texts and archeology can reveal a history of human mentality alongside the histories of other cultural products. His analysis of the evidence led him not only to place the origin of consciousness during the 2nd millennium BCE but also to hypothesize the existence of an older non-conscious “mentality that he called the bicameral mind, referring to the brain’s two hemispheres”. Jaynes wrote an extensive afterword for the 1990 edition of his book, in which he addressed criticisms and clarified that his theory has four separate hypotheses: consciousness is based on and accessed by language; the non-conscious bicameral mind is based on verbal hallucinations; the breakdown of bicameral mind precedes consciousness, but the dating is variable; the 'double brain' of bicamerality is not today's functional lateralization of the cerebral hemispheres. He also expanded on the impact of consciousness on imagination and memory, notions of The Self, emotions, anxiety, guilt, and sexuality. "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" was a successful work of popular science, selling out the first print run before a second could replace it. The book was a nominee for the National Book Award in 1978, and received dozens of positive book reviews, including those by well-known critics such as John Updike in "The New Yorker", Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the "New York Times", and Marshall McLuhan in the Toronto "Globe and Mail". Articles on Jaynes and his ideas appeared in "Time" magazine and "Psychology Today" in 1977, and in "Quest/78" in 1978. Jaynes later expanded on the ideas in his book in a series of commentaries in the journal "Behavioral and Brain Sciences", in lectures and discussions published in "Canadian Psychology", and in "Art/World". More than 40 years later, the book is still in print. It is mentioned in Richard Dawkins's 2006 work "The God Delusion" as "one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets." Jaynes's work on consciousness has influenced philosophers Daniel Dennett, Susan Blackmore, and Ken Wilber, and the bicameral model of the cerebral hemispheres has influenced schizophrenia researchers Henry Nasrallah and Tim Crow. The theory of bicamerality has been cited in thousands of books and articles, both scientific and popular. It inspired early investigations of auditory hallucination by psychologist Thomas Posey and clinical psychologist John Hamilton. With further research in the late 1990s using new brain imaging technology, Jaynes's ideas received renewed attention and recognition for contributing to a rethinking of auditory hallucinations and mental illness. In the popular domain, the idea of bicamerality has influenced novelists Philip K. Dick, William S. Burroughs, Neal Stephenson and Robert J. Sawyer.. In 2009, American novelist Terence Hawkins published The Rage of Achilles, a re-telling of Homer’s "The Iliad" that imagines the hero’s transition from bicameral mentality to consciousness. In "The Psychology of Westworld: When Machines Go Mad", Brian J. McVeigh analyzed how bicamerality was interpreted in the 2016 science fiction TV series "Westworld". A 2007 book titled "Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited" contains several of Jaynes's essays along with chapters by scholars from a variety of disciplines expanding on his ideas. At the April 2008 "Toward a Science of Consciousness" Conference held in Tucson, Arizona, Marcel Kuijsten (Executive Director and Founder of the Julian Jaynes Society) and Brian J. McVeigh (University of Arizona) hosted a workshop devoted to Jaynesian psychology. At the same conference, a panel devoted to Jaynes was also held, with John Limber (University of New Hampshire), Marcel Kuijsten, John Hainly (Southern University), Scott Greer (University of Prince Edward Island), and Brian J. McVeigh presenting relevant research. At the same conference the philosopher Jan Sleutels (Leiden University) gave a paper on Jaynesian psychology. A 2012 book titled "The Julian Jaynes Collection" gathers together many of the lectures and articles by Jaynes relevant to his theory (including some that were previously unpublished), along with interviews and question and answer sessions where Jaynes addresses misconceptions about the theory and extends the theory into new areas. In general, Jaynes is respected as a lecturer and a historian of psychology. Marcel Kuijsten, founder of the Julian Jaynes Society, asks why, in the decades after the book's publication, "there have been few in-depth discussions, either positive or negative", rejecting as too simplistic the criticism that "Jaynes was wrong." Jaynes described the range of responses to his book as “from people who feel [the ideas are] very important all the way to very strong hostility. ... When someone comes along and says consciousness is in history, it can’t be accepted. If [psychologists] did accept it, they wouldn’t have the motivation to go back into the laboratory ...” W. T. Jones, a sociologist who has been described as "one of Jaynes's most thoroughgoing critics", asked in 1979, "Why, despite its implausibility, is [Jaynes's] book taken seriously by thoughtful and intelligent people?" Jones agreed with Jaynes that "the language in which talk about consciousness is conducted is metaphorical", but he contradicted the basis of Jaynes's argument – that metaphor creates consciousness – by asserting that "language (and specifically metaphor) does not create, it discovers, the similarities that language marks". Jones also argued that three "cosmological orientations" biased Jaynes’s thinking: 1) "hostility to Darwin" and natural selection; 2) a "longing for 'lost bicamerality'" (Jones accused Jaynes of holding that "we would all be better off if 'everyone' were once again schizophrenic"); 3) a "desire for a sweeping, all-inclusive formula that explains everything that has happened". Jones concluded that "... those who share these biases ... are likely to find the book convincing; those who do not will reject [Jaynes's] arguments ..." The neurological model in "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" was a radical neuroscientific hypothesis that was based on research novel at the time. Today, his hypotheses are still controversial to many in the field. However, the more general idea of a "divided self" has found support from psychological and neurological studies, and many of the historical arguments made in the book remain intriguing, if not proven. An early criticism by philosopher Ned Block argued that Jaynes had confused the emergence of consciousness with the emergence of the concept of consciousness. In other words, according to Block, humans were conscious all along but did not have the concept of consciousness and thus did not discuss it in their texts. Daniel Dennett countered that for some things, such as money, baseball, or consciousness, one cannot have the thing without also having the concept of the thing. Moreover, it is arguable that Block misinterpreted the nature of what Jaynes claimed to be a social construction.

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Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; ; born 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a professor emeritus at the University Paris Diderot. The author of more than 30 books, including "Powers of Horror", "Tales of Love", "Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia", "Proust and the Sense of Time", and the trilogy "Female Genius", she has been awarded Commander of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Order of Merit, the Holberg International Memorial Prize, the Hannah Arendt Prize, and the Vision 97 Foundation Prize, awarded by the Havel Foundation. Kristeva became influential in international critical analysis, cultural studies and feminism after publishing her first book, "Semeiotikè", in 1969. Her sizeable body of work includes books and essays which address intertextuality, the semiotic, and abjection, in the fields of linguistics, literary theory and criticism, psychoanalysis, biography and autobiography, political and cultural analysis, art and art history. She is prominent in structuralist and poststructuralist thought. Kristeva is also the founder of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize committee. Born in Sliven, Bulgaria to Christian parents, Kristeva is the daughter of a church accountant. Kristeva and her sister attended a Francophone school run by Dominican nuns. Kristeva became acquainted with the work of Mikhail Bakhtin at this time in Bulgaria. Kristeva went on to study at the University of Sofia, and while a postgraduate there obtained a research fellowship that enabled her to move to France in December 1965, when she was 24. She continued her education at several French universities, studying under Lucien Goldmann and Roland Barthes, among other scholars. On August 2, 1967, Kristeva married the novelist Philippe Sollers, "born" Philippe Joyaux. Kristeva taught at Columbia University in the early 1970s, and remains a Visiting Professor. She has also published under the married name Julia Joyaux. After joining the 'Tel Quel group' founded by Sollers, Kristeva focused on the politics of language and became an active member of the group. She trained in psychoanalysis, and earned her degree in 1979. In some ways, her work can be seen as trying to adapt a psychoanalytic approach to the poststructuralist criticism. For example, her view of the subject, and its construction, shares similarities with Sigmund Freud and Lacan. However, Kristeva rejects any understanding of the subject in a structuralist sense; instead, she favors a subject always "in process" or "on trial". In this way, she contributes to the poststructuralist critique of essentialized structures, whilst preserving the teachings of psychoanalysis. She travelled to China in the 1970s and later wrote "About Chinese Women" (1977). One of Kristeva's most important contributions is that signification is composed of two elements, the symbolic and the "semiotic", the latter being distinct from the discipline of semiotics founded by Ferdinand de Saussure. As explained by Augustine Perumalil, Kristeva's "semiotic is closely related to the infantile pre-Oedipal referred to in the works of Freud, Otto Rank, Melanie Klein, British Object Relation psychoanalysis, and Lacan's pre-mirror stage. It is an emotional field, tied to the instincts, which dwells in the fissures and prosody of language rather than in the denotative meanings of words." Furthermore, according to Birgit Schippers, the semiotic is a realm associated with the musical, the poetic, the rhythmic, and that which lacks structure and meaning. It is closely tied to the "feminine", and represents the undifferentiated state of the pre-Mirror Stage infant. Upon entering the Mirror Stage, the child learns to distinguish between self and other, and enters the realm of shared cultural meaning, known as the symbolic. In "Desire in Language" (1980), Kristeva describes the symbolic as the space in which the development of language allows the child to become a "speaking subject," and to develop a sense of identity separate from the mother. This process of separation is known as abjection, whereby the child must reject and move away from the mother in order to enter into the world of language, culture, meaning, and the social. This realm of language is called the symbolic and is contrasted with the semiotic in that it is associated with the masculine, the law, and structure. Kristeva departs from Lacan in the idea that even after entering the symbolic, the subject continues to oscillate between the semiotic and the symbolic. Therefore, rather than arriving at a fixed identity, the subject is permanently "in process". Because female children continue to identify to some degree with the mother figure, they are especially likely to retain a close connection to the semiotic. This continued identification with the mother may result in what Kristeva refers to in "Black Sun" (1989) as melancholia (depression), given that female children simultaneously reject and identify with the mother figure. It has also been suggested (e.g., Creed, 1993) that the degradation of women and women's bodies in popular culture (and particularly, for example, in slasher films) emerges because of the threat to identity that the mother's body poses: it is a reminder of time spent in the undifferentiated state of the semiotic, where one has no concept of self or identity. After abjecting the mother, subjects retain an unconscious fascination with the semiotic, desiring to reunite with the mother, while at the same time fearing the loss of identity that accompanies it. Slasher films thus provide a way for audience members to safely reenact the process of abjection by vicariously expelling and destroying the mother figure. Kristeva is also known for her adoption of Plato’s idea of the "chora", meaning "a nourishing maternal space" (Schippers, 2011). Kristeva's idea of the "chora" has been interpreted in several ways: as a reference to the uterus, as a metaphor for the relationship between the mother and child, and as the temporal period preceding the Mirror Stage. In her essay "Motherhood According to Giovanni Bellini" from "Desire in Language" (1980), Kristeva refers to the "chora" as a "non-expressive totality formed by drives and their stases in a motility that is full of movement as it is regulated." She goes on to suggest that it is the mother's body that mediates between the "chora" and the symbolic realm: the mother has access to culture and meaning, yet also forms a totalizing bond with the child. Kristeva is also noted for her work on the concept of intertextuality. Kristeva argues that anthropology and psychology, or the connection between the social and the subject, do not represent each other, but rather follow the same logic: the survival of the group and the subject. Furthermore, in her analysis of Oedipus, she claims that the speaking subject cannot exist on his/her own, but that he/she "stands on the fragile threshold as if stranded on account of an impossible demarcation" ("Powers of Horror", p. 85). In her comparison between the two disciplines, Kristeva claims that the way in which an individual excludes the abject mother as a means of forming an identity, is the same way in which societies are constructed. On a broader scale, cultures exclude the maternal and the feminine, and by this come into being. Kristeva has been regarded as a key proponent of French feminism together with Simone de Beauvoir, Hélène Cixous, and Luce Irigaray. Kristeva has had a remarkable influence on feminism and feminist literary studies in the US and the UK, as well as on readings into contemporary art although her relation to feminist circles and movements in France has been quite controversial. Kristeva made a famous disambiguation of three types of feminism in "Women's Time" in "New Maladies of the Soul" (1993); while rejecting the first two types, including that of Beauvoir, her stands are sometimes considered rejecting feminism altogether. Kristeva proposed the idea of multiple sexual identities against the joined code of "unified feminine language". Kristeva argues her writings have been misunderstood by American feminist academics. In Kristeva's view, it was not enough simply to dissect the structure of language in order to find its hidden meaning. Language should also be viewed through the prisms of history and of individual psychic and sexual experiences. This post-structuralist approach enabled specific social groups to trace the source of their oppression to the very language they used. However, Kristeva believes that it is harmful to posit collective identity above individual identity, and that this political assertion of sexual, ethnic, and religious identities is ultimately totalitarian. Kristeva wrote a number of novels that resemble detective stories. While the books maintain narrative suspense and develop a stylized surface, her readers also encounter ideas intrinsic to her theoretical projects. Her characters reveal themselves mainly through psychological devices, making her type of fiction mostly resemble the later work of Dostoevsky. Her fictional oeuvre, which includes "The Old Man and the Wolves", "Murder in Byzantium", and "Possessions", while often allegorical, also approaches the autobiographical in some passages, especially with one of the protagonists of "Possessions", Stephanie Delacour—a French journalist—who can be seen as Kristeva's alter ego. "Murder in Byzantium" deals with themes from orthodox Christianity and politics; she referred to it as "a kind of anti-Da Vinci Code". For her "innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture and literature", Kristeva was awarded the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004. She won the 2006 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought. She has also been awarded Commander of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Order of Merit, and the Vaclav Havel Prize. On October 10th, 2019, she received an "honoris causa" doctorate from Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Roman Jakobson said that "Both readers and listeners, whether agreeing or in stubborn disagreement with Julia Kristeva, feel indeed attracted to her contagious voice and to her genuine gift of questioning generally adopted 'axioms,' and her contrary gift of releasing various 'damned questions' from their traditional question marks." Roland Barthes comments that "Julia Kristeva changes the place of things: she always destroys the last prejudice, the one you thought you could be reassured by, could be take [sic] pride in; what she displaces is the already-said, the déja-dit, i.e., the instance of the signified, i.e., stupidity; what she subverts is authority -the authority of monologic science, of filiation." Ian Almond criticizes Kristeva's ethnocentrism. He cites Gayatri Spivak's conclusion that Kristeva's book "About Chinese Women" "belongs to that very eighteenth century [that] Kristeva scorns" after pinpointing "the brief, expansive, often completely ungrounded way in which she writes about two thousand years of a culture she is unfamiliar with". Almond notes the absence of sophistication in Kristeva's remarks concerning the Muslim world and the dismissive terminology she uses to describe its culture and believers. He criticizes Kristeva's opposition which juxtaposes "Islamic societies" against "democracies where life is still fairly pleasant" by pointing out that Kristeva displays no awareness of the complex and nuanced debate ongoing among women theorists in the Muslim world, and that she does not refer to anything other than the Rushdie fatwa in dismissing the entire Muslim faith as "reactionary and persecutory". In "Intellectual Impostures" (1997), physics professors Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont devote a chapter to Kristeva's use of mathematics in her writings. They argue that Kristeva fails to show the relevance of the mathematical concepts she discusses to linguistics and the other fields she studies, and that no such relevance exists. In 2018, Bulgaria's state Dossier Commission announced that Kristeva had been an agent for the Committee for State Security under the code name "Sabina". She was supposedly recruited in June 1971. Five years earlier she left Bulgaria to study in France. Under the Communist regime, any Bulgarian who wanted to travel abroad had to apply for an exit visa and get an approval from the Ministry of Interior. The process was long and difficult because anyone who made it to the west could declare political asylum. Kristeva has called the allegations "grotesque and false". On 30 March, the state Dossier Commission began publishing online the entire set of documents reflecting Kristeva's activity as an informant of the former Committee for State Security. She vigorously denies the charges. Neal Ascherson wrote: "...the recent fuss about Julia Kristeva boils down to nothing much, although it has suited some to inflate it into a fearful scandal... But the reality shown in her files is trivial. After settling in Paris in 1965, she was cornered by Bulgarian spooks who pointed out to her that she still had a vulnerable family in the home country. So she agreed to regular meetings over many years, in the course of which she seems to have told her handlers nothing more than gossip about Aragon, Bataille & Co. from the Left Bank cafés – stuff they could have read in "Le Canard enchaîné"... the combined intelligence value of its product and her reports was almost zero. The Bulgarian security men seem to have known they were being played. But never mind: they could impress their boss by showing him a real international celeb on their books..." Other books on Julia Kristeva:

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Julia Kristeva

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16493

Just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. Just intervals (and chords created by combining them) consist of members of a single harmonic series of a (lower) implied fundamental. For example, in the diagram at right, the notes G and middle C (labeled 3 and 4), are both members of the harmonic series of the lowest C and their frequencies will be 3 and 4 times, respectively, the fundamental frequency; thus, their interval ratio will be 4:3. If the frequency of the fundamental is 64 Hertz, the frequencies of the two notes in question would be 192 and 256. To use a string as an example, it will simultaneously vibrate the full length of the string (fundamental), with a nodal point in the middle (double frequency—one octave higher), with two nodal points dividing the string in three (triple frequency—one octave and a fifth higher), with three nodal points dividing the string in four (quadruple frequency—two octaves higher), four nodal points dividing the string in five (quintuple frequency—two octaves and a major third higher) etc. Just intonation involves reproducing these exact pitches so that the resulting combination of frequencies resonate sympathetically, and the intervals have a stability and "ring" to the sound that results from this resonance. Instruments are not always tuned using these intervals. In the Western world, instruments of fixed pitch, such as pianos, are typically tuned using equal temperament, in which intervals other than octaves consist of irrational-number frequency ratios. While those intervals approximate the overtone intervals, they don't match the frequencies of the overtone series exactly and as such don't resonate sympathetically and have as pure a "ring". Tuning systems that have frequency ratios of powers of 2 include perfect octaves and, potentially, octave transposability. Pythagorean tuning, or 3-limit tuning, also allows ratios including the number 3 and its powers, such as 3:2, a perfect fifth, and 9:4, a major ninth. Although the interval from C to G is called a perfect fifth for purposes of music analysis regardless of its tuning method, for purposes of discussing tuning systems musicologists may distinguish between a perfect fifth created using the 3:2 ratio and a tempered fifth using some other system, such as meantone or equal temperament. 5-limit tuning encompasses ratios additionally using the number 5 and its powers, such as 5:4, a major third, and 15:8, a major seventh. The specialized term perfect third is occasionally used to distinguish the 5:4 ratio from major thirds created using other tuning methods. 7-limit and higher systems use higher partials in the overtone series. A wolf interval is an interval whose tuning is too far from its just-tuned equivalent, usually perceived as discordant and undesirable. Commas are very small intervals that result from minute differences between pairs of just intervals. For example, the 5:4 ratio is different from the Pythagorean (3-limit) major third (81:64) by a difference of 81:80, called the syntonic comma. Cents are a measure of interval size. In 12-tone equal temperament, every half step is 100 cents. Pythagorean tuning has been attributed to both Pythagoras and Eratosthenes by later writers, but may also been analyzed by other early Greeks or other early cultures as well. The oldest known description of the Pythagorean tuning system appears in Babylonian artifacts. During the second century AD, Claudius Ptolemy described a 5-limit diatonic scale in his influential text on music theory "Harmonics", which he called "intense diatonic". Given ratios of string lengths 120, 112 , 100, 90, 80, 75, 66 , and 60, Ptolemy quantified the tuning of what would later be called the Phrygian scale (equivalent to the major scale beginning and ending on the third note) – 16:15, 9:8, 10:9, 9:8, 16:15, 9:8, and 10:9. Non-Western music, particular that built on pentatonic scales, is largely tuned using just intonation. In China, the guqin has a musical scale based on harmonic overtone positions. The dots on its soundboard indicate the harmonic positions: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Indian music has an extensive theoretical framework for tuning in just intonation. The prominent notes of a given scale may be tuned so that their frequencies form (relatively) small whole number ratios. The 5-limit diatonic major scale is tuned in such a way that major triads on the tonic, subdominant, and dominant are tuned in the proportion 4:5:6, and minor triads on the mediant and submediant are tuned in the proportion 10:12:15. Because of the two sizes of wholetone – 9:8 (major wholetone) and 10:9 (minor wholetone) – the supertonic must be microtonally lowered by a syntonic comma to form a pure minor triad. 5-limit diatonic major scale on C is shown in the table below: (Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale): In this example the interval from D up to A would be a wolf fifth with the ratio , about 680 cents, noticeably smaller than the 702 cents of the pure ratio. For a justly tuned harmonic minor scale, the mediant is tuned 6:5 and the submediant is tuned 8:5. Natural minor would include a tuning of 9:5 for the subtonic. There are several ways to create a just tuning of the twelve-tone scale. Pythagorean tuning can produce a twelve-tone scale, but it does so by involving ratios of very large numbers, corresponding to natural harmonics very high in the harmonic series that do not occur widely in physical phenomena. This tuning uses ratios involving only powers of 3 and 2, creating a sequence of just fifths or fourths, as follows: The ratios are computed with respect to C (the "base note"). Starting from C, they are obtained by moving six steps (around the circle of fifths) to the left and six to the right. Each step consists of a multiplication of the previous pitch by 2/3 (descending fifth), 3/2 (ascending fifth), or their inversions (3/4 or 4/3). Between the enharmonic notes at both ends of this sequence is a pitch ratio of , or about 23 cents, known as the Pythagorean comma. To produce a twelve-tone scale, one of them is arbitrarily discarded. The twelve remaining notes are repeated by increasing or decreasing their frequencies by a power of 2 (the size of one or more octaves) to build scales with multiple octaves (such as the keyboard of a piano). A drawback of Pythagorean tuning is that one of the twelve fifths in this scale is badly tuned and hence unusable (the wolf fifth, either F-D if G is discarded, or B-G if F is discarded). This twelve-tone scale is fairly close to equal temperament, but it does not offer much advantage for tonal harmony because only the perfect intervals (fourth, fifth, and octave) are simple enough to sound pure. Major thirds, for instance, receive the rather unstable interval of 81:64, sharp of the preferred 5:4 by an 81:80 ratio. The primary reason for its use is that it is extremely easy to tune, as its building block, the perfect fifth, is the simplest and consequently the most consonant interval after the octave and unison. Pythagorean tuning may be regarded as a "three-limit" tuning system, because the ratios can be expressed as a product of integer powers of only whole numbers less than or equal to 3. A twelve-tone scale can also be created by compounding harmonics up to the fifth. Namely, by multiplying the frequency of a given reference note (the base note) by powers of 2, 3, or 5, or a combination of them. This method is called five-limit tuning. To build such a twelve-tone scale (using C as the base note), we may start by constructing a table containing fifteen pitches: The factors listed in the first row and column are powers of 3 and 5, respectively (e.g., 1/9 = 3−2). Colors indicate couples of enharmonic notes with almost identical pitch. The ratios are all expressed relative to C in the centre of this diagram (the base note for this scale). They are computed in two steps: Note that the powers of 2 used in the second step may be interpreted as ascending or descending octaves. For instance, multiplying the frequency of a note by 26 means increasing it by 6 octaves. Moreover, each row of the table may be considered to be a sequence of fifths (ascending to the right), and each column a sequence of major thirds (ascending upward). For instance, in the first row of the table, there is an ascending fifth from D and A, and another one (followed by a descending octave) from A to E. This suggests an alternative but equivalent method for computing the same ratios. For instance, one can obtain A, starting from C, by moving one cell to the left and one upward in the table, which means descending by a fifth and ascending by a major third: Since this is below C, one needs to move up by an octave to end up within the desired range of ratios (from 1:1 to 2:1): A 12-tone scale is obtained by removing one note for each couple of enharmonic notes. This can be done in at least three ways, which have in common the removal of G, according to a convention which was valid even for C-based Pythagorean and quarter-comma meantone scales. Note that it is a diminished fifth, close to half an octave, above the tonic C, which is a disharmonic interval; also its ratio has the largest values in its numerator and denominator of all tones in the scale, which make it least harmonious: all reasons to avoid it. This is only one possible strategy of five-limit tuning. It consists of discarding the first column of the table (labeled ""). The resulting 12-tone scale is shown below: The table above uses only low powers of 3 and 5 to build the base ratios. However, it can be easily extended by using higher positive and negative powers of the same numbers, such as 52 = 25, 5−2 = 1/25, 33 = 27, or 3−3 = 1/27. A scale with 25, 35 or even more pitches can be obtained by combining these base ratios, as in five-limit tuning. In Indian music, the just diatonic scale described above is used, though there are different possibilities, for instance for the sixth pitch ("Dha"), and further modifications may be made to all pitches excepting "Sa" and "Pa". Some accounts of Indian intonation system cite a given 22 Shrutis. According to some musicians, one has a scale of a given 12 pitches and ten in addition (the tonic, Shadja ("Sa"), and the pure fifth, Pancham ("Pa"), are inviolate): Where we have "two" ratios for a given letter name, we have a difference of 81:80 (or 22 cents), which is known as the syntonic comma. One can see the symmetry, looking at it from the tonic, then the octave. Some fixed just intonation scales and systems, such as the diatonic scale above, produce wolf intervals when the approximately equivalent flat note is substituted for a sharp note not available in the scale, or vice-versa. The above scale allows a minor tone to occur next to a semitone which produces the awkward ratio 32:27 for D-F, and still worse, a minor tone next to a fourth giving 40:27 for D-A. Moving D down to 10:9 alleviates these difficulties but creates new ones: D-G becomes 27:20, and D-B becomes 27:16. This fundamental problem arises in any system of tuning using a limited number of notes. One can have more frets on a guitar to handle both As, 9:8 with respect to G and 10:9 with respect to G so that A-C can be played as 6:5 while A-D can still be played as 3:2. 9:8 and 10:9 are less than 1/53 of an octave apart, so mechanical and performance considerations have made this approach extremely rare. And the problem of how to tune chords such as C-E-G-A-D, in typical 5-limit just intonation, is left unresolved (for instance, A could be 4:3 below D (making it 9:8, if G is 1) or 4:3 above E (making it 10:9, if G is 1) but not both at the same time, so one of the fourths in the chord will have to be an out-of-tune wolf interval). However the frets may be removed entirely—this, unfortunately, makes in-tune fingering of many chords exceedingly difficult, due to the construction and mechanics of the human hand—and the tuning of most complex chords in just intonation is generally ambiguous. Some composers deliberately use these wolf intervals and other dissonant intervals as a way to expand the tone color palette of a piece of music. For example, the extended piano pieces "The Well-Tuned Piano" by LaMonte Young and "The Harp Of New Albion" by Terry Riley use a combination of very consonant and dissonant intervals for musical effect. In "Revelation", Michael Harrison goes even further, and uses the tempo of beat patterns produced by some dissonant intervals as an integral part of several movements. For many fixed-pitch instruments tuned in just intonation, one cannot change keys without retuning the instrument. For instance, if a piano is tuned in just intonation intervals and a minimum of wolf intervals for the key of G, then only one other key (typically E-flat) can have the same intervals, and many of the keys have a very dissonant and unpleasant sound. This makes modulation within a piece, or playing a repertoire of pieces in different keys, impractical to impossible. Synthesizers have proven a valuable tool for composers wanting to experiment with just intonation. They can be easily retuned with a microtuner. Many commercial synthesizers provide the ability to use built-in just intonation scales or to create them manually. Wendy Carlos used a system on her 1986 album "Beauty in the Beast", where one electronic keyboard was used to play the notes, and another used to instantly set the root note to which all intervals were tuned, which allowed for modulation. On her 1987 lecture album "Secrets of Synthesis" there are audible examples of the difference in sound between equal temperament and just intonation. The human voice is among the most pitch-flexible instruments in common use. Pitch can be varied with no restraints and adjusted in the midst of performance, without needing to retune. Although the explicit use of just intonation fell out of favour concurrently with the increasing use of instrumental accompaniment (with its attendant constraints on pitch), most a cappella ensembles naturally tend toward just intonation because of the comfort of its stability. Barbershop quartets are a good example of this. The unfretted stringed instruments from the violin family (the violin, the viola, the cello and the double bass) are quite flexible in the way pitches can be adjusted. Stringed instruments that are not playing with fixed pitch instruments tend to adjust the pitch of key notes such as thirds and leading tones so that the pitches differ from equal temperament. Trombones have a slide that allows arbitrary tuning during performance. French horns can be tuned by shortening or lengthening the main tuning slide on the back of the instrument, with each individual rotary or piston slide for each rotary or piston valve, and by using the right hand inside the bell to adjust the pitch by pushing the hand in deeper to sharp the note, or pulling it out to flatten the note while playing. Some natural horns also may adjust the tuning with the hand in the bell, and valved cornets, trumpets, Flugelhorns, Saxhorns, Wagner tubas, and tubas have overall and valve-by-valve tuning slides, like valved horns. Wind instruments with valves are biased towards natural tuning and must be micro-tuned if equal temperament is required. Other wind instruments, although built to a certain scale, can be micro-tuned to a certain extent by using the embouchure or adjustments to fingering. Composers often impose a limit on how complex the ratios may become. For example, a composer who chooses to write in 7-limit just intonation will not employ ratios that use powers of prime numbers larger than 7. Under this scheme, ratios like 11:7 and 13:6 would not be permitted, because 11 and 13 cannot be expressed as powers of those prime numbers ≤ 7 ("i.e." 2, 3, 5, and 7). Though just intonation in its simplest form (5-limit) may seem to suggest a necessarily tonal logic, it need not be the case. Some music of Kraig Grady and Daniel James Wolf uses just intonation scales designed by Erv Wilson explicitly for a consonant form of atonality, and many of Ben Johnston's early works, like the "Sonata for Microtonal Piano" and "String Quartet No. 2", use serialism to elide the predominance of a tonal centre. Alternatively, composers such as La Monte Young, Ben Johnston, James Tenney, Marc Sabat, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, and Catherine Lamb have sought a new kind tonality and harmony – one based on the perception and experience of sound, which not only allows for the more familiar consonant structures, but also extends them beyond the 5-limit into a nuanced and diverse network of relationships between tones. Yuri Landman devised a just intonation musical scale from an atonal prepared guitar playing technique based on adding a third bridge under the strings. When this bridge is positioned at nodal positions of the guitar strings' harmonic series, the volume of the instrument increases and the overtone becomes clear, having a consonant relation to the complementary opposed string part creating a harmonic multiphonic tone. Originally a system of notation to describe scales was devised by Hauptmann and modified by Helmholtz (1877); the starting note is presumed Pythagorean; a “+” is placed between if the next note is a just major third up, a “−” if it is a just minor third, among others; finally, subscript numbers are placed on the second note to indicate how many syntonic commas (81:80) to lower by. For example, the Pythagorean major third on C is C+E () while the just major third is C+E1 (). A similar system was devised by Carl Eitz and used in Barbour (1951) in which Pythagorean notes are started with and positive or negative superscript numbers are added indicating how many commas (81:80, syntonic comma) to adjust by. For example, the Pythagorean major third on C is C−E0 while the just major third is C−E−1. An extension of this Pythagorean-based notation to higher primes is the "Helmholtz / Ellis / Wolf / Monzo system" of ASCII symbols and prime-factor-power vectors described in Monzo's "Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia". While these systems allow precise indication of intervals and pitches in print, more recently some composers have been developing notation methods for Just Intonation using the conventional five-line staff. James Tenney, amongst others, preferred to combine JI ratios with cents deviations from the equal tempered pitches, indicated in a legend or directly in the score, allowing performers to readily use electronic tuning devices if desired. Beginning in the 1960s, Ben Johnston had proposed an alternative approach, redefining the understanding of conventional symbols (the seven "white" notes, the sharps and flats) and adding further accidentals, each designed to extend the notation into higher prime limits. His notation "begins with the 16th-century Italian definitions of intervals and continues from there." Johnston notation is based on a diatonic C Major scale tuned in JI (Fig. 4), in which the interval between D (9:8 above C) and A (5:3 above C) is one syntonic comma less than a Pythagorean perfect fifth 3:2. To write a perfect fifth, Johnston introduces a pair of symbols, + and − again, to represent this comma. Thus, a series of perfect fifths beginning with F would proceed C G D A+ E+ B+. The three conventional white notes A E B are tuned as Ptolemaic major thirds (5:4) above F C G respectively. Johnston introduces new symbols for the septimal ( & ), undecimal ( & ), tridecimal ( & ), and further prime-number extensions to create an accidental based exact JI notation for what he has named "Extended Just Intonation" (Fig. 2 & Fig. 3). For example, the Pythagorean major third on C is C-E+ while the just major third is C-E (Fig. 4). In 2000–2004, Marc Sabat and Wolfgang von Schweinitz worked in Berlin to develop a different accidental-based method, the Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation. Following the method of notation suggested by Helmholtz in his classic "On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music", incorporating Ellis' invention of cents, and continuing Johnston's step into "Extended JI", Sabat and Schweinitz propose unique symbols (accidentals) for each prime dimension of harmonic space. In particular, the conventional flats, naturals and sharps define a Pythagorean series of perfect fifths. The Pythagorean pitches are then paired with new symbols that commatically alter them to represent various other partials of the harmonic series (Fig. 1). To facilitate quick estimation of pitches, cents indications may be added (e.g. downward deviations below and upward deviations above the respective accidental). A typically used convention is that cent deviations refer to the "tempered pitch" implied by the flat, natural, or sharp. A complete legend and fonts for the notation (see samples) are open source and available from the Plainsound Music Edition website. For example, the Pythagorean major third on C is C-E while the just major third is C-E↓ (see Fig. 4 for "combined" symbol) Sagittal notation (from Latin "sagitta", "arrow") is a system of arrow-like accidentals that indicate prime-number comma alterations to tones in a Pythagorean series. It is used to notate both just intonation and equal temperaments. The size of the symbol indicates the size of the alteration. The great advantage of such notation systems is that they allow the natural harmonic series to be precisely notated. At the same time, they provide some degree of practicality through their extension of staff notation, as traditionally trained performers may draw on their intuition for roughly estimating pitch height. This may be contrasted with the more abstract use of ratios for representing pitches in which the amount by which two pitches differ and the "direction" of change may not be immediately obvious to most musicians. One caveat is the requirement for performers to learn and internalize a (large) number of new graphical symbols. However, the use of unique symbols reduces harmonic ambiguity and the potential confusion arising from indicating only cent deviations.

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Just intonation

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Josephus Titus Flavius Josephus (; ; 37 – 100), born Yosef ben Matityahu (, "Yosef ben Matityahu"; ), was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry. He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War as head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 CE to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata. Josephus claimed the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Jewish–Roman War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a slave and presumably interpreter. After Vespasian became Emperor in 69 CE, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperor's family name of Flavius. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship. He became an advisor and friend of Vespasian's son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Since the siege proved ineffective at stopping the Jewish revolt, the city's destruction and the looting and destruction of Herod's Temple (Second Temple) soon followed. Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the first century CE and the First Jewish–Roman War (66–70 CE), including the Siege of Masada. His most important works were "The Jewish War" ( 75) and "Antiquities of the Jews" ( 94). "The Jewish War" recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation. "Antiquities of the Jews" recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Greek and Roman audience. These works provide valuable insight into first century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity, although not specifically mentioned by Josephus. Josephus' works are the chief source next to the Bible for the history and antiquity of ancient Palestine. Born into one of Jerusalem's elite families, Josephus introduces himself in Greek as" Iōsēpos" (Ιώσηπος), son of Matthias, an ethnic Jewish priest. He was the second-born son of Matthias. His older full-blooded brother was also called Matthias. Their mother was an aristocratic woman who descended from the royal and formerly ruling Hasmonean dynasty. Josephus's paternal grandparents were Josephus and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman, distant relatives of each other and direct descendants of Simon Psellus. Josephus's family was wealthy. He descended through his father from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the 24 orders of priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Josephus was a descendant of the high priest Jonathon. He was raised in Jerusalem and educated alongside his brother. In his mid twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor Nero for the release of 12 Jewish priests. Upon his return to Jerusalem, at the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War, Josephus was appointed the military governor of Galilee. His arrival in Galilee, however, was fraught with internal division: the inhabitants of Sepphoris and Tiberias opting to maintain peace with the Romans; the people of Sepphoris enlisting the help of the Roman army to protect their city, whilst the people of Tiberias appealing to King Agrippa's forces to protect them from the insurgents. Josephus also contended with John of Gischala who had also set his sight over the control of Galilee. Like Josephus, John had amassed to himself a large band of supporters from Gischala (Gush Halab) and Gabara, including the support of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Josephus fortified several towns and villages in Lower Galilee, among which were Tiberias, Bersabe, Selamin, Japha, and Tarichaea, in anticipation of a Roman onslaught. In Upper Galilee, he fortified the towns of Jamnith, Seph, Mero, and Achabare, among other places. Josephus, with the Galileans under his command, managed to bring both Sepphoris and Tiberias into subjection, but was eventually forced to relinquish his hold on Sepphoris by the arrival of Roman forces under Placidus the tribune and later by Vespasian himself. Josephus first engaged the Roman army at a village called Garis, where he launched an attack against Sepphoris a second time, before being repulsed. At length, he resisted the Roman army in its siege of Yodfat (Jotapata) until it fell to the Roman army in the lunar month of Tammuz, in the thirteenth year of Nero's reign. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat fell under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands; the survivors committed suicide. According to Josephus, he was trapped in a cave with 40 of his companions in July 67 CE. The Romans (commanded by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus, both subsequently Roman emperors) asked the group to surrender, but they refused. Josephus suggested a method of collective suicide; they drew lots and killed each other, one by one, counting to every third person. Two men were left who surrendered to the Roman forces and became prisoners. In 69 CE, Josephus was released. According to his account, he acted as a negotiator with the defenders during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, during which time his parents were held as hostages by Simon bar Giora. While being confined at Yodfat (Jotapata), Josephus claimed to have experienced a divine revelation that later led to his speech predicting Vespasian would become emperor. After the prediction came true, he was released by Vespasian, who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine. Josephus wrote that his revelation had taught him three things: that God, the creator of the Jewish people, had decided to "punish" them; that "fortune" had been given to the Romans; and that God had chosen him "to announce the things that are to come". To many Jews, such claims were simply self-serving. In 71 CE, he went to Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen and client of the ruling Flavian dynasty (hence he is often referred to as Flavius Josephus). In addition to Roman citizenship, he was granted accommodation in conquered Judaea and a pension. While in Rome and under Flavian patronage, Josephus wrote all of his known works. Although he uses "Josephus", he appears to have taken the Roman praenomen Titus and nomen Flavius from his patrons. Vespasian arranged for Josephus to marry a captured Jewish woman, whom he later divorced. About 71 CE, Josephus married an Alexandrian Jewish woman as his third wife. They had three sons, of whom only Flavius Hyrcanus survived childhood. Josephus later divorced his third wife. Around 75 CE, he married his fourth wife, a Greek Jewish woman from Crete, who was a member of a distinguished family. They had a happy married life and two sons, Flavius Justus and Flavius Simonides Agrippa. Josephus's life story remains ambiguous. He was described by Harris in 1985 as a law-observant Jew who believed in the compatibility of Judaism and Graeco-Roman thought, commonly referred to as Hellenistic Judaism. Before the 19th century, the scholar Nitsa Ben-Ari notes that his work was banned as those of a traitor, whose work was not to be studied or translated into Hebrew. His critics were never satisfied as to why he failed to commit suicide in Galilee, and after his capture, accepted the patronage of Romans. The historian E. Mary Smallwood writes critically of Josephus: [Josephus] was conceited, not only about his own learning, but also about the opinions held of him as commander both by the Galileans and by the Romans; he was guilty of shocking duplicity at Jotapata, saving himself by sacrifice of his companions; he was too naive to see how he stood condemned out of his own mouth for his conduct, and yet no words were too harsh when he was blackening his opponents; and after landing, however involuntarily, in the Roman camp, he turned his captivity to his own advantage, and benefited for the rest of his days from his change of side. Author Joseph Raymond calls Josephus "the Jewish Benedict Arnold" for betraying his own troops at Jotapata. The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First Jewish-Roman War and also represent important literary source material for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and late Temple Judaism. Josephan scholarship in the 19th and early 20th centuries took an interest in Josephus's relationship to the sect of the Pharisees. It consistently portrayed him as a member of the sect and as a traitor to the Jewish nation—a view which became known as the classical concept of Josephus. In the mid-20th century a new generation of scholars challenged this view and formulated the modern concept of Josephus. They consider him a Pharisee but restore his reputation in part as patriot and a historian of some standing. In his 1991 book, Steve Mason argued that Josephus was not a Pharisee but an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who became associated with the philosophical school of the Pharisees as a matter of deference, and not by willing association. The works of Josephus include useful material for historians about individuals, groups, customs, and geographical places. Josephus mentions that in his day there were 240 towns and villages scattered across Upper and Lower Galilee, some of which he names. A few of the Jewish customs named by him include the practice of hanging a curtain of fine-linen at the entrance to one's house, and the Jewish custom to partake of a Sabbath-day's meal around the sixth-hour of the day (at noon). He notes also that it was permissible for Jewish men to marry many wives (polygamy). His writings provide a significant, extra-Biblical account of the post-Exilic period of the Maccabees, the Hasmonean dynasty, and the rise of Herod the Great. He describes the Sadducees, Jewish High Priests of the time, Pharisees and Essenes, the Herodian Temple, Quirinius' census and the Zealots, and such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and Agrippa II, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and Jesus (found only in the Slavonic version of the "Jewish War"). Josephus represents an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism and the context of early Christianity. A careful reading of Josephus's writings and years of excavation allowed Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, to discover what he considered to be the location of Herod's Tomb, after searching for 35 years. It was above aqueducts and pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to the Herodium, 12 km south of Jerusalem—as described in Josephus's writings. In October 2013, archaeologists Joseph Patrich and Benjamin Arubas challenged the identification of the tomb as that of Herod. According to Patrich and Arubas, the tomb is too modest to be Herod's and has several unlikely features. Roi Porat, who replaced Netzer as excavation leader after the latter's death, stood by the identification. Josephus's writings provide the first-known source for many stories considered as Biblical history, despite not being found in the Bible or related material. These include Ishmael as the founder of the Arabs, the connection of "Semites", "Hamites" and "Japhetites" to the classical nations of the world, and the story of the Siege of Masada. For many years, the works of Josephus were largely known in Europe only in an imperfect Latin translation from the original Greek. Only in 1544 did a version of the standard Greek text become available in French, edited by the Dutch humanist Arnoldus Arlenius. The first English translation, by Thomas Lodge, appeared in 1602, with subsequent editions appearing throughout the 17th century. The 1544 Greek edition formed the basis of the 1732 English translation by William Whiston, which achieved enormous popularity in the English-speaking world. It was often the book—after the Bible—that Christians most frequently owned. A cross-reference apparatus for Whiston's version of Josephus and the biblical canon also exists. Whiston claimed that certain works by Josephus had a similar style to the Epistles of St Paul. Later editions of the Greek text include that of Benedikt Niese, who made a detailed examination of all the available manuscripts, mainly from France and Spain. Henry St. John Thackeray used Niese's version for the Loeb Classical Library edition widely used today. The standard "editio maior" of the various Greek manuscripts is that of Benedictus Niese, published 1885–95. The text of "Antiquities" is damaged in some places. In the "Life", Niese follows mainly manuscript P, but refers also to AMW and R. Henry St. John Thackeray for the Loeb Classical Library has a Greek text also mainly dependent on P. André Pelletier edited a new Greek text for his translation of "Life". The ongoing Münsteraner Josephus-Ausgabe of Münster University will provide a new critical apparatus. There also exist late Old Slavonic translations of the Greek, but these contain a large number of Christian interpolations. Scholars debate about Josephus's intended audience. For example, "Antiquities of the Jews" could be written for Jews—"a few scholars from Laqueur onward have suggested that Josephus must have written primarily for fellow-Jews (if also secondarily for Gentiles). The most common motive suggested is repentance: in later life he felt so badly about the traitorous "War" that he needed to demonstrate … his loyalty to Jewish history, law and culture." However, Josephus's "countless incidental remarks explaining basic Judean language, customs and laws … assume a Gentile audience. He does not expect his first hearers to know anything about the laws or Judean origins." The issue of who would read this multi-volume work is unresolved. Other possible motives for writing "Antiquities" could be to dispel the misrepresentation of Jewish origins or as an apologetic to Greek cities of the Diaspora in order to protect Jews and to Roman authorities to garner their support for the Jews facing persecution. Neither motive explains why the proposed Gentile audience would read this large body of material. In the Preface to "Jewish Wars", Josephus criticizes historians who misrepresent the events of the Jewish–Roman War, writing that "they have a mind to demonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish and lessen the actions of the Jews." Josephus states that his intention is to correct this method but that he "will not go to the other extreme … [and] will prosecute the actions of both parties with accuracy." Josephus suggests his method will not be wholly objective by saying he will be unable to contain his lamentations in transcribing these events; to illustrate this will have little effect on his historiography, Josephus suggests, "But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only." His preface to "Antiquities" offers his opinion early on, saying, "Upon the whole, a man that will peruse this history, may principally learn from it, that all events succeed well, even to an incredible degree, and the reward of felicity is proposed by God." After inserting this attitude, Josephus contradicts himself: "I shall accurately describe what is contained in our records, in the order of time that belongs to them … without adding any thing to what is therein contained, or taking away any thing therefrom." He notes the difference between history and philosophy by saying, "[T]hose that read my book may wonder how it comes to pass, that my discourse, which promises an account of laws and historical facts, contains so much of philosophy." In both works, Josephus emphasizes that accuracy is crucial to historiography. Louis H. Feldman notes that in "Wars", Josephus commits himself to critical historiography, but in "Antiquities", Josephus shifts to rhetorical historiography, which was the norm of his time. Feldman notes further that it is significant that Josephus called his later work "Antiquities" (literally, archaeology) rather than history; in the Hellenistic period, archaeology meant either "history from the origins or archaic history." Thus, his title implies a Jewish peoples' history from their origins until the time he wrote. This distinction is significant to Feldman, because "in ancient times, historians were expected to write in chronological order," while "antiquarians wrote in a systematic order, proceeding topically and logically" and included all relevant material for their subject. Antiquarians moved beyond political history to include institutions and religious and private life. Josephus does offer this wider perspective in "Antiquities". To compare his historiography with another ancient historian, consider Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Feldman lists these similarities: "Dionysius in praising Rome and Josephus in praising Jews adopt same pattern; both often moralize and psychologize and stress piety and role of divine providence; and the parallels between … Dionysius's account of deaths of Aeneas and Romulus and Josephus's description of the death of Moses are striking." The works of Josephus are major sources of our understanding of Jewish life and history during the first century. His first work in Rome was an account of the Jewish War, addressed to certain "upper barbarians"—usually thought to be the Jewish community in Mesopotamia—in his "paternal tongue" ("War" I.3), arguably the Western Aramaic language. In 78 CE he finished a seven-volume account in Greek known as the "Jewish War" (Latin "Bellum Judaicum" or "De Bello Judaico"). It starts with the period of the Maccabees and concludes with accounts of the fall of Jerusalem, and the subsequent fall of the fortresses of Herodion, Macharont and Masada and the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the empire and the uprising in Cyrene. Together with the account in his "Life" of some of the same events, it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus's own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from a brief visit to Rome in the early 60s ("Life" 13–17). In the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Josephus would have witnessed the marches of Titus's triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and carrying treasures from the despoiled Temple in Jerusalem. It was against this background that Josephus wrote his "War", claiming to be countering anti-Judean accounts. He disputes the claim that the Jews served a defeated God and were naturally hostile to Roman civilization. Rather, he blames the Jewish War on what he calls "unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics" among the Jews, who led the masses away from their traditional aristocratic leaders (like himself), with disastrous results. Josephus also blames some of the Roman governors of Judea, representing them as corrupt and incompetent administrators. According to Josephus, the traditional Jew was, should be, and can be a loyal and peace-loving citizen. Jews can, and historically have, accepted Rome's hegemony precisely because their faith declares that God himself gives empires their power. The next work by Josephus is his twenty-one volume "Antiquities of the Jews", completed during the last year of the reign of the Emperor Flavius Domitian, around 93 or 94 CE. In expounding Jewish history, law and custom, he is entering into many philosophical debates current in Rome at that time. Again he offers an "apologia" for the antiquity and universal significance of the Jewish people. Josephus claims to be writing this history because he "saw that others perverted the truth of those actions in their writings," those writings being the history of the Jews. In terms of some of his sources for the project, Josephus says that he drew from and "interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures" and that he was an eyewitness to the wars between the Jews and the Romans, which were earlier recounted in "Jewish Wars". He outlines Jewish history beginning with the creation, as passed down through Jewish historical tradition. Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who, in turn, taught the Greeks. Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which, like that of Rome, resisted monarchy. The great figures of the Tanakh are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders. He includes an autobiographical appendix defending his conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces. Louis H. Feldman outlines the difference between calling this work "Antiquities of the Jews" instead of "History of the Jews". Although Josephus says that he describes the events contained in "Antiquities" "in the order of time that belongs to them," Feldman argues that Josephus "aimed to organize [his] material systematically rather than chronologically" and had a scope that "ranged far beyond mere political history to political institutions, religious and private life." Josephus's "Against Apion" is a two-volume defence of Judaism as classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity, as opposed to what Josephus claimed was the relatively more recent tradition of the Greeks. Some anti-Judaic allegations ascribed by Josephus to the Greek writer Apion and myths accredited to Manetho are also addressed.

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Jan Borukowski Jan Borukowski of Bielin (1524–1584) was the Bishop of Przemyśl, and was the royal secretary of Poland from 1553. In 1569, he signed the act of annexation of Podlaskie, Volhynia and Kiev to the kingdom during Sejm in Lublin.

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Judy Blume Judy Blume (born Judith Sussman; February 12, 1938) is an American writer of children's, young adult (YA) and adult fiction. Some of her best known works are "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." (1970), "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" (1972), "Deenie" (1973), and "Blubber" (1974). "The New Yorker" has called her books "talismans that, for a significant segment of the American female population, marked the passage from childhood to adolescence." Publishing her first novel in 1969, Blume was one of the first authors to write YA novels about topics that some still consider to be taboo including masturbation, menstruation, teen sex, birth control, and death. She was a catalyst for the movement of controversial topics being expressed in children's and/or YA literature. Blume expressed how adults were not honest with her about this information she shares with her readers. This has led to criticism from individuals and groups that would like to see her books banned. This controversy has led to the American Library Association (ALA) naming Blume as one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century. Despite her critics, Blume's books have sold over 82 million copies and they've been translated into 32 languages. She has won a number of awards for her writing, including ALA's Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to young adult literature. She was recognized as a Library of Congress Living Legend and she was awarded the 2004 National Book Foundation medal for distinguished contribution to American letters. Blume was born on February 12, 1938, and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the daughter of homemaker Esther (née Rosenfeld) and dentist Rudolph Sussman. She has a brother, David, who is five years older. Her family was Jewish. Blume has recalled, "I spent most of my childhood making up stories inside of my head." She graduated from Battin High School in 1956, then enrolled in Boston University. In the first semester, she was diagnosed with mononucleosis and took a brief leave from school before graduating from New York University in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in Education. In 1951 and 1952, there were three airplane crashes in her hometown of Elizabeth. 118 people died in the crashes, and Blume's father, who was a dentist, helped to identify the unrecognizable remains. Blume says she "buried" these memories until she began writing her 2015 novel "In the Unlikely Event", the plot of which revolves around the crashes. A lifelong avid reader, Blume first began writing when her children were attending preschool, and she was living in the New Jersey communities of Plainfield and Scotch Plains. She published her first book, "The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo", in 1969. The decade that followed proved to be her most prolific, with 13 more books being published, including many of her most well-known titles, such as "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." (1970), "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" (1972), "Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great" (1972), and "Blubber" (1974). After publishing novels for young children and teens, Blume tackled another genre—adult reality and death. Her novels "Wifey" (1978) and "Smart Women" (1983) reached the top of "The New York Times" Best Seller list. "Wifey" became a bestseller with over 4 million copies sold. Blume's third adult novel, "Summer Sisters" (1998), was widely praised and sold more than three million copies. It spent 5 months on "The New York Times" Bestseller list, with the hardcover reaching #3 and the paperback spent several weeks at #1. Several of Blume's books appear on the list of top all-time bestselling children's books. Blume's books have sold over 82 million copies and they've been translated into 32 languages. Judy Blume has won more than 90 literary awards, including three lifetime achievement awards in the US. The ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". Blume won the annual award in 1996 citing the single book "Forever," published in 1975. According to the citation, "She broke new ground in her frank portrayal of Michael and Katherine, high school seniors who are in love for the first time. Their love and sexuality are described in an open, realistic manner and with great compassion." In April 2000 the Library of Congress named her to its "Living Legends" in the Writers and Artists category for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage. In 2004 she received the annual Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Medal of the National Book Foundation as someone who "has enriched [American] literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work." The film version of Blume's 1981 novel "Tiger Eyes" was directed by the author's son, Lawrence Blume. Released in 2012, it stars Willa Holland as Davey and Amy Jo Johnson as Gwen Wexler. Blume has championed intellectual freedom throughout her career, serving as an advocate against book banning and media censorship. In the 1980s, she began reaching out to other writers, as well as teachers and librarians, to join the cause. This led to Blume joining the National Coalition Against Censorship. All of her efforts go into helping protect the freedom to read. She is also the founder and trustee of a charitable and education foundation, called "The Kids Fund." Blume serves on the board for other organizations such as, "the Author's Guild; the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; the Key West Literary Seminar; and the National Coalition Against Censorship." In October 2017, Yale University acquired Blume's archive, which included some unpublished early work. On August 15, 1959, in the summer of her senior year of college, she married John M. Blume, whom she had met while a student at New York University. He became a lawyer, while she was a homemaker before supporting her family by teaching and writing. They had two children: Randy, a therapist (born 1961); and Lawrence Andrew, a filmmaker (born 1963). The couple were divorced in 1975. Blume later described the marriage as "suffocating", although she maintained her first husband's surname. Blume has stated that Lawrence was the inspiration for the character of "Fudge". Blume has one grandchild from her daughter, Randy – a grandson named Elliot Kephart. Elliot is credited with encouraging his grandmother to write the most recent "Fudge" books. Shortly after her separation, she met Thomas A. Kitchens, a physicist. The couple married in 1976, and they moved to New Mexico for Kitchens' work. They divorced in 1979. She later spoke about their split: "It was a disaster, a total disaster. After a couple years, I got out. I cried every day. Anyone who thinks my life is cupcakes is all wrong." A mutual friend introduced her to George Cooper, a former law professor turned non-fiction writer. Blume and Cooper were married in 1987. Cooper has one daughter, Amanda, from a previous marriage. They resided in Key West. Blume announced she was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2012 after undergoing a routine ultrasound as she was preparing to leave for a five-week trip to Italy. She stated that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer 17 years earlier, and had a subsequent hysterectomy. Blume's novels for teenagers tackled racism ("Iggie's House"), religion,menstruation ("Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."), divorce ("It's Not the End of the World", "Just as Long as We're Together"), bullying ("Blubber"), masturbation ("Deenie", "Then Again, Maybe I Won't"), sexuality ("Forever"), and family issues ("Here's to You, Rachel Robinson"). Blume has used these subjects to generate discussion, but they have also been the source of controversy regarding age-appropriate reading. Blume is the subject of the 2018 song "Judy Blume" by Amanda Palmer. Thematically, the song cultivates in the listener an understanding of Blume's role in Palmer's adolescent life, Blume's books influential in Palmer's understanding of intimate and female-centered subjects such as puberty, menstruation, and the male gaze, and universal subjects like molestation, eating disorders, poverty, grief, and parental divorce.

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Joel Marangella Joel Marangella is an American oboist who has performed in concert with many of the world's leading orchestras. A founding member of the Speculum Musicae, he was the principal oboist for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and a founding member of the New Music Ensemble. Marangella was born in Washington D.C. and first studied in France with Fernand Eché at the Conservatoire National de Musique d’Orléans, and later with Pierre Pierlot, Maurice Bourgue, and Etienne Baudo at the Conservatoire de Paris. He pursued further studies at the Juilliard School in New York City, earning both bachelor's and master's degrees in music. While there he was a member of the Juilliard Ensemble under the direction of Luciano Berio, performing with them not only in New York but also the University of Hawaii and Dartmouth College. In 1971 Marangella won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions which led to his recital debut at Carnegie Hall. That same year he helped form the Speculum Musicae. He soon began to perform with notable music groups throughout the United States, notably playing the American premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s "Double Concerto" with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He has also appeared at several chamber music festivals, including the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds in Italy. Marangella has served as principal oboist for numerous ballet orchestras throughout his career. Former posts include Principal Oboe with the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet. More recently Marangella's career has been centered in Australia. He has appeared as a soloist for all the major Australian orchestras, and has been Guest Principal Oboe with the Sydney Symphony.

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Joel Marangella

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John Pople Sir John Anthony Pople (31 October 1925 – 15 March 2004) was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. Pople was born in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, and attended the Bristol Grammar School. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1943. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1946. Between 1945 and 1947 he worked at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. He then returned to the University of Cambridge and was awarded his PhD in mathematics in 1951 on lone pair electrons. After obtaining his PhD, he was a research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge and then from 1954 a lecturer in the mathematics faculty at Cambridge. In 1958, he moved to the National Physical Laboratory, near London as head of the new basics physics division. He moved to the United States of America in 1964, where he lived the rest of his life, though he retained British citizenship. Pople considered himself more of a mathematician than a chemist, but theoretical chemists consider him one of the most important of their number. In 1964 he moved to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he had experienced a sabbatical in 1961 to 1962. In 1993 he moved to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he was Trustees Professor of Chemistry until his death. Pople's major scientific contributions were in four different areas: Pople's early paper on the statistical mechanics of water, according to Michael J. Frisch, "remained the standard for many years. This was his thesis topic for his PhD at Cambridge supervised by John Lennard-Jones. In the early days of nuclear magnetic resonance he studied the underlying theory, and in 1959 he co-authored the textbook "High Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance" with W.G. Schneider and H.J. Bernstein. He made major contributions to the theory of approximate molecular orbital (MO) calculations, starting with one identical to the one developed by Rudolph Pariser and Robert G. Parr on pi electron systems, and now called the Pariser-Parr-Pople method. Subsequently, he developed the methods of Complete Neglect of Differential Overlap (CNDO) (in 1965) and Intermediate Neglect of Differential Overlap (INDO) for approximate MO calculations on three-dimensional molecules, and other developments in computational chemistry. In 1970 he and David Beveridge coauthored the book "Approximate Molecular Orbital Theory" describing these methods. Pople pioneered the development of more sophisticated computational methods, called ab initio quantum chemistry methods, that use basis sets of either Slater type orbitals or Gaussian orbitals to model the wave function. While in the early days these calculations were extremely expensive to perform, the advent of high speed microprocessors has made them much more feasible today. He was instrumental in the development of one of the most widely used computational chemistry packages, the Gaussian suite of programs, including coauthorship of the first version, Gaussian 70. One of his most important original contributions is the concept of a model chemistry whereby a method is rigorously evaluated across a range of molecules. His research group developed the quantum chemistry composite methods such as Gaussian-1 (G1) and Gaussian-2 (G2). In 1991, Pople stopped working on Gaussian and several years later he developed (with others) the Q-Chem computational chemistry program. Prof. Pople's departure from Gaussian, along with the subsequent banning of many prominent scientists, including himself, from using the software gave rise to considerable controversy among the quantum chemistry community. The Gaussian molecular orbital methods were described in the 1986 book "Ab initio molecular orbital theory" by Warren Hehre, Leo Radom, Paul v.R. Schleyer and Pople. Pople received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1961. He was made a Knight Commander (KBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. He was a founding member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. An IT room and a scholarship are named after him at Bristol Grammar School, as is a supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Pople married Joy Bowers in 1952 and was married until her death from cancer in 2002. Pople died of liver cancer in Chicago in 2004. He was survived by his daughter Hilary, and sons Adrian, Mark and Andrew. In accordance with his wishes, Pople's Nobel Medal was given to Carnegie Mellon University by his family on 5 October 2009.

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Jerry Falwell Sr. Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr. (; August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967 and Liberty University in 1971 and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979. On May 15, 2007, Falwell died suddenly of cardiac arrhythmia in his office at Liberty University at the age of 73. He was buried in the grounds of the university he founded. Falwell and his twin brother Gene were born in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, Virginia on August 11, 1933, the sons of Helen Virginia ("née" Beasley) and Carey Hezekiah Falwell. His father was an entrepreneur and one-time bootlegger who was agnostic. His grandfather was a staunch atheist. Jerry Falwell married the former Macel Pate on April 12, 1958. The couple had sons Jerry Jr. (a lawyer, now chancellor of Liberty University) and Jonathan (senior pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church) and a daughter Jeannie (a surgeon). Falwell and his wife had a close relationship, and she supported him throughout his career. The Falwells often appeared together in public, and they did not shy away from showing physical affection. Reflecting on his marriage, Falwell jokingly commented, "Macel and I have never considered divorce. Murder maybe, but never divorce." Macel appreciated her husband's non-combative, affable nature, writing in her book that he "hated confrontation and didn't want strife in our home... he did everything in his power to make me happy." The Falwells were married nearly fifty years until his death. He graduated from Brookville High School in Lynchburg, and from the then-unaccredited Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri in 1956. Falwell was later awarded three honorary doctoral degrees: Doctor of Divinity from Tennessee Temple Theological Seminary, Doctor of Letters from California Graduate School of Theology, and Doctor of Laws from Central University in Seoul, South Korea. In 1956, aged 22, Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church. Originally located at 701 Thomas Road in Lynchburg, Virginia, with 35 members, the church became a megachurch. In the same year, he began the "Old Time Gospel Hour", a nationally syndicated radio and television ministry. When Falwell died, his son Jonathan became heir to his father's ministry, and took over as the senior pastor of the church. At this time, the weekly program's name was changed to "Thomas Road Live". During the 1950s and 1960s, Falwell spoke and campaigned against the U.S. civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and the racial desegregation of public school systems by the U.S. federal government. Liberty Christian Academy (LCA, founded as Lynchburg Christian Academy) is a Christian school in Lynchburg which was described in 1966 by the "Lynchburg News" as "a private school for white students." The Lynchburg Christian Academy later opened in 1967 by Falwell as a segregation academy and as a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church. The Liberty Christian Academy is today recognized as an educational facility by the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Virginia State Board of Education, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Association of Christian Schools International. In 1971, Jerry Falwell Sr. co-founded Liberty University with Elmer L. Towns. Liberty University offers over 350 accredited programs of study, with approximately 13,000 residential students and 90,000 online. By 1974, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) moved to revoke the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University, which forbade interracial dating (blacks had been denied entry until 1971). The decisions infuriated Falwell. "In some states it's easier to open a massage parlor than to open a Christian school", Falwell complained. What brought Falwell and other white evangelicals into common cause with political conservatives was a ruling issued in 1978 by the IRS. This ruling stripped tax-exempt status from all-white private schools formed in the South in reaction to the "Brown v. Board of Education" Supreme Court ruling to desegregate public schools. Falwell had founded one of these schools in Lynchburg, though he and other white evangelicals insisted that their schools were Christian academies, not segregation academies. "In one fell swoop," writes political scientist Corey Robin, "the heirs of slaveholders became the descendants of persecuted Baptists, and Jim Crow a heresy the First Amendment was meant to protect." In this controversy, the Religious Right found its voice and its power. It also found common cause with political conservatives. The Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich said Falwell launched the Moral Majority political action committee during 1979 to aid the Catholic public protest against legal abortion in the United States in response to U.S. President Jimmy Carter's "intervention against Christian schools" [the IRS intervention began during the Ford Administration] by "trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called "de facto" segregation". The Moral Majority became one of the largest political lobby groups for evangelical Christians in the United States during the 1980s. According to Falwell's self-published autobiography, the Moral Majority was promoted as being "pro-life", "pro-traditional family", "pro-moral" and "pro-American" and was credited with delivering two thirds of the white, evangelical Christian vote to Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential election. According to Jimmy Carter, "that autumn [1980] a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian." During his time as head of the Moral Majority, Falwell consistently pushed for Republican candidates and for conservative politics. This led Billy Graham to criticize him for "sermonizing" about political issues that lacked a moral element, before adding, "We did not always agree on everything, but I knew him to be a man of God. His accomplishments went beyond most clergy of his generation." In March 1987, Pentecostal televangelist Jim Bakker became the subject of media scrutiny when it was revealed that he had a sexual encounter (and alleged rape) with Jessica Hahn and had paid for her silence. Bakker believed that fellow Pentecostal pastor Jimmy Swaggart was attempting to take over his ministry because he had initiated a church investigation into allegations of his sexual misconduct. To avoid the takeover, Bakker resigned on March 19 and appointed Falwell to succeed him as head of his PTL ministry, which included the PTL Satellite Network, television program "The PTL Club" and the Christian-themed amusement park Heritage USA. Bakker believed Falwell would temporarily lead the ministry until the scandal died down, but Falwell barred Bakker from returning to PTL on April 28, and referred to him as "probably the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history". Later that summer, as donations to the ministry declined in the wake of Bakker's scandal and resignation, Falwell raised $20 million to keep PTL solvent and delivered on a promise to ride the water slide at Heritage USA. Despite this, Falwell was unable to bring the ministry out of bankruptcy and he resigned in October 1987. Falwell strongly advocated beliefs and practices he believed were taught by the Bible. The church, Falwell asserted, was the cornerstone of a successful family. Not only was it a place for spiritual learning and guidance, it was also a gathering place for fellowship and socializing with like-minded individuals. Often he built conversations he had with parishioners after the worship service into focused speeches or organized goals he would then present to a larger audience via his various media outlets. Falwell found the Vietnam war problematic because he felt it was being fought with "limited political objectives", when it should have been an all out war against the North. In general, Falwell held that the president "as a minister of God" has the right to use arms to "bring wrath upon those who would do evil." On his evangelist program "The Old-Time Gospel Hour" in the mid 1960s, Falwell regularly featured segregationist politicians like Lester Maddox and George Wallace. About Martin Luther King he said: "I do question the sincerity and nonviolent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations." In speaking of the "Brown v. Board of Education" ruling, he said, in 1958: In 1977, Falwell supported Anita Bryant's campaign, which was called by its proponents "Save Our Children", to overturn an ordinance in Dade County, Florida prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and he supported a similar movement in California. Twenty-eight years later, during a 2005 MSNBC television appearance, Falwell said he was not troubled by reports that the nominee for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John G. Roberts (whose appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate) had done volunteer legal work for homosexual rights activists on the case of "Romer v. Evans". Falwell told MSNBC's Tucker Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for LGBT people. "I may not agree with the lifestyle, but that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that part of our constituency," Falwell said. When Carlson countered that conservatives "are always arguing against 'special rights' for gays," Falwell said equal access to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights. "Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value. It's an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on." Falwell's staunch pro-Israel stand, sometimes referred to as "Christian Zionism", drew the strong support of the Anti-Defamation League and its leader Abraham Foxman. However, they condemned what they perceived as intolerance towards Muslims in Falwell's public statements. They also criticized him for remarking that "Jews can make more money accidentally than you can on purpose." In his book "Listen, America!" Falwell referred to the Jewish people as "spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior." In the 1984 book "Jerry Falwell and the Jews", Falwell is quoted saying: "I feel that the destiny of the state of Israel is without question the most crucial international matter facing the world today. I believe that the people of Israel have not only a theological but also a historical and legal right to the land [of Palestine]. I am personally a Zionist, having gained that perspective from my belief in Old Testament Scriptures. I have also visited Israel many times. I have arrived at the conclusion that unless the United States maintains its unswerving devotion to the State of Israel, the very survival of that nation is at stake... Every American who agrees Israel has the right to the land must be willing to exert all possible pressure on the powers that be to guarantee America's support of the State of Israel at this time." Falwell repeatedly denounced certain teachings in public schools and secular education in general, calling them breeding grounds for atheism, secularism, and humanism, which he claimed to be in contradiction with Christian morality. He advocated that the United States change its public education system by implementing a school voucher system which would allow parents to send their children to either public or private schools. In his book "America Can Be Saved" he wrote that "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them." Falwell supported President George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative, but had strong reservations concerning where the funding would go and the restrictions placed on churches. "My problem is where it might go under his successors. ... I would not want to put any of the Jerry Falwell Ministries in a position where we might be subservient to a future Bill Clinton, God forbid. ... It also concerns me that once the pork barrel is filled, suddenly the Church of Scientology, the Jehovah Witnesses "", the various and many denominations and religious groups—and I don't say those words in a pejorative way—begin applying for money—and I don't see how any can be turned down because of their radical and unpopular views. I don't know where that would take us." In the 1980s Falwell said sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa would result in what, he felt, would be a worse situation, such as a Soviet-backed revolution. He also urged his followers to buy up gold Krugerrands and push U.S. "reinvestment" in South Africa. In 1985 he drew the ire of many when he called Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a phony "as far as representing the black people of South Africa". In 1994, Falwell promoted and distributed the video documentary "The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton". The video purported to connect Bill Clinton to a murder conspiracy involving Vince Foster, James McDougall, Ron Brown, and a cocaine-smuggling operation. The theory was discredited, but the recording sold more than 150,000 copies. The film's production costs were partly met by "Citizens for Honest Government", to which Falwell paid $200,000 in 1994 and 1995. In 1995 Citizens for Honest Government interviewed Arkansas state troopers Roger Perry and Larry Patterson regarding the murder conspiracy about Vincent Foster. Perry and Patterson also gave information regarding the allegations in the Paula Jones affair. The infomercial for the 80-minute videotape included footage of Falwell interviewing a silhouetted journalist who claimed to be afraid for his life. The journalist accused Clinton of orchestrating the deaths of several reporters and personal confidants who had gotten too close to his supposed illegal activities. The silhouetted journalist was subsequently revealed to be Patrick Matrisciana, the producer of the video and president of Citizens for Honest Government. "Obviously, I'm not an investigative reporter", Matrisciana admitted to investigative journalist Murray Waas. Later, Falwell seemed to back away from personally trusting the video. In an interview for the 2005 documentary "The Hunting of the President", Falwell admitted, "to this day I do not know the accuracy of the claims made in "The Clinton Chronicles"." Falwell condemned homosexuality as forbidden by the Bible. Gay rights groups called Falwell an "agent of intolerance" and "the founder of the anti-gay industry" for statements he had made and for campaigning against LGBT social movements. Falwell supported Anita Bryant's 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign to overturn a Florida ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and a similar movement in California. In urging the repeal of the ordinance, Falwell told one crowd, "Gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you." When the LGBT-friendly Metropolitan Community Church was almost accepted into the World Council of Churches, Falwell called them "brute beasts" and stated, "this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll be a celebration in heaven." He later denied saying this. Falwell also regularly linked the AIDS pandemic to LGBT issues and stated, "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals, it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals." After comedian and actress Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian, Falwell referred to her in a sermon as "Ellen DeGenerate". DeGeneres mocked him, saying, "Really, he called me that? Ellen DeGenerate? I've been getting that since the fourth grade. I guess I'm happy I could give him work." Falwell's legacy regarding homosexuality is complicated by his support for LGBT civil rights (see "civil rights" section above), as well as his attempts to reconcile with the LGBT community in later years. In October 1999 Falwell hosted a meeting of 200 evangelicals with 200 homosexuals at Thomas Road Baptist Church for an "Anti-Violence Forum", during which he acknowledged that some American evangelicals' comments about homosexuality entered the realm of hate speech that could incite violence. At the forum, Falwell told homosexuals in attendance, "I don't agree with your lifestyle, I will never agree with your lifestyle, but I love you" and added, "Anything that leaves the impression that we hate the sinner, we want to change that." He later commented to "New York Times" columnist Frank Rich that "admittedly, evangelicals have not exhibited an ability to build a bond of friendship to the gay and lesbian community. We've said "go somewhere else, we don't need you here [at] our churches."" In February 1999, an unsigned article that media outlets attributed to Falwell was published in the "National Liberty Journal" a promotional publication of the university he founded claimed that the purple Teletubby named Tinky Winky was intended as a gay role model. An article published in 1998 by the "Salon" website had noted Tinky Winky's status as a gay icon. In response, Steve Rice, spokesperson for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the "Teletubbies" in the United States, said, "I really find it absurd and kind of offensive." The UK show was aimed at pre-school children, but the article stated "he is purple – the gay pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle – the gay-pride symbol". Apart from those characteristics Tinky Winky also carries a magic bag which the "NLJ" and "Salon" articles said was a purse. Falwell added that "role modeling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children". After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Falwell said on Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club", "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" In his opinion, LGBT organizations had angered God, thereby in part causing God to let the attacks happen. Falwell believed the attacks were "probably deserved", a statement which Christopher Hitchens described as treason. After heavy criticism, Falwell said that no one but the terrorists were to blame, and stated, "If I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize." Falwell was subsequently the object of some of his own followers' outrage for retracting his statements about divine judgment on America and its causes, because they had heard the same themes in his preaching over many years that America must repent of its lack of devotion to God, immoral living, and timid support of Israel if America wanted divine protection and blessing. Falwell has also said, "Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers." Falwell set out in his Christian ministry as a fundamentalist, having attended a conservative Bible college and following strict standards of ecclesiastical and personal separatism; he was thus known and respected in IFB circles, being praised in Christian fundamentalist publications such as "The Sword of the Lord". Though he never officially stated his rejection of this movement, the evidence of his life from the late 1970s onwards indicates that he moved toward a conservative evangelical standpoint to the right of mainline Protestantism or "open" evangelicalism but to the left of traditional, separatist fundamentalism. It was reported that he had refused to attend parties at which alcohol was served early in his life, but he relaxed this stricture as he was increasingly invited to major events through the contacts which he developed in conservative politics and religion. His foray into national politics appears to have been a catalyst for this change; when he established the Moral Majority which joined "Bible Christians" (Independent and conservative Southern Baptists) in a political alliance with Charismatics, Roman Catholics, Jews, Mormons and others and rejected the level of separation that was preached by most movement Fundamentalists. Bob Jones University declared that the Moral Majority organization "was Satanic", holding the view that it was a step towards the apostate one-world church and government body because it would cross the line from a political alliance to a religious one between true Christians and the non-born-again, which was forbidden by their interpretation of the Bible. David Cloud's Way of Life Literature also criticized Falwell for his associations with Catholics, Pentecostals and liberal Christians, tracing his alleged "apostasy" back to his role in the political Religious Right. Though he never wavered in his belief in the inerrancy of the Bible (except for moderating its alleged view of racial differences, the significance of baptism, and other concepts relative to his theology) and the doctrines which conservative Christians widely see as essential to salvation, his rhetoric generally became more mellow, less militant and comparatively more inclusive from the 1980s onwards. Cultural anthropologist Susan Friend Harding, in her extensive ethnographic study of Falwell, noted that he adapted his preaching to win a broader, less extremist audience as he grew famous. This manifested itself in several ways: For example, he no longer condemned "worldly" lifestyle choices such as dancing, drinking wine, and attending movie theaters; softening his rhetoric which predicted an apocalypse and God's vengeful wrath; and shifting from a belief in outright Biblical patriarchy to a complementarian view of appropriate gender roles. He further mainstreamed himself by aiming his strongest criticism at "secular humanists", pagans or various liberals in place of the racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic rhetoric that was common among Southern Fundamentalist preachers but increasingly condemned as hate speech by the consensus of American society. Jerry Falwell Sr. opposed Islam. According to "Asharq Al-Awsat", a pan-Arab newspaper, Falwell called Islam "satanic". In a televised interview with "60 Minutes", Falwell called Muhammad a "terrorist", to which he added: "I concluded from reading Muslim and non-Muslim writers that Muhammad was a violent man, a man of war." Falwell later apologized to Muslims for what he had said about Muhammad and affirmed that he did not necessarily intend to offend "honest and peace-loving" Muslims. However, as he refused to remove his comments about Islam from his website, the sincerity of his apology was doubted. Egyptian Christian intellectuals, in response, signed a statement in which they condemned and rejected what Falwell had said about Muhammad being a terrorist. From the 1970s on, Falwell was involved in legal matters which occupied much of his time and propelled his name recognition. In 1972, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation of bonds issued by Falwell's organizations. The SEC charged Falwell's church with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds. The church won a 1973 federal court case prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, in which the Court exonerated the church and ruled that while technical violations of law did occur, there was no proof the Church intended any wrongdoing. Falwell filed a $10 million lawsuit against "Penthouse" for publishing an article based upon interviews he gave to freelance reporters, after failing to convince a federal court to place an injunction upon the publication of that article. The suit was dismissed in Federal district court in 1981 on the grounds that the article was not defamatory or an invasion of Falwell's privacy (the Virginia courts had not recognized this privacy tort, which is recognized in other states). In 1983, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine "Hustler" carried a parody of a Campari ad, featuring a mock "interview" with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million, alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A jury rejected the invasion of privacy and libel claims, holding that the parody could not have reasonably been taken to describe true events, but ruled in favor of Falwell on the emotional distress claim and awarded damages of $200,000. This was upheld on appeal. Flynt then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously held that the First Amendment prevents public figures from recovering damages for emotional distress caused by parodies. After Falwell's death, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell. My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling. In 1984, Falwell was ordered to pay gay rights activist and former Baptist Bible College classmate Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle. In July 1984 during a TV debate in Sacramento, California, Falwell denied calling the homosexual-friendly Metropolitan Community Churches "brute beasts" and "a vile and Satanic system" that will "one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven". When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it. Sloan did, Falwell refused to pay, and Sloan successfully sued. The money was donated to build Sacramento's first homosexual community center, the Lambda Community Center, serving "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex" communities. Falwell appealed the decision with his attorney charging that the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced. He lost again and was made to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees. In "Lamparello v. Falwell", a dispute over the ownership of the Internet domain "fallwell.com", the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed an earlier District Court decision, arguing that Christopher Lamparello, who owned the domain, "clearly created his website intending only to provide a forum to criticize ideas, not to steal customers." Lamparello's website describes itself as not being connected to Jerry Falwell and is critical of Falwell's views on homosexuality. On April 17, 2006, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the Court of Appeals ruling that Lamparello's usage of the domain was legal. Previous to this, a different man had turned over "" and "jerryfallwell.com" after Falwell threatened to sue for trademark infringement. Lawyers for Public Citizen Litigation Group's Internet Free Speech project represented the domain name owners in both cases. On July 31, 2006, Cable News Network's (CNN) "Paula Zahn Now" program featured a segment on "whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world". In an interview Falwell claimed, "I believe in the premillennial, pre-tribulational coming of Christ for all of his church, and to summarize that, your first poll, do you believe Jesus' coming the second time will be in the future, I would vote yes with the 59 percent and with Billy Graham and most evangelicals." Based on this and other statements, Falwell has been identified as a Dispensationalist. In 1999, Falwell declared the Antichrist would probably arrive within a decade and "of course he'll be Jewish". After accusations of anti-Semitism Falwell apologized and explained he was simply expressing the theological tenet that the Antichrist and Christ share many attributes. In early 2005, Falwell was hospitalized for two weeks with a viral infection, discharged, and then rehospitalized on May 30, 2005, in respiratory arrest. He was subsequently released from the hospital and returned to his duties. Later in 2005, a stent was implanted to treat a 70 percent blockage in his coronary arteries. On May 15, 2007, Falwell was found without pulse and unconscious in his office at about 10:45 a.m., after he missed a morning appointment, and was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. "I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast ... He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive," said Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University. His condition was initially reported as "gravely serious"; CPR was administered unsuccessfully. As of 2:10 p.m., during a live press conference, a doctor for the hospital confirmed that Falwell had died of "cardiac arrhythmia, or sudden cardiac death". A statement issued by the hospital reported he was pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital at 12:40 p.m., EST, at the age of 73. Falwell's family, including his wife, the former Macel Pate (1933–2015), and sons, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Jonathan Falwell, were at the hospital at the time of the pronouncement. Falwell's funeral took place on May 22, 2007, at Thomas Road Baptist Church after he lay in repose both at the church and at Liberty University. Falwell's burial service was private. He is interred at a spot on the Liberty University campus near the Carter Glass Mansion and Falwell's office. Buried nearby is his mentor, B. R. Lakin. After his death, his sons succeeded him at his two positions; Jerry Falwell Jr. took over as president of Liberty University while Jonathan Falwell became the senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. His daughter, Jeannie F. Savas, is a surgeon. The last televised interview with Jerry Falwell Sr. was conducted by Christiane Amanpour for the CNN original series "CNN Presents: God's Warriors." He had been interviewed on May 8, one week before his death; in the interview he revealed that he had asked God for at least 20 more years in order to accomplish his vision for the university he founded. Falwell's last televised sermon was his May 13, 2007, message on Mother's Day. Views on Falwell's legacy are mixed. Supporters praise his advancement of his socially conservative message. They also tout his evangelist ministries, and his stress on church planting and growth. Conversely, many of his detractors have accused him of hate speech and identified him as an "agent of intolerance". Social commentator and antitheist Christopher Hitchens described his work as "Chaucerian fraud" and a "faith-based fraud." Hitchens took special umbrage with Falwell's alignment with "the most thuggish and demented Israeli settlers", and his declaration that 9/11 represented God's judgment on America's sinful behaviour; deeming it "extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the 'faith-based.'" Hitchens also mentioned that, despite his support for Israel, Falwell "kept saying to his own crowd, yes, you have got to like the Jews, because they can make more money in 10 minutes than you can make in a lifetime". Appearing on CNN a day after Falwell's death, Hitchens said, "The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing: that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called 'reverend'." At one point, prank callers, especially gay activists, constituted an estimated 25% of Falwell's total calls, until the ministry disconnected the toll-free number in 1986. Edward Johnson, in the mid-1980s, programmed his Atari home computer to make thousands of repeat phone calls to Falwell's 1–800 phone number, since Johnson claimed Falwell had swindled large amounts of money from his followers, including Johnson's own mother. Southern Bell forced Johnson to stop after he had run up Falwell's telephone bill an estimated $500,000. His son, Jerry Falwell Jr., is an American lawyer and university administrator, serving as the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia since his father's death. He is an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, both before and since his election as President of the United States.

en.wikipedia.org

Jerry Falwell Sr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16504

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Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and former late-night television host. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled "The Jay Leno Show", which aired weeknights at 10:00pm ET, also on NBC. After "The Jay Leno Show" was canceled in January 2010 amid a host controversy, Leno returned to host "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of "The Tonight Show" on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Since 2014, Leno has hosted "Jay Leno's Garage". Leno was born April 28, 1950 in New Rochelle, New York. His homemaker mother, Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993), was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. His father, Angelo (1910–1994), was an insurance salesman who was born in New York, to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated from Andover High School. Leno obtained a bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973. His older brother, Patrick (May 12, 1940 – October 6, 2002), was a Vietnam War veteran who worked as an attorney. Leno made his first appearance on "The Tonight Show" on March 2, 1977, performing a comedy routine. During the 1970s, Leno appeared in minor roles in several television series and films, first in the 1976 episode "J.J. in Trouble" of "Good Times" and the same year in the pilot of "Holmes & Yo-Yo". After an uncredited appearance in the 1977 film "Fun with Dick and Jane", he played more prominent roles in 1978 in "American Hot Wax" and "Silver Bears". Other films and television series from that period include "Almost Heaven" (1978), "Going Nowhere" (1979) from "One Day at a Time", "Americathon" (1979), "Polyester" (1981), "The Wild One" (1981) from "Alice", and both "Feminine Mistake" (1979) and "Do the Carmine" (1983) from "Laverne & Shirley". Leno's only starring film role was the 1989 direct-to-video "Collision Course", opposite Pat Morita. He also appeared numerous times on "Late Night with David Letterman". Starting in 1986, Leno was a regular substitute host for Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show". In 1992, he replaced Carson as host amid controversy with David Letterman, who had been hosting "Late Night with David Letterman" since 1982 (aired after "The Tonight Show"), and whom many—including Carson himself—had expected to be Carson's successor. The story of this turbulent transition was later turned into a book and a movie. Leno continued to perform as a stand-up comedian throughout his tenure on "The Tonight Show". In 2004, Leno signed a contract extension with NBC which would keep him as host of "The Tonight Show" until 2009. Later in 2004, Conan O'Brien signed a contract with NBC under which O'Brien would become the host of "The Tonight Show" in 2009, replacing Leno at that time. During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Leno was accused of violating WGA guidelines by writing his own monologue for "The Tonight Show". While NBC and Leno claim there were private meetings with the WGA where there was a secret agreement allowing this, the WGA denied such a meeting. Leno answered questions in front of the Writers Guild of America, West trial committee in February 2009 and June 2009, and when the WGAW published its list of strike-breakers on August 11, 2009, Leno was not on the list. On April 23, 2009, Leno checked himself into a hospital with an undisclosed illness. He was released the following day and returned to work on Monday, April 27. The two subsequently canceled "Tonight Show" episodes for April 23 and 24 were Leno's first in 17 years as host. Initially, the illness that caused the absence was not disclosed, but later Leno told "People" magazine it was for exhaustion. During the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson over allegations of child molestation, Leno was one of a few celebrities who appeared as a defense witness. In his testimony regarding a call by the accuser, Leno testified that he never called the police, no money was asked for, and there was no coaching – but the calls seemed unusual and scripted. As a result, Leno was initially not allowed to tell jokes about Jackson or the case, which had been a fixture of "The Tonight Show"s opening monologue in particular. But he and his show's writers used a legal loophole by having Leno briefly step aside while stand-in comedians took the stage and told jokes about the trial. Stand-ins included Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Brad Garrett, and Dennis Miller, among others. The gag order was challenged, and the court ruled that Leno could continue telling jokes about the trial as long as he did not discuss his testimony. Leno celebrated by devoting an entire monologue to Michael Jackson jokes. Because Leno's show continued to lead all late-night programming in the Nielsen ratings, the pending expiration of Leno's contract led to speculation about whether he would become a late-night host for another network after his commitment to NBC expired. Leno left "The Tonight Show" on Friday, May 29, 2009, and Conan O'Brien took over on June 1, 2009. On December 8, 2008, it was reported that Leno would remain on NBC and move to a new hour-long show at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (9 p.m. Central Time) five nights a week. This show followed a similar format to "The Tonight Show", was filmed in the same studio facility and retained many of Leno's most popular segments. "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien was his successor on "The Tonight Show". Jay Leno's new show, titled "The Jay Leno Show", debuted on September 14, 2009. It was announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that it would feature one or two celebrities, the occasional musical guest, and keep the popular "Headlines" segments, which would air near the end of the show. First guests included Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah Winfrey (via satellite), and a short sit-down with Kanye West discussing his controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, which had occurred the night before. In their new roles, neither O'Brien nor Leno succeeded in delivering the viewing audiences the network anticipated. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that beginning March 1, 2010, Jay Leno would move from his 10 p.m. weeknight time slot to 11:35 p.m., due to a combination of pressure from local affiliates whose newscasts were suffering, and both Leno's and O'Brien's poor ratings. Leno's show would be shortened from an hour to 30 minutes. All NBC late night programming would be preempted by the 2010 Winter Olympics between February 15 and 26. This would move "The Tonight Show" to 12:05  a.m., a post-midnight timeslot for the first time in its history. O'Brien's contract stipulated that NBC could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty (a clause put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions). On January 10, NBC confirmed that they would move Jay Leno out of primetime as of February 12 and intended to move him to late night as soon as possible. TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of this change, and that NBC offered him two choices: an hour-long 12:05 am time slot, or the option to leave the network. On January 12, O'Brien issued a press release that stated he would not continue with "Tonight" if it moved to a 12:05 a.m. time slot, saying, "I believe that delaying "The Tonight Show" into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. "The Tonight Show" at 12:05 simply isn't "The Tonight Show."" On January 21, it was announced that NBC had struck a deal with O'Brien. It was decided that O'Brien would leave "The Tonight Show". The deal was made that O'Brien would receive a $33 million payout and his staff of almost 200 would receive $12 million in the departure. O'Brien's final episode aired on Friday, January 22, 2010. Leno returned as host of "The Tonight Show" following the 2010 Winter Olympics on March 1, 2010. On July 1, 2010, "Variety" reported that total viewership for Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" had dropped from 5 million to 4 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009. Although this represented the lowest second-quarter ratings for the show since 1992, "Tonight" was still the most-watched late night program, ahead of ABC's "Nightline" (3.7 million) and "Late Show with David Letterman" (3.3 million). On April 3, 2013, NBC announced that Leno would leave "The Tonight Show" in spring 2014, with Jimmy Fallon as his designated successor. Leno's final show as the host of the Tonight Show was on February 6, 2014 with his final guest Billy Crystal and musical guest Garth Brooks, along with a few surprise guests, including Jack Black, Kim Kardashian, Jim Parsons, Sheryl Crow, Chris Paul, Carol Burnett, and Oprah Winfrey. Leno has maintained an active schedule as a touring stand-up comedian appearing in, on average, 200 live performances a year in venues across the United States and Canada as well as charity events and USO tours. He has also made appearances on the "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and on "Late Night with Seth Meyers", as well as being a guest on the finale of "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and doing a cameo drilling and torturing James Corden in a boot camp for talk show hosts on the premiere of "The Late Late Show with James Corden". He declined an invitation to appear on "Late Show with David Letterman" despite speculation he would make an appearance on the show's finale. Leno has hosted an hour long "Jay Leno's Garage" special on CNBC, and the show has aired as a primetime series on the cable channel since 2015. Leno has also been a cast member of the Tim Allen comedy "Last Man Standing" since season 5 (2015). He plays a mechanic named Joe Leonard in a store operated by Mike Baxter (Tim Allen). Leno has faced heated criticism and some negative publicity for his perceived role in the 2010 "Tonight Show" conflict. Critics have pointed to a 2004 "Tonight Show" clip, in which Leno said he would allow O'Brien to take over without incident. At the time, Leno stated he did not want O'Brien to leave for a competing network, adding, "I'll be 59 when [the switch occurs], that's five years from now. There's really only one person who could have done this into his 60s, and that was Johnny Carson; I think it's fair to say I'm no Johnny Carson." Leno also described "The Tonight Show" as a dynasty, saying, "You hold it and hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting." At the end of the segment, he said, "Conan, it's yours! See you in five years, buddy!" Rosie O'Donnell was among O'Brien's most vocal and vehement supporters, calling Leno a "bully" and his actions "classless and kind of career-defining". Bill Zehme, the co-author of Leno's autobiography "Leading with My Chin", told the "Los Angeles Times", "The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy." Howard Stern has also been a harsh critic of Leno before and following his "Tonight Show" timeslot change announcement; Stern appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in 2006, and told O'Brien he felt it was unlikely that Leno would ever willingly give up "The Tonight Show" to anyone. During the conflict, Stern made many negative remarks directed at Leno while on the "Late Show with David Letterman". In addition to criticism about his handling of the timeslot conflict, Leno has also been criticized for the perceived change in the content of his monologues from his previous stand-up material. Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt was among the celebrities who openly voiced disappointment with Leno, saying, "Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, 'Jay Leno sucks'; it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation ... willfully has shut the switch off." NBC Sports chairman and former "Saturday Night Live" producer Dick Ebersol spoke out against all who had mocked Leno, calling them "chicken-hearted and gutless". Jeff Gaspin, then chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, also defended Leno, saying, "This has definitely crossed the line. Jay Leno is the consummate professional and one of the hardest-working people in television. It's a shame that he's being pulled into this." Fellow comedians Paul Reiser, Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Norton (a frequent contributor to "The Tonight Show") also voiced support for Leno. Responding to the mounting criticism, Leno said NBC had assured him that O'Brien was willing to accept the proposed arrangement and that they would not let either host out of his contract. Leno also said that the situation was "all business", and that all of the decisions were made by NBC. He appeared on the January 28, 2010, episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in an attempt to repair some of the damage done to his public image. Leno's comedic influences include Johnny Carson, Robert Klein, Alan King, David Brenner, Mort Sahl, George Carlin, Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, and Rodney Dangerfield. Comedians who were influenced by Leno include: Dennis Miller and Jerry Seinfeld. Leno has been married to Mavis Leno since 1980; the couple have no children. In 1993, during his first season as host of "The Tonight Show", Leno's mother died at the age of 82 and in the following year, his father died at the age of 84. Leno's older brother Patrick Leno, a Vietnam veteran and graduate of Yale Law School, died in 2002 at the age of 62 as a result of complications from cancer. He is known for his prominent jaw, which has been described as mandibular prognathism. In the book "Leading with My Chin", he says he is aware of surgery that could reset his mandible, but does not wish to endure a prolonged healing period with his jaws wired shut. Leno is dyslexic. He claims to need only four or five hours of sleep each night. Leno does not drink or smoke, nor does he gamble. He spends much of his free time visiting car collections or working in his private garage. Leno has claimed that he has not spent any of the money he earned from "The Tonight Show". Instead, he lives off his money from his stand-up routines. Leno reportedly earned $32 million in 2005. In 2014, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Emerson College where he also delivered the Commencement speech. In 2001, he and his wife donated $100,000 to the Feminist Majority Foundation's campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan, to educate the public regarding the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Mavis Leno is on the board of the Feminist Majority. In 2009, he donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund at Salem State College (now Salem State University) in honor of Lennie Sogoloff, who gave Leno his start at his jazz club, Lennie's-on-the-Turnpike. In August 2012, Leno auctioned his Fiat 500, which was sold for $385,000 with all the proceeds going to a charity that helps wounded war veterans recover by providing them with temporary housing. Since 1985, Leno has been the Grand Marshal for the Love Ride, a motorcycle charity event which since its founding in 1984 has raised nearly $14 million for charities benefiting muscular dystrophy research, Autism Speaks, and in 2001, the September 11 attacks recovery. Leno owns approximately 286 vehicles (169 cars and 117 motorbikes). He also has a website and a TV program called "Jay Leno's Garage", which contains video clips and photos of his car collection in detail, as well as other vehicles of interest to him. Leno's Garage Manager is Bernard Juchli. Among his collection are two Doble steam cars, a sedan and a roadster that were owned by Howard Hughes, the fifth Duesenberg Model X known to survive, and one of nine remaining 1963 Chrysler Turbine Cars. The collection also includes three antique electric cars — the 1925 Baker Motor Vehicle is his wife Mavis' favorite car. He has a regular column in "Popular Mechanics" which showcases his car collection and gives advice about various automotive topics, including restoration and unique models, such as his jet-powered motorcycle and solar-powered hybrid. Leno also writes occasional "Motormouth" articles for "The Sunday Times", reviewing high-end sports cars and giving his humorous take on motoring matters. Leno opened his garage to Team Bondi, the company that developed the 2011 video game "L.A. Noire", which is set in Los Angeles in the late-1940s. Leno's collection contains almost one hundred cars from this period, and allowed the team to recreate their images as accurately as possible. Hosting the 2014 Genesis Prize award ceremony in Jerusalem, Leno made jokes mocking then-President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State John Kerry, accusing Obama of "trying to break" the U.S.'s relationship with Israel. In a 2015 interview with "The Jerusalem Post", Leno said, "I always considered Israel as not only the only democracy in the Middle East, I think it’s the purest, because every Israeli voter seems to have his own political party." He also added about Israel's relations with other Middle East countries: "Israel is so efficient in defending itself and so good at it, that to the rest of the world it looks like bullying."

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Jay Leno

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Jeroboam II Jeroboam II ( "Yarov‘am"; ; ) was the son and successor of Jehoash (alternatively spelled Joash) and the thirteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years in the eighth century BC. His reign was contemporary with those of Amaziah () and Uzziah (), kings of Judah. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 786–746 BC, while E. R. Thiele says he was coregent with Jehoash 793 to 782 BC and sole ruler 782 to 753 BC. He was victorious over the Arameans (), conquered Damascus (), and extended Israel to its former limits, from "the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain". In 1910, G. A. Reisner found sixty-three inscribed potsherds while excavating the royal palace at Samaria, which were later dated to the reign of Jeroboam II and mention regnal years extending from the ninth to the 17th of his reign. These ostraca, while unremarkable in themselves, contain valuable information about the script, language, religion and administrative system of the period. Archaeological evidence confirms the biblical account of his reign as the most prosperous that Israel had yet known. By the late 8th century BC, the territory of Israel was the most densely settled in the entire Levant, with a population of about 350,000. This prosperity was built on trade in olive oil, wine, and possibly horses, with Egypt and especially Assyria providing the markets. According to the prophet Amos, the triumphs of the king had engendered a haughty spirit of boastful overconfidence at home (). Oppression and exploitation of the poor by the mighty, luxury in palaces of unheard-of splendor, and a craving for amusement were some of the internal fruits of these external triumphs. Under Jeroboam II, the God of Israel was worshiped at Dan and Beth-el and at other old Israelite shrines, through actual images, such as the golden calf. These services at Dan and Beth-el, at Gilgal and Beer-sheba, were of a nature to arouse the indignation of the prophets, and the foreign cults (Amos 5), both numerous and degrading, contributed still further to arousing of the prophetic spirit. Jeroboam's reign was the period of the prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos and Jonah, all of whom condemned the materialism and selfishness of the Israelite elite of their day: "Woe unto those who lie upon beds of ivory ... eat lambs from the flock and calves ... [and] sing idle songs ..." (). The book of Kings, written a century later, condemns Jeroboam for doing "evil in the eyes of the Lord", meaning both the oppression of the poor and his continuing support of the cult centres of Dan and Bethel, in opposition to the temple in Jerusalem. A major earthquake had occurred in Israel c. 760 BC, which may have been during the time of Jeroboam II, towards the end of his rule. This earthquake is mentioned in the Book of Amos as having occurred during the rule of "Jeroboam son of Jehoash" (). Geologists believe they have found evidence of this big earthquake in sites throughout Israel and Jordan. Archeologists Yigael Yadin and Israel Finkelstein date the earthquake level at Tel Hazor to 760 BC based on stratigraphic analysis of the destruction debris. Similarly, David Ussishkin arrives at the same date based on the "sudden destruction" level at Lachish. According to Steven A. Austin, the magnitude of this earthquake may have been at least 7.8, but more likely as high as 8.2. "This magnitude 8 event of 750 B.C. appears to be the largest yet documented on the Dead Sea transform fault zone during the last four millennia." The epicenter of this earthquake may have been 200–300 km north of present-day Israel. Multiple biblical references exist to this earthquake in the Book of Amos (, , , ), and also in Zechariah . Recent excavations by Aren Maeir in ancient Gath have revealed evidence of a major earthquake. "Based on the tight stratigraphic context, this can be dated to the mid-8th cent. BCE" ... His name occurs in the Old Testament only in ; ; ; 1 Chronicles ; Book of Hosea ; and Book of Amos ; . In all other passages it is Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat that is meant.

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Jeroboam II

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Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc ; 1412 – 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" (), is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. She was born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée, a peasant family, at Domrémy in northeast France. Joan claimed to have received visions of the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The unanointed King Charles VII sent Joan to the Siege of Orléans as part of a relief army. She gained prominence after the siege was lifted only nine days later. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's consecration at Reims. This long-awaited event boosted French morale and paved the way for the final French victory. On 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundian faction, a group of French nobles allied with the English. She was later handed over to the English and put on trial by the pro-English bishop Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges. After Cauchon declared her guilty, she was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about nineteen years of age. In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr. In the 16th century she became a symbol of the Catholic League, and in 1803 she was declared a national symbol of France by the decision of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. Joan of Arc is one of the nine secondary patron saints of France, along with Saint Denis, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Louis, Saint Michael, Saint Rémi, Saint Petronilla, Saint Radegund and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Joan of Arc has remained a popular figure in literature, painting, sculpture, and other cultural works since the time of her death, and many famous writers, playwrights, filmmakers, artists, and composers have created, and continue to create, cultural depictions of her. The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as an inheritance dispute over the French throne, interspersed with occasional periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France, and the English army's use of "chevauchée" tactics (destructive "scorched earth" raids) had devastated the economy. The French population had not regained its former size since the Black Death of the mid-14th century, and its merchants were isolated from foreign markets. Before the appearance of Joan of Arc, the English had nearly achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had not achieved any major victories for a generation. In the words of DeVries, "The kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype." The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered from bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Louis, Duke of Orléans, and the king's cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute included accusations that Louis was having an extramarital affair with the queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, and allegations that John the Fearless kidnapped the royal children. The conflict climaxed with the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407 on the orders of the Duke of Burgundy. The young Charles of Orléans succeeded his father as duke and was placed in the custody of his father-in-law, the Count of Armagnac. Their faction became known as the "Armagnac" faction, and the opposing party led by the Duke of Burgundy was called the "Burgundian faction". Henry V of England took advantage of these internal divisions when he invaded the kingdom in 1415, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt on 25 October and subsequently capturing many northern French towns during a later campaign in 1417. In 1418 Paris was taken by the Burgundians, who massacred the Count of Armagnac and about 2,500 of his followers. The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin—the heir to the throne—at the age of fourteen, after all four of his older brothers had died in succession. His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with the Duke of Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans assassinated John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles for the murder and entered into an alliance with the English. The allied forces conquered large sections of France. In 1420 the queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria, signed the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the succession of the French throne to Henry V and his heirs instead of her son Charles. This agreement revived suspicions that the Dauphin was the illegitimate product of Isabeau's rumored affair with the late duke of Orléans rather than the son of King Charles VI. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, acted as regent. By the time Joan of Arc began to influence events in 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under Anglo-Burgundian control. The English controlled Paris and Rouen while the Burgundian faction controlled Reims, which had served as the traditional site for anointing French kings. This was an important consideration since neither claimant to the throne of France had been anointed or crowned yet. Since 1428 the English had been conducting a siege of Orléans, one of the few remaining cities still loyal to Charles VII and an important objective since it held a strategic position along the Loire River, which made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of Charles VII's territory. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom." No one was optimistic that the city could long withstand the siege. For generations, there had been prophecies in France which promised the nation would be saved by a virgin from the "borders of Lorraine" "who would work miracles" and "that France will be lost by a woman and shall thereafter be restored by a virgin". The second prophecy predicting France would be "lost" by a woman was taken to refer to Isabeau's role in signing the Treaty of Troyes. Joan was the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée, living in Domrémy, a village which was then in the French part of the Duchy of Bar. Joan's parents owned about 50 acres (20 hectares) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch. They lived in an isolated patch of eastern France that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by pro-Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned. Joan was illiterate and it is believed that her letters were dictated by her to scribes and she signed her letters with the help of others. At her trial, Joan stated that she was about 19 years old, which implies she thought she was born around 1412. She later testified that she experienced her first vision in 1425 at the age of 13, when she was in her "father's garden" and saw visions of figures she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and take the Dauphin to Reims for his consecration. She said she cried when they left, as they were so beautiful. At the age of 16, she asked a relative named Durand Lassois to take her to the nearby town of Vaucouleurs, where she petitioned the garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt, for an armed escort to take her to the French Royal Court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her. She returned the following January and gained support from two of Baudricourt's soldiers: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. According to Jean de Metz, she told him that "I must be at the King's side ... there will be no help (for the kingdom) if not from me. Although I would rather have remained spinning [wool] at my mother's side ... yet must I go and must I do this thing, for my Lord wills that I do so." Under the auspices of Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, she was given a second meeting, where she made a prediction about a military reversal at the Battle of Rouvray near Orléans several days before messengers arrived to report it. According to the "Journal du Siége d'Orléans," which portrays Joan as a miraculous figure, Joan came to know of the battle through "Divine grace" while tending her flocks in Lorraine and used this divine revelation to persuade Baudricourt to take her to the Dauphin. Robert de Baudricourt granted Joan an escort to visit Chinon after news from Orleans confirmed her assertion of the defeat. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory disguised as a male soldier, a fact that would later lead to charges of "cross-dressing" against her, although her escort viewed it as a normal precaution. Two of the members of her escort said they and the people of Vaucouleurs provided her with this clothing, and had suggested it to her. Joan's first meeting with Charles took place at the Royal Court in the town of Chinon in 1429, when she was aged 17 and he 26. After arriving at the Court she made a strong impression on Charles during a private conference with him. During this time Charles' mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was planning to finance a relief expedition to Orléans. Joan asked for permission to travel with the army and wear protective armor, which was provided by the Royal government. She depended on donated items for her armor, horse, sword, banner, and other items utilized by her entourage. Historian Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction to the royal court by pointing out that they may have viewed her as the only source of hope for a regime that was near collapse: Upon her arrival on the scene, Joan effectively turned the longstanding Anglo-French conflict into a religious war, a course of action that was not without risk. Charles' advisers were worried that unless Joan's orthodoxy could be established beyond doubt—that she was not a heretic or a sorceress—Charles' enemies could easily make the allegation that his crown was a gift from the devil. To circumvent this possibility, the Dauphin ordered background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. In April 1429, the commission of inquiry "declared her to be of irreproachable life, a good Christian, possessed of the virtues of humility, honesty and simplicity." The theologians at Poitiers did not render a decision on the issue of divine inspiration; rather, they informed the Dauphin that there was a "favorable presumption" to be made on the divine nature of her mission. This convinced Charles, but they also stated that he had an obligation to put Joan to the test. "To doubt or abandon her without suspicion of evil would be to repudiate the Holy Spirit and to become unworthy of God's aid", they declared. They recommended that her claims should be put to the test by seeing if she could lift the siege of Orléans as she had predicted. She arrived at the besieged city of Orléans on 29 April 1429. Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the ducal family of Orléans on behalf of his captive half-brother, initially excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army engaged the enemy. However, his decision to exclude her did not prevent her presence at most councils and battles. The extent of her actual military participation and leadership is a subject of debate among historians. On the one hand, Joan stated that she carried her banner in battle and had never killed anyone, preferring her banner "forty times" better than a sword; and the army was always directly commanded by a nobleman, such as the Duke of Alençon for example. On the other hand, many of these same noblemen stated that Joan had a profound effect on their decisions since they often accepted the advice she gave them, believing her advice was divinely inspired. In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief time with it. The appearance of Joan of Arc at Orléans coincided with a sudden change in the pattern of the siege. During the five months before her arrival, the defenders had attempted only one offensive assault, which had ended in defeat. On 4 May, however, the Armagnacs attacked and captured the outlying fortress of Saint Loup ("bastille de Saint-Loup"), followed on 5 May by a march to a second fortress called Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, which was found deserted. When English troops came out to oppose the advance, a rapid cavalry charge drove them back into their fortresses, apparently without a fight. The Armagnacs then attacked and captured an English fortress built around a monastery called Les Augustins. That night, Armagnac troops maintained positions on the south bank of the river before attacking the main English stronghold, called ""les Tourelles"", on the morning of 7 May. Contemporaries acknowledged Joan as the heroine of the engagement. She was wounded by an arrow between the neck and shoulder while holding her banner in the trench outside les Tourelles, but later returned to encourage a final assault that succeeded in taking the fortress. The English retreated from Orléans the next day, and the siege was over. At Chinon and Poitiers, Joan had declared that she would provide a sign at Orléans. The lifting of the siege was interpreted by many people to be that sign, and it gained her the support of prominent clergy such as the Archbishop of Embrun and the theologian Jean Gerson, both of whom wrote supportive treatises immediately following this event. To the English, the ability of this peasant girl to defeat their armies was regarded as proof that she was possessed by the Devil; the British medievalist Beverly Boyd noted that this charge was not just propaganda, and was sincerely believed since the idea that God was supporting the French via Joan was distinctly unappealing to an English audience. The sudden victory at Orléans also led to many proposals for further offensive action. Joan persuaded Charles VII to allow her to accompany the army with Duke John II of Alençon, and she gained royal permission for her plan to recapture nearby bridges along the Loire as a prelude to an advance on Reims and the consecration of Charles VII. This was a bold proposal because Reims was roughly twice as far away as Paris and deep within enemy territory. The English expected an attempt to recapture Paris or an attack on Normandy. The Duke of Alençon accepted Joan's advice concerning strategy. Other commanders including Jean d'Orléans had been impressed with her performance at Orléans and became her supporters. Alençon credited her with saving his life at Jargeau, where she warned him that a cannon on the walls was about to fire at him. During the same siege she withstood a blow from a stone that hit her helmet while she was near the base of the town's wall. The army took Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, and Beaugency on 17 June. The English army withdrew from the Loire Valley and headed north on 18 June, joining with an expected unit of reinforcements under the command of Sir John Fastolf. Joan urged the Armagnacs to pursue, and the two armies clashed southwest of the village of Patay. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked a unit of English archers who had been placed to block the road. A rout ensued that decimated the main body of the English army and killed or captured most of its commanders. Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers and became the scapegoat for the humiliating English defeat. The French suffered minimal losses. The French army left Gien on 29 June on the march toward Reims and accepted the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. Other towns in the army's path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that tried to disinherit Charles VII, was the only one to put up even brief opposition. The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached Troyes. But the army was in luck: a wandering friar named Brother Richard had been preaching about the end of the world at Troyes and convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest. The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened. Troyes capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege. Reims opened its gates to the army on 16 July 1429. The consecration took place the following morning. Although Joan and the Duke of Alençon urged a prompt march toward Paris, the royal court preferred to negotiate a truce with Duke Philip of Burgundy. The duke violated the purpose of the agreement by using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army marched past a succession of towns near Paris during the interim and accepted the surrender of several towns without a fight. The Duke of Bedford led an English force to confront Charles VII's army at the battle of Montépilloy on 15 August, which resulted in a standoff. The French assault at Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a wound to the leg from a crossbow bolt, Joan remained in the inner trench of Paris until she was carried back to safety by one of the commanders. The following morning the army received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French Grand Chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders that followed the consecration. In October, Joan was with the royal army when it took Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, followed by an unsuccessful attempt to take La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December. On 29 December, Joan and her family were ennobled by Charles VII as a reward for her actions. A truce with England during the following few months left Joan with little to do. On 23 March 1430, she dictated a threatening letter to the Hussites, a dissident group which had broken with the Catholic Church on a number of doctrinal points and had defeated several previous crusades sent against them. Joan's letter promises to "remove your madness and foul superstition, taking away either your heresy or your lives." Joan, an ardent Catholic who hated all forms of heresy, also sent a letter challenging the English to leave France and go with her to Bohemia to fight the Hussites, an offer that went unanswered. The truce with England quickly came to an end. Joan traveled to Compiègne the following May to help defend the city against an English and Burgundian siege. On 23 May 1430 she was with a force that attempted to attack the Burgundian camp at Margny north of Compiègne, but was ambushed and captured. When the troops began to withdraw toward the nearby fortifications of Compiègne after the advance of an additional force of 6,000 Burgundians, Joan stayed with the rear guard. Burgundian troops surrounded the rear guard, and she was pulled off her horse by an archer. She agreed to surrender to a pro-Burgundian nobleman named Lionel of Wandomme, a member of Jean de Luxembourg's unit. Joan was imprisoned by the Burgundians at Beaurevoir Castle. She made several escape attempts, on one occasion jumping from her 70-foot (21 m) tower, landing on the soft earth of a dry moat, after which she was moved to the Burgundian town of Arras. The English negotiated with their Burgundian allies to transfer her to their custody, with Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assuming a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial. The final agreement called for the English to pay the sum of 10,000 livres tournois to obtain her from Jean de Luxembourg, a member of the Council of Duke Philip of Burgundy. The English moved Joan to the city of Rouen, which served as their main headquarters in France. Historian Pierre Champion notes that the Armagnacs attempted to rescue her several times by launching military campaigns toward Rouen while she was held there. One campaign occurred during the winter of 1430–1431, another in March 1431, and one in late May shortly before her execution. These attempts were beaten back. Champion also quotes 15th-century sources that say Charles VII threatened to "exact vengeance" upon Burgundian troops whom his forces had captured and upon "the English and women of England" in retaliation for their treatment of Joan. The trial for heresy was politically motivated. The tribunal was composed entirely of pro-English and Burgundian clerics, and overseen by English commanders including the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Warwick. In the words of the British medievalist Beverly Boyd, the trial was meant by the English Crown to be "a ploy to get rid of a bizarre prisoner of war with maximum embarrassment to their enemies". Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government. The procedure was suspect on a number of points, which would later provoke criticism of the tribunal by the chief inquisitor who investigated the trial after the war. Under ecclesiastical law, Bishop Cauchon lacked jurisdiction over the case. Cauchon owed his appointment to his partisan support of the English Crown, which financed the trial. The low standard of evidence used in the trial also violated inquisitorial rules. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, who was commissioned to collect testimony against Joan, could find no adverse evidence. Without such evidence the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening a trial anyway, the court also violated ecclesiastical law by denying Joan the right to a legal adviser. In addition, stacking the tribunal entirely with pro-English clergy violated the medieval Church's requirement that heresy trials be judged by an impartial or balanced group of clerics. Upon the opening of the first public examination, Joan complained that those present were all partisans against her and asked for "ecclesiastics of the French side" to be invited in order to provide balance. This request was denied. The Vice-Inquisitor of Northern France (Jean Lemaitre) objected to the trial at its outset, and several eyewitnesses later said he was forced to cooperate after the English threatened his life. Some of the other clergy at the trial were also threatened when they refused to cooperate, including a Dominican friar named Isambart de la Pierre. These threats, and the domination of the trial by a secular government, were violations of the Church's rules and undermined the right of the Church to conduct heresy trials without secular interference. The trial record contains statements from Joan that the eyewitnesses later said astonished the court, since she was an illiterate peasant and yet was able to evade the theological pitfalls the tribunal had set up to entrap her. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety: "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered, 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me. I should be the saddest creature in the world if I knew I were not in His grace. The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have been charged with heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. The court notary Boisguillaume later testified that at the moment the court heard her reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." Several members of the tribunal later testified that important portions of the transcript were falsified by being altered in her disfavor. Under Inquisitorial guidelines, Joan should have been confined in an ecclesiastical prison under the supervision of female guards (i.e., nuns). Instead, the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Joan's appeals to the Council of Basel and the Pope, which should have stopped his proceeding. The twelve articles of accusation which summarized the court's findings contradicted the court record, which had already been doctored by the judges. Under threat of immediate execution, the illiterate defendant signed an abjuration document that she did not understand. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record. Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense; therefore, a repeat offense of "cross-dressing" was now arranged by the court, according to the eyewitnesses. Joan agreed to wear feminine clothing when she abjured, which created a problem. According to the later descriptions of some of the tribunal members, she had previously been wearing soldiers' clothing in prison. Since wearing men's hosen enabled her to fasten her hosen, boots and doublet together, this deterred rape by making it difficult for her guards to pull her clothing off. She was evidently afraid to give up this clothing even temporarily because it was likely to be confiscated by the judge and she would thereby be left without protection. A woman's dress offered no such protection. A few days after her abjuration, when she was forced to wear a dress, she told a tribunal member that "a great English lord had entered her prison and tried to take her by force." She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been taken by the guards and she was left with nothing else to wear. Her resumption of male military clothing was labeled a relapse into heresy for cross-dressing, although this would later be disputed by the inquisitor who presided over the appeals court that examined the case after the war. Medieval Catholic doctrine held that cross-dressing should be evaluated based on context, as stated in the "Summa Theologica" by St. Thomas Aquinas, which says that necessity would be a permissible reason for cross-dressing. This would include the use of clothing as protection against rape if the clothing would offer protection. In terms of doctrine, she had been justified in disguising herself as a pageboy during her journey through enemy territory, and she was justified in wearing armor during battle and protective clothing in camp and then in prison. The "Chronique de la Pucelle" states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. When her soldiers' clothing was not needed while on campaign, she was said to have gone back to wearing a dress. Clergy who later testified at the posthumous appellate trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. Joan referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter. The Poitiers record no longer survives, but circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics had approved her practice. She also kept her hair cut short through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters, such as the theologian Jean Gerson, defended her hairstyle for practical reasons, as did Inquisitor Brehal later during the appellate trial. Nonetheless, at the trial in 1431 she was condemned and sentenced to die. Boyd described Joan's trial as so "unfair" that the trial transcripts were later used as evidence for canonizing her in the 20th century. Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. An English soldier also constructed a small cross that she put in the front of her dress. After she died, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive. They then burned the body twice more, to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics, and cast her remains into the Seine River. The executioner, Geoffroy Thérage, later stated that he "greatly feared to be damned for he had burned a holy woman." The Hundred Years' War continued for twenty-two years after her death. Charles VII retained legitimacy as the king of France in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on 16 December 1431, the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military leadership and force of longbowmen lost in 1429, the country lost its alliance with Burgundy when the Treaty of Arras was signed in 1435. The Duke of Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of England to rule without a regent. His weak leadership was probably the most important factor in ending the conflict. Kelly DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war. In 1452, during the posthumous investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans would allow attendees to gain an indulgence (remission of temporal punishment for sin) by making a pilgrimage to the event. A posthumous retrial opened after the war ended. Pope Callixtus III authorized this proceeding, also known as the "nullification trial", at the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Bréhal and Joan's mother Isabelle Romée. The purpose of the trial was to investigate whether the trial of condemnation and its verdict had been handled justly and according to canon law. Investigations started with an inquest by Guillaume Bouillé, a theologian and former rector of the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Bréhal conducted an investigation in 1452. A formal appeal followed in November 1455. The appellate process involved clergy from throughout Europe and observed standard court procedure. A panel of theologians analyzed testimony from 115 witnesses. Bréhal drew up his final summary in June 1456, which describes Joan as a martyr and implicated the late Pierre Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an innocent woman in pursuit of a secular vendetta. The technical reason for her execution had been a Biblical clothing law. The nullification trial reversed the conviction in part because the condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions to that stricture. The appellate court declared her innocent on 7 July 1456. Joan of Arc became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. When Félix Dupanloup was made bishop of Orléans in 1849, he pronounced a fervid panegyric on Joan of Arc, which attracted attention in England as well as France, and he led the efforts which culminated in Joan of Arc's beatification in 1909. She was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV in his bull "Divina disponente". Joan of Arc became a semi-legendary figure for the four centuries after her death. The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives during the 19th century. Soon, historians also located the complete records of her rehabilitation trial, which contained sworn testimony from 115 witnesses, and the original French notes for the Latin condemnation trial transcript. Various contemporary letters also emerged, three of which carry the signature "Jehanne" in the unsteady hand of a person learning to write. This unusual wealth of primary source material is one reason DeVries declares, "No person of the Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study." Joan of Arc came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was a teenager, and she did so as an uneducated peasant. The French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of inheritance law, first concerning Edward III's claim to the French throne and then Henry VI's. The conflict had been a legalistic feud between two related royal families, but Joan transformed it along religious lines and gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be English?" In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national liberation." Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent appeal: From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to Joan as a positive example of a brave and active woman. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. Some of her most significant aid came from women. King Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held custody of her after Compiègne, alleviated her conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries. Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after her, including a helicopter carrier that was retired from active service on 7 June 2010. At present, the French far-right political party "Front National" holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her image in the party's publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image. The French civic , set in 1920, is the second Sunday of May. World War I songs include "Joan of Arc, They Are Calling You", and "Joan of Arc's Answer Song". Joan of Arc's religious visions have remained an ongoing topic of interest. She identified Saint Margaret, Saint Catherine, and Saint Michael as the sources of her revelations, although there is some ambiguity as to which of several identically named saints she intended. Analysis of her visions is problematic since the main source of information on this topic is the condemnation trial transcript in which she defied customary courtroom procedure about a witness oath and specifically refused to answer every question about her visions. She complained that a standard witness oath would conflict with an oath she had previously sworn to maintain confidentiality about meetings with her king. It remains unknown to what extent the surviving record may represent the fabrications of corrupt court officials or her own possible fabrications to protect state secrets. Some historians sidestep speculation about the visions by asserting that her belief in her calling is more relevant than questions about the visions' ultimate origin. A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain her visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia.

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Joan of Arc

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Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (; 22 February 1879 – 17 December 1947) born in Varde, was a Danish physical chemist. He earned a degree in chemical engineering in 1899 and his Ph.D. in 1908 from the University of Copenhagen and was immediately thereafter appointed professor of inorganic and physical chemistry at the same university. In 1906 he published the first of his many papers on electron affinity, and, simultaneously with the English chemist Thomas Martin Lowry, he introduced the protonic theory of acid-base reactions in 1923. That same year, Gilbert N. Lewis proposed an electronic theory of acid-base reactions, but both theories remain commonly used. In World War II, Brønsted's opposition to the Nazis led to his election to the Danish parliament in 1947, but he was too ill to take his seat and died shortly after the election.

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Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted

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Janus kinase Janus kinase (JAK) is a family of intracellular, nonreceptor tyrosine kinases that transduce cytokine-mediated signals via the JAK-STAT pathway. They were initially named "just another kinase" 1 and 2 (since they were just two of many discoveries in a PCR-based screen of kinases), but were ultimately published as "Janus kinase". The name is taken from the two-faced Roman god of beginnings, endings and duality, Janus, because the JAKs possess two near-identical phosphate-transferring domains. One domain exhibits the kinase activity, while the other negatively regulates the kinase activity of the first. The four JAK family members are: Transgenic mice that do not express JAK1 have defective responses to some cytokines, such as interferon-gamma. JAK1 and JAK2 are involved in type II interferon (interferon-gamma) signalling, whereas JAK1 and TYK2 are involved in type I interferon signalling. Mice that do not express TYK2 have defective natural killer cell function. Since members of the type I and type II cytokine receptor families possess no catalytic kinase activity, they rely on the JAK family of tyrosine kinases to phosphorylate and activate downstream proteins involved in their signal transduction pathways. The receptors exist as paired polypeptides, thus exhibiting two intracellular signal-transducing domains. JAKs associate with a proline-rich region in each intracellular domain that is adjacent to the cell membrane and called a box1/box2 region. After the receptor associates with its respective cytokine/ligand, it goes through a conformational change, bringing the two JAKs close enough to phosphorylate each other. The JAK autophosphorylation induces a conformational change within itself, enabling it to transduce the intracellular signal by further phosphorylating and activating transcription factors called STATs (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription, or Signal Transduction And Transcription). The activated STATs dissociate from the receptor and form dimers before translocating to the cell nucleus, where they regulate transcription of selected genes. Some examples of the molecules that use the JAK/STAT signaling pathway are colony-stimulating factor, prolactin, growth hormone, and many cytokines. JAK inhibitors are under development for the treatment of psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, polycythemia vera, alopecia, essential thrombocythemia, ulcerative colitis, myeloid metaplasia with myelofibrosis and vitiligo. Examples are tofacitinib, baricitinib, upadacitinib and filgotinib (GLPG0634), the latter is currently under development by the Belgian firm Galapagos. In 2014 researchers discovered that oral JAK inhibitors, when administered orally could restore hair growth in some subjects and that applied to the skin, effectively promoted hair growth. JAKs range from 120-140 kDa in size and have seven defined regions of homology called Janus homology domains 1 to 7 (JH1-7). JH1 is the kinase domain important for the enzymatic activity of the JAK and contains typical features of a tyrosine kinase such as conserved tyrosines necessary for JAK activation (e.g. Y1038/Y1039 in JAK1, Y1007/Y1008 in JAK2, Y980/Y981 in JAK3, and Y1054/Y1055 in Tyk2). Phosphorylation of these dual tyrosines leads to the conformational changes in the JAK protein to facilitate binding of substrate. JH2 is a "pseudokinase domain", a domain structurally similar to a tyrosine kinase and essential for a normal kinase activity, yet lacks enzymatic activity. This domain may be involved in regulating the activity of JH1, and was likely a duplication of the JH1 domain which has undergone mutation post-duplication. The JH3-JH4 domains of JAKs share homology with Src-homology-2 (SH2) domains. The amino terminal (NH2) end (JH4-JH7) of Jaks is called a FERM domain (short for band 4.1 ezrin, radixin and moesin); this domain is also found in the focal adhesion kinase (FAK) family and is involved in association of JAKs with cytokine receptors and/or other kinases.

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Janus kinase

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Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German philologist, jurist, and mythologist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of the monumental "Deutsches Wörterbuch", the author of "Deutsche Mythologie", and the editor of "Grimm's Fairy Tales". He was the older brother of Wilhelm Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Jacob Grimm was born 4 January 1785, in Hanau in Hesse-Kassel. His father, Philipp Grimm, was a lawyer who died while Jacob was a child, and his mother was left with a very small income. Her sister was lady of the chamber to the Landgravine of Hesse, and she helped to support and educate the family. Jacob was sent to the public school at Kassel in 1798 with his younger brother Wilhelm. In 1802, he went to the University of Marburg where he studied law, a profession for which he had been intended by his father. His brother joined him at Marburg a year later, having just recovered from a severe illness, and likewise began the study of law. Jacob Grimm became inspired by the lectures of Friedrich Karl von Savigny, a noted expert of Roman law; Wilhelm Grimm, in the preface to the "Deutsche Grammatik" (German Grammar), credits Savigny with giving the brothers an awareness of science. Savigny's lectures also awakened in Jacob a love for historical and antiquarian investigation, which underlies all his work. It was in Savigny's library that Grimm first saw Bodmer's edition of the Middle High German minnesingers and other early texts, which gave him a desire to study their language. In the beginning of 1805, he was invited by Savigny to Paris, to help him in his literary work. There Grimm strengthened his taste for the literature of the Middle Ages. Towards the close of the year, he returned to Kassel, where his mother and brother had settled after Wilhelm finished his studies. The following year, Jacob obtained a position in the war office with a small salary of 100 thalers. He complained that he had to exchange his stylish Paris suit for a stiff uniform and pigtail, but the role gave him spare time for the pursuit of his studies. In 1808, soon after the death of his mother, he was appointed superintendent of the private library of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, into which Hesse-Kassel had been incorporated by Napoleon. Grimm was appointed an auditor to the state council, while retaining his superintendent post. His salary rose to 4000 francs and his official duties were nominal. In 1813, after the expulsion of Bonaparte and the reinstatement of an elector, Grimm was appointed Secretary of Legation accompanying the Hessian minister to the headquarters of the allied army. In 1814, he was sent to Paris to demand restitution of books taken by the French, and he attended the Congress of Vienna as Secretary of Legation in 1814–1815. Upon his return from Vienna, he was sent to Paris again to secure book restitutions. Meanwhile, Wilhelm had obtained a job at the Kassel library, and Jacob was made second librarian under Volkel in 1816. Upon the death of Volkel in 1828, the brothers both expected promotion, and they were dissatisfied when the role of first librarian was given to Rommel, the keeper of the archives. Consequently, they moved the following year to Göttingen, where Jacob was appointed professor and librarian, and Wilhelm under-librarian. Jacob Grimm lectured on legal antiquities, historical grammar, literary history, and diplomatics, explained Old German poems, and commented on the "Germania" of Tacitus. Grimm joined other academics, known as the Göttingen Seven, who signed a protest against the King of Hanover's abrogation of the liberal constitution which had been established some years before. As a result, he was dismissed from his professorship and banished from the Kingdom of Hanover in 1837. He returned to Kassel with his brother, who had also signed the protest. They remained there until 1840, when they accepted King Frederick William IV's invitation to move to Berlin, where they both received professorships and were elected members of the Academy of Sciences. Grimm was not under any obligation to lecture, and seldom did so; he spent his time working with his brother on their dictionary project. During their time in Kassel, he regularly attended the meetings of the academy and read papers on varied subjects, including Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann, Friedrich Schiller, old age, and the origin of language. He described his impressions of Italian and Scandinavian travel, interspersing more general observations with linguistic details. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1857. Grimm died in Berlin at the age of 78, working until the very end of his life. He describes his own work at the end of his autobiography: Nearly all my labours have been devoted, either directly or indirectly, to the investigation of our earlier language, poetry and laws. These studies may have appeared to many, and may still appear, useless; to me they have always seemed a noble and earnest task, definitely and inseparably connected with our common fatherland, and calculated to foster the love of it. My principle has always been in these investigations to under-value nothing, but to utilize the small for the illustration of the great, the popular tradition for the elucidation of the written monuments. Grimm's "Geschichte der deutschen Sprache" (History of the German Language) explores German history hidden in the words of the German language and is the oldest linguistic history of the Teutonic tribes. He collected scattered words and allusions from classical literature and tried to determine the relationship between the German language and those of the Getae, Thracians, Scythians, and other nations whose languages were known only through Greek and Latin authors. Grimm's results were later greatly modified by a wider range of available comparison and improved methods of investigation. Many questions that he raised remain obscure due to the lack of surviving records of the languages, but his book's influence was profound. Grimm's famous "Deutsche Grammatik" (German Grammar) was the outcome of his purely philological work. He drew on the work of past generations, from the humanists onwards, consulting an enormous collection of materials in the form of text editions, dictionaries, and grammars, mostly uncritical and unreliable. Some work had been done in the way of comparison and determination of general laws, and the concept of a comparative Germanic grammar had been grasped by the Englishman George Hickes by the beginning of the 18th century, in his "Thesaurus". Ten Kate in the Netherlands had made valuable contributions to the history and comparison of Germanic languages. Grimm himself did not initially intend to include all the languages in his "Grammar", but he soon found that Old High German postulated Gothic, and that the later stages of German could not be understood without the help of other West Germanic varieties including English, and that the literature of Scandinavia could not be ignored. The first edition of the first part of the "Grammar", which appeared in 1819, treated the inflections of all these languages, and included a general introduction in which he vindicated the importance of an historical study of the German language against the quasi-philosophical methods then in vogue. In 1822 the book appeared in a second edition (really a new work, for, as Grimm himself says in the preface, he had to "mow the first crop down to the ground"). The considerable gap between the two stages of Grimm's development of these editions is shown by the fact that the second volume addresses phonology in 600 pages – more than half the volume. Grimm had concluded that all philology must be based on rigorous adherence to the laws of sound change, and he subsequently never deviated from this principle. This gave to all his investigations a consistency and force of conviction that had been lacking in the study of philology before his day. His advances have been attributed mainly to the influence of his contemporary Rasmus Christian Rask. Rask was two years younger than Grimm, but the Icelandic paradigms in Grimm's first editions, his Icelandic paradigms are based entirely on Rask's grammar; in his second edition, he relied almost entirely on Rask for Old English. His debt to Rask is shown by comparing his treatment of Old English in the two editions. For example, in the first edition he declines "dæg, dæges", plural "dægas", without having observed the law of vowel-change pointed out by Rask. (The correct plural is "dagas.") The appearance of Rask's Old English grammar was probably the primary impetus for Grimm to recast his work from the beginning. Rask was also the first to clearly formulate the laws of sound-correspondence in the different languages, especially in the vowels (previously ignored by etymologists). The "Grammar" was continued in three volumes, treating principally derivation, composition and syntax, the last of which was unfinished. Grimm then began a third edition, of which only one part, comprising the vowels, appeared in 1840, his time being afterwards taken up mainly by the dictionary. The "Grammar" is noted for its comprehensiveness, method and fullness of detail, with all his points illustrated by an almost exhaustive mass of material, and it has served as a model for all succeeding investigators. Diez's grammar of the Romance languages is founded entirely on Grimm's methods, which have had a profound influence on the wider study of the Indo-European languages in general. Jacob is recognized for enunciating Grimm's law, the Germanic Sound Shift, which was first observed by the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask. Grimm's law was the first non-trivial systematic sound change to be discovered. Grimm's law, also known as the "Rask-Grimm Rule" or the First Germanic Sound Shift, was the first law in linguistics concerning a non-trivial sound change. It was a turning point in the development of linguistics, allowing the introduction of a rigorous methodology to historic linguistic research. It concerns the correspondence of consonants between the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language and its Germanic descendants, Low Saxon and High German, and was first fully stated by Grimm in the second edition of the first part of his "Grammar". The correspondence of single consonants had been more or less clearly recognized by several of his predecessors, including Friedrich von Schlegel, Rasmus Christian Rask and Johan Ihre, the last having established a considerable number of "literarum permutationes", such as b for f, with the examples "bœra" = "ferre" ("to bear"), "befwer" = "fibra" ("fiber"). Rask, in his essay on the origin of the Icelandic language, gave the same comparisons, with a few additions and corrections, and even the same examples in most cases. As Grimm in the preface to his first edition expressly mentioned Rask's essay, there is every probability that it inspired his own investigations. But there is a wide difference between the isolated permutations described by his predecessors and his own comprehensive generalizations. The extension of the law to High German in any case is entirely Grimm's work. The idea that Grimm wished to deprive Rask of his claims to priority is based on the fact that he does not expressly mention Rask's results in his second edition, but it was always his plan to refrain from all controversy or reference to the works of others. In his first edition, he calls attention to Rask's essay, and praises it ungrudgingly. Nevertheless, a certain bitterness of feeling afterwards sprang up between Grimm and Rask, after Rask refused to consider the value of Grimm's views when they clashed with his own. Grimm's monumental dictionary of the German Language, the "Deutsches Wörterbuch", was started in 1838 and first published in 1854. The Brothers anticipated it would take 10 years and encompass some six to seven volumes. However, it was undertaken on so large a scale as to make it impossible for them to complete it. The dictionary, as far as it was worked on by Grimm himself, has been described as a collection of disconnected antiquarian essays of high value. It was finally finished by subsequent scholars in 1961 and supplemented in 1971. At 33 volumes at some 330,000 headwords, it remains a standard work of reference to the present day. A current project at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities is underway to update the "Deutsches Wörterbuch" to modern academic standards. Volumes A–F were scheduled for release in 2012. The first work Jacob Grimm published, "Über den altdeutschen Meistergesang" (1811), was of a purely literary character. Yet even in this essay Grimm showed that "Minnesang" and "Meistergesang" were really one form of poetry, of which they merely represented different stages of development, and also announced his important discovery of the invariable division of the "Lied" into three strophic parts. Grimm's text-editions were mostly prepared in conjunction with his brother. In 1812 they published the two ancient fragments of the "Hildebrandslied" and the "Weißenbrunner Gebet", Jacob having discovered what till then had never been suspected — namely the alliteration in these poems. However, Jacob had little taste for text editing, and, as he himself confessed, working on a critical text gave him little pleasure. He therefore left this department to others, especially Lachmann, who soon turned his brilliant critical genius, trained in the severe school of classical philology, to Old and Middle High German poetry and metre. Both Brothers were attracted from the beginning by all national poetry, whether in the form of epics, ballads or popular tales. They published In 1816–1818 a collection of legends culled from diverse sources and published the two-volume "Deutsche Sagen" (German Legends). At the same time they collected all the folktales they could find, partly from the mouths of the people, partly from manuscripts and books, and published in 1812–1815 the first edition of those "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" (Children's and Household Tales), which has carried the name of the brothers Grimm into every household of the western world. The closely related subject of the satirical beast epic of the Middle Ages also held great charm for Jacob Grimm, and he published an edition of the "Reinhart Fuchs" in 1834. His first contribution to mythology was the first volume of an edition of the Eddaic songs, undertaken jointly with his brother, and was published in 1815. However, this work was not followed by any others on the subject. The first edition of his "Deutsche Mythologie" (German Mythology) appeared in 1835. This work covered the whole range of the subject, attempting to trace the mythology and superstitions of the old Teutons back to the very dawn of direct evidence, and following their evolution to modern-day popular traditions, tales, and expressions. Grimm's work as a jurist was influential for the development of the history of law, particularly in Northern Europe. His essay "Von der Poesie im Recht" ("Poetry in Law", 1816) developed a far-reaching, suprapositivist Romantic conception of law. The "Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer" ("German Legal Antiquities", 1828) was a comprehensive compilation of sources of law from all Germanic languages, whose structure allowed an initial understanding of older German legal traditions not influenced by Roman law. Grimm's "Weisthümer" (4 vol., 1840–63), a compilation of partially oral legal traditions from rural Germany, allows research of the development of written law in Northern Europe. Jacob Grimm's work tied in strongly with his views on Germany and its culture. His work on both fairy tales and philology dealt with the country's origins. He wished for a united Germany, and, like his brother, supported the Liberal movement for a constitutional monarchy and civil liberties, as demonstrated by their involvement in the Göttingen Seven protest. In the German revolution of 1848, he was elected to the Frankfurt National Parliament. The people of Germany had demanded a constitution, so the Parliament, formed of elected members from various German states, met to form one. Grimm was selected for the office largely because of his part in the University of Goettingen's refusal to swear to the king of Hanover. He then went to Frankfurt, where he made some speeches, and was adamant that the Danish-ruled but German-speaking duchy of Holstein to be under German control. Grimm soon became disillusioned with the National Assembly and asked to be released from his duties to return to his studies. Jacob Grimm died on 20 September 1863, in Berlin, Germany from disease The following is a complete list of Grimm's separately published works. Those he published with his brother are marked with a star (*). For a list of his essays in periodicals, etc., see vol. V of his "Kleinere Schriften", from which the present list is taken. His life is best studied in his own "Selbstbiographie", in vol. I of the "Kleinere Schriften". There is also a brief memoir by Karl Goedeke in "Göttinger Professoren" (Gotha (Perthes), 1872).

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Jacob Grimm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16514

16516

Jamiroquai Jamiroquai () are an English funk and acid jazz band from London, formed in 1992. Fronted by singer-songwriter Jay Kay, the band were a prominent component of the London-based funk/jazz movement of the 1990s. Influenced by black music of the 1970s, the group additionally drew from rock, electronica and Latin music and their lyrics have dealt with social and environmental idealism. On stage, they perform with several musicians in the band playing live. Over the years, Kay has consistently remained as the leader through several line-up changes. The band debuted with "When You Gonna Learn" under Acid Jazz records, leading to Kay signing a record deal with Sony Soho2. While under this label, the group released a string of million-selling albums containing singles that have reached various charts worldwide, including the UK number 1 single "Deeper Underground" (1998). All eight of the band's albums have entered the UK top 10. Three of them, "Emergency on Planet Earth" (1993), "Synkronized" (1999), "A Funk Odyssey" (2001), along with , charted at number 1. In America, the band found moderate success within the Dance charts and the "Billboard 200". Jamiroquai have sold more than 26 million albums worldwide as of 2017. Their third album, "Travelling Without Moving" (1996), received a Guinness World Record for the best-selling funk album in history. The music video for the album's lead single, "Virtual Insanity", was named Video of the Year at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. The group has won an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors, as well as one Grammy Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, and two "Billboard" Music Awards. They have also received fifteen Brit Award nominations. In 1986, Jason "Jay" Kay, who worked as a break-dancer, released a hip-hop single under the label StreetSounds. It was one of many songs he sent to record companies. During this time, Kay was influenced by Native American and First Nation peoples and their philosophies and wrote "When You Gonna Learn", a song covering social issues. When he had it studio-recorded, Kay fought with the producers who stripped the song down and produced it based on mainstream trends. With the track restored to his preference, the experience helped Kay to realise he "wanted a proper live band with a proper live sound." The band would be named "Jamiroquai", a portmanteau of the words "jam" and the name of a Native American confederacy, the Iroquois. He was signed to Acid Jazz Records in 1991 after he sent a demo tape of himself covering a song by the Brand New Heavies. Afterwards, he gradually gathered band members, including friend Wallis Buchanan who played the didgeridoo. Keyboardist Toby Smith, who Kay initially rejected, was scouted by the band manager and joined as Kay's songwriting partner. Their first song as collaborators was the anti-war song "Too Young to Die". In 1992, Jamiroquai began their career by performing in the British club scene, and released "When You Gonna Learn" as their debut single, charting outside the UK Top 50. It featured Brand New Heavies bassist Andrew Levy, who was replaced by Stuart Zender by audition in the following year. Following the success of the "When You Gonna Learn" single, Kay was offered multiple major-label contracts and settled for a one-million-dollar, 8-album record deal with Sony Soho2. He was the only member who signed under the contract as Jamiroquai, but he would share his royalties with his band members in accordance to their contributions. Under Sony, the band released their début album, "Emergency on Planet Earth", and it entered the UK albums chart at number 1 with 1.3 million copies sold worldwide. It was described by an AllMusic reviewer as "a psychedelic melange of tight funky rhythms, acid rock intimations, and '70s soul melodies." The album "laid the foundations for an acid-jazz sound that the band would continue to build upon for the next decade and a half", according to a critic for BBC Music. With the album having an ecologically charged concept, the music video for "When You Gonna Learn" was banned in America for using footage of a Nazi party. The album's second single, "Too Young to Die", entered the UK singles chart at number 10. The band's drummer, Nick van Gelder, was absent for longer than expected, and he was replaced by Derrick McKenzie, who recorded with the group in one take for his audition. While writing songs for the group's second album "The Return of the Space Cowboy", Kay fell into a creative block worsened by his increasing drug use at the time. And the complex nature of the production and songwriting caused Sony to tell Jamiroquai that "none of [the songs] sounded like singles". The band soon found their turning point when they wrote the lead single "Space Cowboy", released in September 1994 and becoming the group's first number 1 in the US Dance Club Songs Chart. The single additionally contained remixes by David Morales, further putting the single in club circulation. "The Return of the Space Cowboy" was issued a month later and ranked at number 2 in the UK chart. "Q" stated that the album was "an ebullient follow-up to [their] storming debut." A "Rolling Stone" reviewer described the group "[parlaying] jazzy soul pop so tight, it crackles." The instrumentation of the album was said to be "played by humans, not samplers", according to Josef Woodard from "Entertainment Weekly". In a 1996 report by "Billboard", "The Return of the Space Cowboy" sold 1.3 million copies worldwide. Its fifth single "Stillness in Time" (1995), peaked at number 9 in the UK top-ten chart. In the same year, Kay was featured in the track "Lost Souls" for Guru's album . Released in 1996, "Travelling Without Moving" sold 1.4 million copies in the US and reached number 24 in the "Billboard" 200. It sold 3 million copies in Europe, and peaked at number 2 in the UK albums chart; selling 1.2 million copies, and 8 million overall. It listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling funk album in history. Containing symphonic and jungle elements, Kay aimed for an accessible sound unlike the previous record. A review from "Q" magazine stated that "Travelling Without Moving" is "tighter and more compact in its production", while critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that it did not have "the uniform consistency of its predecessor." The album's lead single "Virtual Insanity" gained popularity for its music video, where it heavily played on MTV, and won two Video Music Awards for Breakthrough Video and Video of the Year in 1997. It was preceded by "Cosmic Girl" peaking at number 6 in the UK. Cosmic Girl was followed by "Alright" charting in the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 78. In support of "Travelling Without Moving", the group gave an international tour including the UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil and the US. The group were preparing their fourth album, "Synkronized" (1999), in Kay's Chillington studio complex, built in his Buckinghamshire country house. During its production, Zender left Jamiroquai due to conflicts with Kay. While Zender had not been involved in the album's songwriting, the group chose to scrap his recorded tracks to avoid lawsuits and Nick Fyffe was recruited for new sessions. This resulted in what journalist Lisa Markwell thought was a "tighter, more angry collection of songs" for "Synkronized", while Prasad Bidaye of "Exclaim!" commented that tracks such as "'Canned Heat,' 'Planet Home' and 'Where Do We Go From Here?' sound more like hi-NRG and house than acid jazz, while slower tempos on 'Falling' and 'Butterfly' ease the pressure for [Kay's] more romantic musings." "Canned Heat" was their second number 1 in the US Dance Club Songs Chart, and in 2004, appeared in a climactic dance scene of the comedy film "Napoleon Dynamite". The 1998 single titled, "Deeper Underground" was listed in the "Godzilla" soundtrack and was their first and only UK number 1. "Synkronized" sold 3 million copies and ranked number 1 in the UK albums chart and number 28 in the US "Billboard" 200"." The group issued their 2001 follow-up, "A Funk Odyssey", a primarily disco record that explored rock and Latin music influences. It introduced guitarist Rob Harris, who helped write tracks such as "Corner of the Earth", while Smith left the band in the following year. "A Funk Odyssey" was released to generally mixed reviews, with a "Billboard" magazine reviewer stating that the group "continues to mine a musical playing field that pays homage to [...] Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and Chic", and "Mojo" writing that the album "[succumbs] to unambitious disco stylings." The band embarked on a world tour to promote the album, including locations in Europe, Hong Kong and Melbourne, and were accompanied by vocalist Beverley Knight. The album topped in the UK, Australia, the European Top 100, and reached Top 10 charts in Germany, Ireland, Austria and Finland. In the US, the album reached number 44 in the "Billboard 200" and topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Its accompanying singles "Little L" and "You Give Me Something", both reached at number 2 in the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The former single also peaked at number 1 in Spain. Their sixth album titled "Dynamite", was released in 2005, and reached number 3 in the UK, number 2 in the European Top 100 Albums chart, and number 2 in the US Dance/Electronics Album chart. It was produced by Mike Spencer and was recorded in various locations in Europe and the US. Rashod D. Ollison of "The Baltimore Sun" wrote that the album "boasts a harder digital edge... With heavier beats, manipulated guitar lines and odd digital textures, "Dynamite" is less organic than Jamiroquai's other efforts." Its tracks "Feels Just Like It Should" and "Love Blind" were characterised as "[having] a fatter, dirtier sound than usual". In 2006, the group announced their switch to Columbia Records. A greatest hits collection, "", was issued in the same year and marked the end of Kay's contract with Sony. It topped the UK album chart after its first week of release. The following year, Jamiroquai performed in the Gig in the Sky, a concert held on a private Boeing 757 in association with Sony Ericsson. The group thus currently holds the Guinness World Record for "fastest concert", performed on the aircraft whilst travelling at 1017 km/h (632 mph). They formerly held the record for the "highest concert", broken by the Black Eyed Peas performing in a Virgin Australia aircraft. "Rock Dust Light Star" was released in 2010 under Mercury Records, described by Kay himself as a "a real band record" that "[captures] the flow of our live performances". Matt Collar commented in an AllMusic review that the group were "heading back to [their] rock and organic soul roots", with a sound "The Telegraph" termed as "Californian Seventies funk rock". It ranked number 7 in the UK with 34,378 copies sold. Its first single "White Knuckle Ride" was number 1 in Italy and also charted in the Netherlands and Switzerland, while its preceding single "Blue Skies" reached number 36 in the UK radio airplay chart. The following year also saw members Harris, Johnson, and Turner forming the sub-group Radio Silence, with their album "Travelogue" being released. Jamiroquai released "Automaton" in 2017, their eighth studio album and the first in seven years. It was produced by Kay and band keyboardist Matt Johnson, and "has a heavy electronica influence, featuring retro synths, icy arpeggiated melodies, stompy house beats and bubbling basslines", according to a review from "The New Zealand Herald". It reached number 4 in the UK and topped the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart. In May, Kay seriously injured his spine. Requiring surgery, it led to two shows in Tokyo for their Automaton Tour being rescheduled in September. By 2017, the group's line-up consisted of Kay, Harris, McKenzie, Johnson, Paul Turner on bass guitar, and percussionist Sola Akingbola. In January 2018, Jamiroquai released a track titled, "Now We Are Alone" on their official YouTube page. They gave their first US performance in 13 years at the 2018 Coachella Music Festival. Jamiroquai is generally termed as acid-jazz, funk, disco, soul, house, and R&B. Their sound has been described by J.D. Considine as having an "anything-goes attitude, an approach that leaves the band open to anything". According to Michael Mehle of "Rocky Mountain News", "When the band formed in 1992, the group chose to emphasize real instruments with a big band rather than techno-gilded dance music that required antiseptic computers and synthesizers on stage", although their later work saw the band exploring electronic sounds. Jay Kay is the primary songwriter of Jamiroquai. Despite his lack of ability to play musical instruments, he would sing melodies and beats for band members to transcribe to their instrumentation. With some tracks lasting for more than three minutes, the group balances between harder and softer songs, and lyrics are the last to be written. Toby Smith's keyboard arrangements were said to be "psychedelic and soulful", while Stuart Zender's bass playing was likened to that of Marcus Miller. Wallis Buchanan on didgeridoo was also considered as a distinctive element to their musical style. When asked about how the group maintained their success, Kay responded, "By not worrying about staying relevant... Jamiroquai never really fitted into a trendy genre or anything." Jamiroquai's sound takes from disco and funk music of the 1970s. Kay was influenced by Roy Ayers, Herbie Hancock, Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, Sly Stone, Gil Scott-Heron, and hip-hop and its culture. A 2003 compilation titled "" under Azuli Records, also contains a selection of some of the band's soul, funk and disco influences. While Jamiroquai and Kay's vocals have drawn comparisons to Stevie Wonder, some critics accused the band of deriving throwback styles to the point of copying such artists. Smith attributed this to having multiple musicians play in the band live; while Kay, who denied being influenced by Wonder, has voiced against being compared to other artists. In contrast, Kay expressed his desire to maintain the group's distinctive sound whilst referencing his influences: "If you just sample Barry White or Sly Stone, that’s one thing; to get their spirit is different." Jamiroquai's lyrics have occasionally dealt with socially idealistic themes. "Emergency on Planet Earth" (1993) revolved around environmental awareness, while "The Return of the Space Cowboy" (1994) contained themes of homelessness, Native American rights, youth protests, and slavery. The songs "Black Crow" and "Twenty Zero One" from 2001's "A Funk Odyssey", respectively "laments the absence of spirituality in modern culture" and discussed the "dehumanizing effects of technology." The lyrics for "Automaton" (2017) allude to "dystopian films and the limitations of relationships built in a digital landscape…" as Richard Driver from "PopMatters" wrote and continued: "the band pushes for hope and optimism despite reliance on aspects of society increasingly lost by technology and solitude." However, critics said that the band had strayed from these values; with arguments that the band focused more on "having fun" instead of making social change, and Kay's interest in sports cars went against their ecological themes. Kay said in an interview with "Muzik", that he was reluctant to release "Travelling Without Moving" (1996) as it adopted a motorcar concept, but added: "just because I love to drive a fast car, that doesn't mean I believe in [destroying the environment.]" He additionally stated in 1999 interview that "after a while you realise that people won't boogie and dance to [politics]." For the band's live performances, Kay said that "playing live is our forte" and that he "[found] studio work a bit stiff in comparison." Robert Hilburn of "The Los Angeles Times" wrote that the live band comprised a "10-member musical team, including a deejay and a horn section", and that Kay "asserts the confidence and command of a dancer". He added in a separate article that "Kay himself brings a winning sense of individuality to his concerts, where he combines moves as fluid as Prince’s with a disarming sense of humor." Chauncey Hollingsworth of the "Chicago Tribune" said in a 1995 concert review that "his ease in movement and vocal endurance was like a martial artist's." In 1997, Jennifer Clay for "Variety" Magazine described Kay "leaping, twirling and sliding on his knees, performing flips and handstands, and conducting with his arms and shaking his hips — seemingly off in his own world." A 2001 concert saw the group's horn section replaced with three backing vocalists. Kay stated that the group's visual aesthetics are important. He assumes creative control over the group's music videos, such as editing, performing his own stunts and ensuring that they all "[look] good after 10–15 years". Called "icons of the music-video format" by Spencer Kornhaber from "The Atlantic", the group are especially known for their music video of "Virtual Insanity", directed by Jonathan Glazer. In the video, Kay: "performed in a room where the floors, walls and furniture all moved simultaneously." The band's frontman, Jay Kay, has worn various elaborate head-gear, some he designed himself. In a 1993 interview with "Melody Maker", he said that wearing head-gear gives him a spiritual power that the Iroquois called "orenda" and if "[the audience] isn't really going for it, I'll tug the hat down and come on all militant." The illuminating helmet that appears in "Automaton" music video was designed by Moritz Waldemeyer for Kay to control its lights and movements and to portray him as "an endangered species". He had been accused of cultural appropriation when he wore Native American head-dresses. As a prominent component within the London-based funk/acid-jazz movement of the 1990s, Writer Kenneth Prouty said that "few acid jazz groups have reached the level of visibility in the pop music mainstream as London born Jamiroquai." The success of the 1996 single "Virtual Insanity" led to "[the climax of] 1970s soul and funk that early acid jazz artists had initiated." The band were also credited for popularising the didgeridoo. Alex Young of "Consequence of Sound" argued that the departure of Stuart Zender changed the band's musical direction of "creating propulsive collections of [long] tunes, [and] speaking out against injustice". Jake Indiana from "Highsnobiety" wrote that "after finding the heights of success, the band entered a quieter phase, producing full-lengths on a less regular basis." The band avoided opportunities to become a nostalgia act and has "[shown] no signs of fading in their ability to weave sonic wonder." According to Ian Gittins of "The Guardian", "Jamiroquai have long been shunned by music's tastemakers for a perceived naffness, and have shown their utter disregard for this critical snobbery by getting bigger and bigger." Ammar Kalia of "Clash" magazine negatively commented that the group "have always been a singles band, churning out radio hits like ‘Canned Heat’ and ‘Too Young To Die’, but they failed to create the pacing and diversity needed of a satisfying album." Mark Jenkins of "The Washington Post" questioned the band's socially charged lyrics and further wrote of their music: "Derived from the lush, silky '70s funk and soul of Philadelphia International and Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai's sound is about as revolutionary as a nonreturnable bottle of Pepsi." Josh Goller from "Slant Magazine" also criticised the band for objectifying women in their lyrics. Jamiroquai were the third best-selling UK act of the 1990s, after the Spice Girls and Oasis. As of February 2017, the group has sold more than 26 million albums worldwide. Despite finding popularity in the UK with high-charting albums, the band could not maintain their relevance in the United States, and their record sales declined in this market. They sold 4.4 million albums in the UK and had US sales of 2.5 million copies sold as of 2010. The group has had three albums that reached number 1 in the UK and three albums that entered the "Billboard" 200 chart in the US. Front-man Kay was given a BMI Presidents Award, "in recognition of his profound influence on songwriting within the music industry." Artists who cite the group as an influence include Tyler, the Creator, Chance the Rapper, SZA, Kamaal Williams, Syd, and Calvin Harris, who had also remixed the group's material.

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Jamiroquai

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16516

16517

John Sutter John Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880), born Johann August Sutter, was a German-born Swiss colonizer of California, with Mexican and American citizenship, known for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, California, the state's capital. At the fort, Sutter used enslaved Native Americans for labor. Although he became famous following the discovery of gold by his employee James W. Marshall and the mill-making team at Sutter's Mill, Sutter saw his own business ventures fail during the California Gold Rush. Those of his elder son, John Augustus Sutter Jr., were more successful. Johann August Sutter was born on February 23, 1803, in Kandern, Baden (present-day Germany); his father came from the nearby town of Rünenberg in the Canton of Basel in Switzerland. Johann went to school in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. At age 21, he married the daughter of a rich widow. He operated a store, but showed more interest in spending money than in earning it. Because of family circumstances and mounting debts, Johann faced charges that would have him placed in jail, so he decided to dodge trial and ventured to America; he styled his name as Captain John Augustus Sutter. In May 1834, he left his wife and five children behind in Burgdorf, Switzerland, and with a French passport, he boarded the ship "Sully", which travelled from Le Havre, France, to New York City, where it arrived on July 14, 1834. In North America, John August Sutter (as he would call himself for the rest of his life) undertook extensive travels. Before he went to the U.S., he had learned Spanish and English in addition to Swiss French. He and 35 Germans moved from the St. Louis area to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a province of Mexico, then moved to the town of Westport, now the site of Kansas City. On April 1, 1838, he joined a group of missionaries, led by the fur trapper Andrew Drips, and traveled the Oregon Trail to Fort Vancouver in Oregon Territory, which they reached in October. Sutter originally planned to cross the Siskiyou Mountains during the winter, but acting chief factor James Douglas convinced him that such an attempt would be perilous. Sutter was charged £21 by Douglas to arrange transportation on the British bark "Columbia" for himself and his eight followers. The Columbia departed Fort Vancouver on November 11 and sailed to the Kingdom of Hawaii, reaching Honolulu on December 9. Sutter had missed the only ship inbound for the Alta California, and had to remain in the Kingdom for four months. Over the months Sutter gained friendly relations with the Euro-American community, dining with the Consuls of the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, John Coffin Jones and Richard Charlton along with merchants such as American Faxon Atherton. The brig "Clementine" was eventually hired by Sutter to take freight provisions and general merchandise for New Archangel (now known as Sitka), the capital of the Russian-American Company colonies in Russian America. Joining the crew as unpaid supercargo, Sutter, 10 Native Hawaiians laborers and several other followers embarked on April 20, 1839. Staying at New Archangel for a month, Sutter joined several balls hosted by Governor Kupreyanov, who likely gave help in determining the course of the Sacramento River. The "Clementine" then sailed for Alta California, arriving on July 1, 1839, at Yerba Buena (now San Francisco), which at that time was only a small seaport town. At the time of Sutter's arrival, Alta California was a province of Mexico and had a population of only about 1,000 Europeans and an estimated 100,000-700,000 Native Americans. Sutter had to go to the capital at Monterey to obtain permission from the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, to settle in the territory. Alvarado saw Sutter's plan of establishing a colony in Central Valley as useful in "buttressing the frontier which he was trying to maintain against Indians, Russians, Americans and British." The governor stipulated however that for Sutter to qualify for land ownership, he had to reside in the territory for a year and become a Mexican citizen, which he did on August 29, 1840. Construction was begun in August 1839 on a fortified settlement which Sutter named New Helvetia, or "New Switzerland," after his homeland, "Helvetia" being the Latin name for Switzerland. Sutter often began to identify himself as 'Captain Sutter of the Swiss Guard'. When the settlement was completed in 1841, on June 18, he received title to on the Sacramento River. The site is now part of the California state capital of Sacramento. A Francophile, Sutter threatened to raise the French flag over California and place New Helvetia under French protection, but in 1846 California was occupied by the United States in the Mexican–American War. Sutter at first supported the establishment of an independent California Republic but when United States troops under John C. Frémont briefly seized control of his fort, Sutter did not resist because he was outnumbered. Sutter had to make peace with the local native Maidu people. Over time, the Maidu and Sutter became friends, and they helped Sutter and his Kanakas build a fortified settlement. Sutter called the place New Helvetia or “New Switzerland.” Sutter's Fort had a central building made of adobe bricks, surrounded by a high wall with protection on opposite corners to guard against attack. It also had workshops and stores that produced all goods necessary for the New Helvetia settlement. Sutter employed or enslaved Native Americans of the Miwok and Maidu tribes, the Hawaiians (Kanakas) he had brought, and also employed some Europeans at his compound. He envisioned creating an agricultural utopia, and for a time the settlement was in fact quite large and prosperous. Prior to the Gold Rush, it was the destination for most immigrants entering California via the high passes of the Sierra Nevada, including the ill-fated Donner Party of 1846, for whose rescue Sutter contributed supplies. Some Native Americans worked voluntarily for Sutter (e.g. Nisenans. Miwoks, Ochecames), but others were subjected to varying degrees of coercion that resembled slavery or serfdom. Sutter believed that Native Americans must be kept "strictly under fear" in order to serve white landowners. Sutter's Native American "employees" slept on bare floors in locked rooms without sanitation, and ate from troughs made from hollowed tree trunks. If Indians refused to work for him, Sutter responded with violence. Theodor Cordua, a German immigrant who leased land from Sutter, wrote: “When Sutter established himself in 1839 in the Sacramento Valley, new misfortune came upon these peaceful natives of the country. Their services were demanded immediately. Those who did not want to work were considered as enemies. With other tribes the field was taken against the hostile Indian. Declaration of war was not made. The villages were attacked usually before daybreak when everybody was still asleep. Neither old nor young was spared by the enemy, and often the Sacramento River was colored red by the blood of the innocent Indians, for these villages usually were situated at the banks of the rivers. During a campaign one section of the attackers fell upon the village by way of land. All the Indians of the attacked village naturally fled to find protection on the other bank of the river. But there they were awaited by the other half of the enemy and thus the unhappy people were shot and killed with rifles from both sides of the river. Seldom an Indian escaped such an attack, and those who were not murdered were captured. All children from six to fifteen years of age were usually taken by the greedy white people. The village was burned down and the few Indians who had escaped with their lives were left to their fate.” In 1846, the American James Clyman wrote that Sutter “keeps 600 to 800 Indians in a complete state of Slavery." On February 28, 1847, Sutter helped lead the Kern and Sutter massacres, in which 20 California Indians were killed. In 1848, gold was discovered in that area. Initially, one of Sutter's most trusted employees, James W. Marshall, found gold at Sutter's Mill. It started when Sutter hired Marshall, a New Jersey native who had served with John C. Frémont in the Bear Flag revolt, to build a water-driven sawmill in Coloma, along the American River. Sutter was intent on building a city on his property (not yet named ), including housing and a wharf on the Sacramento River, and needed lumber for the construction. One morning, as Marshall inspected the tailrace for silt and debris, he noticed some gold nuggets and brought them to Sutter's attention. Together, they read an encyclopedia entry on gold and performed primitive tests to confirm whether it was precious metal. Sutter concluded that it was, in fact, gold, but he was very anxious that the discovery not disrupt his plans for construction and farming. At the same time, he set about gaining legitimate title to as much land near the discovery as possible. Sutter's attempt at keeping the gold discovery quiet failed when merchant and newspaper publisher Samuel Brannan returned from Sutter's Mill to San Francisco with gold he had acquired there and began publicizing the find. Large crowds of people overran the land and destroyed nearly everything Sutter had worked for. To avoid losing everything, Sutter deeded his remaining land to his son John Augustus Sutter Jr. The younger Sutter, who had come from Switzerland and joined his father in September 1848, saw the commercial possibilities of the land and promptly started plans for building a new town he named Sacramento, after the Sacramento River. The elder Sutter deeply resented this; he had wanted the town named Sutterville (for them) and for it to be built near New Helvetia. Sutter gave up New Helvetia to pay the last of his debts. He rejoined his family and lived in Hock Farm (in California along the Feather River). Sutter's El Sobrante (Spanish for leftover) land grant was challenged by the Squatter's Association, and in 1858 the U.S. Supreme Court denied its validity. Sutter got a letter of introduction to the Congress of the United States from the governor of California. He moved to Washington D.C. at the end of 1865, after Hock Farm was destroyed by fire in June 1865. Sutter sought reimbursement of his losses associated with the Gold Rush. He received a pension of US$250 a month as a reimbursement of taxes paid on the Sobrante grant at the time Sutter considered it his own. He and wife Annette moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania in 1871. The proximity to Washington, D.C. along with the reputed healing qualities of Lititz Springs appealed to the aging Sutter. He also wanted three of his grandchildren (he had grandchildren in Acapulco, Mexico, as well) to have the benefits of the fine private Moravian Schools. After having prospectors destroy his crops and slaughter cows leaving everything but his own gold, John Sutter spent the rest of his life trying to get the government to pay him for his losses, but he never had any luck. Sutter built his home across from the Lititz Springs Hotel, the present-day General Sutter Inn. For more than fifteen years, Sutter petitioned Congress for restitution but little was done. On June 16, 1880, Congress adjourned, once again, without action on a bill which would have given Sutter US$50,000. Two days later, on June 18, 1880, Sutter died in the Made's Hotel in Washington D.C. He was returned to Lititz and is buried adjacent to God's Acre, the Moravian Graveyard; Anna Sutter died the following January and is buried with him. There are numerous California landmarks bearing the name of Sutter. Sutter Street in San Francisco, California is named for John A. Sutter. Sutter's Landing, Sutterville Road, Sutter Middle School, Sutter's Mill School, and Sutterville Elementary School in Sacramento, California are all named after him. The Sutterville Bend of the Sacramento River is named for Sutter, as is Sutter Health, a non-profit health care system in Northern California. The City of Sutter Creek, California is also named after him. In Acapulco, Mexico, the property that used to belong to John Augustus Sutter Jr. became the Hotel Sutter, which is still in service. The Sutter Buttes, a mountain range near Yuba City, California, and Sutter County, California (of which Yuba City is the seat) are named after him as well. The Johann Agust Sutter House in Lititz, Pennsylvania was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The 'Sutter's Gold' rose, an orange blend hybrid tea rose bred by Herbert C. Swim, was named after him. Gov. Jerry Brown, elected to a third term in 2010, had a Welsh corgi named Sutter Brown, affectionately referred to as the First Dog of California. Sutter died in late 2016 from cancer.

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John Sutter

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John Adams (composer) John Coolidge Adams (born February 15, 1947) is an American composer and conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism. Among over 60 major compositions are his breakthrough piece for string septet, "Shaker Loops" (1978), his first significant large-scale orchestral work, "Harmonielehre" (1985), the popular fanfare "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" (1986), and "On the Transmigration of Souls" (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003. He has written several operas, notably "Nixon in China" (1987), which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China; "Doctor Atomic" (2005), which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the building of the first atomic bomb; and the controversial "The Death of Klinghoffer" (1991), based on the hijacking of the passenger liner "Achille Lauro" by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of 69-year-old Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, who used a wheelchair. In addition to the Pulitzer, honors Adams has received include the Erasmus Prize, five Grammy Awards, the Harvard Arts Medal, France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and six honorary doctorates. John Adams, in full John Coolidge Adams, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on February 15, 1947. As an adolescent, he lived in Woodstock, Vermont for five years before moving to East Concord, New Hampshire. In the third grade, Adams took up the clarinet, initially taking lessons from his father, Carl Adams, and later with Boston Symphony Orchestra bass clarinetist Felix Viscuglia, as well as playing in various local orchestras and concert bands while a student. Adams began composing at the age of ten and first heard his music performed around the age of 13 or 14. He graduated from Concord High School in 1965. Adams next enrolled in Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1969 and a Master of Arts in 1971, studying composition under Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, Earl Kim, and David Del Tredici. As an undergraduate, he conducted Harvard's student ensemble, the Bach Society Orchestra, for a year and a half. He was also the first student there to be allowed to write a musical composition for his senior thesis. The piece he wrote was "The Electric Wake" for "electric" (i.e. amplified) soprano accompanied by an ensemble of "electric" strings, keyboards, harp, and percussion. After graduating, Adams taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1972 until 1982, teaching classes and directing the school's New Music Ensemble. In the early 1970s, Adams wrote several pieces of electronic music for a homemade modular synthesizer he called the "Studebaker". He also wrote "American Standard", composed of three movements, a march, a hymn, and a jazz ballad, which was recorded and released on Obscure Records in 1975. Adams served as musical producer for a number of series for the PBS, including the award-winning series, "The Adams Chronicles" in 1976 and 1977. In 1977, Adams wrote the half-hour-long solo piano piece, "Phrygian Gates", which he later called "my first mature composition, my official 'opus one', as well as its much shorter companion piece, "China Gates". The next year, he finished "Shaker Loops", a string septet based on an earlier, unsuccessful string quartet called "Wavemaker". In 1979, he finished his first orchestral work, "Common Tones in Simple Time", which was premiered by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra under Adams' baton. In 1979, Adams became the New Music Adviser for the San Francisco Symphony and created the symphony's New and Unusual Music concerts. A commission from the symphony resulted in Adams' large, three-movement choral symphony "Harmonium" (1980–81) setting texts by John Donne and Emily Dickinson. He followed this up with the three-movement, orchestral piece (without strings), "Grand Pianola Music" (1982). That summer, he wrote the score for "Matter of Heart", a documentary about psychoanalyst Carl Jung, a score he later derided as being "of stunning mediocrity". In the winter of 1982–83, Adams worked on the purely-electronic score for "Available Light", a dance choreographed by Lucinda Childs with sets by Frank Gehry. Without dance, the electronic piece alone is called "Light Over Water". After an eighteen-month period of writer's block, Adams wrote his three-movement, orchestral piece "Harmonielehre" (1984–85), which he described as "a statement of belief in the power of tonality at a time when I was uncertain about its future." As with many of Adams' pieces, it was inspired by a dream, in this case, a dream in which he was driving across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and saw an oil tanker on the surface of the water abruptly turn upright and take off like a Saturn V rocket. From 1985 to 1987, Adams composed his first opera, "Nixon in China", with libretto by Alice Goodman, based on Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. The opera marked the first collaboration between Adams and theatre director Peter Sellars, who had proposed it to Adams in 1983. Adams has subsequently worked with Sellars on all of his operas. During this time, Adams also wrote "The Chairman Dances" (1985), which he described as an "'out-take' of Act III of "Nixon in China"", to fulfill a long-delayed commission for the Milwaukee Symphony. He also wrote the short orchestral fanfare "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" (1986). Adams wrote two orchestral pieces in 1988: "Fearful Symmetries", a 25-minute work in the same style as "Nixon in China", and "The Wound-Dresser", a setting of Walt Whitman's 1865 poem of the same title, written when Whitman was volunteering at a military hospital during the American Civil War. "The Wound-Dresser" is scored for baritone voice, two flutes (or two piccolos), two oboes, clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, two horns, trumpet (or piccolo trumpet), timpani, synthesizer, and strings. During this time, Adams established an international career as a conductor. From 1998 to 1990, he served as conductor and music advisor for the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has also served as artistic director and conductor of the Ojai and Cabrillo Music Festivals in California. He has conducted orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, performing pieces by composers as diverse as Debussy, Copland, Stravinsky, Haydn, Reich, Zappa, and Wagner, as well as his own works. He completed his second opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer", in 1991, again working with librettist Alice Goodman and director Peter Sellars. The opera is based on the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship "Achille Lauro" by Palestinian terrorists and details the murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer, a retired, physically disabled American Jew. The opera has generated controversy, including allegations that it is antisemitic and glorifies terrorism. Adams' next piece, "Chamber Symphony" (1992), is for a 15-member chamber orchestra. Written in three movements, the work is inspired by an unlikely combination of sources: Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 (which Adams was studying at the time) and the "hyperactive, insistently aggressive and acrobatic" music of the cartoons his young son was watching. In 1995, Adams completed "I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky", a stage piece with libretto by poet June Jordan and staging by Peter Sellars. Inspired by musicals, Adams referred to the piece as a "songplay in two acts". The main characters are seven young Americans from different social and ethnic backgrounds, all living in Los Angeles. The story takes place around the earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994. "Hallelujah Junction" (1996) is a two-piano piece which employs variations of a repeated two-note rhythm. The intervals between the notes remain the same through much of the piece. "On the Transmigration of Souls" (2002): This piece commemorates those who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. It won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music as well as the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition. "My Father Knew Charles Ives" (2003): A semi-autobiographical orchestral triptych. It was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony. "The Dharma at Big Sur" (2003): A piece for solo electric six-string violin and orchestra. The piece calls for some instruments (harp, piano, samplers) to use just intonation, a tuning system in which intervals sound pure, rather than equal temperament, the common Western tuning system in which all intervals except the octave are impure. "Doctor Atomic" (2005): An opera in two acts, about Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the creation and testing of the first atomic bomb. The libretto of "Doctor Atomic" by Peter Sellars draws on original source material, including personal memoirs, recorded interviews, technical manuals of nuclear physics, declassified government documents, and the poetry of the "Bhagavad Gita", John Donne, Charles Baudelaire, and Muriel Rukeyser. The opera takes place in June and July 1945, mainly over the last few hours before the first atomic bomb explodes at the test site in New Mexico. Characters include Robert Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty, Edward Teller, General Leslie Groves, and Robert Wilson. "A Flowering Tree" (2006): An opera in two acts, based on a folktale from the Kannada language of southern India as translated by A.K. Ramanujan. it was commissioned as part of the Vienna New Crowned Hope Festival to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. "Doctor Atomic Symphony" (2007): Based on music from the opera. "Fellow Traveler" (2007): This piece was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Greg G. Minshall, and was dedicated to opera and theater director Peter Sellars for his 50th birthday. "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" (2011–13): An oratorio in two acts for orchestra, soloists and chorus, it premiered in May 2012 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The revised version, in the work's staged premiere, occurred in February 2013 again with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and directed by Peter Sellars. "Scheherazade.2" (2014): A dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra. The World Premiere for this work took place on March 26, 2015 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City and was performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, and violinist Leila Josefowicz. On March 26, 2015, before the premier of "Scheherazade.2" by the New York Philharmonic, Adams introduced the setting of the piece as related to One Thousand and One Nights, in which Scheherazade, after being forced into marriage, by recounting tales to her husband, delays her death. He associated modern examples of suffering and injustice towards women around the world, with acts in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Kabul, and comments from "The Rush Limbaugh Show". In January 2017 he was appointed visiting professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The music of Adams is usually categorized as minimalist or post-minimalist, although in an interview he said that his music is part of the 'post-style' era at the end of the twentieth century. While Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns, he is not a strict follower of the movement. Adams was born ten years after Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and his writing is more developmental and directionalized, containing climaxes and other elements of Romanticism. Comparing "Shaker Loops" to the minimalist composer Terry Riley's piece "In C", Adams remarked: Many of Adams's ideas in composition are a reaction to the philosophy of serialism and its depictions of "the composer as scientist". The Darmstadt school of twelve tone composition was dominant during the time that Adams was receiving his college education, and he compared class to a "mausoleum where we would sit and count tone-rows in Webern". Adams experienced a musical epiphany after reading John Cage's book "Silence" (1973), which he claimed "dropped into [his] psyche like a time bomb". Cage posed fundamental questions about what music was, and regarded all types of sounds as viable sources of music. This perspective offered to Adams a liberating alternative to the rule-based techniques of serialism. At this point, Adams began to experiment with electronic music, and his experiences are reflected in the writing of "Phrygian Gates" (1977–78), in which the constant shifting between modules in Lydian mode and Phrygian mode refers to activating electronic gates rather than architectural ones. Adams explained that working with synthesizers caused a "diatonic conversion", a reversion to the belief that tonality was a force of nature. Some of Adams's compositions are an amalgamation of different styles. One example is "Grand Pianola Music" (1981–82), a humorous piece that purposely draws its content from musical cliches. In "The Dharma at Big Sur," Adams draws from literary texts such as Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Henry Miller to illustrate the California landscape. Adams professes his love of other genres other than classical music; his parents were jazz musicians, and he has also listened to rock music, albeit only passively. Adams once claimed that originality wasn't an urgent concern for him the way it was necessary for the minimalists and compared his position to that of Gustav Mahler, J.S. Bach, and Johannes Brahms, who "were standing at the end of an era and were embracing all of the evolutions that occurred over the previous thirty to fifty years". Adams, like other minimalists of his time (e.g. Philip Glass), used a steady pulse that defines and controls the music. The pulse was best known from Terry Riley's early composition "In C", and slowly more and more composers used it as a common practice. Jonathan Bernard highlighted this adoption by comparing "Phrygian Gates", written in 1977, and "Fearful Symmetries" written eleven years later in 1988. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Adams started to add a new character to his music, which he called "the Trickster". The Trickster allowed Adams to use the repetitive style and rhythmic drive of minimalism, yet poke fun at it at the same time. When Adams commented on his own characterization of particular minimalist music, he stated that he went joyriding on "those Great Prairies of non-event". Adams won the annual American Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003 for his 9/11 memorial piece, "On the Transmigration of Souls". Response to his output as a whole has been more divided, and Adams's works have been described as both brilliant and boring in reviews that stretch across both ends of the rating spectrum. "Shaker Loops" has been described as "hauntingly ethereal", while 1999's "Naïve and Sentimental Music" has been called "an exploration of a marvelously extended spinning melody". "The New York Times" called 1996's "Hallelujah Junction" "a two-piano work played with appealingly sharp edges", and 2001's "American Berserk" "a short, volatile solo piano work". The most critically divisive pieces in Adams's collection are his historical operas. At first release, "Nixon in China" received mostly negative press feedback. Donal Henahan, writing in the "New York Times", called the Houston Grand Opera world premiere of the work "worth a few giggles but hardly a strong candidate for the standard repertory" and "visually striking but coy and insubstantial". James Wierzbicki for the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" described Adams's score as the weak point in an otherwise well-staged performance, noting the music as "inappropriately placid", "cliché-ridden in the abstract" and "[trafficked] heavily in Adams's worn-out Minimalist clichés". With time, however, the opera has come to be revered as a great and influential production. Robert Hugill for "Music and Vision" called the production "astonishing ... nearly twenty years after its premier", while "City Beat"'s Tom McElfresh called Nixon's score "a character in the drama" and "too intricate, too detailed to qualify as minimalist". Most recently, "The New York Times" writer Anthony Tommasini commended Adams for his work conducting the American Composers Orchestra. The concert, which took place in April 2007 at Carnegie Hall, was a celebratory performance of Adams's work on his sixtieth birthday. Tommasini called Adams a "skilled and dynamic conductor", and noted that the music "was gravely beautiful yet restless". The opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" has been criticized as antisemitic by some, including by the Klinghoffer family. Leon Klinghoffer's daughters, Lisa and Ilsa, after attending the opera, released a statement saying: "We are outraged at the exploitation of our parents and the coldblooded murder of our father as the centerpiece of a production that appears to us to be anti-Semitic." In response to these accusations of antisemitism, composer and Oberlin College professor Conrad Cummings wrote a letter to the editor defending "Klinghoffer" as "the closest analogue to the experience of Bach's audience attending his most demanding works", and noted that, as someone of half-Jewish heritage, he "found nothing anti-Semitic about the work". After the September 11 attacks in 2001, performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra of excerpts from "Klinghoffer" were canceled. BSO managing director Mark Volpe remarked of the decision: "We originally programmed the choruses from John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer because we believe in it as a work of art, and we still hold that conviction. ... [Tanglewood Festival Chorus members] explained that it was a purely human reason, and that it wasn't in the least bit a criticism of the work." Adams and "Klinghoffer" librettist Alice Goodman criticized the decision, and Adams rejected a request to substitute a performance of "Harmonium", saying: "The reason that I asked them not to do 'Harmonium' was that I felt that 'Klinghoffer' is a serious and humane work, and it's also a work about which many people have made prejudicial judgments without even hearing it. I felt that if I said, 'OK, "Klinghoffer" is too hot to handle, do "Harmonium", that in a sense I would be agreeing with the judgment about 'Klinghoffer.'" In response to an article by San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand denouncing the BSO decision, musicologist and critic Richard Taruskin accused the work of catering to "anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-bourgeois" prejudices. A 2014 revival by the Metropolitan Opera reignited debate. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who marched in protest against the production, wrote: "This work is both a distortion of history and helped, in some ways, to foster a three decade long feckless policy of creating a moral equivalency between the Palestinian Authority, a corrupt terrorist organization, and the state of Israel, a democracy ruled by law." Current mayor Bill de Blasio criticized Giuliani's participation in the protests, and Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the "Public Theater", said in support of the production: "It is not only permissible for the Met to do this piece – it's required for the Met to do the piece. It is a powerful and important opera." A week after watching a Met performance of the opera, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said "there was nothing anti-Semitic about the opera," and characterized the portrayal of the Klinghoffers as "very strong, very brave", and the terrorists as "bullies and irrational". Adams was married to Hawley Currens, a music teacher from 1970 to 1974. He is married to photographer Deborah O'Grady, with whom he has a son and daughter. Adams' son is the composer Samuel Carl Adams. Biographical Specific operas Interviews

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John Adams (composer)

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Jon Voight Jon Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He is the winner of one Academy Award, having been nominated for four. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards and has so far been nominated for eleven. He is the father of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven. Voight came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Oscar-nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo in "Midnight Cowboy" (1969). During the 1970s, he became a Hollywood star with his portrayals of a businessman mixed up with murder in "Deliverance" (1972); a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in "Coming Home" (1978), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor; and a penniless ex-boxing champion in the remake of "The Champ" (1979). His output became sparse during the 1980s and early 1990s, although he won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as the ruthless bank robber Oscar "Manny" Manheim in "Runaway Train" (1985). Voight made a comeback in Hollywood during the mid-1990s, starring in Michael Mann's crime epic "Heat" (1995) opposite Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. He portrayed Jim Phelps in "" (1996), a corrupt NSA agent in "Enemy of the State" (1998), and the unscrupulous attorney Leo F. Drummond in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rainmaker" (1997), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Voight gave critically acclaimed biographical performances during the 2000s, appearing as legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell in "Ali" (2001) for which his supporting performance was nominated for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award, and also as Nazi officer Jürgen Stroop in "Uprising" (2001), as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" (2001) and as Pope John Paul II in the eponymous miniseries (2005). Voight also appears in Showtime's "Ray Donovan" TV series, now in its seventh season as Mickey Donovan, a role that brought him newfound critical and audience acclaim and his fourth Golden Globe win in 2014. On November 21, 2019, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump. Voight was born on December 29, 1938, in Yonkers, New York, to Barbara () and Elmer Voight (Elemír Vojtka, Slovakia), a professional golfer. He has two brothers, Barry Voight, a former volcanologist at Pennsylvania State University, and James Wesley Voight, known as Chip Taylor, a singer-songwriter who wrote "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning". Voight's paternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother's parents were Slovak immigrants, while his maternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother's parents were German immigrants. Political activist Joseph P. Kamp was his great-uncle through his mother. Voight was raised as a Catholic and attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, where he first took an interest in acting, playing the comedic role of Count Pepi Le Loup in the school's annual musical, "The Song of Norway". Following his graduation in 1956, he enrolled at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he majored in art and graduated with a B.A. in 1960. After graduation, Voight moved to New York City, where he pursued an acting career. In the early 1960s, Voight found work in television, appearing in several episodes of "Gunsmoke", between 1963 and 1968, as well as guest spots on "Naked City", and "The Defenders", both in 1963, and "Twelve O'Clock High", in 1966 and "Cimarron Strip" in 1968. His theatre career took off in January 1965, playing Rodolfo in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge" in an Off-Broadway revival. Voight's film debut did not come until 1967, when he took a part in Phillip Kaufman's crimefighter spoof, "Fearless Frank". Voight also took a small role in 1967's western, "Hour of the Gun", directed by veteran helmer John Sturges. In 1968 Voight took a role in director Paul Williams's "Out of It". In 1969, Voight was cast in the groundbreaking "Midnight Cowboy", a film that would make his career. Voight played Joe Buck, a naïve male hustler from Texas, adrift in New York City. He comes under the tutelage of Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, a tubercular petty thief and con artist. The film explored late 1960s New York and the development of an unlikely, but poignant friendship between the two main characters. Directed by John Schlesinger and based on a novel by James Leo Herlihy, the film struck a chord with critics and audiences. Because of its controversial themes, the film was released with an X rating and would make history by being the only X-rated feature to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Both Voight and co-star Hoffman were nominated for Best Actor, but lost out to John Wayne in" True Grit." In 1970, Voight appeared in Mike Nichols' adaptation of "Catch-22", and re-teamed with director Paul Williams to star in "The Revolutionary", as a left wing college student struggling with his conscience. Voight next starred in 1972's "Deliverance." Directed by John Boorman, from a script that poet James Dickey had helped to adapt from his own novel of the same name, it tells the story of a canoe trip in a feral, backwoods America. Both the film and the performances of Voight and co-star Burt Reynolds received great critical acclaim, and were popular with audiences. Voight also appeared at the Studio Arena Theater, in Buffalo, New York in the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" from 1973-74 as Stanley Kowalski. Voight played a directionless young boxer in 1973's "The All American Boy", then appeared in the 1974 film, "Conrack", directed by Martin Ritt. Based on Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel "The Water Is Wide", Voight portrayed the title character, an idealistic young schoolteacher sent to teach underprivileged black children on a remote South Carolina island. The same year he appeared in "The Odessa File", based on Frederick Forsyth's thriller, as Peter Miller, a young German journalist who discovers a conspiracy to protect former Nazis still operating within Germany. This film first teamed him with the actor-director Maximilian Schell, who acted out a character named and based on the "Butcher of Riga" Eduard Roschmann, and for whom Voight would appear in 1976's "End of the Game", a psychological thriller based on a story by Swiss novelist and playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Voight was Steven Spielberg's first choice for the role of Matt Hooper in the 1975 film "Jaws", but he turned down the role, which was ultimately played by Richard Dreyfuss. In 1978, Voight portrayed the paraplegic Vietnam veteran Luke Martin in Hal Ashby's film "Coming Home," and was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, for his portrait of a cynical, yet noble paraplegic, reportedly based on real-life Vietnam veteran-turned-antiwar-activist Ron Kovic, with whom Fonda's character falls in love. The film included a much-talked-about love scene between the two. Jane Fonda won her second Best Actress award for her role, and Voight won for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1979, Voight once again put on boxing gloves, starring in 1979's remake of the 1931 Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper vehicle, "The Champ," with Voight playing the part of an alcoholic ex-heavyweight and a young Ricky Schroder playing the role of his adoring son. The film was an international success, but less popular with American audiences. He next reteamed with director Ashby in 1982's "Lookin' to Get Out", in which he played Alex Kovac, a con man who has run into debt with New York mobsters and hopes to win enough in Las Vegas to pay them off. Voight both co-wrote the script and also co-produced. He also produced and acted in 1983's "Table for Five", in which he played a widower bringing up his children by himself. Also in 1983, Voight was slated to play Robert Harmon in John Cassavetes' Golden Bear-winning "Love Streams", having performed the role on stage in 1981. However, a few weeks before shooting began, Voight announced that he also wanted to direct the picture and was consequently dropped. In 1985, Voight teamed up with Russian writer and director Andrei Konchalovsky to play the role of escaped con Oscar "Manny" Manheim in "Runaway Train". The script was based on a story by Akira Kurosawa, and paired Voight with Eric Roberts as a fellow escapee. Voight received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe's award for Best Actor. Roberts was also honored for his performance, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Voight followed up this and other performances with a role in the 1986 film, "Desert Bloom", and reportedly experienced a "spiritual awakening" toward the end of the decade. In 1989 Voight starred in and helped write "Eternity," which dealt with a television reporter's efforts to uncover corruption. He made his first acting debut into television movies, acting in 1991's "Chernobyl: The Final Warning", followed by "The Last of his Tribe", in 1992. He followed with 1992's "The Rainbow Warrior" for ABC, the story of the ill-fated Greenpeace ship sunk by French operatives in the Auckland Harbour. For the remainder of the decade, Voight would alternate between feature films and television movies, including a starring role in the 1993 miniseries "Return to Lonesome Dove", a continuation of Larry McMurtry's western saga, 1989's "Lonesome Dove". Voight played Captain Woodrow F. Call, the part played by Tommy Lee Jones in the original miniseries. Voight made a cameo appearance as himself on the "Seinfeld" episode "The Mom & Pop Store" airing November 17, 1994, in which George Costanza buys a car that appears to be owned by Jon Voight. Voight described the process leading up to the episode in an interview on the Red Carpet at the 2006 BAFTA Emmy Awards: In 1992, Voight appeared in the HBO film "The Last of His Tribe". In 1995, Voight played the role of "Nate", a fence in the film, "Heat", directed by Michael Mann, and appeared in the television films "Convict Cowboy," and "The Tin Soldier," also directing the latter film. Voight next appeared in 1996's blockbuster film "", directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise. Voight played the role of spymaster James Phelps, a role originated by Peter Graves in the television series. In 1997, Voight appeared in six films, beginning with "Rosewood", based on the 1923 destruction of the primarily black town of Rosewood, Florida, by the white residents of nearby Sumner. Voight played John Wright, a white Rosewood storeowner who follows his conscience and protects his black customers from the white rage. Voight next appeared in "Anaconda". Set in the Amazon, he played Paul Sarone, a snake hunter obsessed with a fabled giant anaconda, who hijacks an unwitting National Geographic film crew who are looking for a remote Indian tribe. Voight next appeared in a supporting role in Oliver Stone's "U Turn", portraying a blind man. Voight took a supporting role in "The Rainmaker", adopted from the John Grisham novel and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He played an unscrupulous lawyer representing an insurance company, facing off with a neophyte lawyer played by Matt Damon. His last film of 1997 was "Boys Will Be Boys", a family comedy directed by Dom DeLuise. The following year, Voight had the lead role in the television film "The Fixer", in which he played Jack Killoran, a lawyer who crosses ethical lines in order to "fix" things for his wealthy clients. A near-fatal accident awakens his dormant conscience and Killoran soon runs afoul of his former clients. He also took a substantial role in Tony Scott's 1998 political thriller, "Enemy of the State," in which Voight played Will Smith's character's stalwart antagonist from the NSA . Voight was reunited with director Boorman in 1998's "The General". Set in Dublin, Ireland, the film tells the true-life story of the charismatic leader of a gang of thieves, Martin Cahill, at odds with both the police and the Provisional IRA. Voight portrays Inspector Ned Kenny, determined to bring Cahill to justice. Voight next appeared in 1999's "Varsity Blues". Voight played a blunt, autocratic football coach, pitted in a test of wills against his star player, portrayed by James Van Der Beek. Produced by fledgling MTV Pictures, the film became a surprise hit and helped connect Voight with a younger audience. Voight played Noah in the 1999 television production "Noah's Ark", and appeared in "Second String," also for TV. He also appeared with Cheryl Ladd in the feature "A Dog of Flanders", a remake of a popular film set in Belgium. Voight next portrayed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 2001's action/war film "Pearl Harbor", having accepted the role when Gene Hackman declined (his performance was received favorably by critics). Also that year, he appeared as Lord Croft, father of the title character of "". Based on the popular video game, the digital adventuress was played on the big screen by Voight's own real-life daughter Angelina Jolie. That year, he also appeared in "Zoolander", directed by Ben Stiller who starred as the title character, a vapid supermodel with humble roots. Voight appeared as Zoolander's coal-miner father. The film extracted both pathos and cruel humor from the scenes of Zoolander's return home, when he entered the mines alongside his father and brothers and Voight's character expressed his unspoken disgust at his son's chosen profession. Also in 2001, Voight joined Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria and David Schwimmer in the made-for-television film "Uprising", which was based on the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. Voight played Major-General Juergen Stroop, the German officer responsible for the destruction of the Jewish resistance, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Director Michael Mann tagged Voight for a supporting role in the 2001 biopic "Ali", which starred Will Smith as the controversial former heavyweight champ, Muhammad Ali. Voight was almost unrecognizable under his make-up and toupée, as he impersonated the sports broadcaster Howard Cosell. Voight received his fourth Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for his performance. Also in 2001, he appeared in the television mini-series "" along with Vanessa Redgrave, Matthew Modine, Richard Attenborough, and Mia Sara. In the CBS miniseries "Pope John Paul II", released in December 2005, Voight, who was raised a Catholic, portrayed the pontiff from the time of his election until his death, garnering an Emmy nomination for the role. In 2003, he played the role of Marion Sevillo/Mr. Sir in "Holes". In 2004, Voight joined Nicolas Cage, in "National Treasure" as Patrick Gates, the father of Cage's character. In 2005, he played Pope John Paul II in the second part of CBS' miniseries, "Pope John Paul II". In 2006, he was Kentucky Wildcats head coach Adolph Rupp in the Disney hit "Glory Road". In 2007, he played United States Secretary of Defense John Keller in the summer blockbuster "Transformers", reuniting him with "Holes" star Shia LaBeouf. Also in 2007, Voight reprised his role as Patrick Gates in "". He appeared in "Bratz" with his goddaughter Skyler Shaye. In 2009, Voight played Jonas Hodges, the American antagonist, in the seventh season of the hit Fox drama "24", a role that many argue is based on real life figures Alfried Krupp, Johann Rall and Erik Prince. Voight plays the chief executive officer of a fictional private military company based in northern Virginia called "Starkwood", which has loose resemblances to Academi and ThyssenKrupp. Voight made his first appearance in the two-hour prequel episode "" on November 23. He then went on to recur for 10 episodes of Season 7. He joined Dennis Haysbert as the only two actors ever to have been credited with the "Special Guest Appearance" card on "24". That same year Voight also lent his voice talents in the Thomas Nelson audio Bible production known as "The Word of Promise". In this dramatized audio, Voight played the character of Abraham. The project also featured a large ensemble of other well known Hollywood actors including Jim Caviezel, Lou Gossett, Jr., John Rhys-Davies, Luke Perry, Gary Sinise, Jason Alexander, Christopher McDonald, Marisa Tomei and John Schneider. In 2013, Voight made his much acclaimed appearance on "Ray Donovan" as Mickey Donovan, the main character's conniving father. Voight received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2014 for his work on "Ray Donovan". On March 26, 2019, Voight was appointed to a six-year term on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. In his early life, his political views aligned with American liberal views and he supported President John F. Kennedy, describing his assassination as traumatizing to people at that time. He also worked for George McGovern's voter registrations efforts in the inner cities of Los Angeles. Voight actively protested against the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, he made public appearances alongside Jane Fonda and Leonard Bernstein in support of the leftist Unidad Popular group in Chile. In a July 28, 2008 op-ed in "The Washington Times," he wrote that he regretted his youthful anti-war activism, and claimed that the peace movement of that time was driven by "Marxist propaganda". He also claimed that the radicals in the peace movement were responsible for the communists coming to power in Vietnam and Cambodia and for failing to stop the subsequent slaughter of 2.5 million people in the Killing Fields. In the same op-ed he also criticised the Democratic Party and Barack Obama's bid to become president claiming that the Democrats had created "a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure (Obama)" who would "demoralize this country and help create a socialist America". He claimed Obama had grown up with the teachings of very angry, militant white and black people around him. In May 2008, Voight paid a solidarity visit to Israel in honor of its 60th birthday. "I'm coming to salute, encourage and strengthen the people of Israel on this joyous 60th birthday", said Voight. "This week is about highlighting Israel as a moral beacon. At a time when its enemies threaten nuclear destruction, Israel heals." Voight endorsed Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections respectively. Speaking at an inauguration rally for Donald Trump in January 2017 Voight said, "God answered all our prayers" by granting Trump the White House. In May 2019, Voight released a short two-part video on Twitter supporting President Trump's policies, and calling him "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln". In 1962, Voight married actress Lauri Peters, whom he met when they both appeared in the original Broadway production of "The Sound of Music". They divorced in 1967. He married actress Marcheline Bertrand in 1971. They separated in 1976, filed for divorce in 1978, and it was finalized in 1980. Their children, James Haven (born May 11, 1973) and Angelina Jolie (born June 4, 1975), would go on to enter the film business as actors and producers. Voight has never remarried in the 40 years since his second divorce. Over the decades, he has dated Linda Morand, Stacey Pickren, Rebecca De Mornay, Eileen Davidson, Barbra Streisand, Nastassja Kinski and Diana Ross. In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Mom & Pop Store", George Costanza buys a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron thinking it was previously owned by Jon Voight, but Jerry points out that Jon Voight must have misspelled his first name with an "h" in the owner's manual for this to be true. Jon Voight appears briefly as himself in the episode and bites Kramer on the arm. By the end of the episode it is revealed that the car was actually owned by a periodontist named John Voight.

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Jon Voight

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John Climacus John Climacus (; ), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th-7th-century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. There is almost no information about John's life. There is in existence an ancient "Vita" (life) of the saint by a monk named Daniel of Raithu monastery. Daniel, though claiming to be a contemporary, admits to no knowledge of John's origins—any detail on John's birth is the result of much later speculation, and is confined to references in the Menologion. The "Vita" is generally unhelpful for establishing dates of any kind. Formerly scholarship, on the basis of John's entry in the Menologion, had placed him in the latter 6th Century. That view was challenged by J.C. Guy and others, and consensus (such as there is) has shifted to a 7th Century provenance. If Daniel's "Vita" is trustworthy (there is nothing against which to judge its accuracy), then John came to the "Vatos" Monastery at Mount Sinai, now Saint Catherine's Monastery, and became a novice when he was about 16 years old. He was taught about the spiritual life by the elder monk Martyrius. After the death of Martyrius, John, wishing to practice greater asceticism, withdrew to a hermitage at the foot of the mountain. In this isolation he lived for some twenty years, constantly studying the lives of the saints and thus becoming one of the most learned Church Fathers. In the meantime, this tradition has been proven to be historically implausible. The artful rhetorical figures in his writings, as well as philosophical forms of thought indicate a solid academic education, as was customary for a profession in administration and law during his epoch. Such training could not be acquired in Sinai. In addition, biographical observations indicate that he probably lived by the sea, probably in Gaza, and apparently practiced law there. It was only after his wife's death, in his early forties, that he entered the Sinai Monastery. These findings also explain the horizon and the literary quality of his writings, which have a clear philosophical background. The legend of his renunciation of the world at the age of 16 is based on the motive of portraying him as untouched by secular education, as is found in other biographies of saints. Their roots in theological and philosophical educational traditions are deliberately blurred. When he was about sixty-five years of age, the monks of Sinai persuaded him to become their Igumen. He acquitted himself of his functions as abbot with the greatest wisdom, and his reputation spread so far that, according to the "Vita", Pope Gregory the Great wrote to recommend himself to his prayers, and sent him a sum of money for the hospital of Sinai, in which the pilgrims were wont to lodge. Of John's literary output we know only the "Κλῖμαξ" () or "Ladder of Divine Ascent", composed in the early seventh century at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery situated on the shores of the Red Sea, and a shorter work "To the Pastor" (Latin: "Liber ad Pastorem"), most likely a sort of appendix to the "Ladder." It is in the "Ladder"' that we hear of the ascetic practice of carrying a small notebook to record the thoughts of the monk during contemplation. The "Ladder" describes how to raise one's soul and body to God through the acquisition of ascetic virtues. Climacus uses the analogy of Jacob's Ladder as the framework for his spiritual teaching. Each chapter is referred to as a "step", and deals with a separate spiritual subject. There are thirty Steps of the ladder, which correspond to the age of Jesus at his baptism and the beginning of his earthly ministry. Within the general framework of a 'ladder', Climacus' book falls into three sections. The first seven Steps concern general virtues necessary for the ascetic life, while the next nineteen (Steps 8–26) give instruction on overcoming vices and building their corresponding virtues. The final four Steps concern the higher virtues toward which the ascetic life aims. The final rung of the ladder—beyond prayer (προσευχή), stillness (ἡσυχία), and even dispassion (ἀπάθεια)—is love (ἀγάπη). Originally written simply for the monks of a neighboring monastery, the "Ladder" swiftly became one of the most widely read and much-beloved books of Byzantine spirituality. This book is one of the most widely read among Orthodox Christians, especially during the season of Great Lent which immediately precedes Pascha (Easter). It is often read in the trapeza (refectory) in Orthodox monasteries, and in some places it is read in church as part of the Daily Office on Lenten weekdays, being prescribed in the Triodion. An icon known by the same title, "Ladder of Divine Ascent", depicts a ladder extending from earth to heaven (cf. ) Several monks are depicted climbing a ladder; at the top is Jesus, prepared to receive them into Heaven. Also shown are angels helping the climbers, and demons attempting to shoot with arrows or drag down the climbers, no matter how high up the ladder they may be. Most versions of the icon show at least one person falling. Often, in the lower right corner John Climacus himself is shown, gesturing towards the ladder, with rows of monastics behind him. Saint John's feast day is March 30 in both the East and West. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Catholic Churches additionally commemorate him on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent. Many churches are dedicated to him in Russia, including a church and belltower in the Moscow Kremlin. John Climacus was also known as "Scholasticus," but he is not to be confused with John Scholasticus, Patriarch of Constantinople. Several translations into English have been made, including one by Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Boston, 1978). This volume contains the "Life of St. John" by Daniel, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent", and "To the Pastor", and provides footnotes explaining many of the concepts and terminology used from an Orthodox perspective, as well as a General Index.

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John Climacus

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Jerome Callet Jerome Callet (April 24, 1930 – May 13, 2019) was a brass embouchure clinician, and designer of brass instruments and mouthpieces. Callet rediscovered the original brass embouchure technique utilized in Europe during the baroque era, which at the time was only passed on verbally from trumpet guild members to their sons, and subsequently, by the great classical and jazz players of the first half of the 20th century. While this technique was described in written form within the first brass instruction books published in France in the late 1800s, as well as some American trumpet method books from the early 20th century, the instructions were mistranslated by subsequent generations of teachers, altering the trajectory and quality of brass playing and instruction for the past 100 years. Callet subsequently began creating and manufacturing his own line of trumpets and mouthpieces, for he believed that most modern trumpet equipment was designed to compensate for the failures of modern trumpet playing and teaching. Born April 24, 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Callet began his trumpet studies at age thirteen after being inspired by two fellow students, Cal Massey and Tommy Turrentine, at Herron Hill Junior High School in Pittsburgh. Although he subsequently studied with several well known and accomplished trumpet instructors in the Pittsburgh area and dedicated himself laboriously to mastering the instrument, by the age of thirty Callet could still not play a high C. In 1947, after many years of struggle, Callet began researching the physical elements necessary to develop a “Super Power Embouchure”, such as those developed by players such as Harry James, Charlie Shavers, Horst Fischer, Maurice Andre, and Maynard Ferguson. In 1970, at the age of 40, and after much trial and error, Callet had developed his new embouchure, and named it Superchops. The Superchops embouchure methodology eventually led him on the quest to design and produce the best trumpets and mouthpieces available. Callet's involvement with the business of instruments began with sixteen years in sales (1953-1968) for Elden Benge, followed by eight years of experience with Dominick Calicchio (1968-1975). He absorbed much of his knowledge of trumpet making from these two brilliant men. With this rich background and his talent as an accomplished machinist, Callet launched his experimental trumpet design in 1956, and started selling his own trumpets under the Callet brand in 1984. In 1973, he also developed a line of mouthpieces to complement his embouchure theories. In the meantime, he taught embouchure technique in Pittsburgh (1960) and New York (from 1972 to April 2019). The fulfillment of his quest to create the best brass instruments possible culminated with his “New York Soloist” Bb trumpet, released in 2013 (built by Kanstul), and his 1ss, 1sc, and 1sb trumpet mouthpieces, released in 2017 (built by Jim New). Callet's historical legacy of trumpet manufacturing is represented by his “Sima Bb”, "Sima C", "Sima D/Eb", “Jazz Bb”, “Superchops Bb”, “Symphonique Bb”, “Symphonique C”, “Stratosphere Bb”, and previous “Soloist Bb” trumpets, as well as his "Grand Prix" flugelhorn, his earlier “Jazz” and "NY" flugelhorns, and his "Jazz" trombone. More than 6,000 Callet trumpets and 15,000 Callet mouthpieces were manufactured overall. Callet published five books on trumpet embouchure and technique, including "Trumpet Secrets" (2002), "Beyond Arban" (1991), "Superchops" (1987), "Brass Power and Endurance" (1974), and "Trumpet Yoga" (1971), as well as the "Master Superchops" DVD (2007). Callet also conducted brass embouchure clinics in the United States, Canada, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Hungary and Japan.

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Jerome Callet

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History of Java The History of Java can refer to:

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History of Java

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Java (board game) Java is a German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling and published in 2000 by Ravensburger in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. It is illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel. "Java" won the Deutscher Spiele Preis 9th place in 2001 and the Games Magazine Best Advanced Strategy Game in 2002. It is the second game in the Mask Trilogy, following "Tikal" and followed by "Mexica". The game provides the atmosphere of the island of Java on a hexagonal board. Players build the island and score by setting up palace festivals at opportune moments. When players run out of hexagons to build the island, the game is over. A final scoring phase now takes place and a winner is declared.

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Java (board game)

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John Radcliffe (physician) John Radcliffe (1650 – 1 November 1714) was an English physician, academic and politician. A number of landmark buildings in Oxford, including the Radcliffe Camera (in Radcliffe Square), the Radcliffe Infirmary, the Radcliffe Science Library, Radcliffe Primary Care and the Radcliffe Observatory were named after him. The John Radcliffe Hospital, a large tertiary hospital in Headington, was also named after him. Radcliffe was born the son of George Radcliffe and Anne Loader, in Wakefield, Yorkshire, where he was baptised on 23 January 1653. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School and Northallerton Grammar School and graduated from the University of Oxford, where he was an exhibitioner at University College tutored by Obadiah Walker, to become a Fellow of Lincoln College. He obtained his MD in 1682 and moved to London shortly afterwards. There he enjoyed great popularity and became royal physician to William III and Mary II. In 1690 he was elected Member of Parliament for Bramber, Sussex and in 1713 member for Buckingham. On his death in the following year, his property was bequeathed to various charitable causes, including St Bartholomew's Hospital and University College, Oxford, where the Radcliffe Quad is named after him. The charitable trust founded by his will of 13 September 1714 still operates as a registered charity. 1. Among the many singularities related of Radcliffe, it has been noticed that, when he was in a convivial party, he was unwilling to leave it, even though sent for by persons of the highest distinction. Whilst he was thus deeply engaged at a tavern, he was called on by a grenadier, who desired his immediate attendance on his "colonel"; but no entreaties could prevail on the physician to postpone his revelry. 2. To confer medical authority upon themselves, doctors of the day often published their theories, clinical findings, and pharmacopoeia (collections of "receipts" or prescriptions). Radcliffe, however, not only wrote little but also took a certain iconoclastic pride in having read little, remarking once of some vials of herbs and a skeleton in his study: “This is Radcliffe’s library.” However, he bequeathed a substantial sum of money to Oxford for the founding of the Radcliffe Library, an endowment which, Samuel Garth quipped, was "about as logical as if a eunuch should found a seraglio." 3. Physician to King William III until 1699, when Radcliffe offended the King by remarking "Why truly, I would not have your Majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms." The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is named after John Radcliffe, as was the former Radcliffe Infirmary, now being redeveloped for academic use by Oxford University as the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

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John Radcliffe (physician)

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Joual Joual () is an accepted name for the linguistic features of basilectal Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class in Montreal which has become a symbol of national identity for some. "Joual" is stigmatized by some and celebrated by others. While "joual" is often considered a sociolect of the Québécois working class, many feel that perception is outdated. Speakers of Quebec French from outside Montreal usually have other names to identify their speech, such as Magoua in Trois-Rivières, and Chaouin south of Trois-Rivières. Linguists tend to eschew this term, but historically some have reserved the term "joual" for the variant of Quebec French spoken in Montreal. Both the upward socio-economic mobility among the Québécois, and a cultural renaissance around "joual" connected to the Quiet Revolution in the Montreal East-End have resulted in "joual" being spoken by people across the educational and economic spectrum. Today, many Québécois who were raised in Quebec during the 20th century (command of English notwithstanding) can understand and speak at least some "joual". The creation of "joual" can be traced back to the "era of silence", the period from the 1840s to the 1960s and the start of the Quiet Revolution. The "era of silence" was marked with stark stigmatization of the common working man. Written documents were not shared with the typical working class man, and the very strict form of French that was used by elites excluded a majority of the population. The Quiet Revolution during the 1960s was a time of awakening, in which the Quebec working class demanded more respect in society, including wider use of Québécois in literature and the performing arts. Michel Tremblay is an example of a writer who deliberately used "joual" and Québécois to represent the working class populations of Quebec. "Joual", a language of the working class, quickly became associated with slang and vulgar language. Despite its continued use in Canada, there are still ideologies present which place a negative connotation on the use of "joual". Although coinage of the name "joual" is often attributed to French-Canadian journalist André Laurendeau, usage of this term throughout French-speaking Canada predates the 1930s. The actual word "joual" is the representation of how the word "cheval" (Standard French: , "horse") is pronounced by those who speak "joual". ("Horse" is used in a variation of the phrase "parler français comme une vache" [to speak French like a cow], i.e. to speak French terribly; hence, a put-down of the Québécois dialect.) The weak schwa vowel disappeared. Then the voiceless was voiced to , thereby creating . Next, the at the beginning of a syllable in some regional dialects of French or even in very rapid speech in general weakened to become the semi-vowel written . The end result is the word transcribed as "joual". Diphthongs are normally present where long vowels would be present in standard French. There is also the usage of "sontaient, sonté" ("ils étaient, ils ont été"). Although "moé" and "toé" are today considered substandard slang pronunciations of "toi" and "moi", these were the original pronunciations of "ancien régime" French used in all provinces of Northern France, by the royalty, aristocracy, and common people. After the 1789 French Revolution, the standard pronunciation in France changed to that of a previously-stigmatized form in the speech of Paris, but Quebec French continued to evolve from the historically older dialects, having become isolated from France following the 1760 British conquest of New France. "Joual" shares many features with modern Oïl languages, such as Norman, Gallo, Picard, Poitevin and Saintongeais though its affinities are greatest with the 17th century koiné of Paris. Speakers of these languages of France predominated among settlers to New France. It could be argued that at least some aspects of more modern "joual" are further linguistic contractions of standard French. "D'la" ("de la") is an example where the word "de" has nearly fallen out of usage over time and has become contracted. This argument does apply to other words, and this phenomenon has become widespread throughout contemporary French language. Another significant characteristic of "joual" is the liberal use of profanities called "sacre" in everyday speech. There are a number of English loanwords in "joual", although they have been stigmatized since the 1960s, instead favoring alternative terms promoted by the "Office québécois de la langue française". The usage of deprecated anglicisms varies both regionally and historically. Some words were also previously thought to be of English origin, although modern research has shown them to be from regional French dialects: The two-act play "Les Belles-sœurs" by Canadian writer Michel Tremblay premiered in 1968 at the Theater du Rideau Vert in Montreal, Canada. Many consider it to have had a profound impact on Canadian culture, as it was one of the first times "joual" was seen on a national stage. The play follows a working-class woman named Germaine in Montréal, Québec, Canada. After winning a million trading stamps, she invites her friends over to help paste them into booklets to redeem them. But Germaine is unsuspecting of her jealous friends who are envious of her winnings. The fact that the play was originally written in "joual" is very important to the socio-linguistic aspect of the women. The characters all come from the working class and for the most part, speak in "joual", which at the time was not seen on the main stage. The play was cited at the time as a "radical element among Quebec critics as the dawn of a new era of liberation, both political and aesthetic". When "Les Belles-sœurs" premiered in Paris, France in 1973 as it was originally written, in "joual", it was met with some initial criticism. One critic described it as difficult to understand as ancient Greek. Tremblay responded, "a culture should always start with speak to herself. The ancient Greeks spoke to each other". The popularity of the play has since caused it to be translated into multiple languages, raising controversies in the translation community over retaining the authenticity of "Les Belles-sœurs" even when not performed in the original dialect of "joual". Writing in "joual" gave Tremblay an opportunity to resist cultural and linguistic "imperialism" of France, while signifying the secularization of Québec culture.

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Joual

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Jacob and Esau The Book of Genesis speaks of the relationship between fraternal twins Jacob and Esau, sons of Isaac and Rebekah, focusing on Esau's loss of his birthright to Jacob and the conflict that ensued between their descendant nations because of Jacob's deception of their aged and blind father, Isaac, in order to receive Esau's birthright/blessing from Isaac. This conflict was paralleled by the affection the parents had for their favored child: "Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob." (). Even since conception, their conflict was foreshadowed: "And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the . And the said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." () In Genesis, Esau returned to his brother, Jacob, being famished from the fields. He begged his twin brother to give him some "red pottage" (paralleling his nickname, ("adom", meaning "red"). Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright (the right to be recognized as firstborn) and Esau agreed. The birthright ("bekorah") has to do with both position and inheritance. By birthright, the firstborn son inherited the leadership of the family and the judicial authority of his father. Deuteronomy 21:17 states that he was also entitled to a double portion of the paternal inheritance. Esau acts impulsively. As he did not value his birthright over a bowl of lentil stew, by his actions, Esau demonstrates that he does not deserve to be the one who continues Abraham's responsibilities and rewards under God's covenant, since he does not have the steady, thoughtful qualities which are required. Jacob shows his willingness as well as his greater intelligence and forethought. What he does is not quite honorable, though not illegal. The birthright benefit that he gains is at least partially valid, although he is insecure enough about it to conspire later with his mother to deceive his father so as to gain the blessing for the first-born as well. Later, Esau marries two wives, both Hittite women, that is, locals, in violation of Abraham's (and God's) injunction not to take wives from among the Canaanite population. Again, one gets the sense of a headstrong person who acts impulsively, without sufficient thought (). His marriage is described as a vexation to both Rebekah and Isaac. Even his father, who has strong affection for him, is hurt by his act. According to Daniel J. Elazar this action alone forever rules out Esau as the bearer of patriarchal continuity. Esau could have overcome the sale of his birthright; Isaac was still prepared to give him the blessing due the firstborn. But acquiring foreign wives meant the detachment of his children from the Abrahamic line. Despite the deception on the part of Jacob and his mother to gain Isaac's patriarchal blessing, Jacob's vocation as Isaac's legitimate heir in the continued founding of the Jewish people is reaffirmed. Elazar suggests that the Bible indicates that a bright, calculating person who, at times, is less than honest, is preferable as a founder over a bluff, impulsive one who cannot make discriminating choices. Pronouncing the blessing was considered to be the act formally acknowledging the firstborn as the principal heir. In Genesis 27:5–7, Rebecca overhears Isaac tell Esau, "Bring me venison and prepare a savory food, that I may eat, and bless thee before the before my death." Rebecca councils Jacob to pretend to be Esau, in order to obtain the blessing in his brother's stead. He dressed himself in Esau's best clothes and disguised himself by covering his arms in lamb skin so that if his blind father touched him, he would think Jacob his more hirsute brother. Jacob brought Isaac a dish of goat meat prepared by Rebecca to taste like venison. Isaac then bestowed the blessing ("bekhorah"), which confers a prophetic wish for fertility (vv. 27–28) and dominion (v.29), on Jacob before Esau's return. Esau is furious and vows to kill Jacob () as soon as their father has died. Rebekah intervenes to save her younger son Jacob from being murdered by her elder son, Esau. At Rebekah's urging, Jacob flees to a distant land to work for his mother's brother, Laban (). She explains to Isaac that she has sent Jacob to find a wife among her own people. Jacob does not immediately receive his father's inheritance. Jacob, having fled for his life, leaves behind the wealth of Isaac's flocks and land and tents in Esau's hands. Jacob is forced to sleep out on the open ground and then work for wages as a servant in Laban's household. Jacob, who had deceived his father, is in turn deceived and cheated by his relative Laban concerning Jacob's seven years of service (lacking money for a dowry) for the hand of Laban's daughter Rachel, receiving his older daughter Leah instead. However, despite Laban, Jacob eventually becomes so rich as to incite the envy of Laban and Laban's sons. tells of Jacob and Esau's eventual meeting according to God's commandment in after Jacob had spent more than 20 years staying with Laban in Padan-Aram. The two men prepare for their meeting like warriors about to enter into battle. Jacob divides his family into two camps such that if one is taken the other might escape (). Jacob sends messengers to Esau, as well as gifts meant to appease him. Jacob gets the name "Israel" after he wrestles with the Angel of God as he is traveling to Esau. His hip is knocked out of joint but he keeps on wrestling and gains the name. After the encounter with the angel, Jacob crosses over the ford Jabbok and encounters Esau who seems initially pleased to see him (), which attitude of favour Jacob fosters by means of his gift. Esau refuses the gift at first but Jacob humbles himself before his brother and presses him to take it, which he finally does (). However, Jacob evidently does not trust his brother's favour to continue for long so he makes excuses to avoid traveling to Mount Seir in Esau's company (), and he further evades Esau's attempt to put his own men among Jacob's bands (), and finally completes the deception of his brother yet again by going to Succoth and then to Shalem, a city of Shechem, instead of following Esau at a distance to Seir (). The next time Jacob and Esau meet is at the burial of their father, Isaac, in Hebron (). The so-called reconciliation is thus only superficial and temporary. The narrative of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob, in , states that Esau despised his birthright. However, it also alludes to Jacob being deceitful. In Esau's mother and father's eyes, the deception may have been deserved. Rebekah later abets Jacob in receiving his father's blessing disguised as Esau. Isaac then refuses to take Jacob's blessing back after learning he was tricked, and does not give this blessing to Esau but, after Esau begs, gives him an inferior blessing ().

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Jacob and Esau

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Joseph Lister Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912), was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, whose research into bacteriology and infection in wounds, raised his skillful operative technique, that was similar to his peers, to a new plane where his observations, deductions and practices revolutionised surgery throughout the world. Lister promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid (now known as phenol) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds. Applying Louis Pasteur's advances in microbiology, Lister championed the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic, so that it became the first widely used antiseptic in surgery. He first suspected it would prove an adequate disinfectant because it was used to ease the stench from fields irrigated with sewage waste. He presumed it was safe because fields treated with carbolic acid produced no apparent ill-effects on the livestock that later grazed upon them. Lister's work led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients, distinguishing him as the "father of modern surgery". Lister was born to a prosperous Quaker family in Upton, West Ham, Essex, then near but now in London, England. He was the second son of six siblings to gentleman scientist and wine merchant Joseph Jackson Lister and Isabella Harris. His father was a pioneer in the design of achromatic object lenses for use in compound microscopes. His father spent 30 years of his life, perfecting the microscope. In the process, discovering the Law of Aplanatic foci, building a microscope where the image point of one lens coincided with the focal point of another. Up until that point, the best higher magnification lenses produced an excessive secondary aberration known as a coma which interfered with normal use. His work built a reputation sufficient to enable his being elected to the Royal Society in 1832. A young Joseph Lister attended Benjamin Abbott's Isaac Brown Academy, a Quaker school in Hitchin in Hertfordshire. As a teenager, Lister attended Grove House School in Tottenham, studying mathematics, natural science, and languages. At school, Lister became a fluent reader of French and German. Lister left school in the spring of 1844 when he was seventeen, to attend University College, London, one of only a few institutions which accepted Quakers at that time. He initially studied botany and obtained a bachelor of Arts degree in 1847. He registered as a medical student and graduated with honours as Bachelor of Medicine, subsequently entering the Royal College of Surgeons at the age of 26. In 1854, Lister became both first assistant to and friend of surgeon James Syme at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in Scotland. There he joined the Royal Medical Society and presented two dissertations, in 1855 and 1871, which are still in the possession of the Society today. Lister subsequently left the Quakers, joined the Scottish Episcopal Church, and eventually married Syme's daughter, Agnes. On their honeymoon, they spent three months visiting leading medical institutes (hospitals and universities) in France and Germany. By this time, Agnes was enamoured of medical research and was Lister's partner in the laboratory for the rest of her life. Before Lister's studies of surgery, many people believed that chemical damage from exposure to "bad air", or "miasma", was responsible for infections in wounds. Hospital wards were occasionally aired out at midday as a precaution against the spread of infection via miasma, but facilities for washing hands or a patient's wounds were not available. A surgeon was not required to wash his hands before seeing a patient; in the absence of any theory of bacterial infection, such practices were not considered necessary. Despite the work of Ignaz Semmelweis and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., hospitals practised surgery under unsanitary conditions. Surgeons of the time referred to the "good old surgical stink" and took pride in the stains on their unwashed operating gowns as a display of their experience. While he was a professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow, Lister became aware of a paper published by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, showing that food spoilage could occur under anaerobic conditions if micro-organisms were present. Pasteur suggested three methods to eliminate the micro-organisms responsible: filtration, exposure to heat, or exposure to solution/chemical solutions. Lister confirmed Pasteur's conclusions with his own experiments and decided to use his findings to develop antiseptic techniques for wounds. As the first two methods suggested by Pasteur were unsuitable for the treatment of human tissue, Lister experimented with the third idea. In 1834, Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge discovered phenol, also known as carbolic acid, which he derived in an impure form from coal tar. At that time, there was uncertainty between the substance of creosote – a chemical that had been used to treat wood used for railway ties and ships since it protected the wood from rotting – and carbolic acid. Upon hearing that creosote had been used for treating sewage, Lister began to test the efficacy of carbolic acid when applied directly to wounds. Therefore, Lister tested the results of spraying instruments, the surgical incisions, and dressings with a solution of carbolic acid. Lister found that the solution swabbed on wounds remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene. In August 1865, Lister applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution onto the wound of a seven-year-old boy at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, who had sustained a compound fracture after a cart wheel had passed over his leg. After four days, he renewed the pad and discovered that no infection had developed, and after a total of six weeks he was amazed to discover that the boy's bones had fused back together, without suppuration. He subsequently published his results in "The Lancet" in a series of six articles, running from March through July 1867. He instructed surgeons under his responsibility to wear clean gloves and wash their hands before and after operations with 5% carbolic acid solutions. Instruments were also washed in the same solution and assistants sprayed the solution in the operating theatre. One of his additional suggestions was to stop using porous natural materials in manufacturing the handles of medical instruments. Lister left Glasgow University in 1869, being succeeded by Prof George Husband Baird MacLeod. Lister then returned to Edinburgh as successor to Syme as Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh and continued to develop improved methods of antisepsis and asepsis. Amongst those he worked with there, who helped him and his work, was the senior apothecary and later MD, Dr Alexander Gunn. Lister's fame had spread by then, and audiences of 400 often came to hear him lecture. As the germ theory of disease became more understood, it was realised that infection could be better avoided by preventing bacteria from getting into wounds in the first place. This led to the rise of aseptic surgery. On the hundredth anniversary of his death, in 2012, Lister was considered by most in the medical field as "The Father of Modern Surgery". Although Lister was so roundly honoured in later life, his ideas about the transmission of infection and the use of antiseptics were widely criticised in his early career. In 1869, at the meetings of the British Association at Leeds, Lister's ideas were mocked; and again, in 1873, the medical journal "The Lancet" warned the entire medical profession against his progressive ideas. However, Lister did have some supporters including Marcus Beck, a consultant surgeon at University College Hospital, who not only practiced Lister's antiseptic technique, but included it in the next edition of one of the main surgical textbooks of the time. Lister's use of carbolic acid proved problematic, and he eventually repudiated it for superior methods. The spray irritated eyes and respiratory tracts, and the soaked bandages were suspected of damaging tissue, so his teachings and methods were not always adopted in their entirety. Because his ideas were based on germ theory, which was in its infancy, their adoption was slow. General criticism of his methods was exacerbated by the fact that he found it hard to express himself adequately in writing, so they seemed complicated, unorganised, and impractical. Lister moved from Scotland to King's College Hospital, in London. He was elected President of the Clinical Society of London. He also developed a method of repairing kneecaps with metal wire and improved the technique of mastectomy. He was also known for being the first surgeon to use catgut ligatures, sutures, and rubber drains, and developing an aortic tourniquet. He also introduced a diluted spray of carbolic acid combined with its surgical use, however he abandoned the carbolic acid sprays in the late 1890s after he saw it provided no beneficial change in the outcomes of the surgeries performed with the carbolic acid spray. The only reported reactions were minor symptoms that did not affect the surgical outcome as a whole, like coughing, irritation of the eye, and minor tissue damage among his patients who were exposed to the carbolic acid sprays during the surgery. Lister's wife had long helped him in research and after her death in Italy in 1893 (during one of the few holidays they allowed themselves) he retired from practice. Studying and writing lost appeal for him and he sank into religious melancholy. Despite suffering a stroke, he still came into the public light from time to time. He had for several years been a Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and from March 1900 was appointed the Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen, thus becoming the senior surgeon in the Medical Household of the Royal Household of the sovereign. After her death the following year, he was re-appointed as such to her successor, King Edward VII. On 24 August 1902, the King came down with appendicitis two days before his scheduled coronation. Like all internal surgery at the time, the appendectomy needed by the King still posed an extremely high risk of death by post-operational infection, and surgeons did not dare operate without consulting Britain's leading surgical authority. Lister obligingly advised them in the latest antiseptic surgical methods (which they followed to the letter), and the King survived, later telling Lister, "I know that if it had not been for you and your work, I wouldn't be sitting here today." Lister died on 10 February 1912 at his country home (now known as Coast House) in Walmer, Kent at the age of 84. After a funeral service at Westminster Abbey, his body was buried at Hampstead Cemetery in London in a plot to the south-east of central chapel. In 1890, Lister was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. Lister was president of the Royal Society between 1895 and 1900. Following his death, a memorial fund led to the founding of the Lister Medal, seen as the most prestigious prize that could be awarded to a surgeon. Lister's discoveries were greatly praised and in 1883 Queen Victoria created him a Baronet, of Park Crescent in the Parish of St Marylebone in the County of Middlesex. In 1897 he was further honoured when Her Majesty raised him to the peerage as Baron Lister, of Lyme Regis in the County of Dorset. In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of King Edward VII´s coronation), Lord Lister was appointed a Privy Counsellor and one of the original members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902, and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. Among foreign honours, he received the Pour le Mérite, one of Prussia's highest orders of merit. In 1889 he was elected as Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Two postage stamps were issued in September 1965 to honour Lister for his pioneering work in antiseptic surgery. Lister is one of the two surgeons in the United Kingdom who have the honour of having a public monument in London. Lister's stands in Portland Place; the other surgeon is John Hunter. There is a statue of Lister in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, celebrating his links with the city. In 1903, the British Institute of Preventive Medicine was renamed Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in honour of Lister. The building, along with another adjacent building, forms what is now the Lister Hospital in Chelsea, which opened in 1985. In 2000, it became part of the HCA group of hospitals. A building at Glasgow Royal Infirmary which houses cytopathology, microbiology and pathology departments was named in Lister's honour to recognise his work at the hospital. Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire is named after him. The "Discovery" Expedition of 1901–04 named the highest point in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica, Mount Lister. In 1879, Listerine antiseptic (developed as a surgical antiseptic but nowadays best known as a mouthwash) was named after Lister. Microorganisms named in his honour include the pathogenic bacterial genus "Listeria" named by J. H. H. Pirie, typified by the food-borne pathogen "Listeria monocytogenes", as well as the slime mould genus "Listerella", first described by Eduard Adolf Wilhelm Jahn in 1906. Lister is depicted in the Academy Award winning 1936 film, "The Story of Louis Pasteur", by Halliwell Hobbes. In the film, Lister is one of the beleaguered microbiologist's most noted supporters in the otherwise largely hostile medical community, and is the key speaker in the ceremony in his honour. Lister's name is one of twenty-three names featured on the Frieze of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine – although the committee which chose the names to include on the frieze did not provide documentation about why certain names were chosen and others were not.

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Johann Homann Johann Baptist Homann (20 March 1664 – 1 July 1724) was a German geographer and cartographer, who also made maps of the Americas. Homann was born in Oberkammlach near Kammlach in the Electorate of Bavaria. Although educated at a Jesuit school, and preparing for an ecclesiastical career, he eventually converted to Protestantism and from 1687 worked as a civil law notary in Nuremberg. He soon turned to engraving and cartography; in 1702 he founded his own publishing house. Homann acquired renown as a leading German cartographer, and in 1715 was appointed Imperial Geographer by Emperor Charles VI. Giving such privileges to individuals was an added right that the Holy Roman Emperor enjoyed. In the same year he was also named a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Of particular significance to cartography were the imperial printing privileges (Latin: "privilegia impressoria"). These protected for a time the authors in all scientific fields such as printers, copper engravers, map makers and publishers. They were also very important as a recommendation for potential customers. In 1716 Homann published his masterpiece "Grosser Atlas ueber die ganze Welt" (Grand Atlas of all the World). Numerous maps were drawn up in cooperation with the engraver Christoph Weigel the Elder, who also published "Siebmachers Wappenbuch". Homann died in Nuremberg in 1724. He was succeeded by his son Johann Christoph (1703-1730). The company carried on upon his death as "Homann heirs" company, managed by Johann Michael Franz and Johann Georg Ebersberger. After subsequent changes in management the company folded in 1852. The company was known as "Homann Erben", "Homanniani Heredes", or "Heritiers de Homann" abroad.

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Johann Homann

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Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Kolkata in the state of West Bengal in India. It was established in 1955. University of Calcutta is one of the three universities in early modern India, the other two being Bombay (now Mumbai) and Madras University. It was set up by the British in Calcutta in 1857 as a means of spreading western philosophical thought among the elite in India. It also aimed to create, in the words of Lord Macaulay, "a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect." The nationalists in the freedom struggle of India dubbed the Calcutta University, another pillar of India's education movement, as "Goldighir Ghulamkhana", or the slave house of Goldighi, with reference to the lake adjacent to Calcutta University, and the many graduates it churned out who were used in the British colonial era as ICS officers. Hence, the need for setting up an institution which would impart education along nationalist lines was strongly felt by the luminaries of the period. The real impetus, though, was provided by the partitioning of Bengal by Lord Curzon, the then Governor-General of India, into East Bengal on the one hand (the area that was eventually to become Bangladesh in 1971) and West Bengal and Odisha on the other. The young men of Bengal were amongst the most active in the "Swadeshi" movement, and the participation of university students drew the ire of the Raj. R.W. Carlyle prohibited the participation of students in political meetings on the threat of withdrawal of funding and grants. The decade preceding these decrees had seen Bengali intellectuals increasingly calling for indigenous schools and colleges to replace British institutions. Generous sums of money were also donated by Brojendra Kishore Roy Choudhury, Maharaja Suryya Kanto Acharya Choudhury and Rashbihari Ghosh, who was appointed the first president of the university. Aurobindo served as the first principal of the college. The organisation in its early days was intricately associated with the nascent revolutionary nationalism in Bengal at the time. It was during his time as principal that Aurobindo started his nationalist publications "Jugantar", "Karmayogin" and "Bande Mataram". The students' mess at the college was frequented by students of East Bengal who belonged to the Dhaka branch of the Anushilan Samiti, and was known to be hotbed of revolutionary nationalism, which was uncontrolled or even encouraged by the college. Jadavpur University is semi-residential, which at present operates out of two urban campuses: one in Jadavpur () and another in Salt Lake (). In 2013, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) announced plans to set up one of the country's biggest state-of-the-art research hubs and Advanced Technology Centre at the NIL campus. In the same year, CSIR announced the setting up of a research centre for big data analytics and an Inverted Innovation Centre alongside the research hub already announced by DRDO. In addition to being a unitary university, it has other institutes like the J D Birla Institute, Jadavpur Vidyapith as well as the Institute of Business Management, Jadavpur University affiliated to it, which operate out of independent campuses. While these institutes have their own independent curriculum as well as examination systems, the final degree is offered by Jadavpur University. Internationally, Jadavpur University ranked 651-700 by the "QS World University Rankings" in 2020, 136 in Asia in 2020 and 75 among BRICS nations in 2019. It was ranked 801-1000 in the world by the "Times Higher Education World University Rankings" of 2020, 196 in Asia and 178 among Emerging Economies University Rankings in 2020. It was also ranked 772 in the world by "U.S. News & World Report". The university was ranked 543rd in the world by "CWTS Leiden Ranking" in 2017, for the period 2012–2015. The "National Institutional Ranking Framework" has ranked it 17 among engineering institutes in India in 2020, 12 overall and 5th among universities. The university press publishes all documents of record in the university including PhD theses, question papers and journals. On 26 October 2010 the institution announced plans to launch a publication house, named Jadavpur University Press. The main focus of the publication house will be to publish textbooks and thesis written by research scholars and authors from all universities. The first two titles of JUP were launched on 1 February 2012 at the Calcutta Book Fair. The two titles were "Rajpurush" (translation of Niccolò Machiavelli's "Il Principe"); translated by Doyeeta Majumder, with an introduction by Swapan Kumar Chakravorty, and "Shilpachinta" (translation of selections from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks); translated by Sukanta Chaudhuri. Both books were translated from the original Italian. To facilitate interdisciplinary learning and research in diverse fields, there are a number of schools and centre for studies. Some of the major research ventures undertaken by these schools include the pioneering work done by the School of Environmental Studies in highlighting the presence of arsenic in groundwater in countries like India and Bangladesh and the development of the first alcohol based car by the School of Automobile Engineering. The centres for studies are usually directly associated with a particular department and the centres in Jadavpur University are: In March 2011, Indian American scientist Manick Sorcar assisted in the opening of a laser animation lab under the School of Illumination Science, Engineering and Design. Alumni of this university are known as 'Jadavpurians', or in Bangla as 'যদুবংশ'(Joduclan). The Alumni Association, one of the oldest in the country, was founded in 1921 by the ex-students of the National Council of Education. In 2014 a series of protests broke out in response to the alleged molestation of a female student and beating of a male student by 10 other students on 28 August 2014. Her family and ultimately the student body were unsatisfied by the response of the Vice Chancellor to the allegations. Protests began on 10 September. On 16 September students gheraoed several officials in their offices, demanding that the Vice Chancellor make a statement on the status of a fair probe. Police were summoned, and later that night the police allegedly attacked and beat the student demonstrators. 30 to 40 students were injured; some had to be hospitalized. Reaction was nationwide, with supportive protests at multiple other cities including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. On 20 September, Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is also the chancellor of the university, met with student representatives and promised to conduct an impartial inquiry. However, students said they will continue to boycott classes until the Vice Chancellor resigns. On 26 September, a State Government inquiry panel submitted its report, confirming that the female student had indeed been sexually abused on 28 August 2014. On 26 September, police summoned two Jadavpur University students to come to the Lalbazar Police HQ for questioning at 4 pm on Friday. They were arrested at 6 pm. "The arrests were made after evidence was found, prima facie, against the duo. Further investigation is on," said joint CP-crime Pallab Kanti Ghosh. Mr Ghosh also stated, "(Two names) were arrested because we had enough evidence to prove that they were present at the spot and had carried out the crime as alleged in the victim's complaint." The duo were booked under Sections of 354 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) of the IPC. JU has been embroiled in controversies since July 4, 2018 when the executive council announced its decision to scrap entrance tests for six subjects which was met with protests from the Jadavpur University Teacher's Association and the student unions along with other academics and University students.

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Jadavpur University

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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, (Henry Charles Albert David; 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales and is sixth in the line of succession to the British throne. Harry was educated at Wetherby School, Ludgrove School, and Eton College. He spent parts of his gap year in Australia and Lesotho. He then underwent officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was commissioned as a cornet (second lieutenant) into the Blues and Royals, serving temporarily with his brother Prince William, and he completed his training as a troop leader. In 2007–08, he served for over ten weeks in Helmand, Afghanistan, but was pulled out after an Australian magazine revealed his presence there. He returned to Afghanistan for a 20-week deployment in 2012–13 with the Army Air Corps. He left the army in June 2015. Harry launched the Invictus Games in 2014 and remains patron of its foundation. He also gives patronage to several other organisations, including the HALO Trust, the London Marathon Charitable Trust, and Walking With The Wounded. On 19 May 2018, he married American actress Meghan Markle. Hours before the wedding, his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II made him Duke of Sussex. The couple's son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on 6 May 2019. In January 2020, the couple announced their intention to step back as senior members of the royal family and split their time between the UK and North America. Harry was born in the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, on 15 September 1984 at 4:20 pm as the second child of Charles, Prince of Wales—heir apparent to Queen Elizabeth II—and Diana, Princess of Wales. He was baptised with the names Henry Charles Albert David, on 21 December 1984, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. His parents announced their second son's name would officially be Prince Henry Charles Albert David, but that he would be known as "Harry" to his family and friends. As the prince grew up, he was referred to by Kensington Palace, and therefore the Press and the public at large, as Prince Harry. As a son of the Prince of Wales, he was called Prince Henry of Wales. Diana wanted Harry and his older brother, Prince William, to have a broader range of experiences and a better understanding of ordinary life than previous royal children. She took them to venues that ranged from Walt Disney World and McDonald's to AIDS clinics and homeless shelters. Harry began accompanying his parents on official visits at an early age; his first overseas tour was with his parents to Italy in 1985. Harry's parents divorced in 1996. His mother died in a car crash in Paris the following year. Harry and William were staying with their father at Balmoral at the time, and the Prince of Wales told his sons about their mother's death. At his mother's funeral, Harry, then 12, accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather, and maternal uncle, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, in walking behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey. In a 2017 interview with "The Daily Telegraph", the prince acknowledged that he sought counselling after two years of "total chaos" while struggling to come to terms with the death of his mother. Like his father and brother, Harry was educated at independent schools. He started at London's Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School. Following this, he attended Ludgrove School in Berkshire. After passing the entrance exams, he was admitted to Eton College. The decision to place Harry at Eton went against the past practice of the Mountbatten-Windsors to send children to Gordonstoun, which Harry's grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins had attended. It did, however, see Harry follow in the Spencer family footsteps, as both Diana's father and brother attended Eton. In June 2003, Harry completed his education at Eton with two A-Levels, achieving a grade B in art and D in geography, having decided to drop history of art after AS level. He excelled in sports, particularly polo and rugby union. One of Harry's former teachers, Sarah Forsyth, has asserted that Harry was a "weak student" and that staff at Eton conspired to help him cheat on examinations. Both Eton and Harry denied the claims. While a tribunal made no ruling on the cheating claim, it "accepted the prince had received help in preparing his A-level 'expressive' project, which he needed to pass to secure his place at Sandhurst." After school, Harry took a gap year, during which he spent time in Australia working (as his father had done in his youth) on a cattle station, and participating in the Young England vs Young Australia Polo Test match. He also travelled to Lesotho, where he worked with orphaned children and produced the documentary film "The Forgotten Kingdom". Harry entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 8 May 2005, where he was known as Officer Cadet Wales, and joined the Alamein Company. In April 2006, Harry completed his officer training and was commissioned as a Cornet (second lieutenant) in the Blues and Royals, a regiment of the Household Cavalry in the British Army. On 13 April 2008, when he reached two years' seniority, Harry was promoted to lieutenant. In 2006, it was announced that Harry's unit was scheduled to be deployed in Iraq the following year. A public debate ensued as to whether he should serve there. Defence Secretary John Reid said that he should be allowed to serve on the front line of battle zones. Harry agreed saying, "If they said 'no, you can't go front line' then I wouldn't drag my sorry ass through Sandhurst and I wouldn't be where I am now." The Ministry of Defence and Clarence House made a joint announcement on 22 February 2007 that Harry would be deployed with his regiment to Iraq, as part of the 1st Mechanised Brigade of the 3rd Mechanised Divisiona move supported by Harry, who had stated that he would leave the army if he was told to remain in safety while his regiment went to war. He said: "There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country." The head of the British army at the time, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said on 30 April 2007 that he had personally decided that Harry would serve with his unit in Iraq, and Harry was scheduled for deployment in May or June 2007, to patrol the Maysan Governorate. By 16 May, however, Dannatt announced that Harry would not serve in Iraq; concerns included Harry being a high-value target (as several threats by various groups had already been made against him) and the dangers the soldiers around him would face should any attempt be made on his life or if he was captured. Clarence House made public Harry's disappointment with the decision, though he said he would abide by it. In early June 2007, it was reported that Harry had arrived in Canada to train alongside soldiers of the Canadian Forces and British Army, at CFB Suffield, near Medicine Hat, Alberta. It was said that this was in preparation for a tour of duty in Afghanistan, where Canadian and British forces were participating in the NATO-led Afghan War. This was confirmed in February of the following year, when the British Ministry of Defence revealed that Harry had been secretly deployed as a Forward Air Controller to Helmand Province in Afghanistan for the previous ten weeks. The revelation came after the medianotably, German newspaper "Bild" and Australian magazine "New Idea"breached the blackout placed over the information by the Canadian and British authorities. It was later reported that Harry helped Gurkha troops repel an attack from Taliban insurgents, and performed patrol duty in hostile areas while in Afghanistan. His tour made Harry the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, who flew helicopters during the Falklands War. For his service, his aunt, Princess Anne, presented Harry with an Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan at the Combermere Barracks in May 2008. In October 2008, it was announced that Harry was to follow his brother, father and uncle in learning to fly military helicopters. After passing the initial aptitude test, he was to undertake a month-long course; if he passed that, he would begin full flight training in early 2009. Harry had to pass his flying assessment at the Army Air Corps Base (AAC), Middle Wallop, the result of which would determine whether he would continue on to train as a pilot of the Apache, Lynx, or Gazelle helicopter. Having reached the requisite standard, Harry attended the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, where he joined his brother. Prince Charles presented him with his flying brevet (wings) on 7 May 2010 at a ceremony at the Army Air Corps Base (AAC), Middle Wallop. Harry had let it be known he intended to fly Apache attack helicopters if he was successful in passing the rigorous Apache training course. This would allow him to see active military service again on the frontline in Afghanistan. On 10 March 2011, it was revealed that Harry had passed his Apache flying test and he was awarded his Apache Flying Badge on 14 April 2011. There was speculation he would return to Afghanistan before the withdrawal in 2015. On 16 April 2011, it was announced that Harry had been promoted to captain. In June 2011, Clarence House announced that on completion of his training conversion course to use Apache helicopters in the war arena, Harry would be available for deployment, including in current operations in Afghanistan, as an Apache helicopter pilot. The final decision rested with the Ministry of Defence's senior commanders, including principally the Chief of the Defence Staff in consultation with the wishes of Harry, the Prince of Wales, and the Queen. In October, he was transferred to a US military base in California to complete his helicopter gunship training. This final phase included live-fire training and "environmental and judgment training" at naval and air force facilities in California and Arizona. Most of those completing the two-month Apache training were deployed to the front lines in Afghanistan. In the same month, it was reported that Harry was said to be a natural pilot who was top of his class in the extensive training he had undertaken at the Naval Air Facility, El Centro, California; while training in Southern California, he spent time in San Diego. In November 2011, Harry returned to England. He went to Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk, in the east of England, to complete his training to fly Apache helicopters. On 7 September 2012, Harry arrived at Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan as part of the 100-strong 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment, Army Air Corps, to begin a four-month combat tour as a co-pilot and gunner for an Apache helicopter. On 10 September, within days of arriving in Afghanistan, it was reported that the Taliban had threatened his life. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid spoke to Reuters and was quoted as saying: "We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping." He added, "We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him." On 21 January 2013, it was announced that Harry was returning from a 20-week deployment in Afghanistan, where he served as an Apache co-pilot/gunner. On 8 July 2013, the Ministry of Defence announced that Harry had successfully qualified as an Apache aircraft commander. Harry compared operating the Apache's weapons systems in Afghanistan to playing video games. On 17 January 2014, the Ministry of Defence announced that Harry had completed his attachment to 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, and would take up a staff officer role, SO3 (Defence Engagement), in HQ London District. His responsibilities would include helping to co-ordinate significant projects and commemorative events involving the Army in London. He was based at Horse Guards in central London. On 6 March 2014, Harry launched Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style sporting event for injured servicemen and women, which was held on 10–14 September 2014. Harry met British hopefuls for the Invictus Games at Tedworth House in Wiltshire for the start of the selection process on 29 April 2014. On 15 May 2014, Harry attended a ticket sale launch for Invictus Games at BT Tower, from where he tweeted on the Invictus Games' official Twitter account as the president of the Games. To promote the Games, he was interviewed by BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans along with two Invictus Games hopefuls. He said: "This (Invictus Games) is basically my full-time job at the moment, making sure that we pull this off." The show aired on 31 July 2014. Harry later wrote an article in "The Sunday Times" about his experiences in Afghanistan: how they had inspired him to help injured personnel and how, after the trip to the Warrior Games, he had vowed to create the Invictus Games. Harry and officials attended the British Armed Forces Team announcement for Invictus Games at Potters Field Park in August 2014. As president of the Invictus Games, he attended all events related to the Games from 8 to 14 September 2014. In January 2015, it was reported that Harry would take a new role in supporting wounded service personnel by working alongside members of the London District's Personal Recovery Unit for the MOD's Defence Recovery Capability scheme to ensure that wounded personnel have adequate recovery plans. The palace confirmed weeks later that the scheme was established in partnership with Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion. In late January 2015, Harry visited The Battle Back Centre set up by the Royal British Legion, and Fisher House UK at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. A partnership between Help for Heroes, the Fisher House Foundation and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) Charity created the Centre. Fisher House Foundation is one of the Invictus Games' sponsors. In February and March 2015, Harry visited Phoenix House in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, a recovery centre run by Help for Heroes. He also visited Merville Barracks in Colchester, where Chavasse VC House Personnel Recovery Centre is located, run by Help for Heroes in partnership with the Ministry of Defence and Royal British Legion. On 17 March 2015, Kensington Palace announced that Harry would leave the Armed Forces in June. Before then, he would spend four weeks throughout April and May at army barracks in Darwin, Perth and Sydney whilst seconded to the Australian Defence Force (ADF). After leaving the Army, while considering his future, he would return to work in a voluntary capacity with the Ministry of Defence, supporting Case Officers in the Ministry's Recovery Capability Programme. He would be working with both those who administer and receive physical and mental care within the London District area. On 6 April 2015, Harry reported for duty to Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra, Australia. Harry flew to Darwin later that day to begin his month-long secondment to the ADF's 1st Brigade. His visit included detachments to NORFORCE as well as to an aviation unit. While in Perth, he trained with Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), participating in the SASR selection course, including a fitness test and a physical training session with SASR selection candidates. He also joined SASR members in Perth for live-fire shooting exercises with numerous Special Forces weapons at a variety of ranges. Harry completed an insertion training exercise using a rigid-hull inflatable boat. In Sydney, he undertook urban operations training with the 2nd Commando Regiment. Training activities included remotely detonating an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and rappelling from a building. He also spent time flying over Sydney as co-pilot of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and participated in counter-terrorism training in Sydney Harbour with Royal Australian Navy clearance divers. Harry's attachment with the ADF ended on 8 May 2015, and on 19 June 2015 he resigned his short service commission. Since leaving active service with the army, Harry has been closely involved with the armed forces through the Invictus Games, honorary military appointments and other official engagements. On 19 December 2017, he succeeded his grandfather Prince Philip as the Captain General of the Royal Marines. In May 2018, he was promoted to the substantive ranks of Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Navy, Major of the British Army and Squadron Leader of the Royal Air Force. Harry enjoys playing many sports, including competitive polo, skiing, and motocross. He is a supporter of Arsenal Football Club. Harry is also a keen Rugby football fan and supported England's bid to host rugby union's 2015 Rugby World Cup, and presented the trophy at rugby league's 2019 Challenge Cup finals. In his youth Harry earned a reputation for being rebellious, leading the tabloid press to label him a "wild child". At age 17 he was seen smoking cannabis, drinking underage with friends, and clashing physically with paparazzi outside nightclubs. He was photographed at Highgrove House at a "Colonial and Native" themed costume party wearing a Nazi German Afrika Korps uniform with a swastika armband. He later issued a public statement apologising for his behaviour. In January 2009, the British tabloid, the "News of the World", revealed a video made by Harry three years earlier in which he referred to a Pakistani fellow officer cadet as "our little Paki friend" and called a soldier wearing a cloth on his head a "raghead". These terms were described by Leader of the Opposition David Cameron as "unacceptable", and by "The Daily Telegraph" as "racist". A British Muslim youth organisation called Harry a "thug". Clarence House immediately issued an apology from Harry, who stated that no malice was intended in his remarks. Former British MP and Royal Marine, Rod Richards, said that such nicknames were common amongst military comrades, stating "in the Armed Forces people often used to call me Taffy. Others were called Yankie, Oz or Kiwi or whatever. I consider Paki as an abbreviation for Pakistani. I don't think on this occasion it was intended to be offensive." While on holiday in Las Vegas in August 2012, Harry and an unknown young woman were photographed naked in a Wynn Las Vegas hotel room, reportedly during a game of strip billiards. The pictures were leaked by American celebrity website TMZ on 21 August 2012, and reported worldwide by mainstream media on 22 August 2012. The photographs were shown by the American media, but British media were reluctant to publish them. Royal aides suggested Clarence House would contact the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) if British publications used the pictures. St James's Palace confirmed that Harry was in the photographs, saying that he was essentially a victim whose privacy had been invaded and contacted the PCC upon hearing that a number of British newspapers were considering publishing the photographs. On 24 August 2012, "The Sun" newspaper published the photographs. Polls conducted in the United Kingdom in November 2012 showed Harry to be the third-most popular member of the royal family, after William and the Queen. Chelsy Davy, the daughter of Zimbabwean, South Africa-based businessman Charles Davy, was referred to as Harry's girlfriend in an interview conducted for his 21st birthday, and Harry said he "would love to tell everyone how amazing she is but once I start talking about that, I have left myself open... There is truth and there is lies and unfortunately I cannot get the truth across." Davy, who is a businesswoman and lawyer, was present when Harry received his Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan and also attended his graduation ceremony when he received his flying wings from his father. In early 2009, it was reported the pair had parted ways after a relationship that had lasted for five years. In May 2012, Harry was introduced to Cressida Bonas, an actress and model who is granddaughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe, by his cousin Princess Eugenie. On 30 April 2014, it was reported that the couple had parted amicably. On 8 November 2016, Kensington Palace confirmed that Harry was "a few months" into a relationship with American actress Meghan Markle, in a statement from the prince asking for the "abuse and harassment" of Markle and her family to end. In September 2017, they made their first public appearance at an official royal engagement, the opening ceremonies of the Invictus Games in Toronto. On 27 November 2017, Clarence House and Kensington Palace announced that Harry and Markle were engaged. The engagement announcement prompted much comment about the possible social significance of Meghan Markle becoming a mixed-race royal. The couple married at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 19 May 2018. The Duke and Duchess initially lived at Nottingham Cottage in London, on the grounds of Kensington Palace. The couple later moved to the more than two-centuries-old Frogmore Cottage in the Home Park of Windsor Castle. The Crown Estate refurbished the cottage at a cost of £2.4 million, paid out of the Sovereign Grant, with the couple picking up expenses beyond restoration and ordinary maintenance. Their office was moved to Buckingham Palace. On 6 May 2019, the couple's first child Archie Mountbatten-Windsor was born, who is seventh in line to the throne. At the time of the announcement of Harry and Meghan's decision to "step back" as senior members of the royal family in 2020, 95% of the couple's income derived from the £2.3 million given to them annually by Harry's father, Charles, as part of his income from the Duchy of Cornwall. Harry and his brother William inherited the "bulk" of the £12.9 million left by their mother on their respective 30th birthdays, a figure that had grown since her 1997 death to £10 million each in 2014. In 2002 "The Times" reported that Harry would also share with his brother a payment of £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, on their respective 21st birthdays and would share a payment of £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays. Harry's personal wealth was estimated at £30 million by "The Daily Telegraph" in 2020. In 2014 Harry and William inherited their mother's wedding dress along with many other of her personal possessions including dresses, diamond tiaras, jewels, letters, and paintings. The brothers also received the original lyrics and score of "Candle in the Wind" by Bernie Taupin and Elton John as performed by John at Diana's funeral. On 6 January 2009, the Queen granted Harry and William their own royal household. Previously, William and Harry's affairs had been handled by their father's office at Clarence House in central London. The new household released a statement announcing they had established their own office at nearby St James's Palace to look after their public, military and charitable activities. In March 2012, Harry led an official visit to Belize as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. He continued to the Bahamas and Jamaica, where the Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, was considering initiating a process of turning Jamaica into a republic. He then visited Brazil to attend the GREAT Campaign. Between 9 and 15 May 2013, he made an official visit to the United States. The tour promoted the rehabilitation of injured American and UK troops, publicised his own charities and supported British interests. It included engagements in Washington, DC, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He met survivors of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. In October 2013, he undertook his first official tour of Australia, attending the International Fleet Review at Sydney Harbour. He also paid a visit to the Australian SAS HQ in Perth. In May 2014, he visited Estonia and Italy. In Estonia, he visited Freedom Square in the capital Tallinn to honour fallen Estonian soldiers. He also attended a reception at the Estonian Parliament and a NATO military exercise. In Italy, Harry attended commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the Monte Cassino battles, in which Polish, Commonwealth and British troops fought. On 6 November 2014, he opened the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, a task usually performed by Prince Philip. Before reporting for duty to the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Harry visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on 6 April 2015. On 7 May 2015, he made a farewell walkabout at the Sydney Opera House and visited Macquarie University Hospital. On 24–25 April 2015, he joined his father in Turkey to attend commemorations of the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign. From 30 November to 3 December 2015, he made an official visit to South Africa. He visited Cape Town, where he presented the insignia of the Order of the Companions of Honour to the Archbishop on behalf of the Queen. He visited Nepal 19–23 March 2016. He stayed until the end of March 2016 to help rebuild a secondary school with Team Rubicon UK, and visited a Hydropower Project in Central Nepal. In April 2018, he was appointed Commonwealth youth ambassador. Also that month, Harry became a patron of Walk of America, a campaign which brings together a number of veterans who will take part in a 1,000-mile expedition across the US in mid-2018. The Prince was appointed the president of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, which focuses on projects involving children and welfare of prisoners, in April. Also in April 2018, Harry was selected as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by "Time" magazine. In April 2019, it was announced that he was working on a documentary series about mental health together with Oprah Winfrey, which is set to air in 2020 on Apple TV+. He will serve as co-creator and executive producer for the series. The Sussexes' discontent with their public roles and media scrutiny grew in 2019. In May 2019, Splash News issued a formal apology to Harry and his wife for sending photographers to their Cotswolds residence, which put their privacy at risk. The agency also agreed to pay a "substantial" sum of damages and legal costs associated with the case. At the end of their tour of Southern African countries in September–October 2019, Harry issued a statement mentioning that his wife was "one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press". Later in October, it was announced that Harry had sued "The Sun", the "Daily Mirror" and the now-defunct "News of the World" "in relation to alleged phone-hacking". On 30 January 2020, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) sided with the "Mail on Sunday" over a dispute between the Duke and the newspaper regarding an Instagram photo involving Harry in which, according to the newspaper, elephants were in fact "tranquilized" and "tethered" during a relocating process. The IPSO rejected Harry's claim that the paper's description was "inaccurate" or "misleading". In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced that they were stepping back from their role as senior members of the royal family, and would balance their time between the United Kingdom and North America. The couple also said that they would seek financial independence while continuing to support their charities and the Queen. In the same month, the couple's lawyers issued a legal warning to the press after paparazzi photographs were published in the media. It was later confirmed that security for the Duke and Duchess during their stay in Canada was provided for on an "as needed basis" by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police until they formally stepped down on 31 March, "in keeping with their change in status". In March 2020, Harry attended the opening of the Silverstone Experience in Silverstone Circuit together with racing driver Lewis Hamilton. Harry's appearance at the museum was his final solo engagement as a senior royal before he and his wife officially stepped down on 31 March. According to Page Six, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, it cost more than CAD$56,384 in security fees during their stay between November 2019 and January 2020. At the age of 21, Harry was appointed a Counsellor of State and began his duties in that capacity. In 2006, he was in Lesotho to visit Mants'ase Children's Home near Mohale's Hoek, which he first toured in 2004. Along with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, he launched Sentebale: The Princes' Fund for Lesotho, a charity to aid children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. He has granted his patronage to organisations including WellChild, Dolen Cymru, and MapAction. On 26 November 2015, as patron of Sentebale, Harry travelled to Lesotho to attend the opening of the Mamohato Children's Centre. Two days later Harry played the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup, at Val de Vie Estate in Cape Town, South Africa, fundraising for Sentebale. Sport has been a way that Harry has helped charities and other organisations. This has included training as a Rugby Development Officer for the Rugby Football Union in 2004 and coaching students in schools to encourage them to learn the sport. He, along with former rugby player Brian Moore, both argued that in response to Black Lives Matter, the song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, should no longer be sung in rugby context. He is the patron of the Rugby Football League, Rugby League's governing body in England. Like his brother and father, he has participated in polo matches to raise money for charitable causes. In 2012, together with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Harry launched Coach Core. The program was set up following the 2012 Olympics and provides apprenticeship opportunities for people who desire to pursue a career as a professional coach. As patron of Walk of Britain, he walked with the team on 30 September and 20 October 2015. On 28 October 2015, he carried out one day of engagements in the US. He launched the Invictus Games Orlando 2016 with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden at Fort Belvoir. He later attended an Invictus Games board meeting and a reception to celebrate the launch at the British Ambassador's Residence. In June 2019, the Duke was present at the launch of Made by Sport, a charity coalition set to raise money to boost sport in disadvantaged communities. In his statement, he lent his support to the charity by arguing that its role in bringing sport into the life of disadvantaged people would save "hundreds of millions of pounds" towards treating the issues among young people. In February 2020, Harry recorded a new version of the song "Unbroken" with Jon Bon Jovi. The new version features backing vocals from members of the Invictus Choir. The song was released on 27 March 2020, the proceeds of which were donated to the Invictus Games Foundation. In September 2009, William and Harry set up The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry to enable the princes to take forward their charitable ambitions. In June 2019, it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would split from the charity and establish their own charity foundation by the end of 2019. The couples will reportedly collaborate on mutual projects, such as the mental health initiative Heads Together. In July 2019, Harry and Meghan's new charity was registered in England and Wales under the title "Sussex Royal The Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex". However, on 21 February 2020 it was confirmed that "Sussex Royal" would not be used as a brand name for the couple following their withdrawal from public life. In April 2020, responding to inquiries from "The Telegraph", the couple confirmed their new foundation would be called "Archewell". The name stems from the Greek word "arche", which means "source of action"; it is the same word that inspired the name of the couple's son, Archie. In April 2020, Harry launched a new initiative named HeadFIT, a platform designed to provide mental support for members of the armed forces. The initiative was developed mutually by the Royal Foundation's Heads Together campaign, the Ministry of Defence, and King's College London. To raise awareness for HIV testing, Harry took a test live on the royal family Facebook page on 14 July 2016. He later attended the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, on 21 July 2016. On World Aids Day, Harry and Rihanna helped publicise HIV testing by taking the test themselves. Since 2016, Harry has been working with Terrence Higgins Trust to raise awareness about HIV and sexual health. In July 2018, the Elton John AIDS Foundation announced that the Duke of Sussex and British singer Elton John were about to launch a global coalition called MenStar that would focus "on treating HIV infections in men". During his trip to Angola in 2019, the Duke visited the Born Free to Shine project in Luanda, an initiative by First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço which aims to "prevent HIV transmission from mothers to babies" through education, medical testing and treatment. He also met HIV+ youth and teenagers during his visit. In November 2019, to mark the National HIV Testing Week, the Duke interviewed HIV+ Rugby player Gareth Thomas on behalf of the Terrence Higgins Trust. On 27 December 2017, Harry was officially appointed the new president of African Parks, a conservation NGO. He previously spent three weeks in Malawi with African Parks where he joined a team of volunteers and professionals to carry out one of the largest elephant translocations in history. The effort to repopulate areas decimated due to poaching and habitat loss moved 500 elephants from Liwonde and Majete National Parks to Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. In March 2019 Prince Harry gave a speech at WE Day UK, an annual event organised by We Charity to inspire young people to become more active towards global social and environmental change. He discussed mental health, climate change and the importance of social participation. Harry attended a Google summit in August 2019 and gave a speech on the importance of tackling climate change in Sicily. He explained that he and Meghan plan to have no more than 2 children to help sustain the environment. Later that month, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were criticised by environmental campaigners for using private jets regularly when taking their personal trips abroad, which would leave more carbon footprint per person compared to commercial planes. The criticism was in line with the reactions the royal family faced in June 2019, after it was revealed that they "had doubled [their] carbon footprint from business travel." In September, the Duke launched Travalyst during his visit to the Netherlands after two years of development. The initiative is set "to encourage sustainable practices in the travel industry" and "tackle climate change and environmental damage", in collaboration with a number of companies. During his visit to the Luengue-Luiana National Park in Angola in September 2019, the Duke unveiled an initiative by the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy to help with protecting "an ancient elephant migration route" by proving safe passage for them in the forest. On the morning of his wedding he was granted by the Queen the Dukedom of Sussex, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, first conferred in 1801 upon Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of King George III, referring to the English county. At the same time he was also granted two subsidiary titles, both also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom: Earl of Dumbarton, a recreated ancient title formerly in the Peerage of Scotland, and Baron Kilkeel, a new title providing the Prince with a nominal territorial link to Northern Ireland, one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom. He is usually known as Prince Harry. Before his marriage, Harry used Wales as his surname for military purposes and was known as "Captain Harry Wales" in such contexts. On 4 June 2015, as part of the 2015 Special Honours, Harry was knighted by his grandmother, the Queen, for "services to the sovereign", being appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that, following their decision to step back from royal duties, from 31 March 2020 Harry and his wife have agreed not to use their "Royal Highness" styles, but as a British prince he will not be stripped of his style and titles. On 18 January 2020, it was announced that he was "required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments" in "Spring of 2020". Harry's charitable efforts have been recognised three times by the international community. In December 2010, the German charity ("A Heart for Children") awarded him the Golden Heart Award, in recognition of his "charitable and humanitarian efforts". On 7 May 2012, the Atlantic Council awarded him its Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award. In August 2018, the Royal Canadian Legion granted him the 2018 Founders Award for his role in founding the Invictus Games. Agnatically, Harry is a member of the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg, one of Europe's oldest royal houses. Harry's paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, issued letters patent on 8 February 1960 declaring his father to be a member of the House of Windsor. Ancestors on Harry's father's side include most of the royal families of Europe, and on his mother's side, the Earls Spencer.

en.wikipedia.org

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14457

14458

Hail Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets fall generally in cold weather while hail growth is greatly inhibited during cold surface temperatures. Unlike other forms of water ice such as graupel, which is made of rime, and ice pellets, which are smaller and translucent, hailstones usually measure between and in diameter. The METAR reporting code for hail or greater is GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS. Hail is possible within most thunderstorms as it is produced by cumulonimbus, and within of the parent storm. Hail formation requires environments of strong, upward motion of air with the parent thunderstorm (similar to tornadoes) and lowered heights of the freezing level. In the mid-latitudes, hail forms near the interiors of continents, while in the tropics, it tends to be confined to high elevations. There are methods available to detect hail-producing thunderstorms using weather satellites and weather radar imagery. Hailstones generally fall at higher speeds as they grow in size, though complicating factors such as melting, friction with air, wind, and interaction with rain and other hailstones can slow their descent through Earth's atmosphere. Severe weather warnings are issued for hail when the stones reach a damaging size, as it can cause serious damage to human-made structures and, most commonly, farmers' crops. Any thunderstorm which produces hail that reaches the ground is known as a hailstorm. Hail has a diameter of or more. Hailstones can grow to and weigh more than . Unlike ice pellets, hailstones are layered and can be irregular and clumped together. Hail is composed of transparent ice or alternating layers of transparent and translucent ice at least thick, which are deposited upon the hailstone as it travels through the cloud, suspended aloft by air with strong upward motion until its weight overcomes the updraft and falls to the ground. Although the diameter of hail is varied, in the United States, the average observation of damaging hail is between 2.5 cm (1 in) and golf ball-sized (1.75 in). Stones larger than 2 cm (0.80 in) are usually considered large enough to cause damage. The Meteorological Service of Canada issues severe thunderstorm warnings when hail that size or above is expected. The US National Weather Service has a 2.5 cm (1 in) or greater in diameter threshold, effective January 2010, an increase over the previous threshold of ¾-inch hail. Other countries have different thresholds according to local sensitivity to hail; for instance grape growing areas could be adversely impacted by smaller hailstones. Hailstones can be very large or very small, depending on how strong the updraft is: weaker hailstorms produce smaller hailstones than stronger hailstorms (such as supercells). Hail forms in strong thunderstorm clouds, particularly those with intense updrafts, high liquid water content, great vertical extent, large water droplets, and where a good portion of the cloud layer is below freezing . These types of strong updrafts can also indicate the presence of a tornado. The growth rate of hailstones is impacted by factors such as higher elevation, lower freezing zones, and wind shear. Like other precipitation in cumulonimbus clouds, hail begins as water droplets. As the droplets rise and the temperature goes below freezing, they become supercooled water and will freeze on contact with condensation nuclei. A cross-section through a large hailstone shows an onion-like structure. This means the hailstone is made of thick and translucent layers, alternating with layers that are thin, white and opaque. Former theory suggested that hailstones were subjected to multiple descents and ascents, falling into a zone of humidity and refreezing as they were uplifted. This up and down motion was thought to be responsible for the successive layers of the hailstone. New research, based on theory as well as field study, has shown this is not necessarily true. The storm's updraft, with upwardly directed wind speeds as high as , blows the forming hailstones up the cloud. As the hailstone ascends it passes into areas of the cloud where the concentration of humidity and supercooled water droplets varies. The hailstone's growth rate changes depending on the variation in humidity and supercooled water droplets that it encounters. The accretion rate of these water droplets is another factor in the hailstone's growth. When the hailstone moves into an area with a high concentration of water droplets, it captures the latter and acquires a translucent layer. Should the hailstone move into an area where mostly water vapor is available, it acquires a layer of opaque white ice. Furthermore, the hailstone's speed depends on its position in the cloud's updraft and its mass. This determines the varying thicknesses of the layers of the hailstone. The accretion rate of supercooled water droplets onto the hailstone depends on the relative velocities between these water droplets and the hailstone itself. This means that generally the larger hailstones will form some distance from the stronger updraft where they can pass more time growing. As the hailstone grows it releases latent heat, which keeps its exterior in a liquid phase. Because it undergoes 'wet growth', the outer layer is "sticky" (i.e. more adhesive), so a single hailstone may grow by collision with other smaller hailstones, forming a larger entity with an irregular shape. Hail can also undergo 'dry growth' in which the latent heat release through freezing is not enough to keep the outer layer in a liquid state. Hail forming in this manner appears opaque due to small air bubbles that become trapped in the stone during rapid freezing. These bubbles coalesce and escape during the 'wet growth' mode, and the hailstone is more clear. The mode of growth for a hailstone can change throughout its development, and this can result in distinct layers in a hailstone's cross-section. The hailstone will keep rising in the thunderstorm until its mass can no longer be supported by the updraft. This may take at least 30 minutes based on the force of the updrafts in the hail-producing thunderstorm, whose top is usually greater than 10 km high. It then falls toward the ground while continuing to grow, based on the same processes, until it leaves the cloud. It will later begin to melt as it passes into air above freezing temperature. Thus, a unique trajectory in the thunderstorm is sufficient to explain the layer-like structure of the hailstone. The only case in which multiple trajectories can be discussed is in a multicellular thunderstorm, where the hailstone may be ejected from the top of the "mother" cell and captured in the updraft of a more intense "daughter" cell. This, however, is an exceptional case. Hail is most common within continental interiors of the mid-latitudes, as hail formation is considerably more likely when the freezing level is below the altitude of . Movement of dry air into strong thunderstorms over continents can increase the frequency of hail by promoting evaporational cooling which lowers the freezing level of thunderstorm clouds giving hail a larger volume to grow in. Accordingly, hail is less common in the tropics despite a much higher frequency of thunderstorms than in the mid-latitudes because the atmosphere over the tropics tends to be warmer over a much greater altitude. Hail in the tropics occurs mainly at higher elevations. Hail growth becomes vanishingly small when air temperatures fall below as supercooled water droplets become rare at these temperatures. Around thunderstorms, hail is most likely within the cloud at elevations above . Between and , 60 percent of hail is still within the thunderstorm, though 40 percent now lies within the clear air under the anvil. Below , hail is equally distributed in and around a thunderstorm to a distance of . Hail occurs most frequently within continental interiors at mid-latitudes and is less common in the tropics, despite a much higher frequency of thunderstorms than in the mid-latitudes. Hail is also much more common along mountain ranges because mountains force horizontal winds upwards (known as orographic lifting), thereby intensifying the updrafts within thunderstorms and making hail more likely. The higher elevations also result in there being less time available for hail to melt before reaching the ground. One of the more common regions for large hail is across mountainous northern India, which reported one of the highest hail-related death tolls on record in 1888. China also experiences significant hailstorms. Central Europe and southern Australia also experience a lot of hailstorms. Regions where hailstorms frequently occur are southern and western Germany, northern and eastern France, and southern and eastern Benelux. In southeastern Europe, Croatia and Serbia experience frequent occurrences of hail. In North America, hail is most common in the area where Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming meet, known as "Hail Alley". Hail in this region occurs between the months of March and October during the afternoon and evening hours, with the bulk of the occurrences from May through September. Cheyenne, Wyoming is North America's most hail-prone city with an average of nine to ten hailstorms per season. To the north of this area and also just downwind of the Rocky Mountains is the Hailstorm Alley region of Alberta, which also experiences an increased incidence of significant hail events. Weather radar is a very useful tool to detect the presence of hail-producing thunderstorms. However, radar data has to be complemented by a knowledge of current atmospheric conditions which can allow one to determine if the current atmosphere is conducive to hail development. Modern radar scans many angles around the site. Reflectivity values at multiple angles above ground level in a storm are proportional to the precipitation rate at those levels. Summing reflectivities in the Vertically Integrated Liquid or VIL, gives the liquid water content in the cloud. Research shows that hail development in the upper levels of the storm is related to the evolution of VIL. VIL divided by the vertical extent of the storm, called VIL density, has a relationship with hail size, although this varies with atmospheric conditions and therefore is not highly accurate. Traditionally, hail size and probability can be estimated from radar data by computer using algorithms based on this research. Some algorithms include the height of the freezing level to estimate the melting of the hailstone and what would be left on the ground. Certain patterns of reflectivity are important clues for the meteorologist as well. The three body scatter spike is an example. This is the result of energy from the radar hitting hail and being deflected to the ground, where they deflect back to the hail and then to the radar. The energy took more time to go from the hail to the ground and back, as opposed to the energy that went directly from the hail to the radar, and the echo is further away from the radar than the actual location of the hail on the same radial path, forming a cone of weaker reflectivities. More recently, the polarization properties of weather radar returns have been analyzed to differentiate between hail and heavy rain. The use of differential reflectivity (formula_1), in combination with horizontal reflectivity (formula_2) has led to a variety of hail classification algorithms. Visible satellite imagery is beginning to be used to detect hail, but false alarm rates remain high using this method. The size of hailstones is best determined by measuring their diameter with a ruler. In the absence of a ruler, hailstone size is often visually estimated by comparing its size to that of known objects, such as coins. Using the objects such as hen's eggs, peas, and marbles for comparing hailstone sizes is imprecise, due to their varied dimensions. The UK organisation, TORRO, also scales for both hailstones and hailstorms. When observed at an airport, METAR code is used within a surface weather observation which relates to the size of the hailstone. Within METAR code, GR is used to indicate larger hail, of a diameter of at least . GR is derived from the French word grêle. Smaller-sized hail, as well as snow pellets, use the coding of GS, which is short for the French word grésil. Terminal velocity of hail, or the speed at which hail is falling when it strikes the ground, varies. It is estimated that a hailstone of in diameter falls at a rate of , while stones the size of in diameter fall at a rate of . Hailstone velocity is dependent on the size of the stone, friction with air it is falling through, the motion of wind it is falling through, collisions with raindrops or other hailstones, and melting as the stones fall through a warmer atmosphere. As hail stones are not perfect spheres it is difficult to calculate their speed accurately. Megacryometeors, large rocks of ice that are not associated with thunderstorms, are not officially recognized by the World Meteorological Organization as "hail," which are aggregations of ice associated with thunderstorms, and therefore records of extreme characteristics of megacryometeors are not given as hail records. Hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles, aircraft, skylights, glass-roofed structures, livestock, and most commonly, crops. Hail damage to roofs often goes unnoticed until further structural damage is seen, such as leaks or cracks. It is hardest to recognize hail damage on shingled roofs and flat roofs, but all roofs have their own hail damage detection problems. Metal roofs are fairly resistant to hail damage, but may accumulate cosmetic damage in the form of dents and damaged coatings. Hail is one of the most significant thunderstorm hazards to aircraft. When hailstones exceed in diameter, planes can be seriously damaged within seconds. The hailstones accumulating on the ground can also be hazardous to landing aircraft. Hail is also a common nuisance to drivers of automobiles, severely denting the vehicle and cracking or even shattering windshields and windows. Wheat, corn, soybeans, and tobacco are the most sensitive crops to hail damage. Hail is one of Canada's most expensive hazards. Rarely, massive hailstones have been known to cause concussions or fatal head trauma. Hailstorms have been the cause of costly and deadly events throughout history. One of the earliest known incidents occurred around the 9th century in Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India, where 200 to 600 nomads seem to have died of injuries from hail the size of cricket balls. Narrow zones where hail accumulates on the ground in association with thunderstorm activity are known as hail streaks or hail swaths, which can be detectable by satellite after the storms pass by. Hailstorms normally last from a few minutes up to 15 minutes in duration. Accumulating hail storms can blanket the ground with over of hail, cause thousands to lose power, and bring down many trees. Flash flooding and mudslides within areas of steep terrain can be a concern with accumulating hail. Depths of up to have been reported. A landscape covered in accumulated hail generally resembles one covered in accumulated snow and any significant accumulation of hail has the same restrictive effects as snow accumulation, albeit over a smaller area, on transport and infrastructure. Accumulated hail can also cause flooding by blocking drains, and hail can be carried in the floodwater, turning into a snow-like slush which is deposited at lower elevations. On somewhat rare occasions, a thunderstorm can become stationary or nearly so while prolifically producing hail and significant depths of accumulation do occur; this tends to happen in mountainous areas, such as the July 29, 2010 case of a foot of hail accumulation in Boulder County, Colorado. On June 5, 2015, hail up to four feet deep fell on one city block in Denver, Colorado. The hailstones, described as between the size of bumble bees and ping pong balls, were accompanied by rain and high winds. The hail fell in only the one area, leaving the surrounding area untouched. It fell for one and a half hours between 10 p.m. and 11:30 pm. A meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder said, "It's a very interesting phenomenon. We saw the storm stall. It produced copious amounts of hail in one small area. It's a meteorological thing." Tractors used to clear the area filled more than 30 dump-truck loads of hail. Research focused on four individual days that accumulated more than 5.9 inches (15 cm) of hail in 30 minutes on the Colorado front range has shown that these events share similar patterns in observed synoptic weather, radar, and lightning characteristics, suggesting the possibility of predicting these events prior to their occurrence. A fundamental problem in continuing research in this area is that, unlike hail diameter, hail depth is not commonly reported. The lack of data leaves researchers and forecasters in the dark when trying to verify operational methods. A cooperative effort between the University of Colorado and the National Weather Service is in progress. The joint project's goal is to enlist the help of the general public to develop a database of hail accumulation depths. During the Middle Ages, people in Europe used to ring church bells and fire cannons to try to prevent hail, and the subsequent damage to crops. Updated versions of this approach are available as modern hail cannons. Cloud seeding after World War II was done to eliminate the hail threat, particularly across the Soviet Union – where it was claimed a 70–98% reduction in crop damage from hail storms was achieved by deploying silver iodide in clouds using rockets and artillery shells. Hail suppression programs have been undertaken by 15 countries between 1965 and 2005.

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Hail

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Hypnotherapy Hypnotherapy is a type of alternative medicine in which hypnosis is used to create a state of focused attention and increased suggestibility during which positive suggestions and guided imagery are used to help individuals deal with a variety of concerns and issues. The United States' "Federal Dictionary of Occupational Titles" describes the job of the hypnotherapist: "Induces hypnotic state in client to increase motivation or alter behavior patterns: Consults with client to determine nature of problem. Prepares client to enter hypnotic state by explaining how hypnosis works and what client will experience. Tests subject to determine degree of physical and emotional suggestibility. Induces hypnotic state in client, using individualized methods and techniques of hypnosis based on interpretation of test results and analysis of client's problem. May train client in self-hypnosis conditioning." GOE: 10.02.02 STRENGTH: S GED: R4 M3 L4 SVP: 7 DLU: 77""" (This definition was created in 1973 by John Kappas, hypnotherapist and founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute.) The form of hypnotherapy practiced by most Victorian hypnotists, including James Braid and Hippolyte Bernheim, mainly employed direct suggestion of symptom removal, with some use of therapeutic relaxation and occasionally aversion to alcohol, drugs, etc. In the 1950s, Milton H. Erickson developed a radically different approach to hypnotism, which has subsequently become known as "Ericksonian hypnotherapy" or "Neo-Ericksonian hypnotherapy." Erickson made use of an informal conversational approach with many clients and complex language patterns, and therapeutic strategies. This divergence from tradition led some of his colleagues, including Andre Weitzenhoffer, to dispute whether Erickson was right to label his approach "hypnosis" at all. The founders of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a method somewhat similar in some regards to some versions of hypnotherapy, claimed that they had modelled the work of Erickson extensively and assimilated it into their approach. Weitzenhoffer disputed whether NLP bears any genuine resemblance to Erickson's work. In the 2000s, hypnotherapists began to combine aspects of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) with Ericksonian hypnotherapy to produce therapy that was goal-focused (what the client wanted to achieve) rather than the more traditional problem-focused approach (spending time discussing the issues that brought the client to seek help). A solution-focused hypnotherapy session may include techniques from NLP. Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) is an integrated psychological therapy employing clinical hypnosis and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The use of CBT in conjunction with hypnotherapy may result in greater treatment effectiveness. A meta-analysis of eight different researches revealed "a 70% greater improvement" for patients undergoing an integrated treatment to those using CBT only. In 1974, Theodore X. Barber and his colleagues published a review of the research which argued, following the earlier social psychology of Theodore R. Sarbin, that hypnotism was better understood not as a "special state" but as the result of normal psychological variables, such as active imagination, expectation, appropriate attitudes, and motivation. Barber introduced the term "cognitive-behavioral" to describe the nonstate theory of hypnotism, and discussed its application to behavior therapy. The growing application of cognitive and behavioral psychological theories and concepts to the explanation of hypnosis paved the way for a closer integration of hypnotherapy with various cognitive and behavioral therapies. Many cognitive and behavioral therapies were themselves originally influenced by older hypnotherapy techniques, e.g., the systematic desensitisation of Joseph Wolpe, the cardinal technique of early behavior therapy, was originally called "hypnotic desensitisation" and derived from the "Medical Hypnosis" (1948) of Lewis Wolberg. David Lesser (1928–2001) was the originator of what is today known by the term "curative hypnotherapy". It was he who first saw the possibility of finding the causes of people's symptoms by using a combination of hypnosis, IMR and a method of specific questioning that he began to explore. Rather than try to override the subconscious information as Janet had done, he realised the necessity- and developed the process- to correct the wrong information. Lesser's understanding of the logicality and simplicity of the subconscious led to the creation of the methodical treatment used today and it is his work and understanding that underpins the therapy and is why the term "Lesserian" was coined and trademarked. As the understanding of the workings of the subconscious continues to evolve, the application of the therapy continues to change. The three most influential changes have been in Specific Questioning (1992) to gain more accurate subconscious information; a subconscious cause/effect mapping system (SRBC)(1996) to streamline the process of curative hypnotherapy treatment; and the 'LBR Criteria' (2003) to be able to differentiate more easily between causal and trigger events and helping to target more accurately the erroneous data which requires reinterpretation. Hypnotherapy expert Dr. Peter Marshall, former Principal of the London School of Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy Ltd. and author of "A Handbook of Hypnotherapy", devised the Trance Theory of Mental Illness, which provides that people suffering from depression, or certain other kinds of neuroses, are already living in a trance and so the hypnotherapist does not need to induce them, but rather to make them understand this and help lead them out of it. Mindful hypnotherapy is therapy that incorporates mindfulness and hypnotherapy. A pilot study was made at Baylor University, Texas, and published in the "International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis". Dr. Gary Elkins, director of the Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory at Baylor University called it "a valuable option for treating anxiety and stress reduction” and "an innovative mind-body therapy". The study showed a decrease in stress and a increase in mindfulness. Clinicians choose hypnotherapy to address a wide range of circumstances; however, according to Yeates (2016), people choose to have hypnotherapy for many other reasons: Smoking The hypnotherapy has in terms of smoking cessation a greater effect on six-month quit rates than other interventions, nevertheless, another conclusion says there was no evidence available from randomised controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of hypnosis during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period for preventing postnatal depression. Hypnotherapy is often applied in the birthing process and the post-natal period, but there is insufficient evidence to determine if it alleviates pain during childbirth and no evidence that it is effective against post-natal depression. Until 2012, there was no thorough research on this topic. However in 2013 the study was conducted during which it was found that: “The use of hypnosis in childbirth leads to a decrease in the amount of pharmacological analgesia and oxytocin used, which reduces the duration of the first stage of labor”. In 2013, studies were conducted in Denmark, during which it was concluded that "The self-hypnosis course improves the experience of childbirth in women and also reduces the level of fear". In 2015, a similar study was conducted in the UK by a group of researchers: "The positive experience of self-hypnosis gives a sense of calm, confidence and empowerment in childbirth". The hypnobirthing is used by stars such as Kate Middleton Literature shows that a wide variety of hypnotic interventions have been investigated for the treatment of bulimia nervosa, with inconclusive effect. Similar studies have shown that groups suffering from bulimia nervosa, undergoing hypnotherapy, were more exceptional to no treatment, placebos, or other alternative treatments. Among its many other applications in other medical domains, hypnotism was used therapeutically, by some alienists in the Victorian era, to treat the condition then known as hysteria. Modern hypnotherapy is widely accepted for the treatment of certain habit disorders, to control irrational fears, as well as in the treatment of conditions such as insomnia and addiction. Hypnosis has also been used to enhance recovery from non-psychological conditions such as after surgical procedures, in breast cancer care and even with gastro-intestinal problems, including IBS. A 2003 meta-analysis on the efficacy of hypnotherapy concluded that "the efficacy of hypnosis is not verified for a considerable part of the spectrum of psychotherapeutic practice." In 2005, a meta-analysis by the Cochrane Collaboration found no evidence that hypnotherapy was more successful than other treatments or no treatment in achieving cessation of smoking for at least six months. In 2007, a meta-analysis from the Cochrane Collaboration found that the therapeutic effect of hypnotherapy was "superior to that of a waiting list control or usual medical management, for abdominal pain and composite primary IBS symptoms, in the short term in patients who fail standard medical therapy", with no harmful side-effects. However the authors noted that the quality of data available was inadequate to draw any firm conclusions. Two Cochrane reviews in 2012 concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support its efficacy in managing the pain of childbirth or post-natal depression. In 2016, a literature review published in La Presse Medicale found that there is not sufficient evidence to "support the efficacy of hypnosis in chronic anxiety disorders". In 2019, a Cochrane review was unable to find evidence of benefit of hypnosis in smoking cessation, and suggested if there is, it is small at best. The laws regarding hypnosis and hypnotherapy vary by state and municipality. Some states, like Colorado, Connecticut and Washington, have mandatory licensing and registration requirements, while many other states have no specific regulations governing the practice of hypnotherapy. In 2002, the Department for Education and Skills developed National Occupational Standards for hypnotherapy linked to National Vocational Qualifications based on the then National Qualifications Framework under the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. NCFE, a national awarding body, issues level four national vocational qualification diploma in hypnotherapy. Currently AIM Awards offers a Level 3 Certificate in Hypnotherapy and Counselling Skills at level 3 of the Regulated Qualifications Framework. The regulation of the hypnotherapy profession in the UK is at present the main focus of UKCHO, a non-profit umbrella body for hypnotherapy organisations. Founded in 1998 to provide a non-political arena to discuss and implement changes to the profession of hypnotherapy, UKCHO currently represents 9 of the UK's professional hypnotherapy organisations and has developed standards of training for hypnotherapists, along with codes of conduct and practice that all UKCHO registered hypnotherapists are governed by. As a step towards the regulation of the profession, UKCHO's website now includes a National Public Register of Hypnotherapists who have been registered by UKCHO's Member Organisations and are therefore subject to UKCHO's professional standards. Further steps to full regulation of the hypnotherapy profession will be taken in consultation with the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health. Professional hypnotherapy and use of the occupational titles "hypnotherapist" or "clinical hypnotherapist" are not government-regulated in Australia. In 1996, as a result of a three-year research project led by Lindsay B. Yeates, the Australian Hypnotherapists Association (founded in 1949), the oldest hypnotism-oriented professional organization in Australia, instituted a peer-group accreditation system for full-time Australian professional hypnotherapists, the first of its kind in the world, which "accredit[ed] specific individuals on the basis of their actual demonstrated knowledge and clinical performance; instead of approving particular 'courses' or approving particular 'teaching institutions'" (Yeates, 1996, p.iv; 1999, p.xiv). The system was further revised in 1999. Australian hypnotism/hypnotherapy organizations (including the Australian Hypnotherapists Association) are seeking government regulation similar to other mental health professions. However, currently hypnotherapy is not subject to government regulation through the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

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Hypnotherapy

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Hangman (game) Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word, phrase or sentence and the other(s) tries to guess it by suggesting letters within a certain number of guesses. If none of the people that are guessing the word get it right the person who give the word DOES NOT get the point Though the origins of the game are unknown, a variant is mentioned in a book of children's games assembled by Alice Gomme in 1894. This version lacks the image of a hanged man, instead relying on keeping score as to the number of attempts it took each player to fill in the blanks. The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, representing each letter of the word. In most variants, proper nouns, such as names, places, and brands, are not allowed. Slang words, sometimes referred to as informal or shortened words, are also not allowed. If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player draws one element of a hanged man stick figure as a tally mark. The player guessing the word may, at any time, attempt to guess the whole word. If the word is correct, the game is over and the guesser wins. Otherwise, the other player may choose to penalize the guesser by adding an element to the diagram. On the other hand, if the other player makes enough incorrect guesses to allow his opponent to complete the diagram, the game is also over, this time with the guesser losing. However, the guesser can also win by guessing all the letters that appear in the word, thereby completing the word, before the diagram is completed. As the name of the game suggests, the diagram is designed to look like a hanging man. Although debates have arisen about the game, it is still in use today. A common alternative for teachers is to draw an apple tree with ten apples, erasing or crossing out the apples as the guesses are used up. The exact nature of the diagram differs; some players draw the gallows before play and draw parts of the man's body (traditionally the head, then the torso, then the arms and legs one by one). Some players begin with no diagram at all, and drawing the individual elements of the gallows as part of the game, effectively giving the guessing players more chances. The amount of detail on the man can also vary, affecting the number of chances. Some players include a face on the head, either all at once or one feature at a time. Some players include beheading the head as the last chance by drawing a line at the neck. Some modifications to game play (house rules) to increase the difficulty level are sometimes implemented, such as limiting guesses on high-frequency consonants and vowels. Another alternative is to give the definition of the word; this can be used to facilitate the learning of a foreign language. The fact that the twelve most commonly occurring letters in the English language are e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u (from most to least), along with other letter-frequency lists, are used by the guessing player to increase the odds when it is their turn to guess. On the other hand, the same lists can be used by the puzzle setter to stump their opponent by choosing a word that deliberately avoids common letters (e.g. "rhythm" or "zephyr") or one that contains rare letters (e.g. "jazz"). Another common strategy is to guess vowels first, as English only has five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u, while y may sometimes, but rarely, be used as a vowel) and almost every word has at least one. According to a 2010 study conducted by Jon McLoone for Wolfram Research, the most difficult words to guess include "jazz", "buzz", "hajj", "faff", "fizz", "fuzz" and variations of these. The game show "Wheel of Fortune" is based on Hangman but with the addition of multiple-word puzzles, a roulette-styled wheel, and cash awards. Brazil also had a show in the 1960s and again from 2012–2013 called "Let’s Play Hangman", hosted by the legendary Silvio Santos. Brazil would later get its own version of "Wheel of Fortune", running from 1980 to 1993, again from 2003 to 2012 (during which the new "Let’s Play Hangman" aired), and again since 2013 to the present. These shows were also hosted by Santos. In July 2017, the BBC introduced a game show of its own called "Letterbox", which is also based on Hangman. The following example game illustrates a player trying to guess the word "hangman" using a strategy based solely on letter frequency. As the player continues, a part of the stick figure on the noose is added. Once a full body is drawn, the game is over, and the player lost.

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Hangman (game)

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14463

Harmonic mean In mathematics, the harmonic mean (sometimes called the subcontrary mean) is one of several kinds of average, and in particular, one of the Pythagorean means. Typically, it is appropriate for situations when the average of rates is desired. The harmonic mean can be expressed as the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of the given set of observations. As a simple example, the harmonic mean of 1, 4, and 4 is The harmonic mean "H" of the positive real numbers formula_2 is defined to be The third formula in the above equation expresses the harmonic mean as the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals. From the following formula: it is more apparent that the harmonic mean is related to the arithmetic and geometric means. It is the reciprocal dual of the arithmetic mean for positive inputs: The harmonic mean is a Schur-concave function, and dominated by the minimum of its arguments, in the sense that for any positive set of arguments, formula_6. Thus, the harmonic mean cannot be made arbitrarily large by changing some values to bigger ones (while having at least one value unchanged). The harmonic mean is one of the three Pythagorean means. For all "positive" data sets "containing at least one pair of nonequal values", the harmonic mean is always the least of the three means, while the arithmetic mean is always the greatest of the three and the geometric mean is always in between. (If all values in a nonempty dataset are equal, the three means are always equal to one another; e.g., the harmonic, geometric, and arithmetic means of {2, 2, 2} are all 2.) It is the special case "M"−1 of the power mean: Since the harmonic mean of a list of numbers tends strongly toward the least elements of the list, it tends (compared to the arithmetic mean) to mitigate the impact of large outliers and aggravate the impact of small ones. The arithmetic mean is often mistakenly used in places calling for the harmonic mean. In the speed example below for instance, the arithmetic mean of 40 is incorrect, and too big. The harmonic mean is related to the other Pythagorean means, as seen in the equation below. This can be seen by interpreting the denominator to be the arithmetic mean of the product of numbers "n" times but each time omitting the "j"-th term. That is, for the first term, we multiply all "n" numbers except the first; for the second, we multiply all "n" numbers except the second; and so on. The numerator, excluding the "n", which goes with the arithmetic mean, is the geometric mean to the power "n". Thus the "n"-th harmonic mean is related to the "n"-th geometric and arithmetic means. The general formula is If a set of non-identical numbers is subjected to a mean-preserving spread — that is, two or more elements of the set are "spread apart" from each other while leaving the arithmetic mean unchanged — then the harmonic mean always decreases. For the special case of just two numbers, formula_9 and formula_10, the harmonic mean can be written In this special case, the harmonic mean is related to the arithmetic mean formula_12 and the geometric mean formula_13 by Since formula_15 by the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means, this shows for the "n" = 2 case that "H" ≤ "G" (a property that in fact holds for all "n"). It also follows that formula_16, meaning the two numbers' geometric mean equals the geometric mean of their arithmetic and harmonic means. For the special case of three numbers, formula_9, formula_10 and formula_19, the harmonic mean can be written Three positive numbers "H", "G", and "A" are respectively the harmonic, geometric, and arithmetic means of three positive numbers if and only if the following inequality holds If a set of weights formula_22, ..., formula_23 is associated to the dataset formula_9, ..., formula_25, the weighted harmonic mean is defined by The unweighted harmonic mean can be regarded as the special case where all of the weights are equal. In many situations involving rates and ratios, the harmonic mean provides the truest average. For instance, if a vehicle travels a certain distance "d" outbound at a speed "x" (e.g. 60 km/h) and returns the same distance at a speed "y" (e.g. 20 km/h), then its average speed is the harmonic mean of "x" and "y" (30 km/h) – not the arithmetic mean (40 km/h). The total travel time is the same as if it had traveled the whole distance at that average speed. This can be proven as follows: Average speed for the entire journey = = However, if the vehicle travels for a certain amount of "time" at a speed "x" and then the same amount of time at a speed "y", then its average speed is the arithmetic mean of "x" and "y", which in the above example is 40 km/h. The same principle applies to more than two segments: given a series of sub-trips at different speeds, if each sub-trip covers the same "distance", then the average speed is the "harmonic" mean of all the sub-trip speeds; and if each sub-trip takes the same amount of "time", then the average speed is the "arithmetic" mean of all the sub-trip speeds. (If neither is the case, then a weighted harmonic mean or weighted arithmetic mean is needed. For the arithmetic mean, the speed of each portion of the trip is weighted by the duration of that portion, while for the harmonic mean, the corresponding weight is the distance. In both cases, the resulting formula reduces to dividing the total distance by the total time.) However one may avoid the use of the harmonic mean for the case of "weighting by distance". Pose the problem as finding "slowness" of the trip where "slowness" (in hours per kilometre) is the inverse of speed. When trip slowness is found, invert it so as to find the "true" average trip speed. For each trip segment i, the slowness si = 1/speedi. Then take the weighted arithmetic mean of the si's weighted by their respective distances (optionally with the weights normalized so they sum to 1 by dividing them by trip length). This gives the true average slowness (in time per kilometre). It turns out that this procedure, which can be done with no knowledge of the harmonic mean, amounts to the same mathematical operations as one would use in solving this problem by using the harmonic mean. Thus it illustrates why the harmonic mean works in this case. Similarly, if one wishes to estimate the density of an alloy given the densities of its constituent elements and their mass fractions (or, equivalently, percentages by mass), then the predicted density of the alloy (exclusive of typically minor volume changes due to atom packing effects) is the weighted harmonic mean of the individual densities, weighted by mass, rather than the weighted arithmetic mean as one might at first expect. To use the weighted arithmetic mean, the densities would have to be weighted by volume. Applying dimensional analysis to the problem while labelling the mass units by element and making sure that only like element-masses cancel, makes this clear. If one connects two electrical resistors in parallel, one having resistance "x" (e.g., 60 Ω) and one having resistance "y" (e.g., 40 Ω), then the effect is the same as if one had used two resistors with the same resistance, both equal to the harmonic mean of "x" and "y" (48 Ω): the equivalent resistance, in either case, is 24 Ω (one-half of the harmonic mean). This same principle applies to capacitors in series or to inductors in parallel. However, if one connects the resistors in series, then the average resistance is the arithmetic mean of "x" and "y" (with total resistance equal to the sum of x and y). As with the previous example, the same principle applies when more than two resistors are connected, provided that all are in parallel or all are in series. The "conductivity effective mass" of a semiconductor is also defined as the harmonic mean of the effective masses along the three crystallographic directions. The weighted harmonic mean is the preferable method for averaging multiples, such as the price–earnings ratio (P/E), in which price is in the numerator. If these ratios are averaged using a weighted arithmetic mean (a common error), high data points are given greater weights than low data points. The weighted harmonic mean, on the other hand, gives equal weight to each data point. The simple weighted arithmetic mean when applied to non-price normalized ratios such as the P/E is biased upwards and cannot be numerically justified, since it is based on equalized earnings; just as vehicles speeds cannot be averaged for a roundtrip journey. For example, consider two firms, one with a market capitalization of $150 billion and earnings of $5 billion (P/E of 30) and one with a market capitalization of $1 billion and earnings of $1 million (P/E of 1000). Consider an index made of the two stocks, with 30% invested in the first and 70% invested in the second. We want to calculate the P/E ratio of this index. Using the weighted arithmetic mean (incorrect): Using the weighted harmonic mean (correct): Thus, the correct P/E of 93.46 of this index can only be found using the weighted harmonic mean, while the weighted arithmetic mean will significantly overestimate it. In any triangle, the radius of the incircle is one-third of the harmonic mean of the altitudes. For any point P on the minor arc BC of the circumcircle of an equilateral triangle ABC, with distances "q" and "t" from B and C respectively, and with the intersection of PA and BC being at a distance "y" from point P, we have that "y" is half the harmonic mean of "q" and "t". In a right triangle with legs "a" and "b" and altitude "h" from the hypotenuse to the right angle, is half the harmonic mean of and . Let "t" and "s" ("t" > "s") be the sides of the two inscribed squares in a right triangle with hypotenuse "c". Then equals half the harmonic mean of and . Let a trapezoid have vertices A, B, C, and D in sequence and have parallel sides AB and CD. Let E be the intersection of the diagonals, and let F be on side DA and G be on side BC such that FEG is parallel to AB and CD. Then FG is the harmonic mean of AB and DC. (This is provable using similar triangles.) One application of this trapezoid result is in the crossed ladders problem, where two ladders lie oppositely across an alley, each with feet at the base of one sidewall, with one leaning against a wall at height "A" and the other leaning against the opposite wall at height "B", as shown. The ladders cross at a height of "h" above the alley floor. Then "h" is half the harmonic mean of "A" and "B". This result still holds if the walls are slanted but still parallel and the "heights" "A", "B", and "h" are measured as distances from the floor along lines parallel to the walls. This can be proved easily using the area formula of a trapezoid and area addition formula. In an ellipse, the semi-latus rectum (the distance from a focus to the ellipse along a line parallel to the minor axis) is the harmonic mean of the maximum and minimum distances of the ellipse from a focus. In computer science, specifically information retrieval and machine learning, the harmonic mean of the precision (true positives per predicted positive) and the recall (true positives per real positive) is often used as an aggregated performance score for the evaluation of algorithms and systems: the F-score (or F-measure). This is used in information retrieval because only the positive class is of relevance, while number of negatives, in general, is large and unknown. It is thus a trade-off as to whether the correct positive predictions should be measured in relation to the number of predicted positives or the number of real positives, so it is measured versus a putative number of positives that is an arithmetic mean of the two possible denominators. A consequence arises from basic algebra in problems where people or systems work together. As an example, if a gas-powered pump can drain a pool in 4 hours and a battery-powered pump can drain the same pool in 6 hours, then it will take both pumps , which is equal to 2.4 hours, to drain the pool together. This is one-half of the harmonic mean of 6 and 4: . That is the appropriate average for the two types of pump is the harmonic mean, and with one pair of pumps (two pumps), it takes half this harmonic mean time, while with two pairs of pumps (four pumps) it would take a quarter of this harmonic mean time. In hydrology, the harmonic mean is similarly used to average hydraulic conductivity values for a flow that is perpendicular to layers (e.g., geologic or soil) - flow parallel to layers uses the arithmetic mean. This apparent difference in averaging is explained by the fact that hydrology uses conductivity, which is the inverse of resistivity. In sabermetrics, a player's Power–speed number is the harmonic mean of their home run and stolen base totals. In population genetics, the harmonic mean is used when calculating the effects of fluctuations in the census population size on the effective population size. The harmonic mean takes into account the fact that events such as population bottleneck increase the rate genetic drift and reduce the amount of genetic variation in the population. This is a result of the fact that following a bottleneck very few individuals contribute to the gene pool limiting the genetic variation present in the population for many generations to come. When considering fuel economy in automobiles two measures are commonly used – miles per gallon (mpg), and litres per 100 km. As the dimensions of these quantities are the inverse of each other (one is distance per volume, the other volume per distance) when taking the mean value of the fuel economy of a range of cars one measure will produce the harmonic mean of the other – i.e., converting the mean value of fuel economy expressed in litres per 100 km to miles per gallon will produce the harmonic mean of the fuel economy expressed in miles per gallon. For calculating the average fuel consumption of a fleet of vehicles from the individual fuel consumptions, the harmonic mean should be used if the fleet uses miles per gallon, whereas the arithmetic mean should be used if the fleet uses litres per 100 km. In the USA the CAFE standards (the federal automobile fuel consumption standards) make use of the harmonic mean. In chemistry and nuclear physics the average mass per particle of a mixture consisting of different species (e.g., molecules or isotopes) is given by the harmonic mean of the individual species' masses weighted by their respective mass fraction. The harmonic mean of a beta distribution with shape parameters "α" and "β" is: The harmonic mean with "α" < 1 is undefined because its defining expression is not bounded in [0, 1]. Letting "α" = "β" showing that for "α" = "β" the harmonic mean ranges from 0 for "α" = "β" = 1, to 1/2 for "α" = "β" → ∞. The following are the limits with one parameter finite (non-zero) and the other parameter approaching these limits: With the geometric mean the harmonic mean may be useful in maximum likelihood estimation in the four parameter case. A second harmonic mean ("H"1 − X) also exists for this distribution This harmonic mean with "β" < 1 is undefined because its defining expression is not bounded in [ 0, 1 ]. Letting "α" = "β" in the above expression showing that for "α" = "β" the harmonic mean ranges from 0, for "α" = "β" = 1, to 1/2, for "α" = "β" → ∞. The following are the limits with one parameter finite (non zero) and the other approaching these limits: Although both harmonic means are asymmetric, when "α" = "β" the two means are equal. The harmonic mean ( "H" ) of a lognormal distribution is where "μ" is the arithmetic mean and "σ"2 is the variance of the distribution. The harmonic and arithmetic means are related by where "C"v is the coefficient of variation. The geometric ("G"), arithmetic and harmonic means are related by The harmonic mean of type 1 Pareto distribution is where "k" is the scale parameter and "α" is the shape parameter. For a random sample, the harmonic mean is calculated as above. Both the mean and the variance may be infinite (if it includes at least one term of the form 1/0). The mean of the sample "m" is asymptotically distributed normally with variance "s"2. The variance of the mean itself is where "m" is the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals, "x" are the variates, "n" is the population size and "E" is the expectation operator. Assuming that the variance is not infinite and that the central limit theorem applies to the sample then using the delta method, the variance is where "H" is the harmonic mean, "m" is the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals "s"2 is the variance of the reciprocals of the data and "n" is the number of data points in the sample. A jackknife method of estimating the variance is possible if the mean is known. This method is the usual 'delete 1' rather than the 'delete m' version. This method first requires the computation of the mean of the sample ("m") where "x" are the sample values. A series of value "wi" is then computed where The mean ("h") of the "w"i is then taken: The variance of the mean is Significance testing and confidence intervals for the mean can then be estimated with the t test. Assume a random variate has a distribution "f"( "x" ). Assume also that the likelihood of a variate being chosen is proportional to its value. This is known as length based or size biased sampling. Let "μ" be the mean of the population. Then the probability density function "f"*( "x" ) of the size biased population is The expectation of this length biased distribution E*( "x" ) is where "σ"2 is the variance. The expectation of the harmonic mean is the same as the non-length biased version E( "x" ) The problem of length biased sampling arises in a number of areas including textile manufacture pedigree analysis and survival analysis Akman "et al" have developed a test for the detection of length based bias in samples. If "X" is a positive random variable and "q" > 0 then for all "ε" > 0 Assuming that "X" and E("X") are > 0 then This follows from Jensen's inequality. Gurland has shown that for a distribution that takes only positive values, for any "n" > 0 Under some conditions where ~ means approximately. Assuming that the variates ("x") are drawn from a lognormal distribution there are several possible estimators for "H": where Of these "H"3 is probably the best estimator for samples of 25 or more. A first order approximation to the bias and variance of "H"1 are where "C"v is the coefficient of variation. Similarly a first order approximation to the bias and variance of "H"3 are In numerical experiments "H"3 is generally a superior estimator of the harmonic mean than "H"1. "H"2 produces estimates that are largely similar to "H"1. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends the use of the harmonic mean in setting maximum toxin levels in water. In geophysical reservoir engineering studies, the harmonic mean is widely used.

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Harmonic mean

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14465

Hellbender The hellbender ("Cryptobranchus alleganiensis"), also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to the eastern and central United States. A member of the family Cryptobranchidae, the hellbender is the only extant member of the genus "Cryptobranchus". Other closely related salamanders in the same family are in the genus "Andrias", which contains the Japanese and Chinese giant salamanders. The hellbender, which is much larger than all other salamanders in its geographic range, employs an unusual means of respiration (which involves cutaneous gas exchange through capillaries found in its dorsoventral skin folds), and fills a particular niche—both as a predator and prey—in its ecosystem, which either it or its ancestors have occupied for around 65 million years. The species is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The origin of the name "hellbender" is unclear. The Missouri Department of Conservation says: The name 'hellbender' probably comes from the animal's odd look. One theory claims the hellbender was named by settlers who thought "it was a creature from hell where it's bent on returning." Another rendition says the undulating skin of a hellbender reminded observers of "horrible tortures of the infernal regions." In reality, it's a harmless aquatic salamander. Other vernacular names include "snot otter", "lasagna lizard", "devil dog", "mud-devil", "grampus", "Allegheny alligator", "mud dog", "water dog", "spotted water gecko" and "leverian water newt". The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek "kryptos" (hidden) and "branchion" (gill). The subspecific name "bishopi" is in honor of American herpetologist Sherman C. Bishop. "C. alleganiensis" has a flat body and head, with beady dorsal eyes and slimy skin. Like most salamanders, it has short legs with four toes on the front legs and five on its back limbs, and its tail is keeled for propulsion. The hellbender has working lungs, but gill slits are often retained, although only immature specimens have true gills; the hellbender absorbs oxygen from the water through capillaries of its side frills. It is blotchy brown or red-brown in color, with a paler underbelly. Both males and females grow to an adult length of from snout to vent, with a total length of , making them the third-largest aquatic salamander species in the world (after the Chinese giant salamander and the Japanese giant salamander, respectively) and the largest amphibian in North America, although this length is rivaled by the reticulated siren of the southeastern United States (although the siren is much leaner in build). An adult weighs , making them the fourth heaviest living amphibian in the world after their Chinese and Japanese cousins and the goliath frog, while the largest cane toads may also weigh as much as a hellbender. Hellbenders reach sexual maturity at about five years of age, and may live 30 years in captivity. The hellbender has a few characteristics that make it distinguishable from other native salamanders, including a gigantic, dorsoventrally flattened body with thick folds travelling down the sides, a single open gill slit on each side, and hind feet with five toes each. Easily distinguished from most other endemic salamander species simply by their size, hellbenders average up to 60 cm or about 2 ft in length; the only species requiring further distinction (due to an overlap in distribution and size range) is the common mudpuppy ("Necturus maculosus"). This demarcation can be made by noting the presence of external gills in the mudpuppy, which are lacking in the hellbender, as well as the presence of four toes on each hind foot of the mudpuppy (in contrast with the hellbender's five). Furthermore, the average size of "C. a. alleganiensis" has been reported to be 45–60 cm (with some reported as reaching up to 74 cm or 30 in), while "N. m. maculosus" has a reported average size of 28–40 cm in length, which means that hellbender adults will still generally be notably larger than even the biggest mudpuppies. The genus "Cryptobranchus" has historically only been considered to contain one species, "C. alleganiensis", with two subspecies, "C. a. alleganiensis" and "C. a. bishopi". A recent decline in population size of the Ozark subspecies "C. a. bishopi" has led to further research into populations of this subspecies, including genetic analysis to determine the best method for conservation. Crowhurst et al., for instance, found that the "Ozark subspecies" denomination is insufficient for describing genetic (and therefore evolutionary) divergence within the genus "Cryptobranchus" in the Ozark region. They found three equally divergent genetic units within the genus: "C. a. alleganiensis", and two distinct eastern and western populations of "C. a. bishopi". These three groups were shown to be isolated, and are considered to most likely be "diverging on different evolutionary paths". Hellbenders are present in a number of Eastern US states, from southern New York to northern Georgia, including parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, and even a small bit of Oklahoma and Kansas. The subspecies (or species, depending on the source) "C. a. bishopi" is confined to the Ozarks of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, while "C. a. alleganiensis" is found in the rest of these states. Some hellbender populations—namely a few in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee—have historically been noted to be quite abundant, but several man-made maladies have converged on the species such that it has seen a serious population decline throughout its range. Hellbender populations were listed in 1981 as already extinct or endangered in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Maryland, decreasing in Arkansas and Kentucky, and generally threatened as a species throughout their range by various human activities and developments. The hellbender salamander, considered a "habitat specialist", has adapted to fill a specific niche within a very specific environment, and is labeled as such "because its success is dependent on a constancy of dissolved oxygen, temperature and flow found in swift water areas", which in turn limits it to a narrow spectrum of stream/river choices. As a result of this specialization, hellbenders are generally found in areas with large, irregularly shaped, and intermittent rocks and swiftly moving water, while they tend to avoid wider, slow-moving waters with muddy banks and/or slab rock bottoms. This specialization likely contributed to the decline in their populations, as collectors could easily identify their specific habitats. One collector noted, at one time, "one could find a specimen under almost every suitable rock", but after years of collecting, the population had declined significantly. The same collector noted, he "never found two specimens under the same rock", corroborating the account given by other researchers that hellbenders are generally solitary; they are thought to gather only during the mating season. Both subspecies, "C. a. alleganiensis" and "C. a. bishopi" undergo a metamorphosis after around a year and a half of life. At this point, when they are roughly 13.5 cm long, they lose the gills present during their larval stage. Until then, they are easily confused with mudpuppies, and can be differentiated often only through toe number. After this metamorphosis, hellbenders must be able to absorb oxygen through the folds in their skin, which is largely behind the need for fast-moving, oxygenated water. If a hellbender ends up in an area of slow-moving water, not enough of it will pass over its skin in a given time, making it difficult to garner enough oxygen to support necessary respiratory functions. A below-favorable oxygen content can make life equally difficult. Hellbenders are preyed upon by diverse predators, including various fish and reptiles (including both snakes and turtles). Cannibalism of eggs is also considered a common occurrence. Once a hellbender finds a favorable location, it generally does not stray too far from it—except occasionally for breeding and hunting—and will protect it from other hellbenders both in and out of the breeding season. While the range of two hellbenders may overlap, they are noted as rarely being present in the overlapping area when the other salamander is in the area. The species is at least somewhat nocturnal, with peak activity being reported by one source as occurring around "two hours after dark" and again at dawn (although the dawn peak was recorded in the lab and could be misleading as a result). Nocturnal activity has been found to be most prevalent in early summer, perhaps coinciding with highest water depths. "C. alleganiensis" feeds primarily on crayfish and small fish. One report, written by a commercial collector in the 1940s, noted a trend of more crayfish predation in the summer during times of higher prey activity, whereas fish made up a larger part of the winter diet, when crayfish are less active. There seems to be a specific temperature range in which hellbenders feed, as well: between 45 and 80 °F. Cannibalism—mainly on eggs—has been known to occur within hellbender populations. One researcher claimed perhaps density is maintained, and density dependence in turn created, in part by intraspecific predation. The hellbenders' breeding season begins in late August or early- to mid-September and can continue as late as the end of November, depending on region. They exhibit no sexual dimorphism, except during the fall mating season, when males have a bulging ring around their cloacal glands. Unlike most salamanders, the hellbender performs external fertilization. Before mating, each male excavates a brood site, a saucer-shaped depression under a rock or log, with its entrance positioned out of the direct current, usually pointing downstream. The male remains in the brood site awaiting a female. When a female approaches, the male guides or drives her into his burrow and prevents her from leaving until she oviposits. Female hellbenders lay 150–200 eggs over a two- to three-day period; the eggs are 18–20 mm in diameter, connected by five to 10 cords. As the female lays eggs, the male positions himself alongside or slightly above them, spraying the eggs with sperm while swaying his tail and moving his hind limbs, which disperses the sperm uniformly. The male often tempts other females to lay eggs in his nest, and as many as 1,946 eggs have been counted in a single nest. Cannibalism, however, leads to a much lower number of eggs in hellbender nests than would be predicted by egg counts. After oviposition, the male drives the female away from the nest and guards the eggs. Incubating males rock back and forth and undulate their lateral skin folds, which circulates the water, increasing oxygen supply to both eggs and adult. Incubation lasts from 45 to 75 days, depending on region. Hatchling hellbenders are 25–33 mm long, have a yolk sac as a source of energy for the first few months of life, and lack functional limbs. Hellbenders are superbly adapted to the shallow, fast-flowing, rocky streams in which they live. Their flattened shape offers little resistance to the flowing water, allowing them to work their way upstream and also to crawl into narrow spaces under rocks. Although their eyesight is relatively poor, they have light-sensitive cells all over their bodies. Those on their tails are especially finely tuned and may help them position safely under rocks without their tails poking out to give themselves away. They have a good sense of smell and move upstream in search of food such as dead fish, following the trail of scent molecules. Smell is possibly their most important sense when hunting. They also have a lateral line similar to those of fish, with which they can detect vibrations in the water. Research throughout the range of the hellbender has shown a dramatic decline in populations in the majority of locations. Many different anthropogenic sources have helped to create this decline, including the siltation and sedimentation, blocking of dispersal/migration routes, and destruction of riverine habitats created by dams and other development, as well as pollution, disease and overharvesting for commercial and scientific purposes. As many of these detrimental effects have irreversibly damaged hellbender populations, it is important to conserve the remaining populations through protecting habitats and—perhaps in places where the species was once endemic and has been extirpated—by augmenting numbers through reintroduction. Due to sharp decreases seen in the Ozark subspecies, researchers have been trying to differentiate "C. a. alleganiensis" and "C. a. bishopi" into two management units. Indeed, researchers found significant genetic divergence between the two groups, as well as between them and another isolated population of "C. a. alleganiensis". This could be reason enough to ensure work is done on both subspecies, as preserving extant genetic diversity is of crucial ecological importance. The Ozark hellbender has been listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act by the US Fish and Wildlife Service since October 5, 2011. This hellbender subspecies inhabits the White River and Spring River systems in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, and its population has declined an estimated 75% since the 1980s, with only about 590 individuals remaining in the wild. Degraded water quality, habitat loss resulting from impoundments, ore and gravel mining, sedimentation, and collection for the pet trade are thought to be the main factors resulting in the amphibian's decline. When chytridiomycosis killed 75% of the St. Louis Zoo's captive hellbender population between March 2006 and April 2007, tests began to be conducted on wild populations. The disease has been detected in all Missouri populations of the Ozark hellbender. The Ozark hellbender was successfully bred in captivity for the first time at the St. Louis Zoo, in a joint project with the Missouri Department of Conservation, hatching on November 15, 2011. Apart from the Ozark efforts, head-starting programs, in which eggs are collected from the wild and raised in captivity for re-release at a less vulnerable stage, have been initiated in New York and Ohio. Members of the Pennsylvania State Senate have voted to approve the eastern hellbender as the official state amphibian in an effort to raise awareness about its endangered status. The legislation has been mired in controversy due to a dispute by House members who argue that Wehrle's salamander should be given the honor. The legislation did not pass in 2018, but was reintroduced in 2019. On April 23, 2019, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed legislation making the eastern hellbender Pennsylvania's official state amphibian. Youth members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Pennsylvania Student Leadership Council were heavily involved writing and advocating on behalf of this legislation. They hope that the success of the hellbender bill in the Pennsylvania will contribute to clean water efforts and raise awareness for the hellbender's struggling population.

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Hellbender

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14465

14466

Harold Eugene Edgerton Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton, also known as Papa Flash (April 6, 1903 – January 4, 1990) was a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is largely credited with transforming the stroboscope from an obscure laboratory instrument into a common device. He also was deeply involved with the development of sonar and deep-sea photography, and his equipment was used by Jacques Cousteau in searches for shipwrecks and even the Loch Ness Monster. Edgerton was born in Fremont, Nebraska, on April 6, 1903, the son of Mary Nettie Coe and Frank Eugene Edgerton, a descendant of Richard Edgerton, one of the founders of Norwich, Connecticut and a descendant of Governor William Bradford (1590–1657) of the Plymouth Colony and a passenger on the Mayflower. His father was a lawyer, journalist, author and orator and served as the assistant attorney general of Nebraska from 1911 to 1915. Edgerton grew up in Aurora, Nebraska. He also spent some of his childhood years in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1925 Edgerton received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he became a member of Acacia fraternity. He earned an SM in electrical engineering from MIT in 1927. Edgerton used stroboscopes to study synchronous motors for his Sc.D. thesis in electrical engineering at MIT, awarded in 1931. He credited Charles Stark Draper with inspiring him to photograph everyday objects using electronic flash; the first was a stream of water from a faucet. In 1936 Edgerton visited Hummingbird expert May Rogers Webster. He was able to illustrate with her help that it was possible to take photographs of the birds beating their wings 60 times a second using an exposure of one hundred thousandth of a second. A picture of her with the birds flying around her appeared in National Geographic. In 1937 Edgerton began a lifelong association with photographer Gjon Mili, who used stroboscopic equipment, in particular, multiple studio electronic flash units, to produce strikingly beautiful photographs, many of which appeared in Life Magazine. When taking multiflash photographs this strobe light equipment could flash up to 120 times a second. Edgerton was a pioneer in using short duration electronic flash in photographing fast events photography, subsequently using the technique to capture images of balloons at different stages of their bursting, a bullet during its impact with an apple, or using multiflash to track the motion of a devil stick, for example. He was awarded a bronze medal by the Royal Photographic Society in 1934, the Howard N. Potts Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1941, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1966, the David Richardson Medal by the Optical Society of America in 1968, the Albert A. Michelson Medal from the same Franklin Institute in 1969, and the National Medal of Science in 1973. Edgerton partnered with Kenneth J. Germeshausen to do consulting for industrial clients. Later Herbert Grier joined them. The company name "Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier" was changed to EG&G in 1947. EG&G became a prime contractor for the Atomic Energy Commission and had a major role in photographing and recording nuclear tests for the US through the fifties and sixties. For this role Edgerton and Charles Wykoff and others at EG&G developed and manufactured the Rapatronic camera. His work was instrumental in the development of side-scan sonar technology, used to scan the sea floor for wrecks. Edgerton worked with undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, by first providing him with custom-designed underwater photographic equipment featuring electronic flash, and then by developing sonar techniques used to discover the Britannic. Edgerton participated in the discovery of the American Civil War battleship USS Monitor. While working with Cousteau, he acquired the nickname in photographic circles: "Papa Flash". In 1974 Doc Edgerton worked with Paul Kronfield in Greece on a sonar search for the lost city of Helike, believed to be the basis for the legend of Atlantis. Edgerton co-founded EG&G, Inc., which manufactured advanced electronic equipment including side-scan sonars, subbottom profiling equipment. EG&G also invented and manufactured the Krytron, the detonation device for the hydrogen bomb, and an EG&G division supervised many of America's nuclear testing. In addition to having the scientific and engineering acumen to perfect strobe lighting commercially, Edgerton is equally recognized for his visual aesthetic: many of the striking images he created in illuminating phenomena that occurred too fast for the naked eye adorn art museums worldwide. In 1940, his high speed stroboscopic short film "Quicker'n a Wink" won an Oscar. Edgerton was appointed a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1934. In 1956, Edgerton was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was especially loved by MIT students for his willingness to teach and his kindness: "The trick to education", he said, "is to teach people in such a way that they don't realize they're learning until it's too late". His last undergraduate class, taught during fall semester 1977, was a freshman seminar titled "Bird and Insect Photography". One of the graduate student dormitories at MIT carries his name. In 1962, Edgerton appeared on "I've Got a Secret", where he demonstrated strobe flash photography by shooting a bullet into a playing card and photographing the result. Edgerton's work was featured in an October 1987 "National Geographic Magazine" article entitled "Doc Edgerton: the man who made time stand still". After graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Edgerton married Esther May Garrett in 1928. She was born in Aurora, Nebraska on September 8, 1903 and died on March 9, 2002 in Charlestown, South Carolina. She received a bachelor's degree in mathematics, music and education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A skilled pianist and singer, she attended the New England Conservatory of Music and taught in public schools in Aurora, Nebraska and Boston. During their marriage they had three children: Mary Louise (April 21, 1931), William Eugene (8/9/1933), Robert Frank (5/10/1935). His sister, Mary Ellen Edgerton, was the wife of L. Welch Pogue (1899–2003) a pioneering aviation attorney and Chairman of the old Civil Aeronautics Board. David Pogue, a technology writer, journalist and commentator, is his great nephew. Edgerton remained active throughout his later years, and was seen on the MIT campus many times after his official retirement. He died suddenly on January 4, 1990 at the MIT Faculty Club at the age of 86, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. On July 3, 1990, in an effort to memorialize his accomplishments, several community members in Aurora, Nebraska decided to construct a "Hands-On" science center. It was designated as a "teaching museum," that would preserve Doc's work and artifacts, as well as feature the "Explorit Zone" where people of all ages could participate in hands-on exhibits and interact with live science demonstrations. After five years of private and community-wide fund-raising, as well as individual investments by Doc's surviving family members, the Edgerton Explorit Center was officially dedicated on September 9, 1995. At MIT, the Edgerton Center, founded in 1992, is a hands-on laboratory resource for undergraduate and graduate students, and also conducts educational outreach programs for high school students and teachers. Some of Edgerton's noted photographs are : Edgerton's work is held in the following public collection:

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Harold Eugene Edgerton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14466

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Harry Kroto Sir Harold Walter Kroto (born Harold Walter Krotoschiner; 7 October 1939 – 30 April 2016), known as Harry Kroto, was an English chemist. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for their discovery of fullerenes. He was the recipient of many other honors and awards. Kroto held many positions in academia throughout his life, ending his career as the Francis Eppes Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University, which he joined in 2004. Prior to this, he spent approximately 40 years at the University of Sussex. Kroto promoted science education and was a critic of religious faith. Kroto was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, to Edith and Heinz Krotoschiner, his name being of Silesian origin. His father's family came from Bojanowo, Poland, and his mother's from Berlin. Both of his parents were born in Berlin and fled to Great Britain in the 1930s as refugees from Nazi Germany; his father was Jewish. Harry was raised in Bolton while the British authorities interned his father on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien during World War II and attended Bolton School, where he was a contemporary of the actor Ian McKellen. In 1955, Harold's father shortened the family name to Kroto. As a child, he became fascinated by a Meccano set. Kroto credited Meccano, as well as his aiding his father in the latter's balloon factory after World War II – amongst other things – with developing skills useful in scientific research. He developed an interest in chemistry, physics, and mathematics in secondary school, and because his sixth form chemistry teacher (Harry Heaney – who subsequently became a university professor) felt that the University of Sheffield had the best chemistry department in the United Kingdom, he went to Sheffield. Although raised Jewish, Harry Kroto stated that religion never made any sense to him. He was a humanist who claimed to have three religions: Amnesty Internationalism, atheism, and humour. He was a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association. In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. In 2015, Kroto signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate summit in Paris. Kroto was educated at Bolton School and went to the University of Sheffield in 1958, where he obtained a first-class honours BSc degree in Chemistry (1961) and a PhD in Molecular Spectroscopy (1964). During his time at Sheffield he also was the art editor of "Arrows" – the University student magazine, played tennis for the University team (reaching the UAU finals twice) and was President of the Student Athletics Council (1963–64). Among other things such as making the first phosphaalkenes (compounds with carbon phosphorus double bonds), his doctoral studies included unpublished research on carbon suboxide, O=C=C=C=O, and this led to a general interest in molecules containing chains of carbon atoms with numerous multiple bonds. He started his work with an interest in organic chemistry, but when he learned about spectroscopy it inclined him towards quantum chemistry; he later developed an interest in astrochemistry. After obtaining his PhD, Kroto spent two-years in a postdoctoral position at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada carrying out further work in molecular spectroscopy, and also spent the subsequent year at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey (1966–1967) carrying out Raman studies of liquid phase interactions and worked on quantum chemistry. In 1967, Kroto began teaching and research at the University of Sussex in England. During his time at Sussex from 1967 to 1985, he carried out research mainly focused on the spectroscopic studies of new and novel unstable and semi-stable species. This work resulted in the birth of the various fields of new chemistry involving carbon multiply bonded to second and third row elements e.g. S, Se and P. A particularly important breakthrough (with Sussex colleague John Nixon) was the creation of several new phosphorus species detected by microwave spectroscopy. This work resulted in the birth of the field(s) of phosphaalkene and phosphaalkyne chemistry. These species contain carbon double and triple bonded to phosphorus (C=P and C≡P) such as cyanophosphaethyne. In 1975, he became a full professor of Chemistry. This coincided with laboratory microwave measurements with Sussex colleague David Walton on long linear carbon chain molecules, leading to radio astronomy observations with Canadian astronomers revealing the surprising fact that these unusual carbonaceous species existed in relatively large abundances in interstellar space as well as the outer atmospheres of certain stars – the carbon-rich red giants. In 1985, on the basis of the Sussex studies and the stellar discoveries, laboratory experiments (with co-workers James R. Heath, Sean C. O'Brien, Yuan Liu, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University) which simulated the chemical reactions in the atmospheres of the red giant stars demonstrated that stable C60 molecules could form spontaneously from a condensing carbon vapour. The co-investigators directed lasers at graphite and examined the results. The C60 molecule is a molecule with the same symmetry pattern as a football, consisting of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons of carbon atoms. Kroto named the molecule buckminsterfullerene, after Buckminster Fuller who had conceived of the geodesic domes, as the dome concept had provided a clue to the likely structure of the new species. In 1985, the C60 discovery caused Kroto to shift the focus of his research from spectroscopy in order to probe the consequences of the C60 structural concept (and prove it correct) and to exploit the implications for chemistry and material science. This research is significant for the discovery of a new allotrope of carbon known as a fullerene. Other allotropes of carbon include graphite, diamond and graphene. Harry Kroto's 1985 paper entitled "C60: Buckminsterfullerine", published with colleagues J. R. Heath, S. C. O'Brien, R. F. Curl, and R. E. Smalley, was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, presented to Rice University in 2015. The discovery of fullerenes was recognized in 2010 by the designation of a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society at the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. In 2004, Kroto left the University of Sussex to take up a new position as Francis Eppes Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University. At FSU he carried out fundamental research on: Carbon vapour with Professor Alan Marshall; Open framework condensed phase systems with strategically important electrical and magnetic behaviour with Professors Naresh Dalal (FSU) and Tony Cheetham (Cambridge); and the mechanism of formation and properties of nano-structured systems. In addition, he participated in research initiatives at FSU that probed the astrochemistry of fullerenes, metallofullerenes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in stellar/circumstellar space, as well as their relevance to stardust. In 1995, he jointly set up the Vega Science Trust, a UK educational charity that created high quality science films including lectures and interviews with Nobel Laureates, discussion programmes, careers and teaching resources for TV and Internet Broadcast. Vega produced over 280 programmes, that streamed for free from the Vega website which acted as a TV science channel. The trust closed in 2012. In 2009, Kroto spearheaded the development of a second science education initiative, Geoset. Short for the Global Educational Outreach for Science, Engineering and Technology, GEOSET is an ever-growing online cache of recorded teaching modules that are freely downloadable to educators and the public. The program aims to increase knowledge of the sciences by creating a global repository of educational videos and presentations from leading universities and institutions. In 2003, prior to the Blair/Bush invasion of Iraq on the pretext that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Kroto initiated and organised the publication of a letter to be signed by a dozen UK Nobel Laureates and published in "The Times". It was composed by his friend the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate the late Sir Joseph Rotblat and published in "The Times" on 15 February 2003. He wrote a set of articles, mostly opinion pieces, from 2002–2003 for the Times Higher Education Supplement, a weekly UK publication. From 2002–2004, Kroto served as President of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2004, he was appointed to the Francis Eppes Professorship in the chemistry department at Florida State University, carrying out research in nanoscience and nanotechnology. He spoke at Auburn University on 29 April 2010, and at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University with Robert Curl on 13 October 2010. In October 2010 Kroto participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students had the opportunity to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize–winning scientist. He spoke at Mahatma Gandhi University, at Kottayam, in Kerala, India in January 2011, where he was an 'Erudite' special invited lecturer of the Government of Kerala, from 5 to 11 January 2011. Kroto spoke at CSICon 2011, a convention "dedicated to scientific inquiry and critical thinking" organized by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in association with "Skeptical Inquirer" magazine and the Center for Inquiry. He also delivered the IPhO 2012 lecture at the International Physics Olympiad held in Estonia. In 2014, Kroto spoke at the Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands, delivering a lecture about his life in science, chemistry, and design. In 1963, he married Margaret Henrietta Hunter, also a student of the University of Sheffield at the time. The couple had two sons: Stephen and David. Throughout his entire life, Kroto was a lover of film, theatre, art, and music and published his own artwork. Kroto was a "devout atheist" who thought that beliefs in immortality derive from lack of the courage to accept human mortality. He was a patron of the British Humanist Association. He was a supporter of Amnesty International. He referred to his view that religious dogma causes people to accept unethical or inhumane actions: "The only mistake Bernie Madoff made was to promise returns in "this" life." He held that scientists had a responsibility to work for the benefit of the entire species. On 15 September 2010, Kroto, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in "The Guardian", stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK. Kroto was an early Signatory of Asteroid Day. In 2008, Kroto was critical of Michael Reiss for directing the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Kroto praised the increase of organized online information as an "Educational Revolution" and named it as the "GooYouWiki" world referring to Google, YouTube and Wikipedia. One of Kroto's favourite quotes was: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." said by Albert Einstein, The discovery of buckminsterfullerene caused Kroto to postpone his dream of setting up an art and graphic design studio – he had been doing graphics semi-professionally for years. However, Kroto's graphic design work resulted in numerous posters, letterheads, logos, book/journal covers, medal design, etc. He produced artwork after receiving graphic awards in the Sunday Times Book Jacket Design competition (1964) and the Moet Hennesy/Louis Vuitton Science pour l'Art Prize (1994). Other notable graphical works include the design of the Nobel UK Stamp for Chemistry (2001) and features at the Royal Academy (London) Summer Exhibition (2004). Kroto died on 30 April 2016 in Lewes, East Sussex from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the age of 76. Richard Dawkins wrote a memorial for chemist Kroto where he mentioned Kroto's "passionate hatred of religion." The "Wall Street Journal" described him as "(spending much of his later life) jetting around the world to extol scientific education in a world he saw as blinded by religion." Slate's Zack Kopplin related a story about how Kroto gave him advice and support to fight Louisiana's creationism law, a law that allows public school science teachers to attack evolution and how Kroto defended the scientific findings of global warming. In an obituary published in the journal "Nature", Robert Curl and James R. Heath described Kroto as having an "impish sense of humour similar to that of the British comedy group Monty Python". Kroto won numerous awards, individually and with others: Kroto was made a Knight Bachelor in the 1996 New Year Honours list. The University of Sheffield North Campus contains two buildings named after Kroto: The Kroto Innovation Centre and the Kroto Research Institute.

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Harry Kroto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14467

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Heimskringla Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name "Heimskringla" was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts ("kringla heimsins", "the circle of the world"). "Heimskringla" is a collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177. The exact sources of his work are disputed, but included earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna and the twelfth century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems. Snorri had himself visited Norway and Sweden. For events of the mid-12th century, Snorri explicitly names the now-lost work "Hryggjarstykki" as his source. The composition of the sagas is Snorri's. The name "Heimskringla" comes from the fact that the first words of the first saga in the compilation ("Ynglinga saga") are "Kringla heimsins", "the orb of the Earth". The earliest parchment copy of the work is referred to as "Kringla", now in the Reykjavík National Library, catalogued as Lbs fragm 82. This is now a single vellum leaf from c. 1260, a part of the Saga of St. Olaf; the rest of the manuscript was lost to fire in 1728. "Heimskringla" consists of several sagas, often thought of as falling into three groups, giving the overall work the character of a triptych. The saga narrates the contests of the kings, the establishment of the kingdom of Norway, Viking expeditions to various European countries, ranging as far afield as Palestine in the saga of Sigurd the Crusader. The stories are told with a life and freshness, giving a picture of human life in all its reality. The saga is a prose epic, relevant to the history not only of Scandinavia but the regions included in the wider medieval Scandinavian diaspora. The first part of the "Heimskringla" is rooted in Norse mythology; as the collection proceeds, fable and fact intermingle, but the accounts become increasingly historically reliable. The first section tells of the mythological prehistory of the Norwegian royal dynasty, tracing Odin, described here as a mortal man, and his followers from the East, from Asaland and Asgard, its chief city, to their settlement in Scandinavia (more precisely to east-central Sweden, according to Snorri). The subsequent sagas are (with few exceptions) devoted to individual rulers, starting with Halfdan the Black. A version of "Óláfs saga helga", about the saint Olaf II of Norway, is the main and central part of the collection: Olaf's 15-year-long reign takes up about one third of the entire work. Thereafter, the saga of Harald Hardrada narrates Harald's expedition to the East, his brilliant exploits in Constantinople, Syria, and Sicily, his skaldic accomplishments, and his battles in England against Harold Godwinson, the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, where he fell at the battle Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 only a few days before Harold fell at the Battle of Hastings. After presenting a series of other kinds, the saga ends with Magnus V of Norway. "Heimskringla" contains the following sagas (see also List of Norwegian monarchs): Snorri explicitly mentions a few prose sources, now mostly lost in the form that he knew them: "Hryggjarstykki" ('spine pieces') by Eiríkr Oddsson (covering events 1130-61), "Skjǫldunga saga", an unidentified saga about Knútr inn gamli, and a text called "Jarlasǫgurnar" ('sagas of the jarls', which seems to correspond to the saga now known as "Orkneyinga saga"). Snorri may have had access to a wide range of the early Scandinavian historical texts known today as the 'synoptic histories', but made most use of: Snorri also made extensive use of skaldic verse which he believed to have been composed at the time of the events portrayed and transmitted orally from that time onwards, and clearly made use of other oral accounts, though it is uncertain to what extent. Up until the mid-19th century, historians put great trust in the factual truth of Snorri's narrative, as well as other old Norse sagas. In the early 20th century, this trust was largely abandoned with the advent of "saga criticism", pioneered by Lauritz and Curt Weibull. These historians pointed out that Snorri's work had been written several centuries after most of the events it describes. In Norway, the historian Edvard Bull famously proclaimed that "we have to give up all illusions that Snorri's mighty epic bears any deeper resemblance to what actually happened" in the time it describes. A school of historians has come to believe that the motives Snorri and the other saga writers give to their characters owe more to conditions in the 13th century than in earlier times. "Heimskringla" has, however, continued to be used as a historical source, though with more caution. It is not common to believe in the detailed accuracy of the historical narrative and historians tend to see little to no historical truth behind the first few sagas, however, they are still seen by many as a valuable source of knowledge about the society and politics of medieval Norway. The factual content of the work tends to be deemed more credible where it discusses more recent times, as the distance in time between the events described and the composition of the saga was shorter, allowing traditions to be retained in a largely accurate form, and because in the twelfth century the first contemporary written sources begin to emerge in Norway. Whereas prior to "Heimskringla" there seems to have been a diversity of efforts to write histories of kings, Snorri's "Heimskringla" seems thereafter to have been the basis for Icelandic writing about Scandinavian kings, and was expanded by scribes rather than entirely revised. "Flateyjarbók", from the end of the fourteenth century, is the most extreme example of expansion, interweaving Snorri's text with many "þættir" and other whole sagas, prominently "Orkneyinga saga", "Færeyinga saga", and "Fóstbrœðra saga". The text is also referenced in "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne; the work is the one Professor Liedenbrock finds Arne Saknussem's note in. By the mid-16th century, the Old Norse language was unintelligible to Norwegian, Swedish or Danish readers. At that time several translations of extracts were made in Norway into the Danish language, which was the literary language of Norway at the time. The first complete translation was made around 1600 by Peder Claussøn Friis, and printed in 1633. This was based on a manuscript known as "Jofraskinna". Subsequently, the Stockholm manuscript was translated into Swedish and Latin by Johan Peringskiöld (by order of Charles XI) and published in 1697 at Stockholm under the title "Heimskringla", which is the first known use of the name. This edition also included the first printing of the text in Old Norse. A new Danish translation with the text in Old Norse and a Latin translation came out in 1777–83 (by order of Frederick VI as crown prince). An English translation by Samuel Laing was finally published in 1844, with a second edition in 1889. Starting in the 1960s English-language revisions of Laing appeared, as well as fresh English translations. In the 19th century, as Norway was achieving independence after centuries of union with Denmark and Sweden, the stories of the independent Norwegian medieval kingdom won great popularity in Norway. Heimskringla, although written by an Icelander, became an important national symbol for Norway during the period of romantic nationalism. In 1900, the Norwegian parliament, the Storting, subsidized the publication of new translations of Heimskringla into both Norwegian written forms, landsmål and riksmål, "in order that the work may achieve wide distribution at a low price". The most recent English translation of "Heimskringla" is by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes and is available open-access.

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Heimskringla

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14468

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Hamar Hamar is a town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849. Vang was merged back into Hamar on 1 January 1992. The town is located on the shores of Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, and is the principal city of Hedmark county. It is bordered to the northwest by the municipality of Ringsaker, to the north by Åmot, to the east by Løten, and to the south by Stange. The municipality (originally the town) is named after the old "Hamar" farm (Old Norse: "Hamarr"); the medieval town was built on its ground. The name is identical with the word "hamarr" which means "rocky hill". The coat-of-arms shows a Black Grouse sitting in the top of a pine tree on a white background. It was first described in the anonymous Hamar Chronicle, written in 1553. Between 500 and 1000 AD, Aker farm was one of the most important power centres in Norway, located just a few kilometres away from today's Hamar. Three coins found in Ringerike in 1895 have been dated to the time of Harald Hardråde and are inscribed "Olafr a Hamri". At some point, presumably after 1030 but clearly before 1152, the centre was moved from Aker to the peninsula near Rosenlundvika, what we today know as Domkirkeodden. There are some indications Harald Hardråde initiated this move because he had property at the new site. Much of the information about medieval Hamar is derived from the Hamar Chronicles, dated to about 1550. The town is said to have reached its apex in the early 14th century, dominated by the Hamar cathedral, bishop's manor, and fortress, and surrounding urbanization. The town was known for its fragrant apple orchards, but there were also merchants, craftsmen, and fishermen in the town. After the Christianization of Norway in 1030, Hamar began to gain influence as a centre for trade and religion, until the episcopal representative Nikolaus Breakspear in 1152 founded Hamar Kaupangen as one of five dioceses in medieval Norway. This diocese included Hedemarken and Christians Amt, being separated in 1152 from the former diocese of Oslo. The first bishop of Hamar was Arnold, Bishop of Gardar, Greenland (1124–1152). He began to build the now ruined cathedral of Christ Church, which was completed about the time of Bishop Paul (1232–1252). Bishop Thorfinn (1278–1282) was exiled and died at Ter Doest abbey in Flanders, and was later canonised. Bishop Jörund (1285–1286) was transferred to Trondheim. A provincial council was held in 1380. Hamar remained an important religious and political centre in Norway, organized around the cathedral and the bishop's manor until the Reformation 1536-1537, when it lost its status as a bishopric after the last Catholic bishop, Mogens Lauritssøn (1513–1537), was taken prisoner in his castle at Hamar by Truid Ulfstand, a Danish noble, and sent to Antvorskov in Denmark, where he was mildly treated until his death in 1542. There were at Hamar a cathedral chapter with ten canons, a school, a Dominican Priory of St. Olaf, and a monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Anthony of Vienne. Hamar, like most of Norway, was severely diminished by the Black Plague in 1349, and by all accounts continued this decline until the Reformation, after which it disappeared. The Reformation in Norway took less than 10 years to complete, from 1526 to 1536. The fortress was made into the residence of the sheriff and renamed Hamarhus fortress. The cathedral was still used but fell into disrepair culminating with the Swedish army's siege and attempted demolition in 1567, during the Northern Seven Years' War, when the manor was also devastated. By 1587, merchants in Oslo had succeeded in moving all of Hamar's market activities to Oslo. Though some regional and seasonal trade persisted into the 17th century, Hamar as a town ceased to exist by then. In its place, the area was used for agriculture under the farm of Storhamar, though the ruins of the cathedral, fortress, and lesser buildings became landmarks for centuries since then. The King made Hamarhus a feudal seat until 1649, when Frederick III transferred the property known as Hammer to Hannibal Sehested, making it private property. In 1716, the estate was sold to Jens Grønbech (1666–1734). With this, a series of construction projects started, and the farm became known as Storhamar, passing through several owners until Norwegian nobility was abolished in 1831, when Erik Anker took over the farm. As early as 1755, the Danish government in Copenhagen expressed an interest in establishing a trading center on Mjøsa. Elverum was considered a frontier town with frequent unrest, and there was even talk of encouraging the dissenting Hans Nielsen Hauge to settle in the area. Bishop Fredrik Julius Bech, one of the most prominent officials of his time, proposed establishing a town at or near Storhamar, at the foot of Furuberget. In 1812, negotiations started in earnest, when the regional governor of Kristians Amt, proposed establishing a market on Mjøsa. A four-person commission was named on 26 July 1814, with the mandate of determining a suitable site for a new town along the shore. On 8 June 1815, the commission recommended establishing such a town at Lillehammer, then also a farm, part of Fåberg. Acting on objections to this recommendation, the department of the interior asked two professors, Ludvig Stoud Platou and Gregers Fougner Lundh, to survey the area and develop an alternative recommendation. It appears that Lundh in particular put great effort into this assignment, and in 1824 he presented to the Storting a lengthy report, that included maps and plans for the new town. Lundh's premise was that the national economic interest reigned supreme, so he based his recommendation on the proposed town's ability to quickly achieve self-sustaining growth. He proposed that the name of the new town be called "Carlshammer" and proposed it be built along the shore just north of Storhamar and eastward. His plans were detailed, calling for streets 20 meters broad, rectangular blocks with 12 buildings in each, 2 meters separating each of them. He also proposed tax relief for 20 years for the town's first residents, that the state relinquish property taxes in favor of the city, and that the city be given monopoly rights to certain trade. He even proposed that certain types of foreigners be allowed to settle in the town to promote trade, in particular, the Quakers. His recommendation was accepted in principle by the government, but the parliamentary committee equivocated on the location. It left the determination of the actual site to the king so as to not slow down things further. Another commission was named in June 1825, consisting of Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg, professor Lundh, and other prominent Norwegians. After surveying the entire lake, it submitted another report that considered eleven different locations, including sites near today's Eidsvoll, Minnesund, Tangen in Stange, Aker, Storhamar, Brumunddal, Nes, Moelven, Lillehammer, Gjøvik, and Toten. Each was presented with pros and cons. The commission itself was split between Lillehammer and Storhamar. The parliament finally decided on Lillehammer, relegating Hamar once more, it seemed, to be a sleepy agricultural area. As steamboats were introduced on the lake, the urban elite developed an interest in the medieval Hamar, and in 1841, editorials appeared advocating the reestablishment of a town at Storhamar. By then the limitations of Lillehammer's location had also become apparent, in particular those of its shallow harbor. After a few more years of discussions and negotiations both regionally and nationally, member of parliament Frederik Stang put on the table once more the possibility of a town in or near Storhamar. The governor at the time, Frederik Hartvig Johan Heidmann, presented a thorough deliberation of possible specific locations, and ended up proposing the current site, at Gammelhusbukten. On 26 April 1848, the king signed into law the establishment of Hamar on the grounds of the farms of Storhamar and Holset, along the shores of Mjøsa. The law stated that the town will be founded on the date its borders are settled, which turned out to be 21 March 1849, known as the merchant town of Hamar, with a trading zone within five kilometers () of its borders. The area of the new town covered 400 mål which is the equivalent to today's (40 hectare). An army engineer, Røyem, drafted the initial plan. There would be three thoroughfares, at Strandgata, Torggata, and Grønnegate (the latter the name of a medieval road) and a grid system of streets between them. The orientation of the town was toward the shore. Røyem set aside space for three parks and a public square, and also room for a church just outside the town's borders. There were critics of the plan, pointing out that the terrain was hilly and not suitable for the proposed rigid grid. Some adjustments were made, but the plan was largely accepted and is evident in today's Hamar. There were also lingering concerns about the town's vulnerability to flooding. No sooner had the ink dried on the new law, and building started in the spring of 1849. The first buildings were much like sheds, but there was great enthusiasm, and by the end of 1849, ten buildings were insured in the new town. None of these are standing today; the last two were adjacent buildings on Skappelsgate. By 1850, there were 31 insured houses, and 1852, 42; and in 1853, 56. Building slowed down for a few years and then picked up again in 1858, and by the end of 1860 there were 100 insured houses in the town. The shore side properties were obliged to grow gardens, setting the stage for a leafy urban landscape. Roads quickly became a challenge – in some places, it was necessary to ford creeks in the middle of town. The road inspector found himself under considerable stress, and it was not until 1869 street names were settled. Highways in and out of the city also caused considerable debate, especially when it came to financing their construction. The first passenger terminal in Hamar was in fact a crag in the lake, from which travelers were rowed into the city. In 1850, another pier was built with a two-storey terminal building. All this was complicated by the significant seasonal variations in water levels. In 1857 a canal was built around a basin that would allow freight ships to access a large warehouse. Although the canal and basin still were not deep enough to accommodate passenger steamships, the area became one of the busiest areas in the town and the point around which the harbor was further developed. The Diocese of Hamar was established in 1864, and the Hamar Cathedral was consecrated in 1866 and remains a central point in the city. A promenade came into being from the harbor area, past the gardens on the shore, and north toward the site of the old town. The first executive of Hamar was Johannes Bay, who arrived in October 1849 to facilitate an election of a board of supervisors and representatives. The town's Royal Charter called for the election of 3 supervisors and 9 representatives, and elections were announced in the paper and through town crier. Of the 10 eligible town citizens, three supervisors were elected, and the remaining six were elected by consent to be representatives, resulting in a shortfall of 3 on the board. The first mayor of Hamar was Christian Borchgrevink. The first order of business was the allocation of liquor licenses and the upper limit of alcohol that could be sold within the town limits. The board quickly decided to award licenses to both applicants and set the upper limit to 12,000 "pots" of liquor, an amount that was for all intents and purposes limitless. The electorate increased in 1849 to 26, including merchants and various craftsmen, and the empty representative posts were filled in November. In 1850, the board allowed for unlimited exercise of any craft for which no citizenship had been taken out, which led to much unregulated craftsmanship. Part-time policemen were hired, and the town started setting taxes and a budget by the end of 1849. In 1850, a new election was held for the town board. The painter Jakobsen had early on offered his house for public meetings and assembly, and upon buying a set of solid locks, his basement also became the town prison. One merchant was designated as the town's firefighter and was given two buckets with equipment, and later a simple hose, but by 1852 a full-time fire chief was named. There was also some controversy around the watchman who loudly reported the time to all the town's inhabitants every half-hour, every night. Hamar also had a scrupulously enforced ordinance against smoking (pipe) without a lid in public or private. In Hamar's early days, the entire population consisted of young entrepreneurs, and little was needed in the way of social services. After a few years, a small number of indigent people needed support, and a poorhouse was erected. In 1878, as the firefighting capabilities of the young town were upgraded, a fire broke out in a bakery that was put out without doing too much damage. In February 1879 at 2:00 in the morning another fire broke out after festivities, burning down an entire building that housed many historical items from town's history. This was followed by a series of fires that left entire blocks in ashes that seemed to come to an end in 1881, when a professional fire corps was hired. In 1860, concerns about flooding were vindicated when a late and sudden spring caused the lake to flood, peaking on about 24 June, when the street-level floor of the front properties was completely inundated. This was the worst flood recorded since 1789. By 9 July, the floods had receded. But it was not to prove the end of the calamities. In August, massive rainfall led to flash flooding in the area, putting several streets under water. This was immediately followed by unseasonably cold weather, freezing the potato crops and inconveniencing Hamar's residents. And then, mild weather melted all the ice and accumulated snow, leading to another round of flooding. By the time a particularly cold and snow-filled winter set in, there was mostly relief about getting some stability. In 1876, the town was scandalized by the apprehension of one Kristoffer Svartbækken, arrested for the cold-blooded murder of 19-year-old Even Nilsen Dæhlin. Svartbækken was convicted for the murder and executed the year after in the neighboring rural community of Løten in what must have been a spectacle with an audience of 3,000 locals, presumably most of Hamar's population at the time. Then in 1889, there were riots in Hamar over the arrest of one of their own constables, one sergeant Huse, who had been insubordinate while on a military drill at the cavalry camp at Gardermoen. In an act of poor judgment, Huse's superior sent him to Hamar's prison in place of military stockades. Partly led and partly tolerated by other constables, the town's population engaged in demonstrations, marches, and other unlawful but non-violent acts that were effectively ended when a company of soldiers arrived from the camp at Terningmoen near Elverum. The Hedmark museum, located on Domkirkeodden, is an important historical landmark in Hamar, an outdoor museum with remains of the medieval church, in a protective glass housing, the episcopal fortress and a collection of old farm houses. The institution is a combined medieval, ethnological and archaeological museum, and has received architectural prizes for its approach to conservation and exhibition. It also houses a vast photographic archive for the Hedmark region. Additionally, Hamar is known for its indoor long track speed skating and bandy arena, the "Olympia Hall", better known as Vikingskipet ("The Viking ship") for its shape. It was built to host the speed skating competitions of the 1994 Winter Olympics that were held in nearby Lillehammer. Already in 1993 it hosted the Bandy World Championship. The Vikingskipet Olympic Arena was later used in the winter of 2007 as the service park for Rally Norway, the second round of the 2007 World Rally Championship season. It has been the host for the world's second largest computer party The Gathering starting on the Wednesday in Easter each year, for the last 13 years. Also situated in Hamar is the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre which hosted the figure skating and short track speed skating events of the 1994 Winter Olympics. The figure skating competition was highly anticipated. It featured Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, who drew most of the media attention, however the gold medal was won by Oksana Baiul of Ukraine. The centre of Hamar is the pedestrian walkway in the middle of town, with the library, cinema and farmer's market on Stortorget (the big square) on the western side, and Østre Torg (the eastern square), which sits on top of an underground multi-story carpark, on the eastern side. Hamar is an important railway junction between two different lines to Trondheim. Rørosbanen, the old railway line, branches off from the mainline Dovre Line. The Norwegian Railway Museum ("Norsk Jernbanemuseum") is also in Hamar. Hamar Airport, Stafsberg caters to general aviation. Hamar boasts several teams at the Norwegian top level in various sports: Hamar is known for its speed skating history, both for its skaters and the championships that have been hosted by the city, already in 1894 Hamar hosted its first European championship, and the first World Championship the following year. After the Vikingskipet was built, Hamar has hosted international championships on a regular basis. The most notable skaters from Hamar are Dag Fornæss and Even Wetten, both former World champions, allround and 1000m respectively. Amund Sjøbrend, Ådne Sønderål and Eskil Ervik have all been members of the local club Hamar IL, although they were not born in Hamar. In Hamar on 17 July 1993, Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree set a world record for the distance covered in an hour. His 51,596 metres broke the 51,151 set at altitude nine years earlier but lasted only six days before Chris Boardman broke it in Bordeaux. Other notable athletes: Hamar was the venue of three sports during the 1994 Winter Olympics, figure skating, short track and speed skating. The following cities, both in Scandinavia and around the world, are twinned with Hamar: Part of the plot of "The Axe", the first volume of Sigrid Undset's "The Master of Hestviken", is set in the Medieval Hamar. The book's young lovers, denied the right to marry by malicious relatives, come to the town in order to try to get the help of the kindly and compassionate Bishop Thorfinn of Hamar.

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Book of Helaman The Book of Helaman ( ) is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The book continues the history of the Nephites and the Lamanites "according to the records of Helaman, who was the son of Helaman, and also according to the records of his sons, even down to the coming of Christ" ("The Book of Helaman", preface). According to footnotes, the book covers the time period between c. 52 BC and 1 BC. Helaman consists of sixteen chapters. In 52 BC the Nephites had trouble over the succession to Pahoran as judge among his sons. He had many sons, but among these, Pahoran Jr., Paanchi and Pacumeni wanted the seat. They stirred up trouble among the people as they campaigned for the position. The people selected Pahoran by acclaim, and Pacumeni assented. But Paanchi had the backing of the minority and he sought to instigate a rebellion. Before he could make much headway, he was arrested and tried, convicted of sedition, and sentenced to death. The minority sent a hitman named Kishkumen to kill Pahoran as he sat on the bench. The assassination was done in disguise so no one could accuse Kishkumen. Men loyal to Pahoran gave chase, but Kiskkumen evaded them, and returned to the minority. They all swore to God never to utter a word that Kishkumen had murdered Pahoran. Still, some of the conspirators were found and sentenced to death. Pacumeni was elevated to Judge in place of Pahoran. In 51 BC the Lamanites came against the Nephites with a mighty host led by a large man named Coriantumr, descendant of Zarahemla. He was dispatched by Tubaloth, king of the Lamanites. The political turmoil surrounding the succession of Pahoran caused the city of Zarahemla to drop its guard somewhat. Coriantumr slew the guards at the gates, marched inside with his whole army, slew all who opposed them and took possession of the city. Pacumeni was personally slain by Coriantumr against the walls of Zarahemla. Coriantumr, fresh from this victory, prepared a second phase of his campaign against the land of Zarahemla at large. His next goal was the city of Bountiful in the north of the land. The Nephites in the countryside were not able to assemble themselves into a large enough force to oppose the Lamanites, so they were picked off in detail. But Moronihah had removed the bulk of the Nephite forces to the border regions, forming a hard crust while leaving the heart of the land largely undefended. Coriantumr was misled by the relative ease of his drive. After learning of the fall of Zarahemla, Moroniahah dispatched Lehi with an army to intercept the Lamanites before they came to Bountiful. In the great battle that followed, even Coriantumr was slain. When the Lamanites found themselves surrounded on every side by Nephites, and their leader slain, they surrendered. Moronihah re-occupied Zarahemla, and allowed the captured Lamanite soldiers to depart the land in peace.

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Irina Krush Irina Krush (; born December 24, 1983) is an American chess player. She was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2013. Krush is a seven-time U.S. women's champion. Irina Krush was born in Odessa, USSR (now Ukraine). She learned to play chess at age five, emigrating with her parents to Brooklyn that same year (1989). At age 14 Krush won the 1998 U.S. Women's Chess Championship to become the youngest U.S. women's champion ever. She has won the championship on six other occasions, in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Krush took part in the "Kasparov versus the World" chess competition in 1999. Garry Kasparov played the white pieces and the Internet public, via a Microsoft host website, voted on moves for the black pieces, guided by the recommendations of Krush and three of her contemporaries, Étienne Bacrot, Elisabeth Pähtz and Florin Felecan. On the tenth move, Krush suggested a , for which the World team voted. Kasparov said later that he lost control of the game at that point, and wasn't sure whether he was winning or losing. Krush played in the Group C of the 2008 Corus Chess Tournament, a 14-player round-robin tournament held in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. She finished in joint fifth place having scored 7/13 points after five wins (including the one against the eventual winner, Fabiano Caruana), four draws and four losses. In 2013, she was awarded the Grandmaster title thanks to her results at the NYC Mayor's Cup International GM Tournament in 2001, Women's World Team Chess Championship 2013 and Baku Open 2013. Krush has played on the U.S. national team in the Women's Chess Olympiad since 1998. The U.S. team won the silver medal in 2004 and bronze in 2008. She also competed as part of the US team in the Women's World Team Chess Championship in 2009 and 2013. She played for the team Manhattan Applesauce in the U.S. Chess League in 2015; she previously played for the New York Knights (2005–2011, 2013). Krush and her ex-husband, Canadian Grandmaster Pascal Charbonneau, have played in the United Kingdom league for Guildford-ADC. Krush also is an author, who frequently contributes articles to "Chess Life" magazine and "uschess.org." Her article on earning her grandmaster title in 2013 was honored as the "Best of US Chess" that year. Krush attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn. She graduated in International Relations from the New York University in 2006. In March 2016 she appeared as a guest on "Steve Harvey", along with Hillary Clinton. Along with two other women, who were actresses, she answered questions from host Steve Harvey and Clinton regarding her life and chess career. Krush and the two impostors all gave plausible answers to the questions. Clinton successfully identified the real Irina Krush. In March 2020, she was hospitalized and treated for a "moderate" COVID-19 infection, then released to recover under quarantine at home. While quarantined, she played in the Isolated Queens Swiss, an online women's blitz chess tournament played by internet streaming. She scored 7.5/10 in the tournament, putting her in joint second place, a half point behind tournament winner GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. In May 2020, Krush played for the USA team in the FIDE Online Nations Cup.

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Institut des hautes études scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics. It is located in Bures-sur-Yvette just south of Paris. It is an independent research institute in a partnership with the federal University of Paris-Saclay. The IHÉS was founded in 1958 by businessman and mathematical physicist Léon Motchane with the help of Robert Oppenheimer and Jean Dieudonné as a research centre in France, modeled on the renowned Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, United States. The strong personality of Alexander Grothendieck and the broad sweep of his revolutionizing theories were a dominating feature of the first ten years at the IHÉS. René Thom received an invitation from IHÉS in 1963 and after his appointment remained there until his death in 2002. Dennis Sullivan is remembered as one who had a special talent for encouraging fruitful exchanges among visitors and provoking a new and deeper insight into their ideas. The IHÉS runs a highly regarded mathematical journal, "Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS". IHÉS celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1998 and its 50th in 2008. Alain Connes (Fields Medal 1982), has been holding the Léon Motchane Chair since 1979. Several CNRS researchers are also based at the IHES: Ahmed Abbes, Cédric Deffayet, Ofer Gabber, Fanny Kassel, and Christophe Soulé.

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Iceland Iceland (; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic, with a population of 364,134 and an area of , making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavik and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence keep summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a polar climate. According to the ancient manuscript "Landnámabók", the settlement of Iceland began in 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, bringing with them thralls (i.e., slaves or serfs) of Gaelic origin. The island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the world's oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of civil strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Iceland thus followed Norway's integration into that union, coming under Danish rule after Sweden's secession from the union in 1523. Although the Danish kingdom introduced Lutheranism forcefully in 1550, Iceland remained a distant semi-colonial territory in which Danish institutions and infrastructures were conspicuous by their absence. In the wake of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Iceland's struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918 and the founding of a republic in 1944. Although its parliament (Althing) was suspended from 1799 to 1845, the island republic has been credited with sustaining the world's oldest and longest-running parliament. Until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity and Iceland became one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. In 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has a market economy with relatively low taxes, compared to other OECD countries, as well as the highest trade union membership in the world. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. Iceland ranks high in economic, democratic, social stability, and equality, currently ranking third in the world by median wealth per adult. In 2018, it was ranked as the sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations' Human Development Index, and it ranks first on the Global Peace Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy. Hit hard by the worldwide financial crisis, the nation's entire banking system systemically failed in October 2008, leading to an economic crisis and the collapse of the country's three largest banks. The crisis prompted substantial political unrest, the Icesave dispute, and the institution of capital controls (imposed in 2008 and lifted in 2017). By 2014, the Icelandic economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nation's Scandinavian heritage. Most Icelanders are descendants of Norse and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old West Norse and is closely related to Faroese. The country's cultural heritage includes traditional Icelandic cuisine, Icelandic literature, and medieval sagas. Iceland has the smallest population of any NATO member and is the only one with no standing army, with a lightly armed coast guard. The Sagas of Icelanders say that a Norwegian named Naddodd (or Naddador) was the first Norseman to reach Iceland, and in the 9th century he named it Snæland or "snow land" because it was snowing. Following Naddodd, the Swede Garðar Svavarsson arrived, and so the island was then called Garðarshólmur which means "Garðar's Isle". Then came a Viking named Flóki Vilgerðarson; his daughter drowned en route, then his livestock starved to death. The sagas say that the rather despondent Flóki climbed a mountain and saw a fjord (Arnarfjörður) full of icebergs, which led him to give the island its new and present name. The notion that Iceland's Viking settlers chose that name to discourage oversettlement of their verdant isle is a myth. According to both Landnámabók and Íslendingabók, monks known as the Papar lived in Iceland before Scandinavian settlers arrived, possibly members of a Hiberno-Scottish mission. Recent archaeological excavations have revealed the ruins of a cabin in Hafnir on the Reykjanes peninsula. Carbon dating indicates that it was abandoned sometime between 770 and 880. In 2016, archeologists uncovered a longhouse in Stöðvarfjörður that has been dated to as early as 800. Swedish Viking explorer Garðar Svavarsson was the first to circumnavigate Iceland in 870 and establish that it was an island. He stayed over winter and built a house in Húsavík. Garðar departed the following summer but one of his men, Náttfari, decided to stay behind with two slaves. Náttfari settled in what is now known as Náttfaravík and he and his slaves became the first permanent residents of Iceland. The Norwegian-Norse chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson built his homestead in present-day Reykjavík in 874. Ingólfr was followed by many other emigrant settlers, largely Scandinavians and their thralls, many of whom were Irish or Scottish. By 930, most arable land on the island had been claimed; the Althing, a legislative and judicial assembly, was initiated to regulate the Icelandic Commonwealth. Lack of arable land also served as an impetus to the settlement of Greenland starting in 986. The period of these early settlements coincided with the Medieval Warm Period, when temperatures were similar to those of the early 20th century. At this time, about 25% of Iceland was covered with forest, compared to 1% in the present day. Christianity was adopted by consensus around 999–1000, although Norse paganism persisted among segments of the population for some years afterwards. The Icelandic Commonwealth lasted until the 13th century, when the political system devised by the original settlers proved unable to cope with the increasing power of Icelandic chieftains. The internal struggles and civil strife of the Age of the Sturlungs led to the signing of the Old Covenant in 1262, which ended the Commonwealth and brought Iceland under the Norwegian crown. Possession of Iceland passed from the Kingdom of Norway (872–1397) to the Kalmar Union in 1415, when the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark and Sweden were united. After the break-up of the union in 1523, it remained a Norwegian dependency, as a part of Denmark–Norway. Infertile soil, volcanic eruptions, deforestation and an unforgiving climate made for harsh life in a society where subsistence depended almost entirely on agriculture. The Black Death swept Iceland twice, first in 1402–1404 and again in 1494–1495. The former outbreak killed 50% to 60% of the population, and the latter 30% to 50%. Around the middle of the 16th century, as part of the Protestant Reformation, King Christian III of Denmark began to impose Lutheranism on all his subjects. Jón Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Hólar, was beheaded in 1550 along with two of his sons. The country subsequently became officially Lutheran and Lutheranism has since remained the dominant religion. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Denmark imposed harsh trade restrictions on Iceland. Natural disasters, including volcanic eruption and disease, contributed to a decreasing population. Pirates from several countries, including the Barbary Coast, raided Iceland's coastal settlements and abducted people into slavery. A great smallpox epidemic in the 18th century killed around a third of the population. In 1783 the Laki volcano erupted, with devastating effects. In the years following the eruption, known as the Mist Hardships (Icelandic: "Móðuharðindin"), over half of all livestock in the country died. Around a quarter of the population starved to death in the ensuing famine. In 1814, following the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark-Norway was broken up into two separate kingdoms via the Treaty of Kiel but Iceland remained a Danish dependency. Throughout the 19th century, the country's climate continued to grow colder, resulting in mass emigration to the New World, particularly to the region of Gimli, Manitoba in Canada, which was sometimes referred to as New Iceland. About 15,000 people emigrated, out of a total population of 70,000. A national consciousness arose in the first half of the 19th century, inspired by romantic and nationalist ideas from mainland Europe. An Icelandic independence movement took shape in the 1850s under the leadership of Jón Sigurðsson, based on the burgeoning Icelandic nationalism inspired by the "Fjölnismenn" and other Danish-educated Icelandic intellectuals. In 1874, Denmark granted Iceland a constitution and limited home rule. This was expanded in 1904, and Hannes Hafstein served as the first Minister for Iceland in the Danish cabinet. The Danish–Icelandic Act of Union, an agreement with Denmark signed on 1 December 1918 and valid for 25 years, recognised Iceland as a fully sovereign and independent state in a personal union with Denmark. The Government of Iceland established an embassy in Copenhagen and requested that Denmark carry out on its behalf certain defence and foreign affairs matters, subject to consultation with the Althing. Danish embassies around the world displayed two coats of arms and two flags: those of the Kingdom of Denmark and those of the Kingdom of Iceland. Iceland's legal position became comparable to those of countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Nations such as Canada whose sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II. During World War II, Iceland joined Denmark in asserting neutrality. After the German occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, the Althing replaced the King with a regent and declared that the Icelandic government would take control of its own defence and foreign affairs. A month later, British armed forces conducted Operation Fork, the invasion and occupation of the country, violating Icelandic neutrality. In 1941, the Government of Iceland, friendly to Britain, invited the then-neutral United States to take over its defence so that Britain could use its troops elsewhere. On 31 December 1943, the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union expired after 25 years. Beginning on 20 May 1944, Icelanders voted in a four-day plebiscite on whether to terminate the personal union with Denmark, abolish the monarchy, and establish a republic. The vote was 97% to end the union, and 95% in favour of the new republican constitution. Iceland formally became a republic on 17 June 1944, with Sveinn Björnsson as its first president. In 1946, the US Defence Force Allied left Iceland. The nation formally became a member of NATO on 30 March 1949, amid domestic controversy and riots. On 5 May 1951, a defence agreement was signed with the United States. American troops returned to Iceland as the Iceland Defence Force, and remained throughout the Cold War. The US withdrew the last of its forces on 30 September 2006. Iceland prospered during the Second World War. The immediate post-war period was followed by substantial economic growth, driven by industrialisation of the fishing industry and the US Marshall Plan programme, through which Icelanders received the most aid per capita of any European country (at US$209, with the war-ravaged Netherlands a distant second at US$109). The 1970s were marked by the Cod Wars—several disputes with the United Kingdom over Iceland's extension of its fishing limits to offshore. Iceland hosted a summit in Reykjavík in 1986 between United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, during which they took significant steps toward nuclear disarmament. A few years later, Iceland became the first country to recognise the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as they broke away from the USSR. Throughout the 1990s, the country expanded its international role and developed a foreign policy oriented toward humanitarian and peacekeeping causes. To that end, Iceland provided aid and expertise to various NATO-led interventions in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq. Iceland joined the European Economic Area in 1994, after which the economy was greatly diversified and liberalised. International economic relations increased further after 2001, when Iceland's newly deregulated banks began to raise massive amounts of external debt, contributing to a 32% increase in Iceland's gross national income between 2002 and 2007. In 2003–2007, following the privatisation of the banking sector under the government of Davíð Oddsson, Iceland moved toward having an economy based on international investment banking and financial services. It was quickly becoming one of the most prosperous countries in the world but was hit hard by a major financial crisis. The crisis resulted in the greatest migration from Iceland since 1887, with a net emigration of 5,000 people in 2009. Iceland's economy stabilised under the government of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, and grew by 1.6% in 2012. The centre-right Independence Party was returned to power in coalition with the Progressive Party in the 2013 elections. In the following years, Iceland saw a surge in tourism as the country became a popular holiday destination. In 2016, Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned after being implicated in the Panama Papers scandal. Early elections in 2016 resulted in a right-wing coalition government of the Independence Party, the Reform Party and Bright Future. This government fell when Bright Future quit the coalition due to a scandal involving then-Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's father's letter of support for a convicted child sex offender. Snap elections in October 2017 brought to power a new coalition consisting of the Independence Party, the Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement, headed by Katrín Jakobsdóttir. Iceland is at the juncture of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The main island is entirely south of the Arctic Circle, which passes through the small Icelandic island of Grímsey off the main island's northern coast. The country lies between latitudes 63 and 68°N, and longitudes 25 and 13°W. Iceland is closer to continental Europe than to mainland North America, although it is closest to Greenland (), an island of North America. Iceland is generally included in Europe for geographical, historical, political, cultural, linguistic and practical reasons. Geologically, the island includes parts of both continental plates. The closest bodies of land in Europe are the Faroe Islands (); Jan Mayen Island (); Shetland and the Outer Hebrides, both about ; and the Scottish mainland and Orkney, both about . The nearest part of Continental Europe is mainland Norway, about away, while mainland North America is away, at the northern tip of Labrador. Iceland is the world's 18th largest island, and Europe's second-largest island after Great Britain. (The island of Ireland is third.) The main island is , but the entire country is in size, of which 62.7% is tundra. About 30 minor islands are in Iceland, including the lightly populated Grímsey and the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago. Lakes and glaciers cover 14.3% of its surface; only 23% is vegetated. The largest lakes are Þórisvatn reservoir: and Þingvallavatn: ; other important lakes include Lagarfljót and Mývatn. Jökulsárlón is the deepest lake, at . Geologically, Iceland is part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a ridge along which the oceanic crust spreads and forms new oceanic crust. This part of the mid-ocean ridge is located above a mantle plume, causing Iceland to be subaerial (above the surface of the sea). The ridge marks the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates, and Iceland was created by rifting and accretion through volcanism along the ridge. Many fjords punctuate Iceland's 4,970-km-long (3,088-mi) coastline, which is also where most settlements are situated. The island's interior, the Highlands of Iceland, is a cold and uninhabitable combination of sand, mountains, and lava fields. The major towns are the capital city of Reykjavík, along with its outlying towns of Kópavogur, Hafnarfjörður, and Garðabær, nearby Reykjanesbær where the international airport is located, and the town of Akureyri in northern Iceland. The island of Grímsey on the Arctic Circle contains the northernmost habitation of Iceland, whereas Kolbeinsey contains the northernmost point of Iceland. Iceland has three national parks: Vatnajökull National Park, Snæfellsjökull National Park, and Þingvellir National Park. The country is considered a "strong performer" in environmental protection, having been ranked 13th in Yale University's Environmental Performance Index of 2012. A geologically young land, Iceland is the surface expression of the Iceland Plateau, a large igneous province forming as a result of volcanism from the Iceland hotspot and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the latter of which runs right through it. This means that the island is highly geologically active with many volcanoes including Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið, and Eldfell. The volcanic eruption of Laki in 1783–1784 caused a famine that killed nearly a quarter of the island's population. In addition, the eruption caused dust clouds and haze to appear over most of Europe and parts of Asia and Africa for several months afterward, and affected climates in other areas. Iceland has many geysers, including Geysir, from which the English word is derived, and the famous Strokkur, which erupts every 8–10 minutes. After a phase of inactivity, Geysir started erupting again after a series of earthquakes in 2000. Geysir has since grown quieter and does not erupt often. With the widespread availability of geothermal power, and the harnessing of many rivers and waterfalls for hydroelectricity, most residents have access to inexpensive hot water, heating, and electricity. The island is composed primarily of basalt, a low-silica lava associated with effusive volcanism as has occurred also in Hawaii. Iceland, however, has a variety of volcanic types (composite and fissure), many producing more evolved lavas such as rhyolite and andesite. Iceland has hundreds of volcanoes with about 30 active volcanic systems. Surtsey, one of the youngest islands in the world, is part of Iceland. Named after Surtr, it rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic eruptions between 8 November 1963 and 5 June 1968. Only scientists researching the growth of new life are allowed to visit the island. On 21 March 2010, a volcano in Eyjafjallajökull in the south of Iceland erupted for the first time since 1821, forcing 600 people to flee their homes. Additional eruptions on 14 April forced hundreds of people to abandon their homes. The resultant cloud of volcanic ash brought major disruption to air travel across Europe. Another large eruption occurred on 21 May 2011. This time it was the Grímsvötn volcano, located under the thick ice of Europe's largest glacier, Vatnajökull. Grímsvötn is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes, and this eruption was much more powerful than the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull activity, with ash and lava hurled into the atmosphere, creating a large cloud. The highest elevation for Iceland is listed as 2,110 m (6,923 ft) at Hvannadalshnúkur (64°00′N 16°39′W). The climate of Iceland's coast is subarctic. The warm North Atlantic Current ensures generally higher annual temperatures than in most places of similar latitude in the world. Regions in the world with similar climates include the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Peninsula, and Tierra del Fuego, although these regions are closer to the equator. Despite its proximity to the Arctic, the island's coasts remain ice-free through the winter. Ice incursions are rare, the last having occurred on the north coast in 1969. The climate varies between different parts of the island. Generally speaking, the south coast is warmer, wetter, and windier than the north. The Central Highlands are the coldest part of the country. Low-lying inland areas in the north are the most arid. Snowfall in winter is more common in the north than the south. The highest air temperature recorded was on 22 June 1939 at Teigarhorn on the southeastern coast. The lowest was on 22 January 1918 at Grímsstaðir and Möðrudalur in the northeastern hinterland. The temperature records for Reykjavík are on 30 July 2008, and on 21 January 1918. Phytogeographically, Iceland belongs to the Arctic province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. Around three-quarters of the island is barren of vegetation; plant life consists mainly of grassland, which is regularly grazed by livestock. The most common tree native to Iceland is the northern birch ("Betula pubescens"), which formerly formed forests over much of Iceland, along with aspens ("Populus tremula"), rowans ("Sorbus aucuparia"), common junipers ("Juniperus communis"), and other smaller trees, mainly willows. When the island was first settled, it was extensively forested, with around 30% of the land covered in trees. In the late 12th century, Ari the Wise described it in the Íslendingabók as "forested from mountain to sea shore". Permanent human settlement greatly disturbed the isolated ecosystem of thin, volcanic soils and limited species diversity. The forests were heavily exploited over the centuries for firewood and timber. Deforestation, climatic deterioration during the Little Ice Age, and overgrazing by sheep imported by settlers caused a loss of critical topsoil due to erosion. Today, many farms have been abandoned. Three-quarters of Iceland's 100,000 square kilometres is affected by soil erosion, serious enough to make the land useless. Only a few small birch stands now exist in isolated reserves. The planting of new forests has increased the number of trees, but the result does not compare to the original forests. Some of the planted forests include introduced species. The tallest tree in Iceland is a sitka spruce planted in 1949 in Kirkjubæjarklaustur; it was measured at in 2013. The only native land mammal when humans arrived was the Arctic fox, which came to the island at the end of the ice age, walking over the frozen sea. On rare occasions, bats have been carried to the island with the winds, but they are not able to breed there. Polar bears occasionally come over from Greenland, but they are just visitors, and no Icelandic populations exist. No native or free-living reptiles or amphibians are on the island. The animals of Iceland include the Icelandic sheep, cattle, chickens, goats, the sturdy Icelandic horse, and the Icelandic Sheepdog, all descendants of animals imported by Europeans. Wild mammals include the Arctic fox, mink, mice, rats, rabbits, and reindeer. Polar bears occasionally visit the island, travelling on icebergs from Greenland. In June 2008, two polar bears arrived in the same month. Marine mammals include the grey seal ("Halichoerus grypus") and harbor seal ("Phoca vitulina"). Many species of fish live in the ocean waters surrounding Iceland, and the fishing industry is a major part of Iceland's economy, accounting for roughly half of the country's total exports. Birds, especially seabirds, are an important part of Iceland's animal life. Puffins, skuas, and kittiwakes nest on its sea cliffs. Commercial whaling is practised intermittently along with scientific whale hunts. Whale watching has become an important part of Iceland's economy since 1997. Around 1,300 species of insects are known in Iceland. This is low compared with other countries (over one million species have been described worldwide). Iceland is essentially free of mosquitoes. Iceland has a left–right multi-party system. Following the 2017 parliamentary election, the biggest parties are the centre-right Independence Party ("Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn"), the Left-Green Movement ("Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð") and the Progressive Party ("Framsóknarflokkurinn"). These three parties form the current ruling coalition in the cabinet led by leftist Katrín Jakobsdóttir. Other political parties with seats in the Althing (Parliament) are the Social Democratic Alliance ("Samfylkingin"), the Centre Party ("Miðflokkurinn"), Iceland's Pirates, the People's Party ("Flokkur fólksins"), and the Reform Party ("Viðreisn"). Iceland was the first country in the world to have a political party formed and led entirely by women. Known as the Women's List or Women's Alliance ("Kvennalistinn"), it was founded in 1983 to advance the political, economic, and social needs of women. After participating in its first parliamentary elections, the Women's List helped increase the proportion of female parliamentarians by 15%. It disbanded in 1999, formally merging the next year with the Social Democratic Alliance, although about half of its members joined the Left-Green Movement instead. It did leave a lasting influence on Iceland's politics: every major party has a 40% quota for women, and in 2009 nearly a third of members of parliament were female, compared to the global average of 16%. Following the 2016 elections, 48% of members of parliament are female. In 2016 Iceland was ranked 2nd in the strength of its democratic institutions and 13th in government transparency. The country has a high level of civic participation, with 81.4% voter turnout during the most recent elections, compared to an OECD average of 72%. However, only 50% of Icelanders say they trust their political institutions, slightly less than the OECD average of 56% (and most probably a consequence of the political scandals in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis). Iceland is a representative democracy and a parliamentary republic. The modern parliament, "Alþingi" (English: Althing), was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danish monarch. It was widely seen as a re-establishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the Commonwealth period and yet temporarily suspended from 1799 to 1845. Consequently, "it is arguably the world's oldest parliamentary democracy." It currently has 63 members, elected for a maximum period of four years. The head of government is the prime minister who, together with the cabinet, is responsible for executive government. The president, in contrast, is elected by popular vote for a term of four years with no term limit. The elections for president, the Althing, and local municipal councils are all held separately every four years. The president of Iceland is a largely ceremonial head of state and serves as a diplomat, but may veto laws voted by the parliament and put them to a national referendum. The current president is Guðni Th. Jóhannesson. The cabinet is appointed by the president after a general election to the Althing; however, the appointment is usually negotiated by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how to distribute its seats, under the condition that it has a majority support in the Althing. Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves within a reasonable time span does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet personally. This has not happened since the republic was founded in 1944, but in 1942 regent Sveinn Björnsson, who had been installed in that position by the Althing in 1941, appointed a non-parliamentary government. The regent had, for all practical purposes, the position of a president, and Sveinn would later become the country's first president in 1944. The governments of Iceland have always been coalition governments, with two or more parties involved, as no single political party has ever received a majority of seats in the Althing throughout the republican period. The extent of the political power possessed by the office of the president is disputed by legal scholars, in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers, but other provisions and traditions suggest differently. In 1980, Icelanders elected Vigdís Finnbogadóttir as president, the world's first directly elected female head of state. She retired from office in 1996. In 2009, Iceland became the first country with an openly gay head of government when Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became prime minister. Iceland is divided into regions, constituencies and municipalities. The eight regions are primarily used for statistical purposes. District court jurisdictions also use an older version of this division. Until 2003, the constituencies for the parliamentary elections were the same as the regions, but by an amendment to the constitution, they were changed to the current six constituencies: The redistricting change was made to balance the weight of different districts of the country, since previously a vote cast in the sparsely populated areas around the country would count much more than a vote cast in the Reykjavík city area. The imbalance between districts has been reduced by the new system, but still exists. 74 municipalities in Iceland govern local matters like schools, transport, and zoning. These are the actual second-level subdivisions of Iceland, as the constituencies have no relevance except in elections and for statistical purposes. Reykjavík is by far the most populous municipality, about four times more populous than Kópavogur, the second one. Iceland, which is a member of the UN, NATO, EFTA, Council of Europe and OECD, maintains diplomatic and commercial relations with practically all nations, but its ties with the Nordic countries, Germany, the United States, Canada and the other NATO nations are particularly close. Historically, due to cultural, economic and linguistic similarities, Iceland is a Nordic country, and it participates in intergovernmental cooperation through the Nordic Council. Iceland is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), which allows the country access to the single market of the European Union (EU). It was not a member of the EU, but in July 2009 the Icelandic parliament, the Althing, voted in favour of application for EU membership and officially applied on 17 July 2009. However, in 2013, opinion polls showed that many Icelanders were now against joining the EU; following 2013 elections the two parties that formed the island's new government—the centrist Progressive Party and the right-wing Independence Party—announced they would hold a referendum on EU membership. Iceland has no standing army, but the Icelandic Coast Guard which also maintains the Iceland Air Defence System, and an Iceland Crisis Response Unit to support peacekeeping missions and perform paramilitary functions. The Iceland Defense Force (IDF) was a military command of the United States Armed Forces from 1951 to 2006. The IDF, created at the request of NATO, came into existence when the United States signed an agreement to provide for the defense of Iceland. The IDF also consisted of civilian Icelanders and military members of other NATO nations. The IDF was downsized after the end of the Cold War and the U.S. Air Force maintained four to six interceptor aircraft at the Naval Air Station Keflavik, until they were withdrawn on 30 September 2006. Since May 2008, NATO nations have periodically deployed fighters to patrol Icelandic airspace under the Icelandic Air Policing mission. Iceland supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite much domestic controversy, deploying a Coast Guard EOD team to Iraq, which was replaced later by members of the Iceland Crisis Response Unit. Iceland has also participated in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Despite the ongoing financial crisis the first new patrol ship in decades was launched on 29 April 2009. Iceland was the neutral host of the historic 1986 Reagan–Gorbachev summit in Reykjavík, which set the stage for the end of the Cold War. Iceland's principal historical international disputes involved disagreements over fishing rights. Conflict with the United Kingdom led to a series of so-called Cod Wars, which included confrontations between the Icelandic Coast Guard and the Royal Navy over British fishermen, in 1952–1956 due to the extension of Iceland's fishing zone from , 1958–1961 following a further extension to , 1972–1973 with another extension to ; and in 1975–1976 another extension to . According to the 2011 Global Peace Index, Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world, due to its lack of armed forces, low crime rate and high level of socio-political stability. Iceland is listed in the Guinness World Records book as the "country ranked most at peace" and the "lowest military spending per capita". In 2007, Iceland was the seventh most productive country in the world per capita (US$54,858), and the fifth most productive by GDP at purchasing power parity ($40,112). About 85 percent of total primary energy supply in Iceland is derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources. Use of abundant hydroelectric and geothermal power has made Iceland the world's largest electricity producer per capita. As a result of its commitment to renewable energy, the 2016 Global Green Economy Index ranked Iceland among the top 10 greenest economies in the world. Historically, Iceland's economy depended heavily on fishing, which still provides 40% of export earnings and employs 7% of the work force. The economy is vulnerable to declining fish stocks and drops in world prices for its main material exports: fish and fish products, aluminium, and ferrosilicon. Whaling in Iceland has been historically significant. Iceland still relies heavily on fishing, but its importance is diminishing from an export share of 90% in the 1960s to 40% in 2006. Until the 20th century, Iceland was a fairly poor country. Currently, it remains one of the most developed countries in the world. Strong economic growth had led Iceland to be ranked first in the United Nations' Human Development Index report for 2007/2008, although in 2011 its HDI rating had fallen to 14th place as a result of the economic crisis. Nevertheless, according to the Economist Intelligence Index of 2011, Iceland has the 2nd highest quality of life in the world. Based on the Gini coefficient, Iceland also has one of the lowest rates of income inequality in the world, and when adjusted for inequality, its HDI ranking is 6th. Iceland's unemployment rate has declined consistently since the crisis, with 4.8% of the labour force being unemployed , compared to 6% in 2011 and 8.1% in 2010. Many political parties remain opposed to EU membership, primarily due to Icelanders' concern about losing control over their natural resources (particularly fisheries). The national currency of Iceland is the Icelandic króna (ISK). Iceland is the only country in the world to have a population under two million yet still have a floating exchange rate and an independent monetary policy. A poll released on 5 March 2010 by Capacent Gallup showed that 31% of respondents were in favour of adopting the euro and 69% opposed. Another Capacent Gallup poll conducted in February 2012 found that 67.4% of Icelanders would reject EU membership in a referendum. Iceland's economy has been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, including software production, biotechnology, and finance; industry accounts for around a quarter of economic activity, while services comprise close to 70%. The tourism sector is expanding, especially in ecotourism and whale-watching. On average, Iceland receives around 1.1 million visitors annually, which is more than three times the native population. 1.7 million people visited Iceland in 2016, 3 times more than the number that came in 2010. Iceland's agriculture industry, accounting for 5.4% of GDP, consists mainly of potatoes, green vegetables (in greenhouses), mutton and dairy products. The financial centre is Borgartún in Reykjavík, which hosts a large number of companies and three investment banks. Iceland's stock market, the Iceland Stock Exchange (ISE), was established in 1985. Iceland is ranked 27th in the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, lower than in prior years but still among the freest in the world. , it ranks 29th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitive Index, one place lower than in 2015. According to INSEAD's Global Innovation Index, Iceland is the 11th most innovative country in the world. Unlike most Western European countries, Iceland has a flat tax system: the main personal income tax rate is a flat 22.75%, and combined with municipal taxes, the total tax rate equals no more than 35.7%, not including the many deductions that are available. The corporate tax rate is a flat 18%, one of the lowest in the world. There is also a value added tax, whereas a net wealth tax was eliminated in 2006. Employment regulations are relatively flexible and the labour market is one of the freest in the world. Property rights are strong and Iceland is one of the few countries where they are applied to fishery management. Like other welfare states, taxpayers pay various subsidies to each other, but with spending being less than in most European countries. Despite low tax rates, agricultural assistance is the highest among OECD countries and a potential impediment to structural change. Also, health care and education spending have relatively poor returns by OECD measures, though improvements have been made in both areas. The OECD "Economic Survey of Iceland 2008" had highlighted Iceland's challenges in currency and macroeconomic policy. There was a currency crisis that started in the spring of 2008, and on 6 October trading in Iceland's banks was suspended as the government battled to save the economy. An assessment by the OECD 2011 determined that Iceland has made progress in many areas, particularly in creating a sustainable fiscal policy and restoring the health of the financial sector; however, challenges remain in making the fishing industry more efficient and sustainable, as well as in improving monetary policy to address inflation. Iceland's public debt has decreased since the economic crisis, and is the 31st highest in the world by proportion of national GDP. Iceland had been hit especially hard by the Great Recession that began in December 2007, because of the failure of its banking system and a subsequent economic crisis. Before the crash of the country's three largest banks, Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing, their combined debt exceeded approximately six times the nation's gross domestic product of €14 billion ($19 billion). In October 2008, the Icelandic parliament passed emergency legislation to minimise the impact of the financial crisis. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Iceland used permission granted by the emergency legislation to take over the domestic operations of the three largest banks. Icelandic officials, including central bank governor Davíð Oddsson, stated that the state did not intend to take over any of the banks' foreign debts or assets. Instead, new banks were established to take on the domestic operations of the banks, and the old banks will be run into bankruptcy. On 28 October 2008, the Icelandic government raised interest rates to 18% (, it was 3.5%), a move forced in part by the terms of acquiring a loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF). After the rate hike, trading on the Icelandic króna finally resumed on the open market, with valuation at around 250 ISK per euro, less than one-third the value of the 1:70 exchange rate during most of 2008, and a significant drop from the 1:150 exchange ratio of the week before. On 20 November 2008, the Nordic countries agreed to lend Iceland $2.5 billion. On 26 January 2009, the coalition government collapsed due to the public dissent over the handling of the financial crisis. A new left-wing government was formed a week later and immediately set about removing Central Bank governor Davíð Oddsson and his aides from the bank through changes in law. Davíð was removed on 26 February 2009 in the wake of protests outside the Central Bank. Thousands of Icelanders have moved from the country after the collapse, and many of those moved to Norway. In 2005, 293 people moved from Iceland to Norway; in 2009, the figure was 1,625. In April 2010, the Icelandic Parliament's Special Investigation Commission published the findings of its investigation, revealing the extent of control fraud in this crisis. By June 2012, Landsbanki managed to repay about half of the Icesave debt. According to Bloomberg, Iceland is on the trajectory of 2% unemployment as a result of crisis-management decisions made back in 2008, including allowing the banks to fail. Iceland has a high level of car ownership per capita; with a car for every 1.5 inhabitants; it is the main form of transport. Iceland has of administered roads, of which are paved and are not. A great number of roads remain unpaved, mostly little-used rural roads. The road speed limits are and in towns, on gravel country roads and on hard-surfaced roads. Route 1, or the Ring Road (Icelandic: "Þjóðvegur 1" or "Hringvegur"), was completed in 1974, and is a main road that runs around Iceland and connects all the inhabited parts of the island, with the interior of the island being uninhabited. This paved road is long with one lane in each direction, except near larger towns and cities and in the Hvalfjörður Tunnel where it has more lanes. Many bridges on it, especially in the north and east, are single lane and made of timber and/or steel. Keflavík International Airport (KEF) is the largest airport and the main aviation hub for international passenger transport. It serves several international and domestic airline companies. KEF is in the vicinity of the larger metropolitan capital areas, to the WSW of Reykjavík center, and public bus services are available. Iceland has no passenger railways. Reykjavík Airport (RKV) is the second largest airport located just 1,5 km from the capital centre. RKV serves general aviation traffic and has daily- or regular domestic flights to 12 local townships within Iceland. RKV also serves international flights to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, business and private airplanes along with aviation training. Akureyri Airport (AEY) and Egilsstaðir Airport (EGS) are two other domestic airports with limited international service capacity. There are a total of 103 registered airports and airfields in Iceland; most of them are unpaved and located in rural areas. The second longest runway is at Geitamelur, a four-runway glider field around east of Reykjavík. Six main ferry services provide regular access to various outpost communities or shorten travel distances. Renewable sources—geothermal and hydropower—provide effectively all of Iceland's electricity and around 85% of the nation's total primary energy consumption, with most of the remainder consisting of imported oil products used in transportation and in the fishing fleet. A 2000 report from the University of Iceland suggested that Iceland could potentially convert from oil to hydrogen power by 2040. Iceland's largest geothermal power plants are Hellisheiði and Nesjavellir, while Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant is the country's largest hydroelectric power station. When the Kárahnjúkavirkjun started operating, Iceland became the world's largest electricity producer per capita. Iceland is one of the few countries that have filling stations dispensing hydrogen fuel for cars powered by fuel cells. It is also one of a few countries currently capable of producing hydrogen in adequate quantities at a reasonable cost, because of Iceland's plentiful renewable sources of energy. The ranking of geopolitical gains and losses after energy transition (GeGaLo Index) places Iceland first out of 156 countries, making it the main geopolitical winner in the global energy transition. Despite this, Icelanders emitted 16.9 tonnes of CO2 per capita in 2016, the highest in the EU and EFTA, mainly resulting from transport and aluminium smelting. Nevertheless, in 2010, Iceland was noted by Guinness World Records as "the Greenest Country", reaching the highest score by the Environmental Sustainability Index, which measures a country's water use, biodiversity and adoption of clean energies, with a score of 93.5/100. On 22 January 2009, Iceland announced its first round of offshore licences for companies wanting to conduct hydrocarbon exploration and production in a region northeast of Iceland, known as the Dreki area. Three exploration licenses were awarded but all were subsequently relinquished. , the government of Iceland was in talks with the government of the United Kingdom about the possibility of constructing Icelink, a high-voltage direct-current connector for transmission of electricity between the two countries. Such a cable would give Iceland access to a market where electricity prices have generally been much higher than those in Iceland. Iceland has considerable renewable energy resources, especially geothermal energy and hydropower resources, and most of the potential has not been developed, partly because there is not enough demand for additional electricity generation capacity from the residents and industry of Iceland; the United Kingdom is interested in importing inexpensive electricity from renewable sources of energy, and this could lead to further development of the energy resources. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is responsible for the policies and methods that schools must use, and they issue the National Curriculum Guidelines. However, playschools, primary schools, and lower secondary schools are funded and administered by the municipalities. The government does allow citizens to home educate their children, however under a very strict set of demands. Students must adhere closely to the government mandated curriculum, and the parent teaching must acquire a government approved teaching certificate. Nursery school, or "leikskóli", is non-compulsory education for children younger than six years, and is the first step in the education system. The current legislation concerning playschools was passed in 1994. They are also responsible for ensuring that the curriculum is suitable so as to make the transition into compulsory education as easy as possible. Compulsory education, or "grunnskóli", comprises primary and lower secondary education, which often is conducted at the same institution. Education is mandatory by law for children aged from 6 to 16 years. The school year lasts nine months, beginning between 21 August and 1 September, ending between 31 May and 10 June. The minimum number of school days was once 170, but after a new teachers' wage contract, it increased to 180. Lessons take place five days a week. All public schools have mandatory education in Christianity, although an exemption may be considered by the Minister of Education. Upper secondary education, or "framhaldsskóli", follows lower secondary education. These schools are also known as gymnasia in English. Though not compulsory, everyone who has had a compulsory education has the right to upper secondary education. This stage of education is governed by the Upper Secondary School Act of 1996. All schools in Iceland are mixed sex schools. The largest seat of higher education is the University of Iceland, which has its main campus in central Reykjavík. Other schools offering university-level instruction include Reykjavík University, University of Akureyri, Agricultural University of Iceland and Bifröst University. An OECD assessment found 64% of Icelanders aged 25–64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, which is lower than the OECD average of 73%. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, only 69% have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, significantly lower than the OECD average of 80%. Nevertheless, Iceland's education system is considered excellent: the Programme for International Student Assessment currently ranks it as the 16th best performing, above the OECD average. Students were particularly proficient in reading and mathematics. According to a 2013 Eurostat report by the European Commission, Iceland spends around 3.11% of its GDP on scientific research and development (R&D), over 1 percentage point higher than the EU average of 2.03%, and has set a target of 4% to reach by 2020. A 2010 UNESCO report found that out of 72 countries that spend the most on R&D (100 million US dollars or more), Iceland ranked 9th by proportion of GDP, tied with Taiwan, Switzerland, and Germany and ahead of France, the UK, and Canada. The original population of Iceland was of Nordic and Gaelic origin. This is evident from literary evidence dating from the settlement period as well as from later scientific studies such as blood type and genetic analyses. One such genetic study indicated that the majority of the male settlers were of Nordic origin while the majority of the women were of Gaelic origin, meaning many settlers of Iceland were Norsemen who brought Gaelic slaves with them. Iceland has extensive genealogical records dating back to the late 17th century and fragmentary records extending back to the Age of Settlement. The biopharmaceutical company deCODE genetics has funded the creation of a genealogy database that is intended to cover all of Iceland's known inhabitants. It views the database, called "Íslendingabók", as a valuable tool for conducting research on genetic diseases, given the relative isolation of Iceland's population. The population of the island is believed to have varied from 40,000 to 60,000 in the period ranging from initial settlement until the mid-19th century. During that time, cold winters, ash fall from volcanic eruptions, and bubonic plagues adversely affected the population several times. There were 37 famine years in Iceland between 1500 and 1804. The first census was carried out in 1703 and revealed that the population was then 50,358. After the destructive volcanic eruptions of the Laki volcano during 1783–1784, the population reached a low of about 40,000. Improving living conditions have triggered a rapid increase in population since the mid-19th century—from about 60,000 in 1850 to 320,000 in 2008. Iceland has a relatively young population for a developed country, with one out of five people being 14 years old or younger. With a fertility rate of 2.1, Iceland is one of only a few European countries with a birth rate sufficient for long-term population growth (see table below). In December 2007, 33,678 people (13.5% of the total population) living in Iceland had been born abroad, including children of Icelandic parents living abroad. Around 19,000 people (6% of the population) held foreign citizenship. Polish people make up the largest minority group by a considerable margin, and still form the bulk of the foreign workforce. About 8,000 Poles now live in Iceland, 1,500 of them in Fjarðabyggð where they make up 75% of the workforce who are constructing the Fjarðarál aluminium plant. Large-scale construction projects in the east of Iceland (see Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant) have also brought in many people whose stay is expected to be temporary. Many Polish immigrants were also considering leaving in 2008 as a result of the Icelandic financial crisis. The southwest corner of Iceland is by far the most densely populated region. It is also the location of the capital Reykjavík, the northernmost national capital in the world. More than 70 percent of Iceland's population live in the southwest corner (Greater Reykjavík and the nearby Southern Peninsula), which covers less than two percent of Iceland's land area. The largest town outside Greater Reykjavík is Reykjanesbær, which is located on the Southern Peninsula, less than from the capital. The largest town outside the southwest corner is Akureyri in northern Iceland. Some 500 Icelanders under the leadership of Erik the Red settled Greenland in the late 10th century. The total population reached a high point of perhaps 5,000 and developed independent institutions before disappearing by 1500. People from Greenland attempted to set up a settlement at Vinland in North America, but abandoned it in the face of hostility from the indigenous residents. Emigration of Icelanders to the United States and Canada began in the 1870s. , Canada had over 88,000 people of Icelandic descent, while there are more than 40,000 Americans of Icelandic descent, according to the 2000 US census. Iceland's 10 most populous urban areas: Iceland's official written and spoken language is Icelandic, a North Germanic language descended from Old Norse. In grammar and vocabulary, it has changed less from Old Norse than the other Nordic languages; Icelandic has preserved more verb and noun inflection, and has to a considerable extent developed new vocabulary based on native roots rather than borrowings from other languages. The puristic tendency in the development of Icelandic vocabulary is to a large degree a result of conscious language planning, in addition to centuries of isolation. Icelandic is the only living language to retain the use of the runic letter Þ in Latin script. The closest living relative of the Icelandic language is Faroese. Icelandic Sign Language was officially recognised as a minority language in 2011. In education, its use for Iceland's deaf community is regulated by the "National Curriculum Guide". English and Danish are compulsory subjects in the school curriculum. English is widely understood and spoken, while basic to moderate knowledge of Danish is common mainly among the older generations. Polish is mostly spoken by the local Polish community (the largest minority of Iceland), and Danish is mostly spoken in a way largely comprehensible to Swedes and Norwegians—it is often referred to as "skandinavíska" (i. e. "Scandinavian") in Iceland. Rather than using family names, as is the usual custom in most Western nations, Icelanders carry patronymic or matronymic surnames, patronyms being far more commonly practiced. Patronymic last names are based on the first name of the father, while matronymic names are based on the first name of the mother. These follow the person's given name, e.g. "Elísabet Jónsdóttir" ("Elísabet, Jón's daughter" (Jón, being the father)) or "Ólafur Katrínarson" ("Ólafur, Katrín's son" (Katrín being the mother)). Consequently, Icelanders refer to one another by their given name, and the Icelandic telephone directory is listed alphabetically by first name rather than by surname. All new names must be approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee. Iceland has a universal health care system that is administered by its Ministry of Welfare () and paid for mostly by taxes (85%) and to a lesser extent by service fees (15%). Unlike most countries, there are no private hospitals, and private insurance is practically nonexistent. A considerable portion of the government budget is assigned to health care, and Iceland ranks 11th in health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP and 14th in spending per capita. Overall, the country's health care system is one of the best performing in the world, ranked 15th by the World Health Organization. According to an OECD report, Iceland devotes far more resources to healthcare than most industrialised nations. , Iceland had 3.7 doctors per 1,000 people (compared with an average of 3.1 in OECD countries) and 15.3 nurses per 1,000 people (compared with an OECD average of 8.4). Icelanders are among the world's healthiest people, with 81% reporting they are in good health, according to an OECD survey. Although it is a growing problem, obesity is not as prevalent as in other developed countries. Iceland has many campaigns for health and wellbeing, including the famous television show "Lazytown", starring and created by former gymnastics champion Magnus Scheving. Infant mortality is one of the lowest in the world, and the proportion of the population that smokes is lower than the OECD average. Almost all women choose to terminate pregnancies of children with Down syndrome in Iceland. The average life expectancy is 81.8 (compared to an OECD average of 79.5), the 4th highest in the world. Iceland has a very low level of pollution, thanks to an overwhelming reliance on cleaner geothermal energy, a low population density, and a high level of environmental consciousness among citizens. According to an OECD assessment, the amount of toxic materials in the atmosphere is far lower than in any other industrialised country measured. Icelanders have freedom of religion guaranteed under the Constitution, although the Church of Iceland, a Lutheran body, is the state church: The Registers Iceland keeps account of the religious affiliation of every Icelandic citizen. In 2017, Icelanders were divided into religious groups as follows: Iceland is a very secular country; as with other Nordic nations, church attendance is relatively low. The above statistics represent administrative membership of religious organisations, which does not necessarily reflect the belief demographics of the population. According to a study published in 2001, 23% of the inhabitants were either atheist or agnostic. A Gallup poll conducted in 2012 found that 57% of Icelanders considered themselves "religious", 31% considered themselves "non-religious", while 10% defined themselves as "convinced atheists", placing Iceland among the ten countries with the highest proportions of atheists in the world. Icelanders registered in the state church, the Church of Iceland, is declining at a rate of more than 1% per year. Icelandic culture has its roots in North Germanic traditions. Icelandic literature is popular, in particular the sagas and eddas that were written during the High and Late Middle Ages. Centuries of isolation have helped to insulate the country's Nordic culture from external influence; a prominent example is the preservation of the Icelandic language, which remains the closest to Old Norse of all modern Nordic languages. In contrast to other Nordic countries, Icelanders place relatively great importance on independence and self-sufficiency; in a public opinion analysis conducted by the European Commission, over 85% of Icelanders believe independence is "very important," compared to 47% of Norwegians, 49% of Danes, and an average of 53% for the EU25. Icelanders also have a very strong work ethic, working some of the longest hours of any industrialised nation. According to a poll conducted by the OECD, 66% of Icelanders were satisfied with their lives, while 70% believed that their lives will be satisfying in the future. Similarly, 83% reported having more positive experiences in an average day than negative ones, compared to an OECD average of 72%, which makes Iceland one of the happiest countries in the OECD. A more recent 2012 survey found that around three-quarters of respondents stated they were satisfied with their lives, compared to a global average of about 53%. Iceland is liberal with regard to LGBT rights issues. In 1996, the Icelandic parliament passed legislation to create registered partnerships for same-sex couples, conferring nearly all the rights and benefits of marriage. In 2006, parliament voted unanimously to grant same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples in adoption, parenting and assisted insemination treatment. In 2010, the Icelandic parliament amended the marriage law, making it gender neutral and defining marriage as between two individuals, making Iceland one of the first countries in the world to legalise same-sex marriages. The law took effect on 27 June 2010. The amendment to the law also means registered partnerships for same-sex couples are now no longer possible, and marriage is their only option—identical to the existing situation for opposite-sex couples. Icelanders are known for their strong sense of community and lack of social isolation: An OECD survey found that 98% believe they know someone they could rely on in a time of need, higher than in any other industrialised country. Similarly, only 6% reported "rarely" or "never" socialising with others. This high level of social cohesion is attributed to the small size and homogeneity of the population, as well as to a long history of harsh survival in an isolated environment, which reinforced the importance of unity and cooperation. Egalitarianism is highly valued among the people of Iceland, with income inequality being among the lowest in the world. The constitution explicitly prohibits the enactment of noble privileges, titles, and ranks. Everyone is addressed by their first name. As in other Nordic countries, equality between the sexes is very high; Iceland is consistently ranked among the top three countries in the world for women to live in. In 2011, Reykjavík was designated a UNESCO City of Literature. Iceland's best-known classical works of literature are the Icelanders' sagas, prose epics set in Iceland's age of settlement. The most famous of these include "Njáls saga", about an epic blood feud, and "Grænlendinga saga" and "Eiríks saga", describing the discovery and settlement of Greenland and Vinland (modern Newfoundland). "Egils saga", "Laxdæla saga", "Grettis saga", "Gísla saga" and "Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu" are also notable and popular Icelanders' sagas. A translation of the Bible was published in the 16th century. Important compositions since the 15th to the 19th century include sacred verse, most famously the Passion Hymns of Hallgrímur Pétursson, and "rímur", rhyming epic poems. Originating in the 14th century, "rímur" were popular into the 19th century, when the development of new literary forms was provoked by the influential, National-Romantic writer Jónas Hallgrímsson. In recent times, Iceland has produced many great writers, the best-known of whom is arguably Halldór Laxness, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955 (the only Icelander to win a Nobel Prize thus far). Steinn Steinarr was an influential modernist poet during the early 20th century who remains popular. Icelanders are avid consumers of literature, with the highest number of bookstores per capita in the world. For its size, Iceland imports and translates more international literature than any other nation. Iceland also has the highest per capita publication of books and magazines, and around 10% of the population will publish a book in their lifetimes. Most books in Iceland are sold between late September to early November. This time period is known as "Jolabokaflod", the Christmas Book Flood. The Flood begins with the Iceland Publisher's Association distributing "Bokatidindi", a catalog of all new publications, free to each Icelandic home. The distinctive rendition of the Icelandic landscape by its painters can be linked to nationalism and the movement for home rule and independence, which was very active in the mid-19th century. Contemporary Icelandic painting is typically traced to the work of Þórarinn Þorláksson, who, following formal training in art in the 1890s in Copenhagen, returned to Iceland to paint and exhibit works from 1900 to his death in 1924, almost exclusively portraying the Icelandic landscape. Several other Icelandic men and women artists studied at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at that time, including Ásgrímur Jónsson, who together with Þórarinn created a distinctive portrayal of Iceland's landscape in a romantic naturalistic style. Other landscape artists quickly followed in the footsteps of Þórarinn and Ásgrímur. These included Jóhannes Kjarval and Júlíana Sveinsdóttir. Kjarval in particular is noted for the distinct techniques in the application of paint that he developed in a concerted effort to render the characteristic volcanic rock that dominates the Icelandic environment. Einar Hákonarson is an expressionistic and figurative painter who by some is considered to have brought the figure back into Icelandic painting. In the 1980s, many Icelandic artists worked with the subject of the new painting in their work. In the recent years artistic practice has multiplied, and the Icelandic art scene has become a setting for many large scale projects and exhibitions. The artist run gallery space Kling og Bang, members of which later ran the studio complex and exhibition venue Klink og Bank, has been a significant part of the trend of self-organised spaces, exhibitions and projects. The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík Municipal Art Museum, Reykjavík Art Museum and the National Gallery of Iceland are the larger, more established institutions, curating shows and festivals. Much Icelandic music is related to Nordic music, and includes folk and pop traditions. Notable Icelandic music acts include medieval music group Voces Thules, alternative and indie rock acts such as The Sugarcubes, Sóley and Of Monsters and Men, jazz fusion band Mezzoforte, pop singers such as Hafdís Huld, Emilíana Torrini and Björk, solo ballad singers like Bubbi Morthens, and post-rock bands such as Amiina and Sigur Rós. Independent music is strong in Iceland, with bands such as múm and solo artists. Traditional Icelandic music is strongly religious. Hymns, both religious and secular, are a particularly well-developed form of music, due to the scarcity of musical instruments throughout much of Iceland's history. Hallgrímur Pétursson wrote many Protestant hymns in the 17th century. Icelandic music was modernised in the 19th century, when Magnús Stephensen brought pipe organs, which were followed by harmoniums. Other vital traditions of Icelandic music are epic alliterative and rhyming ballads called rímur. Rímur are epic tales, usually a cappella, which can be traced back to skaldic poetry, using complex metaphors and elaborate rhyme schemes. The best known rímur poet of the 19th century was Sigurður Breiðfjörð (1798–1846). A modern revitalisation of the tradition began in 1929 with the formation of Iðunn. Among Iceland's best-known classical composers are Daníel Bjarnason and Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir (Anna Thorvaldsdottir), who in 2012 received the Nordic Council Music Prize and in 2015 was chosen as the New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor that includes a $50,000 cash prize and a commission to write a composition for the orchestra; she is the second recipient. The national anthem of Iceland is "Lofsöngur", written by Matthías Jochumsson, with music by Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. Iceland's largest television stations are the state-run Sjónvarpið and the privately owned Stöð 2 and SkjárEinn. Smaller stations exist, many of them local. Radio is broadcast throughout the country, including some parts of the interior. The main radio stations are Rás 1, Rás 2, X-ið 977, Bylgjan and FM957. The daily newspapers are Morgunblaðið and Fréttablaðið. The most popular websites are the news sites Vísir and Mbl.is. Iceland is home to "LazyTown" (Icelandic: "Latibær"), a children's educational musical comedy program created by Magnús Scheving. It has become a very popular programme for children and adults and is shown in over 100 countries, including the Americas, the UK and Sweden. The "LazyTown" studios are located in Garðabær. The 2015 television crime series "Trapped" aired in the UK on BBC4 in February and March 2016, to critical acclaim and according to the Guardian "the unlikeliest TV hit of the year". In 1992, the Icelandic film industry achieved its greatest recognition hitherto, when Friðrik Þór Friðriksson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his "Children of Nature". It features the story of an old man who is unable to continue running his farm. After being unwelcomed in his daughter's and father-in-law's house in town, he is put in a home for the elderly. There, he meets an old girlfriend of his youth and they both begin a journey through the wilds of Iceland to die together. This is the only Icelandic movie to have ever been nominated for an Academy Award. Singer-songwriter Björk received international acclaim for her starring role in the Danish musical drama "Dancer in the Dark", directed by Lars von Trier, in which she plays Selma Ježková, a factory worker who struggles to pay for her son's eye operation. The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, where she won the Best Actress Award. The movie also led Björk to nominations for Best Original Song at the 73rd Academy Awards, with the song "I've Seen It All" and for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama. Guðrún S. Gísladóttir, who is Icelandic, played one of the major roles in Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's 1986 film, "The Sacrifice". Anita Briem, known for her performance in Showtime's "The Tudors", is also Icelandic. Briem starred in the 2008 film "Journey to the Center of the Earth", which shot scenes in Iceland. The 2002 James Bond movie "Die Another Day" is set for a large-part in Iceland. Christopher Nolan's 2014 film, "Interstellar" was also filmed in Iceland for some of its scenes, as was Ridley Scott's "Prometheus". On 17 June 2010, the parliament passed the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, proposing greater protection of free speech rights and the identity of journalists and whistle-blowers—the strongest journalist protection law in the world. According to a 2011 report by Freedom House, Iceland is one of the highest ranked countries in press freedom. CCP Games, developers of the critically acclaimed EVE Online and Dust 514, is headquartered in Reykjavík. CCP Games hosts the third most populated MMO in the world, which also has the largest total game area for an online game. Iceland has a highly developed internet culture, with around 95% of the population having internet access, the highest proportion in the world. Iceland ranked 12th in the World Economic Forum's 2009–2010 Network Readiness Index, which measures a country's ability to competitively exploit communications technology. The United Nations International Telecommunication Union ranks the country 3rd in its development of information and communications technology, having moved up four places between 2008 and 2010. In February 2013 the country (ministry of the interior) was researching possible methods to protect children in regards to Internet pornography, claiming that pornography online is a threat to children as it supports child slavery and abuse. Strong voices within the community expressed concerns with this, stating that it is impossible to block access to pornography without compromising freedom of speech. Much of Iceland's cuisine is based on fish, lamb, and dairy products, with little to no use of herbs or spices. Due to the island's climate, fruits and vegetables are not generally a component of traditional dishes, although the use of greenhouses has made them more common in contemporary food. Þorramatur is a selection of traditional cuisine consisting of many dishes, and is usually consumed around the month of Þorri, which begins on the first Friday after 19 January. Traditional dishes also include skyr (a yoghurt-like cheese), hákarl (cured shark), cured ram, singed sheep heads, and black pudding, Flatkaka (flat bread), dried fish and dark rye bread traditionally baked in the ground in geothermal areas. Puffin is considered a local delicacy that is often prepared through broiling. Breakfast usually consists of pancakes, cereal, fruit, and coffee, while lunch may take the form of a smörgåsbord. The main meal of the day for most Icelanders is dinner, which usually involves fish or lamb as the main course. Seafood is central to most Icelandic cooking, particularly cod and haddock but also salmon, herring, and halibut. It is often prepared in a wide variety of ways, either smoked, pickled, boiled, or dried. Lamb is by far the most common meat, and it tends to be either smoke-cured (known as "hangikjöt") or salt-preserved ("saltkjöt"). Many older dishes make use of every part of the sheep, such as "slátur", which consists of offal (internal organs and entrails) minced together with blood and served in sheep stomach. Additionally, boiled or mashed potatoes, pickled cabbage, green beans, and rye bread are prevalent side dishes. Coffee is a popular beverage in Iceland, with the country being third placed by per capita consumption worldwide in 2016, and is drunk at breakfast, after meals, and with a light snack in mid-afternoon. Coca-Cola is also widely consumed, to the extent that the country is said to have one of the highest per capita consumption rates in the world. Iceland's signature alcoholic beverage is "brennivín" (literally "burnt [i.e., distilled] wine"), which is similar in flavouring to the akvavit variant of Scandinavian brännvin. It is a type of schnapps made from distilled potatoes and flavoured with either caraway seeds or angelica. Its potency has earned it the nickname "svarti dauði" ("Black Death"). Modern distilleries on Iceland produce vodka (Reyka), gin (Ísafold), moss schnapps (Fjallagrasa), and a birch-flavoured schnapps and liqueur (Foss Distillery's Birkir and Björk). Martin Miller blends Icelandic water with its England-distilled gin on the island. Strong beer was banned until 1989, so "bjórlíki", a mixture of legal, low-alcohol pilsner beer and vodka, became popular. Several strong beers are now made by Icelandic breweries. Sport is an important part of Icelandic culture, as the population is generally quite active. The main traditional sport in Iceland is "Glíma", a form of wrestling thought to have originated in medieval times. Popular sports include football, track and field, handball and basketball. Handball is often referred to as the national sport. The Icelandic national football team qualified for the 2016 UEFA European football championship for the first time. They recorded a draw against later winners Portugal in the group stage, and defeated England 2–1 in the round of 16, with goals from Ragnar Sigurðsson and Kolbeinn Sigþórsson. They then lost to hosts and later finalists France in the quarter finals. Following up on this, Iceland made its debut at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. For both the European and the world championship, Iceland is to date the smallest nation in terms of population to qualify. Iceland is also the smallest country to ever qualify for Eurobasket. They did it in both 2015 and 2017. Although Iceland has had great success qualifying for Eurobasket, they have not managed to win a single game in the European Basketball final stages. Iceland has excellent conditions for skiing, fishing, snowboarding, ice climbing and rock climbing, although mountain climbing and hiking are preferred by the general public. Iceland is also a world-class destination for alpine ski touring and Telemark skiing, with the Troll Peninsula in Northern Iceland being the main centre of activity. Although the country's environment is generally ill-suited for golf, there are nevertheless many golf courses throughout the island, and Iceland has a greater percentage of the population playing golf than Scotland with over 17,000 registered golfers out of a population of approximately 300,000. Iceland hosts an annual international golf tournament known as the Arctic Open played through the night during the summer solstice at Akureyri Golf Club. Iceland has also won the second most World's Strongest Man competitions of any country with nine titles, including four by both Magnús Ver Magnússon and Jón Páll Sigmarsson and most recently Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson in 2018. Iceland is also one of the leading countries in ocean rowing. Icelandic explorer and endurance athlete Fiann Paulholds the highest number of performance-based Guinness World Records within a single athletic discipline. As of 2020, he is the first and only person to achieve the Ocean Explorers Grand Slam (performing open-water crossings on each of the five oceans using human-powered vessels) and has claimed overall speed Guinness World Records for the fastest rowing of all four oceans (Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic) in a human-powered row boat. He had achieved a total of 41, including 33 performance based Guinness World Records by 2020. Swimming is popular in Iceland. Geothermally heated outdoor pools are widespread, and swimming courses are a mandatory part of the national curriculum. Horseback riding, which was historically the most prevalent form of transportation on the island, remains a common pursuit for many Icelanders. The oldest sport association in Iceland is the Reykjavík Shooting Association, founded in 1867. Rifle shooting became very popular in the 19th century with the encouragement of politicians and nationalists who were pushing for Icelandic independence. To this day, it remains a significant pastime. Iceland has also produced many chess masters and hosted the historic World Chess Championship 1972 in Reykjavík during the height of the Cold War. , there have been nine Icelandic chess grandmasters, a considerable number given the small size of the population. Bridge is also popular, with Iceland participating in a number of international tournaments. Iceland won the world bridge championship (the Bermuda Bowl) in Yokohama, Japan, in 1991 and took second place (with Sweden) in Hamilton, Bermuda, in 1950.

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Iceland

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14532

Italy Italy ( ), officially the Italian Republic ( ), is a country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy is located in south-central Europe, and it is also considered a part of western Europe. A unitary parliamentary republic with its capital in Rome, the country covers a total area of and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in Tunisian waters (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout what is now modern-day Italy, the most predominant being the Indo-European Italic peoples who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era, Phoenicians and Carthaginians founded colonies mostly in insular Italy, Greeks established settlements in the so-called "Magna Graecia" of Southern Italy, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively. An Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed. Italy remained the homeland of the Romans and the metropole of the empire, whose legacy can also be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments, Christianity and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured the fall of the Western Roman Empire and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century numerous rival city-states and maritime republics, mainly in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through trade, commerce and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. These mostly independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East, often enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe; however, part of central Italy was under the control of the theocratic Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal until the 19th century, partially as a result of a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Angevin, Aragonese and other foreign conquests of the region. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, Italy's commercial and political power significantly waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left Italy fragmented and several Italian states were conquered and further divided by multiple European powers over the centuries. By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was almost entirely unified in 1861, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy rapidly industrialised, mainly in the north, and acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained largely impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the four main allied powers in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of the Italian fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy the country abolished their monarchy, established a democratic Republic and enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, becoming a highly developed country. Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the world's eighth-largest economy by nominal GDP (third in the European Union), sixth-largest national wealth and third-largest central bank gold reserve. It ranks very highly in life expectancy, quality of life, healthcare, and education. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs; it is both a regional power and a great power, and is ranked the world's eighth most-powerful military. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more. The country has long been a global centre of art, music, literature, philosophy, science and technology, and fashion, and has greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields including cinema, cuisine, sports, jurisprudence, banking and business. As a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to the world's largest number of World Heritage Sites (55), and is the fifth-most visited country. Hypotheses for the etymology of the name "Italia" are numerous. One is that it was borrowed via Greek from the Oscan "Víteliú" 'land of calves' ("cf." Lat "vitulus" "calf", Umb "vitlo" "calf"). Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. According to Antiochus of Syracuse, the term Italy was used by the Greeks to initially refer only to the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula corresponding to the modern province of Reggio and part of the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia in southern Italy. Nevertheless, by his time the larger concept of Oenotria and "Italy" had become synonymous and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. According to Strabo's "Geographica", before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto, corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region In addition to the "Greek Italy" in the south, historians have suggested the existence of an "Etruscan Italy" covering variable areas of central Italy. The borders of Roman Italy, "Italia", are better established. Cato's "Origines", the first work of history composed in Latin, described Italy as the entire peninsula south of the Alps. According to Cato and several Roman authors, the Alps formed the "walls of Italy". In 264 BC, Roman Italy extended from the Arno and Rubicon rivers of the centre-north to the entire south. The northern area of Cisalpine Gaul was occupied by Rome in the 220s BC and became considered geographically and "de facto" part of Italy, but remained politically and "de jure" separated. It was legally merged into the administrative unit of Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir Octavian as a ratification of Caesar's unpublished acts ("Acta Caesaris"). The islands of Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and Malta were added to Italy by Diocletian in 292 AD. Thousands of Paleolithic-era artifacts have been recovered from Monte Poggiolo and dated to around 850,000 years before the present, making them the oldest evidence of first hominins habitation in the peninsula. Excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period some 200,000 years ago, while modern Humans appeared about 40,000 years ago at Riparo Mochi. Archaeological sites from this period include Addaura cave, Altamura, Ceprano, and Gravina in Puglia. The Ancient peoples of pre-Roman Italy – such as the Umbrians, the Latins (from which the Romans emerged), Volsci, Oscans, Samnites, Sabines, the Celts, the Ligures, the Veneti, the Iapygians and many others – were Indo-European peoples, most of them specifically of the Italic group. The main historic peoples of possible non-Indo-European or pre-Indo-European heritage include the Etruscans of central and northern Italy, the Elymians and the Sicani in Sicily, and the prehistoric Sardinians, who gave birth to the Nuragic civilisation. Other ancient populations being of undetermined language families and of possible non-Indo-European origin include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni, known for their rock carvings in Valcamonica, the largest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world. A well-preserved natural mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman, determined to be 5,000 years old (between 3400 and 3100 BCE, Copper Age), was discovered in the Similaun glacier of South Tyrol in 1991. The first foreign colonizers were the Phoenicians, who initially established colonies and founded various emporiums on the coasts of Sicily and Sardinia. Some of these soon became small urban centres and were developed parallel to the Greek colonies; among the main centres there were the cities of Motya, Zyz (modern Palermo), Soluntum in Sicily and Nora, Sulci, and Tharros in Sardinia. Between the 17th and the 11th centuries BC Mycenaean Greeks established contacts with Italy and in the 8th and 7th centuries BC a number of Greek colonies were established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula, that became known as Magna Graecia. The Greek colonization placed the Italic peoples in contact with democratic government forms and with elevated artistic and cultural expressions. Rome, a settlement around a ford on the river Tiber in central Italy conventionally founded in 753 BC, was ruled for a period of 244 years by a monarchical system, initially with sovereigns of Latin and Sabine origin, later by Etruscan kings. The tradition handed down seven kings: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus. In 509 BC, the Romans expelled the last king from their city, favouring a government of the Senate and the People (SPQR) and establishing an oligarchic republic. The Italian Peninsula, named Italia, was consolidated into a single entity during the Roman expansion and conquest of new lands at the expense of the other Italic tribes, Etruscans, Celts, and Greeks. A permanent association with most of the local tribes and cities was formed, and Rome began the conquest of Western Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. In the wake of Julius Caesar's rise and death in the first century BC, Rome grew over the course of centuries into a massive empire stretching from Britain to the borders of Persia, and engulfing the whole Mediterranean basin, in which Greek and Roman and many other cultures merged into a unique civilisation. The long and triumphant reign of the first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity. Italy remained the metropole of the empire, and as the homeland of the Romans and the territory of the capital, maintained a special status which made it "not a province, but the "Domina" (ruler) of the provinces". More than two centuries of stability followed, during which Italy was referred to as the "rectrix mundi" (queen of the world) and "omnium terrarum parens" (motherland of all lands). The Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time, and it was one of the largest empires in world history. At its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. The Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world; among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance languages derived from Latin, the numerical system, the modern Western alphabet and calendar, and the emergence of Christianity as a major world religion. The Indo-Roman trade relations, beginning around the 1st century BCE, testifies to extensive Roman trade in far away regions; many reminders of the commercial trade between the Indian subcontinent and Italy have been found, such as the ivory statuette Pompeii Lakshmi from the ruins of Pompeii. In a slow decline since the third century AD, the Empire split in two in 395 AD. The Western Empire, under the pressure of the barbarian invasions, eventually dissolved in 476 AD when its last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic chief Odoacer. The Eastern half of the Empire survived for another thousand years. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy fell under the power of Odoacer's kingdom, and, later, was seized by the Ostrogoths, followed in the 6th century by a brief reconquest under Byzantine Emperor Justinian. The invasion of another Germanic tribe, the Lombards, late in the same century, reduced the Byzantine presence to the rump realm of the Exarchate of Ravenna and started the end of political unity of the peninsula for the next 1,300 years. Invasions of the peninsula caused a chaotic succession of barbarian kingdoms and the so-called "dark ages". The Lombard kingdom was subsequently absorbed into the Frankish Empire by Charlemagne in the late 8th century. The Franks also helped the formation of the Papal States in central Italy. Until the 13th century, Italian politics was dominated by the relations between the Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy, with most of the Italian city-states siding with the former (Ghibellines) or with the latter (Guelphs) from momentary convenience. The Germanic Emperor and the Roman Pontiff became the universal powers of medieval Europe. However, the conflict for the investiture controversy (a conflict over two radically different views of whether secular authorities such as kings, counts, or dukes, had any legitimate role in appointments to ecclesiastical offices) and the clash between Guelphs and Ghibellines led to the end of the Imperial-feudal system in the north of Italy where city-states gained independence. It was during this chaotic era that Italian towns saw the rise of a peculiar institution, the medieval commune. Given the power vacuum caused by extreme territorial fragmentation and the struggle between the Empire and the Holy See, local communities sought autonomous ways to maintain law and order. The investiture controversy was finally resolved by the Concordat of Worms. In 1176 a league of city-states, the Lombard League, defeated the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano, thus ensuring effective independence for most of northern and central Italian cities. Italian city-states such as Milan, Florence and Venice played a crucial innovative role in financial development, devising the main instruments and practices of banking and the emergence of new forms of social and economic organization. In coastal and southern areas, the maritime republics grew to eventually dominate the Mediterranean and monopolise trade routes to the Orient. They were independent thalassocratic city-states, though most of them originated from territories once belonging to the Byzantine Empire. All these cities during the time of their independence had similar systems of government in which the merchant class had considerable power. Although in practice these were oligarchical, and bore little resemblance to a modern democracy, the relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement. The four best known maritime republics were Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi; the others were Ancona, Gaeta, Noli, and Ragusa. Each of the maritime republics had dominion over different overseas lands, including many Mediterranean islands (especially Sardinia and Corsica), lands on the Adriatic, Aegean, and Black Sea (Crimea), and commercial colonies in the Near East and in North Africa. Venice maintained enormous tracts of land in Greece, Cyprus, Istria and Dalmatia until as late as the mid-17th century. Venice and Genoa were Europe's main gateway to trade with the East, and a producer of fine glass, while Florence was a capital of silk, wool, banks and jewellery. The wealth such business brought to Italy meant that large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned. The republics were heavily involved in the Crusades, providing support and transport, but most especially taking advantage of the political and trading opportunities resulting from these wars. Italy first felt huge economic changes in Europe which led to the commercial revolution: the Republic of Venice was able to defeat the Byzantine Empire and finance the voyages of Marco Polo to Asia; the first universities were formed in Italian cities, and scholars such as Thomas Aquinas obtained international fame; Frederick of Sicily made Italy the political-cultural centre of a reign that temporarily included the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem; capitalism and banking families emerged in Florence, where Dante and Giotto were active around 1300. In the south, Sicily had become an Islamic emirate in the 9th century, thriving until the Italo-Normans conquered it in the late 11th century together with most of the Lombard and Byzantine principalities of southern Italy. Through a complex series of events, southern Italy developed as a unified kingdom, first under the House of Hohenstaufen, then under the Capetian House of Anjou and, from the 15th century, the House of Aragon. In Sardinia, the former Byzantine provinces became independent states known in Italian as Judicates, although some parts of the island fell under Genoese or Pisan rule until the eventual Aragonese annexation in the 15th century. The Black Death pandemic of 1348 left its mark on Italy by killing perhaps one third of the population. However, the recovery from the plague led to a resurgence of cities, trade and economy which allowed the bloom of Humanism and Renaissance, that later spread to Europe. Italy was the birthplace and heart of the Renaissance during the 1400s and 1500s. The Italian Renaissance marked the transition from the medieval period to the modern age as Europe recovered, economically and culturally, from the crises of the Late Middle Ages and entered the Early Modern Period. The Italian polities were now regional states effectively ruled by Princes, "de facto" monarchs in control of trade and administration, and their courts became major centres of Arts and Sciences. The Italian princedoms represented a first form of modern states as opposed to feudal monarchies and multinational empires. The princedoms were led by political dynasties and merchant families such as the Medici in Florence, the Visconti and Sforza in the Duchy of Milan, the Doria in the Republic of Genoa, the Mocenigo and Barbarigo in the Republic of Venice, the Este in Ferrara, and the Gonzaga in Mantua. The Renaissance was therefore a result of the great wealth accumulated by Italian merchant cities combined with the patronage of its dominant families. Italian Renaissance exercised a dominant influence on subsequent European painting and sculpture for centuries afterwards, with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giotto, Donatello, and Titian, and architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and Donato Bramante. Following the conclusion of the western schism in favor of Rome at the Council of Constance (1415–1417), the new Pope Martin V returned to the Papal States after a three years-long journey that touched many Italian cities and restored Italy as the sole centre of Western Christianity. During the course of this voyage, the Medici Bank was made the official credit institution of the Papacy and several significant ties were established between the Church and the new political dynasties of the peninsula. The Popes' status as elective monarchs turned the conclaves and consistories of the Renaissance into political battles between the courts of Italy for primacy in the peninsula and access to the immense resources of the Catholic Church. In 1439, Pope Eugenius IV and the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos signed a reconciliation agreement between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church at the Council of Florence hosted by Cosimo "the old" de Medici. In 1453, Italian forces under Giovanni Giustiniani were sent by Pope Nicholas V to defend the Walls of Constantinople but the decisive battle was lost to the more advanced Turkish army equipped with cannons, and Byzantium fell to Sultan Mehmed II. The fall of Constantinople led to the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy, fueling the rediscovery of Greco-Roman Humanism. Humanist rulers such as Federico da Montefeltro and Pope Pius II worked to establish ideal cities where "man is the measure of all things", and therefore founded Urbino and Pienza respectively. Pico della Mirandola wrote the "Oration on the Dignity of Man", considered the manifesto of Renaissance Humanism, in which he stressed the importance of free will in human beings. The humanist historian Leonardo Bruni was the first to divide human history in three periods: Antiquity, Middle Ages and Modernity. The second consequence of the Fall of Constantinople was the beginning of the Age of Discovery. Italian explorers and navigators from the dominant maritime republics, eager to find an alternative route to the Indies in order to bypass the Ottoman Empire, offered their services to monarchs of Atlantic countries and played a key role in ushering the Age of Discovery and the European colonization of the Americas. The most notable among them were: Christopher Columbus, colonizer in the name of Spain, who is credited with discovering the New World and the opening of the Americas for conquest and settlement by Europeans; John Cabot, sailing for England, who was the first European to set foot in "New Found Land" and explore parts of the North American continent in 1497; Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Portugal, who first demonstrated in about 1501 that the New World (in particular Brazil) was not Asia as initially conjectured, but a fourth continent previously unknown to people of the Old World (America is named after him); and Giovanni da Verrazzano, at the service of France, renowned as the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524; Following the fall of Constantinople, the wars in Lombardy came to an end and a defensive alliance known as Italic League was formed between Venice, Naples, Florence, Milan, and the Papacy. Lorenzo "the Magnificent" de Medici was the greatest Florentine patron of the Renaissance and supporter of the Italic League. He notably avoided the collapse of the League in the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy and during the aborted invasion of Italy by the Turks. However, the military campaign of Charles VIII of France in Italy caused the end of the Italic League and initiated the Italian Wars between the Valois and the Habsburgs. During the High Renaissance of the 1500s, Italy was therefore both the main European battleground and the cultural-economic centre of the continent. Popes such as Julius II (1503–1513) fought for the control of Italy against foreign monarchs, others such as Paul III (1534–1549) preferred to mediate between the European powers in order to secure peace in Italy. In the middle of this conflict, the Medici popes Leo X (1513–1521) and Clement VII (1523–1534) opposed the Protestant reformation and advanced the interests of their family. The end of the wars ultimately left northern Italy indirectly subject to the Austrian Habsburgs and Southern Italy under direct Spanish Habsburg rule. The Papacy remained independent and launched the Counter-reformation. Key events of the period include: the Council of Trent (1545–1563); the excommunication of Elizabeth I (1570) and the Battle of Lepanto (1571), both occurring during the pontificate of Pius V; the construction of the Gregorian observatory, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, and the Jesuit China mission of Matteo Ricci under Pope Gregory XIII; the French Wars of Religion; the Long Turkish War and the execution of Giordano Bruno in 1600, under Pope Clement VIII; the birth of the Lyncean Academy of the Papal States, of which the main figure was Galileo Galilei (later put on trial); the final phases of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) during the pontificates of Urban VIII and Innocent X; and the formation of the last Holy League by Innocent XI during the Great Turkish War The Italian economy declined during the 1600s and 1700s, as the peninsula was excluded from the rising Atlantic slave trade. Following the European wars of succession of the 18th century, the south passed to a cadet branch of the Spanish Bourbons and the North fell under the influence of the Habsburg-Lorraine of Austria. During the Coalition Wars, northern-central Italy was reorganised by Napoleon in a number of Sister Republics of France and later as a Kingdom of Italy in personal union with the French Empire. The southern half of the peninsula was administered by Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, who was crowned as King of Naples. The 1814 Congress of Vienna restored the situation of the late 18th century, but the ideals of the French Revolution could not be eradicated, and soon re-surfaced during the political upheavals that characterised the first part of the 19th century. The birth of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of efforts by Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the political and social Italian unification movement, or "Risorgimento", emerged to unite Italy consolidating the different states of the peninsula and liberate it from foreign control. A prominent radical figure was the patriotic journalist Giuseppe Mazzini, member of the secret revolutionary society "Carbonari" and founder of the influential political movement Young Italy in the early 1830s, who favoured a unitary republic and advocated a broad nationalist movement. His prolific output of propaganda helped the unification movement stay active. The most famous member of Young Italy was the revolutionary and general Giuseppe Garibaldi, renowned for his extremely loyal followers, who led the Italian republican drive for unification in Southern Italy. However, the Northern Italy monarchy of the House of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia, whose government was led by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, also had ambitions of establishing a united Italian state. In the context of the 1848 liberal revolutions that swept through Europe, an unsuccessful first war of independence was declared on Austria. In 1855, the Kingdom of Sardinia became an ally of Britain and France in the Crimean War, giving Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers. The Kingdom of Sardinia again attacked the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence of 1859, with the aid of France, resulting in liberating Lombardy. In 1860–1861, Garibaldi led the drive for unification in Naples and Sicily (the Expedition of the Thousand), while the House of Savoy troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. Teano was the site of the famous meeting of 26 October 1860 between Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II, last King of Sardinia, in which Garibaldi shook Victor Emanuel's hand and hailed him as King of Italy; thus, Garibaldi sacrificed republican hopes for the sake of Italian unity under a monarchy. Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's Southern Italy allowing it to join the union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. This allowed the Sardinian government to declare a united Italian kingdom on 17 March 1861. Victor Emmanuel II then became the first king of a united Italy, and the capital was moved from Turin to Florence. In 1866, Victor Emmanuel II allied with Prussia during the Austro-Prussian War, waging the Third Italian War of Independence which allowed Italy to annexe Venetia. Finally, in 1870, as France abandoned its garrisons in Rome during the disastrous Franco-Prussian War to keep the large Prussian Army at bay, the Italians rushed to fill the power gap by taking over the Papal States. Italian unification was completed and shortly afterward Italy's capital was moved to Rome. Victor Emmanuel, Garibaldi, Cavour and Mazzini have been referred as Italy's "Four Fathers of the Fatherland". The new Kingdom of Italy obtained Great Power status. The Constitutional Law of the Kingdom of Sardinia the Albertine Statute of 1848, was extended to the whole Kingdom of Italy in 1861, and provided for basic freedoms of the new State, but electoral laws excluded the non-propertied and uneducated classes from voting. The government of the new kingdom took place in a framework of parliamentary constitutional monarchy dominated by liberal forces. As Northern Italy quickly industrialised, the South and rural areas of the North remained underdeveloped and overpopulated, forcing millions of people to migrate abroad and fuelling a large and influential diaspora. The Italian Socialist Party constantly increased in strength, challenging the traditional liberal and conservative establishment. Starting from the last two decades of the 19th century, Italy developed into a colonial power by forcing under its rule Eritrea and Somalia in East Africa, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in North Africa (later unified in the colony of Libya) and the Dodecanese islands. From 2 November 1899 to 7 September 1901, Italy also participated as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance forces during the Boxer Rebellion in China; on 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the country, and on 7 June 1902, the concession was taken into Italian possession and administered by a consul. In 1913, male universal suffrage was adopted. The pre-war period dominated by Giovanni Giolitti, Prime Minister five times between 1892 and 1921, was characterized by the economic, industrial and political-cultural modernization of Italian society. Italy, nominally allied with the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance, in 1915 joined the Allies into World War I with a promise of substantial territorial gains, that included western Inner Carniola, former Austrian Littoral, Dalmatia as well as parts of the Ottoman Empire. The country gave a fundamental contribution to the victory of the conflict as one of the "Big Four" top Allied powers. The war was initially inconclusive, as the Italian army got stuck in a long attrition war in the Alps, making little progress and suffering very heavy losses. However, the reorganization of the army and the conscription of the so-called "'99 Boys" ("Ragazzi del '99", all males born in 1899 who were turning 18) led to more effective Italian victories in major battles, such as on Monte Grappa and in a series of battles on the Piave river. Eventually, in October 1918, the Italians launched a massive offensive, culminating in the victory of Vittorio Veneto. The Italian victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was chiefly instrumental in ending the First World War less than two weeks later. During the war, more than 650,000 Italian soldiers and as many civilians died and the kingdom went to the brink of bankruptcy. Under the Peace Treaties of Saint-Germain, Rapallo and Rome, Italy gained a permanent seat in the League of Nations's executive council and obtained most of the promised territories, but not Dalmatia (except Zara), allowing nationalists to define the victory as "mutilated". Moreover, Italy annexed the Hungarian harbour of Fiume, that was not part of territories promised at London but had been occupied after the end of the war by Gabriele D'Annunzio. The socialist agitations that followed the devastation of the Great War, inspired by the Russian Revolution, led to counter-revolution and repression throughout Italy. The liberal establishment, fearing a Soviet-style revolution, started to endorse the small National Fascist Party, led by Benito Mussolini. In October 1922 the Blackshirts of the National Fascist Party attempted a coup named the "March on Rome" which failed but at the last minute, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to proclaim a state of siege and appointed Mussolini prime minister. Over the next few years, Mussolini banned all political parties and curtailed personal liberties, thus forming a dictatorship. These actions attracted international attention and eventually inspired similar dictatorships such as Nazi Germany and Francoist Spain. In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia and founded the Italian East Africa, resulting in an international alienation and leading to Italy's withdrawal from the League of Nations; Italy allied with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan and strongly supported Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war. In 1939, Italy annexed Albania, a "de facto" protectorate for decades. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. After initially advancing in British Somaliland, Egypt, the Balkans and eastern fronts, the Italians were defeated in East Africa, Soviet Union and North Africa. The Armistice of Villa Giusti, which ended fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, resulted in Italian annexation of neighbouring parts of Yugoslavia. During the interwar period, the fascist Italian government undertook a campaign of Italianisation in the areas it annexed, which suppressed Slavic language, schools, political parties, and cultural institutions. During World War II, Italian war crimes included extrajudicial killings and ethnic cleansing by deportation of about 25,000 people, mainly Jews, Croats, and Slovenians, to the Italian concentration camps, such as Rab, Gonars, Monigo, Renicci di Anghiari and elsewhere. In Italy and Yugoslavia, unlike in Germany, few war crimes were prosecuted. Yugoslav Partisans perpetrated their own crimes during and after the war, including the foibe killings. Meanwhile, about 250,000 Italians and anti-communist Slavs fled to Italy in the Istrian exodus. An Allied invasion of Sicily began in July 1943, leading to the collapse of the Fascist regime and the fall of Mussolini on 25 July. Mussolini was deposed and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III in co-operation with the majority of the members of the Grand Council of Fascism, which passed a motion of no confidence. On 8 September, Italy signed the Armistice of Cassibile, ending its war with the Allies. The Germans helped by the Italian fascists shortly succeeded in taking control of northern and central Italy. The country remained a battlefield for the rest of the war, as the Allies were slowly moving up from the south. In the north, the Germans set up the Italian Social Republic (RSI), a Nazi puppet state with Mussolini installed as leader after he was rescued by German paratroopers. Some Italian troops in the south were organized into the Italian Co-belligerent Army, which fought alongside the Allies for the rest of the war, while other Italian troops, loyal to Mussolini and his RSI, continued to fight alongside the Germans in the National Republican Army. As result, the country descended into civil war. Also, the post-armistice period saw the rise of a large anti-fascist resistance movement, the "Resistenza", which fought a guerilla war against the German and RSI forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north, but was captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise. Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945, when the German forces in Italy surrendered. Nearly half a million Italians (including civilians) died in the conflict, and the Italian economy had been all but destroyed; per capita income in 1944 was at its lowest point since the beginning of the 20th century. Italy became a republic after a referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day celebrated since as Republic Day. This was also the first time that Italian women were entitled to vote. Victor Emmanuel III's son, Umberto II, was forced to abdicate and exiled. The Republican Constitution was approved on 1 January 1948. Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy of 1947, most of the Julian March was lost to Yugoslavia and, later, the Free Territory of Trieste was divided between the two states. Italy also lost all of its colonial possessions, formally ending the Italian Empire. In 1950, Italian Somaliland was made a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration until 1 July 1960. Fears of a possible Communist takeover (especially in the United States) proved crucial for the first universal suffrage electoral outcome on 18 April 1948, when the Christian Democrats, under the leadership of Alcide De Gasperi, obtained a landslide victory. Consequently, in 1949 Italy became a member of NATO. The Marshall Plan helped to revive the Italian economy which, until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth commonly called the "Economic Miracle". In 1957, Italy was a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC), which became the European Union (EU) in 1993. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, the country experienced the Years of Lead, a period characterised by economic crisis (especially after the 1973 oil crisis), widespread social conflicts and terrorist massacres carried out by opposing extremist groups, with the alleged involvement of US and Soviet intelligence. The Years of Lead culminated in the assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 and the Bologna railway station massacre in 1980, where 85 people died. In the 1980s, for the first time since 1945, two governments were led by non-Christian-Democrat premiers: one republican (Giovanni Spadolini) and one socialist (Bettino Craxi); the Christian Democrats remained, however, the main government party. During Craxi's government, the economy recovered and Italy became the world's fifth largest industrial nation, after it gained the entry into the Group of Seven in the 1970s. However, as a result of his spending policies, the Italian national debt skyrocketed during the Craxi era, soon passing 100% of the country's GDP. Italy faced several terror attacks between 1992–93 perpetrated by the Sicilian Mafia as a consequence of several life sentences pronounced during the "Maxi Trial", and of the new anti-mafia measures launched by the government. In 1992, two major dynamite attacks killed the judges Giovanni Falcone (23 May in the Capaci bombing) and Paolo Borsellino (19 July in the Via D'Amelio bombing). One year later (May–July 1993), tourist spots were attacked, such as the Via dei Georgofili in Florence, Via Palestro in Milan, and the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San Teodoro in Rome, leaving 10 dead and 93 injured and causing severe damage to cultural heritage such as the Uffizi Gallery. The Catholic Church openly condemned the Mafia, and two churches were bombed and an anti-Mafia priest shot dead in Rome. Also in the early 1990s, Italy faced significant challenges, as voters – disenchanted with political paralysis, massive public debt and the extensive corruption system (known as "Tangentopoli") uncovered by the Clean Hands ("Mani Pulite") investigation – demanded radical reforms. The scandals involved all major parties, but especially those in the government coalition: the Christian Democrats, who ruled for almost 50 years, underwent a severe crisis and eventually disbanded, splitting up into several factions. The Communists reorganised as a social-democratic force. During the 1990s and the 2000s, centre-right (dominated by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi) and centre-left coalitions (led by university professor Romano Prodi) alternately governed the country. Amidst the Great Recession, Berlusconi resigned in 2011, and his conservative government was replaced by the technocratic cabinet of Mario Monti. Following the 2013 general election, the Vice-Secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta formed a new government at the head of a right-left Grand coalition. In 2014, challenged by the new Secretary of the PD Matteo Renzi, Letta resigned and was replaced by Renzi. The new government started important constitutional reforms such as the abolition of the Senate and a new electoral law. On 4 December the constitutional reform was rejected in a referendum and Renzi resigned; the Foreign Affairs Minister Paolo Gentiloni was appointed new Prime Minister. In the European migrant crisis of the 2010s, Italy was the entry point and leading destination for most asylum seekers entering the EU. From 2013 to 2018, the country took in over 700,000 migrants and refugees, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, which caused great strain on the public purse and a surge in the support for far-right or eurosceptic political parties. The 2018 general election was characterized by a strong showing of the Five Star Movement and the League and the university professor Giuseppe Conte became the Prime Minister at the head of a populist coalition between these two parties. However, after only fourteen months the League withdrew its support to Conte, who formed a new unprecedented government coalition between the Five Star Movement and the centre-left. In 2020, Italy was severely hit by a coronavirus pandemic. From March to May, Conte's government imposed a national quarantine, as a measure to limit the spread of the pandemic. The measures, despite being widely approved by the public opinion, were also described as the largest suppression of constitutional rights in the history of the republic. Italy was one of the countries with the highest total number of deaths in the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic caused also a severe economic disruption, in which Italy resulted as one of the most affected countries. Italy is located in Southern Europe (it is also considered a part of western Europe) between latitudes 35° and 47° N, and longitudes 6° and 19° E. To the north, Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia and is roughly delimited by the Alpine watershed, enclosing the Po Valley and the Venetian Plain. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula and the two Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia (the two biggest islands of the Mediterranean), in addition to many smaller islands. The sovereign states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The country's total area is , of which is land and is water. Including the islands, Italy has a coastline and border of on the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian seas (), and borders shared with France (), Austria (), Slovenia () and Switzerland (). San Marino () and Vatican City (), both enclaves, account for the remainder. Over 35% of the Italian territory is mountainous. The Apennine Mountains form the peninsula's backbone, and the Alps form most of its northern boundary, where Italy's highest point is located on Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) (). Other worldwide-known mountains in Italy include the Matterhorn (Monte Cervino), Monte Rosa, Gran Paradiso in the West Alps, and Bernina, Stelvio and Dolomites along the eastern side. The Po, Italy's longest river (), flows from the Alps on the western border with France and crosses the Padan plain on its way to the Adriatic Sea. The Po Valley is the largest plain in Italy, with , and it represents over 70% of the total plain area in the country. Many elements of the Italian territory are of volcanic origin. Most of the small islands and archipelagos in the south, like Capraia, Ponza, Ischia, Eolie, Ustica and Pantelleria are volcanic islands. There are also active volcanoes: Mount Etna in Sicily (the largest active volcano in Europe), Vulcano, Stromboli, and Vesuvius (the only active volcano on mainland Europe). The five largest lakes are, in order of diminishing size: Garda (), Maggiore (, whose minor northern part is Switzerland), Como (), Trasimeno () and Bolsena (). Although the country includes the Italian peninsula, adjacent islands, and most of the southern Alpine basin, some of Italy's territory extends beyond the Alpine basin and some islands are located outside the Eurasian continental shelf. These territories are the "comuni" of: Livigno, Sexten, Innichen, Toblach (in part), Chiusaforte, Tarvisio, Graun im Vinschgau (in part), which are all part of the Danube's drainage basin, while the Val di Lei constitutes part of the Rhine's basin and the islands of Lampedusa and Lampione are on the African continental shelf. Four different seas surround the Italian Peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea from three sides: the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea in the south, and the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west. Most of the rivers of Italy drain either into the Adriatic Sea, such as the Po, Piave, Adige, Brenta, Tagliamento, and Reno, or into the Tyrrhenian, like the Arno, Tiber and Volturno. The waters from some border municipalities (Livigno in Lombardy, Innichen and Sexten in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) drain into the Black Sea through the basin of the Drava, a tributary of the Danube, and the waters from the Lago di Lei in Lombardy drain into the North Sea through the basin of the Rhine. In the north of the country are a number of subalpine moraine-dammed lakes, the largest of which is Garda (). Other well-known subalpine lakes are Lake Maggiore (), whose most northerly section is part of Switzerland, Como (), one of the deepest lakes in Europe, Orta, Lugano, Iseo, and Idro. Other notable lakes in the Italian peninsula are Trasimeno, Bolsena, Bracciano, Vico, Varano and Lesina in Gargano and Omodeo in Sardinia. The country is situated at the meeting point of the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate, leading to considerable seismic and volcanic activity. There are 14 volcanoes in Italy, four of which are active: Etna, Stromboli, Vulcano and Vesuvius. The last is the only active volcano in mainland Europe and is most famous for the destruction of Pompeii and Herculanum in the eruption in 79 AD. Several islands and hills have been created by volcanic activity, and there is still a large active caldera, the Campi Flegrei north-west of Naples. The high volcanic and magmatic neogenic activity is subdivided into provinces: Italy was the first country to exploit geothermal energy to produce electricity. The high geothermal gradient that forms part of the peninsula makes potentially exploitable also other provinces: research carried out in the 1960s and 1970s identifies potential geothermal fields in Lazio and Tuscany, as well as in most volcanic islands. After its quick industrial growth, Italy took a long time to confront its environmental problems. After several improvements, it now ranks 84th in the world for ecological sustainability. National parks cover about 5% of the country. In the last decade, Italy has become one of the world's leading producers of renewable energy, ranking as the world's fourth largest holder of installed solar energy capacity and the sixth largest holder of wind power capacity in 2010. Renewable energies now make up about 12% of the total primary and final energy consumption in Italy, with a future target share set at 17% for the year 2020. However, air pollution remains a severe problem, especially in the industrialised north, reaching the tenth highest level worldwide of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in the 1990s. Italy is the twelfth largest carbon dioxide producer. Extensive traffic and congestion in the largest metropolitan areas continue to cause severe environmental and health issues, even if smog levels have decreased dramatically since the 1970s and 1980s, and the presence of smog is becoming an increasingly rarer phenomenon and levels of sulphur dioxide are decreasing. Many watercourses and coastal stretches have also been contaminated by industrial and agricultural activity, while because of rising water levels, Venice has been regularly flooded throughout recent years. Waste from industrial activity is not always disposed of by legal means and has led to permanent health effects on inhabitants of affected areas, as in the case of the Seveso disaster. The country has also operated several nuclear reactors between 1963 and 1990 but, after the Chernobyl disaster and a referendum on the issue the nuclear programme was terminated, a decision that was overturned by the government in 2008, planning to build up to four nuclear power plants with French technology. This was in turn struck down by a referendum following the Fukushima nuclear accident. Deforestation, illegal building developments and poor land-management policies have led to significant erosion all over Italy's mountainous regions, leading to major ecological disasters like the 1963 Vajont Dam flood, the 1998 Sarno and 2009 Messina mudslides. Italy has the highest level of faunal biodiversity in Europe, with over 57,000 species recorded, representing more than a third of all European fauna. Italy's varied geological structure contributes to its high climate and habitat diversity. The Italian peninsula is in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, forming a corridor between central Europe and North Africa, and has of coastline. Italy also receives species from the Balkans, Eurasia, the Middle East. Italy's varied geological structure, including the Alps and the Apennines, Central Italian woodlands, and Southern Italian Garigue and Maquis shrubland, also contributes to high climate and habitat diversity. Italian fauna includes 4,777 endemic animal species, which include the Sardinian long-eared bat, Sardinian red deer, spectacled salamander, brown cave salamander, Italian newt, Italian frog, Apennine yellow-bellied toad, Aeolian wall lizard, Sicilian wall lizard, Italian Aesculapian snake, and Sicilian pond turtle. There are 102 mammals species (most notably the Italian wolf, Marsican brown bear, Pyrenean chamois, Alpine ibex, crested porcupine, Mediterranean monk seal, Alpine marmot, Etruscan shrew, and European snow vole), 516 bird species and 56,213 invertebrate species. The flora of Italy was traditionally estimated to comprise about 5,500 vascular plant species. However, , 6,759 species are recorded in the "Data bank of Italian vascular flora". Italy is a signatory to the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats and the Habitats Directive both affording protection to Italian fauna and flora. Because of the great longitudinal extension of the peninsula and the mostly mountainous internal conformation, the climate of Italy is highly diverse. In most of the inland northern and central regions, the climate ranges from humid subtropical to humid continental and oceanic. In particular, the climate of the Po valley geographical region is mostly continental, with harsh winters and hot summers. The coastal areas of Liguria, Tuscany and most of the South generally fit the Mediterranean climate stereotype (Köppen climate classification Csa). Conditions on peninsular coastal areas can be very different from the interior's higher ground and valleys, particularly during the winter months when the higher altitudes tend to be cold, wet, and often snowy. The coastal regions have mild winters and warm and generally dry summers, although lowland valleys can be quite hot in summer. Average winter temperatures vary from on the Alps to Italy has been a unitary parliamentary republic since 2 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by a constitutional referendum. The President of Italy ("Presidente della Repubblica"), currently Sergio Mattarella since 2015, is Italy's head of state. The President is elected for a single seven years mandate by the Parliament of Italy and some regional voters in joint session. Italy has a written democratic constitution, resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the Civil War. Italy has a parliamentary government based on a mixed proportional and majoritarian voting system. The parliament is perfectly bicameral: the two houses, the Chamber of Deputies that meets in Palazzo Montecitorio, and the Senate of the Republic that meets in Palazzo Madama, have the same powers. The Prime Minister, officially President of the Council of Ministers ("Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri"), is Italy's head of government. The Prime Minister and the cabinet are appointed by the President of the Republic of Italy and must pass a vote of confidence in Parliament to come into office. To remain the Prime Minister has to pass also eventual further votes of confidence or no confidence in Parliament. The prime minister is the President of the Council of Ministers – which holds effective executive power – and he must receive a vote of approval from it to execute most political activities. The office is similar to those in most other parliamentary systems, but the leader of the Italian government is not authorised to request the dissolution of the Parliament of Italy. Another difference with similar offices is that the overall political responsibility for intelligence is vested in the President of the Council of Ministers. By virtue of that, the Prime Minister has exclusive power to: co-ordinate intelligence policies, determining the financial resources and strengthening national cyber security; apply and protect State secrets; authorise agents to carry out operations, in Italy or abroad, in violation of the law. A peculiarity of the Italian Parliament is the representation given to Italian citizens permanently living abroad: 12 Deputies and 6 Senators elected in four distinct overseas constituencies. In addition, the Italian Senate is characterised also by a small number of senators for life, appointed by the President "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field". Former Presidents of the Republic are "ex officio" life senators. Italy's three major political parties are the Five Star Movement, the Democratic Party and the Lega. During the 2018 general election these three parties won 614 out of 630 seats available in the Chamber of Deputies and 309 out of 315 in the Senate. Berlusconi's Forza Italia which formed a centre-right coalition with Matteo Salvini's Northern League and Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy won most of the seats without getting the majority in parliament. The rest of the seats were taken by Five Star Movement, Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party along with Achammer and Panizza's South Tyrolean People's Party & Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party in a centre-left coalition and the independent Free and Equal party. The Italian judicial system is based on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code and later statutes. The Supreme Court of Cassation is the highest court in Italy for both criminal and civil appeal cases. The Constitutional Court of Italy ("Corte Costituzionale") rules on the conformity of laws with the constitution and is a post–World War II innovation. Since their appearance in the middle of the 19th century, Italian organised crime and criminal organisations have infiltrated the social and economic life of many regions in Southern Italy, the most notorious of which being the Sicilian Mafia, which would later expand into some foreign countries including the United States. Mafia receipts may reach 9% of Italy's GDP. A 2009 report identified 610 which have a strong Mafia presence, where 13 million Italians live and 14.6% of the Italian GDP is produced. The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, nowadays probably the most powerful crime syndicate of Italy, accounts alone for 3% of the country's GDP. However, at 0.013 per 1,000 people, Italy has only the 47th highest murder rate compared to 61 countries and the 43rd highest number of rapes per 1,000 people compared to 64 countries in the world. These are relatively low figures among developed countries. The Italian law enforcement system is complex, with multiple police forces. The national policing agencies are the Polizia di Stato (State Police), the Arma dei Carabinieri, the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Guard), and the Polizia Penitenziaria (Prison Police), as well as the Guardia Costiera (coast guard police). The "Polizia di Stato" are a civil police supervised by the Interior Ministry, while the "Carabinieri" is a gendarmerie supervised by the Defense Ministry; both share duties in law enforcement and the maintenance of public order. Within the Carabinieri is a unit devoted to combating environmental crime. The "Guardia di Finanza" is responsible for combating financial crime and white-collar crime, as well as customs. The "Polizia Penitenziaria" are responsible for guarding the prison system. The Corpo Forestale dello Stato (State Forestry Corps) formerly existed as a separate national park ranger agency, but was merged into the Carabinieri in 2016. Although policing in Italy is primarily provided on a national basis, there also exists "Polizia Provinciale" (provincial police) and "Polizia Municipale" (municipal police). Italy is a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC), now the European Union (EU), and of NATO. Italy was admitted to the United Nations in 1955, and it is a member and a strong supporter of a wide number of international organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, and the Central European Initiative. Its recent or upcoming turns in the rotating presidency of international organisations include the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2018, the G7 in 2017 and the EU Council from July to December 2014. Italy is also a recurrent non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, the most recently in 2017. Italy strongly supports multilateral international politics, endorsing the United Nations and its international security activities. , Italy was deploying 5,296 troops abroad, engaged in 33 UN and NATO missions in 25 countries of the world. Italy deployed troops in support of UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Mozambique, and East Timor and provides support for NATO and UN operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania. Italy deployed over 2,000 troops in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) from February 2003. Italy supported international efforts to reconstruct and stabilise Iraq, but it had withdrawn its military contingent of some 3,200 troops by 2006, maintaining only humanitarian operators and other civilian personnel. In August 2006 Italy deployed about 2,450 troops in Lebanon for the United Nations' peacekeeping mission UNIFIL. Italy is one of the largest financiers of the Palestinian National Authority, contributing €60 million in 2013 alone. The Italian Army, Navy, Air Force and Carabinieri collectively form the Italian Armed Forces, under the command of the Supreme Defence Council, presided over by the President of Italy. Since 2005, military service is voluntary. In 2010, the Italian military had 293,202 personnel on active duty, of which 114,778 are Carabinieri. Total Italian military spending in 2010 ranked tenth in the world, standing at $35.8 billion, equal to 1.7% of national GDP. As part of NATO's nuclear sharing strategy Italy also hosts 90 United States B61 nuclear bombs, located in the Ghedi and Aviano air bases. The Italian Army is the national ground defence force, numbering 109,703 in 2008. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter, in the last years deployed in EU, NATO and UN missions. It also has at its disposal many Leopard 1 and M113 armoured vehicles. The Italian Navy in 2008 had 35,200 active personnel with 85 commissioned ships and 123 aircraft. It is a blue-water navy. In modern times the Italian Navy, being a member of the EU and NATO, has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations around the world. The Italian Air Force in 2008 had a strength of 43,882 and operated 585 aircraft, including 219 combat jets and 114 helicopters. A transport capability is guaranteed by a fleet of 27 C-130Js and C-27J Spartan. An autonomous corps of the military, the Carabinieri are the gendarmerie and military police of Italy, policing the military and civilian population alongside Italy's other police forces. While the different branches of the Carabinieri report to separate ministries for each of their individual functions, the corps reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs when maintaining public order and security. Italy is constituted by 20 regions ("regioni")—five of these regions having a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on additional matters, 107 provinces ("province") or metropolitan cities ("città metropolitane"), and 7,960 municipalities ("comuni"). Italy has a major advanced capitalist mixed economy, ranking as the third-largest in the Eurozone and the eighth-largest in the world. A founding member of the G7, the Eurozone and the OECD, it is regarded as one of the world's most industrialised nations and a leading country in world trade and exports. It is a highly developed country, with the world's 8th highest quality of life in 2005 and the 26th Human Development Index. The country is well known for its creative and innovative business, a large and competitive agricultural sector (with the world's largest wine production), and for its influential and high-quality automobile, machinery, food, design and fashion industry. Italy is the world's sixth largest manufacturing country, characterised by a smaller number of global multinational corporations than other economies of comparable size and many dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, notoriously clustered in several industrial districts, which are the backbone of the Italian industry. This has produced a manufacturing sector often focused on the export of niche market and luxury products, that if on one side is less capable to compete on the quantity, on the other side is more capable of facing the competition from China and other emerging Asian economies based on lower labour costs, with higher quality products. Italy was the world's 7th largest exporter in 2016. Its closest trade ties are with the other countries of the European Union, with whom it conducts about 59% of its total trade. Its largest EU trade partners, in order of market share, are Germany (12.9%), France (11.4%), and Spain (7.4%). The automotive industry is a significant part of the Italian manufacturing sector, with over 144,000 firms and almost 485,000 employed people in 2015, and a contribution of 8.5% to Italian GDP. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles or FCA is currently the world's seventh-largest auto maker. The country boasts a wide range of acclaimed products, from very compact city cars to luxury supercars such as Maserati, Lamborghini, and Ferrari, which was rated the world's most powerful brand by Brand Finance. Italy is part of the European single market which represents more than 500 million consumers. Several domestic commercial policies are determined by agreements among European Union (EU) members and by EU legislation. Italy introduced the common European currency, the Euro in 2002. It is a member of the Eurozone which represents around 330 million citizens. Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank. Italy has been hit hard by the Financial crisis of 2007–08, that exacerbated the country's structural problems. Effectively, after a strong GDP growth of 5–6% per year from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and a progressive slowdown in the 1980-90s, the country virtually stagnated in the 2000s. The political efforts to revive growth with massive government spending eventually produced a severe rise in public debt, that stood at over 131.8% of GDP in 2017, ranking second in the EU only after the Greek one. For all that, the largest chunk of Italian public debt is owned by national subjects, a major difference between Italy and Greece, and the level of household debt is much lower than the OECD average. A gaping North–South divide is a major factor of socio-economic weakness. It can be noted by the huge difference in statistical income between the northern and southern regions and municipalities. The richest province, Alto Adige-South Tyrol, earns 152% of the national GDP per capita, while the poorest region, Calabria, 61%. The unemployment rate (11.1%) stands slightly above the Eurozone average, but the disaggregated figure is 6.6% in the North and 19.2% in the South. The youth unemployment rate (31.7% in March 2018) is extremely high compared to EU standards. Italy has a strong cooperative sector, with the largest share of the population (4.5%) employed by a cooperative in the EU. According to the last national agricultural census, there were 1.6 million farms in 2010 (−32.4% since 2000) covering 12.7 million hectares (63% of which are located in Southern Italy). The vast majority (99%) are family-operated and small, averaging only 8 hectares in size. Of the total surface area in agricultural use (forestry excluded), grain fields take up 31%, olive tree orchards 8.2%, vineyards 5.4%, citrus orchards 3.8%, sugar beets 1.7%, and horticulture 2.4%. The remainder is primarily dedicated to pastures (25.9%) and feed grains (11.6%). Italy is the world's largest wine producer, and one of the leading in olive oil, fruits (apples, olives, grapes, oranges, lemons, pears, apricots, hazelnuts, peaches, cherries, plums, strawberries and kiwifruits), and vegetables (especially artichokes and tomatoes). The most famous Italian wines are probably the Tuscan Chianti and the Piedmontese Barolo. Other famous wines are Barbaresco, Barbera d'Asti, Brunello di Montalcino, Frascati, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Morellino di Scansano, and the sparkling wines Franciacorta and Prosecco. Quality goods in which Italy specialises, particularly the already mentioned wines and regional cheeses, are often protected under the quality assurance labels DOC/DOP. This geographical indication certificate, which is attributed by the European Union, is considered important in order to avoid confusion with low-quality mass-produced ersatz products. In 2004 the transport sector in Italy generated a turnover of about 119.4 billion euros, employing 935,700 persons in 153,700 enterprises. Regarding the national road network, in 2002 there were of serviceable roads in Italy, including of motorways, state-owned but privately operated by Atlantia. In 2005, about 34,667,000 passenger cars (590 cars per 1,000 people) and 4,015,000 goods vehicles circulated on the national road network. The national railway network, state-owned and operated by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (FSI), in 2008 totalled of which is electrified, and on which 4,802 locomotives and railcars run. The main public operator of high-speed trains is Trenitalia, part of FSI. Higher-speed trains are divided into three categories: Frecciarossa () trains operate at a maximum speed of 300 km/h on dedicated high-speed tracks; Frecciargento () trains operate at a maximum speed of 250 km/h on both high-speed and mainline tracks; and Frecciabianca () trains operate on high-speed regional lines at a maximum speed of 200 km/h. Italy has 11 rail border crossings over the Alpine mountains with its neighbouring countries. Italy is one of the countries with the most vehicles per capita, with 690 per 1000 people in 2010. The national inland waterways network comprised of navigable rivers and channels for various types of commercial traffic in 2012. Italy's largest airline is Alitalia, which serves 97 destinations (as of October 2019) and also operates a regional subsidiary under the Alitalia CityLiner brand. The country also has regional airlines (such as Air Dolomiti), low-cost carriers, and Charter and leisure carriers (including Neos, Blue Panorama Airlines and Poste Air Cargo. Major Italian cargo operators are Alitalia Cargo and Cargolux Italia. Italy is the fifth in Europe by number of passengers by air transport, with about 148 million passengers or about 10% of the European total in 2011. In 2012 there were 130 airports in Italy, including the two hubs of Malpensa International in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci International in Rome. In 2004 there were 43 major seaports, including the seaport of Genoa, the country's largest and second largest in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2005 Italy maintained a civilian air fleet of about 389,000 units and a merchant fleet of 581 ships. Italy does not invest enough to maintain its drinking water supply. The Galli Law, passed in 1993, aimed at raising the level of investment and to improve service quality by consolidating service providers, making them more efficient and increasing the level of cost recovery through tariff revenues. Despite these reforms, investment levels have declined and remain far from sufficient. Eni, with operations in 79 countries, is one of the seven "Supermajor" oil companies in the world, and one of the world's largest industrial companies. Moderate natural gas reserves, mainly in the Po Valley and offshore Adriatic Sea, have been discovered in recent years and constitute the country's most important mineral resource. Italy is one of the world's leading producers of pumice, pozzolana, and feldspar. Another notable mineral resource is marble, especially the world-famous white Carrara marble from the Massa and Carrara quarries in Tuscany. Italy needs to import about 80% of its energy requirements. In the last decade, Italy has become one of the world's largest producers of renewable energy, ranking as the second largest producer in the European Union and the ninth in the world. Wind power, hydroelectricity, and geothermal power are also important sources of electricity in the country. Renewable sources account for the 27.5% of all electricity produced in Italy, with hydro alone reaching 12.6%, followed by solar at 5.7%, wind at 4.1%, bioenergy at 3.5%, and geothermal at 1.6%. The rest of the national demand is covered by fossil fuels (38.2% natural gas, 13% coal, 8.4% oil) and by imports. Solar energy production alone accounted for almost 9% of the total electric production in the country in 2014, making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world. The Montalto di Castro Photovoltaic Power Station, completed in 2010, is the largest photovoltaic power station in Italy with 85 MW. Other examples of large PV plants in Italy are San Bellino (70.6 MW), Cellino san Marco (42.7 MW) and Sant’ Alberto (34.6 MW). Italy was also the first country to exploit geothermal energy to produce electricity. Italy has managed four nuclear reactors until the 1980s. However, nuclear power in Italy has been abandoned following a 1987 referendum (in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Soviet Ukraine). The national power company Enel operates several nuclear reactors in Spain, Slovakia and France, managing it to access nuclear power and direct involvement in design, construction, and operation of the plants without placing reactors on Italian territory. Through the centuries, Italy has fostered the scientific community that produced many major discoveries in physics and the other sciences. During the Renaissance Italian polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) made important contributions to a variety of fields, including biology, architecture, and engineering. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), a physicist, mathematician and astronomer, played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include key improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and ultimately the triumph of Copernicanism over the Ptolemaic model. Other astronomers suchs as Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625–1712) and Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835–1910) made many important discoveries about the Solar System. In mathematics, Joseph Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia, 1736–1813) was active before leaving Italy. Fibonacci (c. 1170 – c. 1250), and Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576) made fundamental advances in mathematics. Luca Pacioli established accounting to the world. Physicist Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), a Nobel prize laureate, led the team in Chicago that developed the first nuclear reactor and is also noted for his many other contributions to physics, including the co-development of the quantum theory and was one of the key figures in the creation of the nuclear weapon. He, Emilio G. Segrè (1905–1989) who discovered the elements technetium and astatine, and the antiproton), Bruno Rossi (1905–1993) a pioneer in Cosmic Rays and X-ray astronomy) and a number of Italian physicists were forced to leave Italy in the 1930s by Fascist laws against Jews. Other prominent physicists include: Amedeo Avogadro (most noted for his contributions to molecular theory, in particular the Avogadro's law and the Avogadro constant), Evangelista Torricelli (inventor of barometer), Alessandro Volta (inventor of electric battery), Guglielmo Marconi (inventor of radio), Galileo Ferraris and Antonio Pacinotti, pioneers of the induction motor, Alessandro Cruto, pioneer of light bulb and Innocenzo Manzetti, eclectic pioneer of auto and robotics, Ettore Majorana (who discovered the Majorana fermions), Carlo Rubbia (1984 Nobel Prize in Physics for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN). Antonio Meucci is known for developing a voice-communication device which is often credited as the first telephone. Pier Giorgio Perotto in 1964 designed one of the first desktop programmable calculators, the Programma 101. In biology, Francesco Redi has been the first to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies and he described 180 parasites in details and Marcello Malpighi founded microscopic anatomy, Lazzaro Spallanzani conducted important research in bodily functions, animal reproduction, and cellular theory, Camillo Golgi, whose many achievements include the discovery of the Golgi complex, paved the way to the acceptance of the Neuron doctrine, Rita Levi-Montalcini discovered the nerve growth factor (awarded 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine). In chemistry, Giulio Natta received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 for his work on high polymers. Giuseppe Occhialini received the Wolf Prize in Physics for the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay in 1947. Ennio de Giorgi, a Wolf Prize in Mathematics recipient in 1990, solved Bernstein's problem about minimal surfaces and the 19th Hilbert problem on the regularity of solutions of Elliptic partial differential equations. Italy is the fifth most visited country in the world, with a total of 52.3 million international arrivals in 2016. The total contribution of travel & tourism to GDP (including wider effects from investment, the supply chain and induced income impacts) was EUR162.7bn in 2014 (10.1% of GDP) and generated 1,082,000 jobs directly in 2014 (4.8% of total employment). Italy is well known for its cultural and environmental tourist routes and is home to 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the most in the world. Rome is the 3rd most visited city in Europe and the 12th in the world, with 9.4 million arrivals in 2017 while Milan is the 27th worldwide with 6.8 million tourists. In addition, Venice and Florence are also among the world's top 100 destinations. At the beginning of 2020, Italy had 60,317,116 inhabitants. The resulting population density, at , is higher than that of most Western European countries. However, the distribution of the population is widely uneven. The most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (that accounts for almost a half of the national population) and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, while vast regions such as the Alps and Apennines highlands, the plateaus of Basilicata and the island of Sardinia are very sparsely populated. The population of Italy almost doubled during the 20th century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven because of large-scale internal migration from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North, a phenomenon which happened as a consequence of the Italian economic miracle of the 1950–1960s. High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they started to decline. The population rapidly aged; by 2010, one in five Italians was over 65 years old, and the country currently has the fifth oldest population in the world, with a median age of 45.8 years. However, in recent years Italy has experienced significant growth in birth rates. The total fertility rate has also climbed from an all-time low of 1.18 children per woman in 1995 to 1.41 in 2008, albeit still below the replacement rate of 2.1 and considerably below the high of 5.06 children born per woman in 1883. Nevertheless, the total fertility rate is expected to reach 1.6–1.8 in 2030. From the late 19th century until the 1960s Italy was a country of mass emigration. Between 1898 and 1914, the peak years of Italian diaspora, approximately 750,000 Italians emigrated each year. The diaspora concerned more than 25 million Italians and it is considered the biggest mass migration of contemporary times. As a result, today more than 4.1 million Italian citizens are living abroad, while at least 60 million people of full or part Italian ancestry live outside of Italy, most notably in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, the United States, Canada, Australia and France. Source: In 2016, Italy had about 5.05 million foreign residents, making up 8.3% of the total population. The figures include more than half a million children born in Italy to foreign nationals (second generation immigrants) but exclude foreign nationals who have subsequently acquired Italian citizenship; in 2016, about 201,000 people became Italian citizens, compared to 130,000 in 2014. The official figures also exclude illegal immigrants, who estimated to number at least 670,000 as of 2008. Starting from the early 1980s, until then a linguistically and culturally homogeneous society, Italy begun to attract substantial flows of foreign immigrants. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and, more recently, the 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the European Union, large waves of migration originated from the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe (especially Romania, Albania, Ukraine and Poland). An equally important source of immigration is neighbouring North Africa (in particular, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia), with soaring arrivals as a consequence of the Arab Spring. Furthermore, in recent years, growing migration fluxes from Asia-Pacific (notably China and the Philippines) and Latin America have been recorded. Currently, about one million Romanian citizens (around 10% of them being ethnic Romani people) are officially registered as living in Italy, representing thus the most important individual country of origin, followed by Albanians and Moroccans with about 500,000 people each. The number of unregistered Romanians is difficult to estimate, but the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network suggested in 2007 that there might have been half a million or more. As of 2010, the foreign born population of Italy was from the following regions: Europe (54%), Africa (22%), Asia (16%), the Americas (8%) and Oceania (0.06%). The distribution of immigrants is largely uneven in Italy: 87% live in the northern and central parts of the country (the most economically developed areas), while only 13% live in the southern half. Italy's official language is Italian, as stated by the framework law no. 482/1999 and Trentino Alto-Adige's special Statute, which is adopted with a constitutional law. There are an estimated 64 million native Italian speakers and another 21 million who use it as a second language. Italian is often natively spoken in a regional variety, not to be confused with Italy's regional and minority languages; however, the establishment of a national education system led to a decrease in variation in the languages spoken across the country during the 20th century. Standardisation was further expanded in the 1950s and 1960s due to economic growth and the rise of mass media and television (the state broadcaster RAI helped set a standard Italian). Twelve "historical minority languages" ("minoranze linguistiche storiche") are formally recognised: Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian. Four of these also enjoy a co-official status in their respective region: French in the Aosta Valley; German in South Tyrol, and Ladin as well in some parts of the same province and in parts of the neighbouring Trentino; and Slovene in the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Udine. A number of other Ethnologue, ISO and UNESCO languages are not recognised by Italian law. Like France, Italy has signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but has not ratified it. Because of recent immigration, Italy has sizeable populations whose native language is not Italian, nor a regional language. According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, Romanian is the most common mother tongue among foreign residents in Italy: almost 800,000 people speak Romanian as their first language (21.9% of the foreign residents aged 6 and over). Other prevalent mother tongues are Arabic (spoken by over 475,000 people; 13.1% of foreign residents), Albanian (380,000 people) and Spanish (255,000 people). In 2017, the proportion of Italians who identified themselves as Roman Catholic Christians was 74.4%. Since 1985, it is no longer officially the state religion. The Holy See, the episcopal jurisdiction of Rome, contains the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. It is recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, who is also the Bishop of Rome, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. Often incorrectly referred to as "the Vatican", the Holy See is not the same entity as the Vatican City State, which came into existence only in 1929. In 2011, minority Christian faiths in Italy included an estimated 1.5 million Orthodox Christians, or 2.5% of the population; 500,000 Pentecostals and Evangelicals (of whom 400,000 are members of the Assemblies of God), 251,192 Jehovah's Witnesses, 30,000 Waldensians, 25,000 Seventh-day Adventists, 26,925 Latter-day Saints, 15,000 Baptists (plus some 5,000 Free Baptists), 7,000 Lutherans, 4,000 Methodists (affiliated with the Waldensian Church). One of the longest-established minority religious faiths in Italy is Judaism, Jews having been present in Ancient Rome since before the birth of Christ. Italy has for centuries welcomed Jews expelled from other countries, notably Spain. However, about 20% of Italian Jews were killed during the Holocaust. This, together with the emigration that preceded and followed World War II, has left only around 28,400 Jews in Italy. Soaring immigration in the last two decades has been accompanied by an increase in non-Christian faiths. There are more than 800,000 followers of faiths originating in the Indian subcontinent with some 70,000 Sikhs with 22 gurdwaras across the country. The Italian state, as a measure to protect religious freedom, devolves shares of income tax to recognised religious communities, under a regime known as Eight per thousand. Donations are allowed to Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu communities; however, Islam remains excluded, since no Muslim communities have yet signed a concordat with the Italian state. Taxpayers who do not wish to fund a religion contribute their share to the state welfare system. Education in Italy is free and mandatory from ages six to sixteen, and consists of five stages: kindergarten ("scuola dell'infanzia"), primary school ("scuola primaria"), lower secondary school ("scuola secondaria di primo grado", upper secondary school ("scuola secondaria di secondo grado") and university ("università"). Primary education lasts eight years. Students are given a basic education in Italian, English, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, social studies, physical education and visual and musical arts. Secondary education lasts for five years and includes three traditional types of schools focused on different academic levels: the "liceo" prepares students for university studies with a classical or scientific curriculum, while the "istituto tecnico" and the "Istituto professionale" prepare pupils for vocational education. In 2012, the Italian secondary education was evaluated as slightly below the OECD average, with a strong and steady improvement in science and mathematics results since 2003; however, a wide gap exists between northern schools, which performed significantly better than the national average (among the best in the world in some subjects), and schools in the South, that had much poorer results. Tertiary education in Italy is divided between public universities, private universities and the prestigious and selective superior graduate schools, such as the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 33 Italian universities were ranked among the world's top 500 in 2019, the third-largest number in Europe after the United Kingdom and Germany. Bologna University, founded in 1088, is the oldest university in continuous operation, as well as one of the leading academic institutions in Italy and Europe. The Bocconi University, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, LUISS, Polytechnic University of Turin, Polytechnic University of Milan, Sapienza University of Rome, and University of Milan are also ranked among the best in the world. The Italian state runs a universal public healthcare system since 1978. However, healthcare is provided to all citizens and residents by a mixed public-private system. The public part is the "Servizio Sanitario Nazionale", which is organised under the Ministry of Health and administered on a devolved regional basis. Healthcare spending in Italy accounted for 9.2% of the national GDP in 2012, very close the OECD countries' average of 9.3%. Italy in 2000 ranked as having the world's 2nd best healthcare system, and the world's 2nd best healthcare performance. Life expectancy in Italy is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing the country 5th in the world for life expectancy. In comparison to other Western countries, Italy has a relatively low rate of adult obesity (below 10%), as there are several health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. The proportion of daily smokers was 22% in 2012, down from 24.4% in 2000 but still slightly above the OECD average. Smoking in public places including bars, restaurants, night clubs and offices has been restricted to specially ventilated rooms since 2005. In 2013, UNESCO added the Mediterranean diet to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of Italy (promoter), Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Croatia. Divided by politics and geography for centuries until its eventual unification in 1861, Italy's culture has been shaped by a multitude of regional customs and local centres of power and patronage. Italy has had a central role in Western culture for centuries and is still recognised for its cultural traditions and artists. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a number of magnificent courts competed for attracting the best architects, artists and scholars, thus producing a great legacy of monuments, paintings, music and literature. Despite the political and social isolation of these courts, Italy's contribution to the cultural and historical heritage of Europe and the world remain immense. Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites (55) than any other country in the world, and has rich collections of art, culture and literature from many periods. The country has had a broad cultural influence worldwide, also because numerous Italians emigrated to other places during the Italian diaspora. Furthermore, Italy has, overall, an estimated 100,000 monuments of any sort (museums, palaces, buildings, statues, churches, art galleries, villas, fountains, historic houses and archaeological remains), and according to some estimates the nation is home to half the world's great art treasures. Italy is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of arches, domes and similar structures during ancient Rome, the founding of the Renaissance architectural movement in the late-14th to 16th centuries, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world, notably in the UK, Australia and the US during the late 17th to early 20th centuries. Along with pre-historic architecture, the first people in Italy to truly begin a sequence of designs were the Greeks and the Etruscans, progressing to classical Roman, then to the revival of the classical Roman era during the Renaissance and evolving into the Baroque era. The Christian concept of a Basilica, a style of church architecture that came to dominate the early Middle Ages, was invented in Rome. They were known for being long, rectangular buildings, which were built in an almost ancient Roman style, often rich in mosaics and decorations. The early Christians' art and architecture was also widely inspired by that of the pagan Romans; statues, mosaics and paintings decorated all their churches. The first significant buildings in the medieval Romanesque style were churches built in Italy during the 800's. Byzantine architecture was also widely diffused in Italy. The Byzantines kept Roman principles of architecture and art alive, and the most famous structure from this period is the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. The Romanesque movement, which went from approximately 800 AD to 1100 AD, was one of the most fruitful and creative periods in Italian architecture, when several masterpieces, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the Piazza dei Miracoli, and the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan were built. It was known for its usage of the Roman arches, stained glass windows, and also its curved columns which commonly featured in cloisters. The main innovation of Italian Romanesque architecture was the vault, which had never been seen before in the history of Western architecture. The greatest flowering of Italian architecture took place during the Renaissance. Filippo Brunelleschi made great contributions to architectural design with his dome for the Cathedral of Florence, a feat of engineering that had not been accomplished since antiquity. A popular achievement of Italian Renaissance architecture was St. Peter's Basilica, originally designed by Donato Bramante in the early 16th century. Also, Andrea Palladio influenced architects throughout western Europe with the villas and palaces he designed in the middle and late 16th century; the city of Vicenza, with its twenty-three buildings designed by Palladio, and twenty-four Palladian Villas of the Veneto are listed by UNESCO as part of a World Heritage Site named City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. The Baroque period produced several outstanding Italian architects in the 17th century, especially known for their churches. The most original work of all late Baroque and Rococo architecture is the Palazzina di caccia di Stupinigi, dating back to the 18th century. Luigi Vanvitelli began in 1752 the construction of the Royal Palace of Caserta. In this large complex, the grandiose Baroque style interiors and gardens are opposed to a more sober building envelope. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries Italy was affected by the Neoclassical architectural movement. Everything from villas, palaces, gardens, interiors and art began to be based on Roman and Greek themes. During the Fascist period, the so-called "Novecento movement" flourished, based on the rediscovery of imperial Rome, with figures such as Gio Ponti and Giovanni Muzio. Marcello Piacentini, responsible for the urban transformations of several cities in Italy and remembered for the disputed Via della Conciliazione in Rome, devised a form of simplified Neoclassicism. The history of Italian visual arts is significant to the history of Western painting. Roman art was influenced by Greece and can in part be taken as a descendant of ancient Greek painting. Roman painting does have its own unique characteristics. The only surviving Roman paintings are wall paintings, many from villas in Campania, in Southern Italy. Such paintingS can be grouped into four main "styles" or periods and may contain the first examples of trompe-l'œil, pseudo-perspective, and pure landscape. Panel painting becomes more common during the Romanesque period, under the heavy influence of Byzantine icons. Towards the middle of the 13th century, Medieval art and Gothic painting became more realistic, with the beginnings of interest in the depiction of volume and perspective in Italy with Cimabue and then his pupil Giotto. From Giotto onwards, the treatment of composition by the best painters also became much more free and innovative. The two are considered to be the two great medieval masters of painting in western culture. The Italian Renaissance is said by many to be the golden age of painting; roughly spanning the 14th through the mid-17th centuries with a significant influence also out of the borders of modern Italy. In Italy artists like Paolo Uccello, Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian took painting to a higher level through the use of perspective, the study of human anatomy and proportion, and through their development of an unprecedented refinement in drawing and painting techniques. Michelangelo was an active sculptor from about 1500 to 1520, and his great masterpieces including his "David", "Pietà", "Moses". Other prominent Renaissance sculptors include Lorenzo Ghiberti, Luca Della Robbia, Donatello, Filippo Brunelleschi and Andrea del Verrocchio. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the High Renaissance gave rise to a stylised art known as Mannerism. In place of the balanced compositions and rational approach to perspective that characterised art at the dawn of the 16th century, the Mannerists sought instability, artifice, and doubt. The unperturbed faces and gestures of Piero della Francesca and the calm Virgins of Raphael are replaced by the troubled expressions of Pontormo and the emotional intensity of El Greco. In the 17th century, among the greatest painters of Italian Baroque are Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Mattia Preti, Carlo Saraceni and Bartolomeo Manfredi. Subsequently, in the 18th century, Italian Rococo was mainly inspired by French Rococo, since France was the founding nation of that particular style, with artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Canaletto. Italian Neoclassical sculpture focused, with Antonio Canova's nudes, on the idealist aspect of the movement. In the 19th century, major Italian Romantic painters were Francesco Hayez, Giuseppe Bezzuoli and Francesco Podesti. Impressionism was brought from France to Italy by the "Macchiaioli", led by Giovanni Fattori, and Giovanni Boldini; Realism by Gioacchino Toma and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo. In the 20th century, with Futurism, primarily through the works of Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla, Italy rose again as a seminal country for artistic evolution in painting and sculpture. Futurism was succeeded by the metaphysical paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, who exerted a strong influence on the Surrealists and generations of artists to follow like Bruno Caruso and Renato Guttuso. Formal Latin literature began in 240 BC, when the first stage play was performed in Rome. Latin literature was, and still is, highly influential in the world, with numerous writers, poets, philosophers, and historians, such as Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Ovid and Livy. The Romans were also famous for their oral tradition, poetry, drama and epigrams. In early years of the 13th century, St. Francis of Assisi was considered the first Italian poet by literary critics, with his religious song "Canticle of the Sun". Another Italian voice originated in Sicily. At the court of Emperor Frederick II, who ruled the Sicilian kingdom during the first half of the 13th century, lyrics modelled on Provençal forms and themes were written in a refined version of the local vernacular. The most important of these poets was the notary Giacomo da Lentini, inventor of the sonnet form, though the most famous early sonneteer was Petrarch. Guido Guinizelli is considered the founder of the "Dolce Stil Novo", a school that added a philosophical dimension to traditional love poetry. This new understanding of love, expressed in a smooth, pure style, influenced Guido Cavalcanti and the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, who established the basis of the modern Italian language; his greatest work, the "Divine Comedy", is considered among the foremost literary statements produced in Europe during the Middle Ages; furthermore, the poet invented the difficult "terza rima". The two great writers of the 14th century, Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio, sought out and imitated the works of antiquity and cultivated their own artistic personalities. Petrarch achieved fame through his collection of poems, "Il Canzoniere". Petrarch's love poetry served as a model for centuries. Equally influential was Boccaccio's "The Decameron", one of the most popular collections of short stories ever written. Italian Renaissance authors produced a number of important works. Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Prince" is one of the world's most famous essays on political science and modern philosophy, in which the "effectual truth" is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. Another important work of the period, Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance "Orlando Innamorato", is perhaps the greatest chivalry poem ever written. Baldassare Castiglione's dialogue "The Book of the Courtier" describes the ideal of the perfect court gentleman and of spiritual beauty. The lyric poet Torquato Tasso in "Jerusalem Delivered" wrote a Christian epic, making use of the "ottava rima", with attention to the Aristotelian canons of unity. Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, which have written "The Facetious Nights of Straparola" (1550–1555) and the "Pentamerone" (1634) respectively, printed some of the first known versions of fairy tales in Europe. In the early 17th century, some literary masterpieces were created, such as Giambattista Marino's long mythological poem, "L'Adone". The Baroque period also produced the clear scientific prose of Galileo as well as Tommaso Campanella's "The City of the Sun", a description of a perfect society ruled by a philosopher-priest. At the end of the 17th century, the Arcadians began a movement to restore simplicity and classical restraint to poetry, as in Metastasio's heroic melodramas. In the 18th century, playwright Carlo Goldoni created full written plays, many portraying the middle class of his day. The Romanticism coincided with some ideas of the "Risorgimento", the patriotic movement that brought Italy political unity and freedom from foreign domination. Italian writers embraced Romanticism in the early 19th century. The time of Italy's rebirth was heralded by the poets Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, and Giacomo Leopardi. The works by Alessandro Manzoni, the leading Italian Romantic, are a symbol of the Italian unification for their patriotic message and because of his efforts in the development of the modern, unified Italian language; his novel "The Betrothed" was the first Italian historical novel to glorify Christian values of justice and Providence, and it has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language. In the late 19th century, a realistic literary movement called "Verismo" played a major role in Italian literature; Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana were its main exponents. In the same period, Emilio Salgari, writer of action adventure swashbucklers and a pioneer of science fiction, published his "Sandokan" series. In 1883, Carlo Collodi also published the novel "The Adventures of Pinocchio", the most celebrated children's classic by an Italian author and the most translated non-religious book in the world. A movement called Futurism influenced Italian literature in the early 20th century. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote "Manifesto of Futurism", called for the use of language and metaphors that glorified the speed, dynamism, and violence of the machine age. Modern literary figures and Nobel laureates are Gabriele D'Annunzio from 1889 to 1910, nationalist poet Giosuè Carducci in 1906, realist writer Grazia Deledda in 1926, modern theatre author Luigi Pirandello in 1936, short stories writer Italo Calvino in 1960, poets Salvatore Quasimodo in 1959 and Eugenio Montale in 1975, Umberto Eco in 1980, and satirist and theatre author Dario Fo in 1997. Over the ages, Italian philosophy and literature had a vast influence on Western philosophy, beginning with the Greeks and Romans, and going onto Renaissance humanism, the Age of Enlightenment and modern philosophy. Philosophy was brought to Italy by Pythagoras, founder of the Italian school of philosophy in Crotone. Major Italian philosophers of the Greek period include Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles and Gorgias. Roman philosophers include Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca the Younger, Musonius Rufus, Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Clement of Alexandria, Sextus Empiricus, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Augustine of Hippo, Philoponus of Alexandria and Boethius. Italian Medieval philosophy was mainly Christian, and included several important philosophers and theologians such as St Thomas Aquinas, the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism, who reintroduced Aristotelian philosophy to Christianity. Notable Renaissance philosophers include: Giordano Bruno, one of the major scientific figures of the western world; Marsilio Ficino, one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the period; and Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the main founders of modern political science. Machiavelli's most famous work was "The Prince", whose contribution to the history of political thought is the fundamental break between political realism and political idealism. Italy was also affected by the Enlightenment, a movement which was a consequence of the Renaissance. Cities with important universities such as Padua, Bologna and Naples remained great centres of scholarship and the intellect, with several philosophers such as Giambattista Vico (who is widely regarded as being the founder of modern Italian philosophy) and Antonio Genovesi. Cesare Beccaria was also one of the greatest Italian Enlightenment writers and is now considered one of the fathers of classical criminal theory as well as modern penology. Beccaria is famous for his "On Crimes and Punishments" (1764), a treatise that served as one of the earliest prominent condemnations of torture and the death penalty and thus a landmark work in anti-death penalty philosophy. Italy also had a renowned philosophical movement in the 1800s, with Idealism, Sensism and Empiricism. The main Sensist Italian philosophers were Melchiorre Gioja and Gian Domenico Romagnosi. Criticism of the Sensist movement came from other philosophers such as Pasquale Galluppi (1770–1846), who affirmed that "a priori" relationships were synthetic. Antonio Rosmini, instead, was the founder of Italian Idealism. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, there were also several other movements which gained some form of popularity in Italy, such as Ontologism (whose main philosopher was Vincenzo Gioberti), anarchism, communism, socialism, futurism, fascism and Christian democracy. Giovanni Gentile and Benedetto Croce were two of the most significant 20th-century Idealist philosophers. Anarcho-communism first fully formed into its modern strain within the Italian section of the First International. Antonio Gramsci remains an important philosopher within Marxist and communist theory, credited with creating the theory of cultural hegemony. Italian philosophers were also influential in the development of the non-Marxist liberal socialism philosophy, including Carlo Rosselli, Norberto Bobbio, Piero Gobetti and Aldo Capitini. In the 1960s, many Italian left-wing activists adopted the anti-authoritarian pro-working class leftist theories that would become known as autonomism and "operaismo". Early and important Italian feminists include Sibilla Aleramo, Alaide Gualberta Beccari, and Anna Maria Mozzoni, though proto-feminist philosophies had previously been touched upon by earlier Italian writers such as Christine de Pizan, Moderata Fonte, and Lucrezia Marinella. Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori is credited with the creation of the philosophy of education that bears her name, an educational philosophy now practiced throughout the world. Giuseppe Peano was one of the founders of analytic philosophy and contemporary philosophy of mathematics. Recent analytic philosophers include Carlo Penco, Gloria Origgi, Pieranna Garavaso and Luciano Floridi. Italian theatre can be traced back to the Roman tradition. The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BCE had a profound and energising effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. As with many other literary genres, Roman dramatists was heavily influenced or tended to adapt from the Greek. For example, Seneca's "Phaedra" was based on that of Euripides, and many of the comedies of Plautus were direct translations of works by Menander. During the 16th century and on into the 18th century, Commedia dell'arte was a form of improvisational theatre, and it is still performed today. Travelling troupes of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics and, more typically, humorous plays based on a repertoire of established characters with a rough storyline, called "canovaccio". Plays did not originate from written drama but from scenarios called lazzi, which were loose frameworks that provided the situations, complications, and outcome of the action, around which the actors would improvise. The characters of the "commedia" usually represent fixed social types and stock characters, each of which has a distinct costume, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado. The main categories of these characters include servants, old men, lovers, and captains. Carlo Goldoni, who wrote a few scenarios starting in 1734, superseded the comedy of masks and the comedy of intrigue by representations of actual life and manners through the characters and their behaviours. He rightly maintained that Italian life and manners were susceptible of artistic treatment such as had not been given them before. The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples is the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world, opening in 1737, decades before both the Milan's La Scala and Venice's La Fenice theatres. From folk music to classical, music has always played an important role in Italian culture. Instruments associated with classical music, including the piano and violin, were invented in Italy, and many of the prevailing classical music forms, such as the symphony, concerto, and sonata, can trace their roots back to innovations of 16th- and 17th-century Italian music. Italy's most famous composers include the Renaissance composers Palestrina, Monteverdi and Gesualdo, the Baroque composers Scarlatti, Corelli and Vivaldi, the Classical composers Paisiello, Paganini and Rossini, and the Romantic composers Verdi and Puccini. Modern Italian composers such as Berio and Nono proved significant in the development of experimental and electronic music. While the classical music tradition still holds strong in Italy, as evidenced by the fame of its innumerable opera houses, such as "La Scala" of Milan and "San Carlo" of Naples (the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world), and performers such as the pianist Maurizio Pollini and tenor Luciano Pavarotti, Italians have been no less appreciative of their thriving contemporary music scene. Italy is widely known for being the birthplace of opera. Italian opera was believed to have been founded in the early 17th century, in cities such as Mantua and Venice. Later, works and pieces composed by native Italian composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, are among the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in opera houses across the world. La Scala operahouse in Milan is also renowned as one of the best in the world. Famous Italian opera singers include Enrico Caruso and Alessandro Bonci. Introduced in the early 1920s, jazz took a particularly strong foothold in Italy, and remained popular despite the xenophobic cultural policies of the Fascist regime. Today, the most notable centres of jazz music in Italy include Milan, Rome, and Sicily. Later, Italy was at the forefront of the progressive rock and pop movement of the 1970s, with bands like PFM, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme, Goblin, and Pooh. The same period saw diversification in the cinema of Italy, and Cinecittà films included complex scores by composers including Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovaioli, Piero Piccioni and Piero Umiliani. In the early 1980s, the first star to emerge from the Italian hip hop scene was singer Jovanotti. Popular Italian metal bands such as Rhapsody of Fire, Lacuna Coil, Elvenking, Forgotten Tomb, and Fleshgod Apocalypse are also seen as pioneers of various heavy metal subgenres. Italy was also an important country in the development of disco and electronic music, with Italo disco, known for its futuristic sound and prominent use of synthesisers and drum machines, being one of the earliest electronic dance genres, as well as European forms of disco aside from Euro disco (which later went on to influence several genres such as Eurodance and Nu-disco). By circa 1988, the genre had merged into other forms of European dance and electronic music, such as Italo house, which blended elements of Italo disco with traditional house music; its sound was generally uplifting, and made strong usage of piano melodies. Some bands of this genre are Black Box, East Side Beat, and 49ers. By the latter half of the 1990s, a subgenre of Eurodance known as Italo dance emerged. Taking influences from Italo disco and Italo house, Italo dance generally included synthesizer riffs, a melodic sound, and the usage of vocoders. Notable Italian DJs and remixers include Gabry Ponte (member of the group Eiffel 65), Benny Benassi, Gigi D'Agostino, and the trio Tacabro. Producers such as Giorgio Moroder, who won three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes for his music, were highly influential in the development of electronic dance music. Today, Italian pop music is represented annually with the Sanremo Music Festival, which served as inspiration for the Eurovision song contest, and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. Singers such as Mina, Andrea Bocelli, Grammy winner Laura Pausini, Zucchero, Eros Ramazzotti and Tiziano Ferro have attained international acclaim. The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian film was a few seconds, showing Pope Leo XIII giving a blessing to the camera. The Italian film industry was born between 1903 and 1908 with three companies: the Società Italiana Cines, the Ambrosio Film and the Itala Film. Other companies soon followed in Milan and in Naples. In a short time these first companies reached a fair producing quality, and films were soon sold outside Italy. Cinema was later used by Benito Mussolini, who founded Rome's renowned Cinecittà studio for the production of Fascist propaganda until World War II. After the war, Italian film was widely recognised and exported until an artistic decline around the 1980s. Notable Italian film directors from this period include Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni and Roberto Rossellini; some of these are recognised among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Movies include world cinema treasures such as "Bicycle Thieves", "La dolce vita", "8½", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West". The mid-1940s to the early 1950s was the heyday of neorealist films, reflecting the poor condition of post-war Italy. As the country grew wealthier in the 1950s, a form of neorealism known as pink neorealism succeeded, and other film genres, such as sword-and-sandal followed as spaghetti westerns, were popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Actresses such as Sophia Loren, Giulietta Masina and Gina Lollobrigida achieved international stardom during this period. Erotic Italian thrillers, or "giallos", produced by directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento in the 1970s, also influenced the horror genre worldwide. In recent years, the Italian scene has received only occasional international attention, with movies like "Life Is Beautiful" directed by Roberto Benigni, "" with Massimo Troisi and "The Great Beauty" directed by Paolo Sorrentino. The aforementioned Cinecittà studio is today the largest film and television production facility in continental Europe and the centre of the Italian cinema, where many of the biggest box office hits are filmed, and one of the biggest production communities in the world. In the 1950s, the number of international productions being made there led to Rome's being dubbed ""Hollywood on the Tiber"". More than 3,000 productions have been made on its lot, of which 90 received an Academy Award nomination and 47 of these won it, from some cinema classics to recent rewarded features (such as "Roman Holiday", "Ben-Hur", "Cleopatra", "Romeo and Juliet", "The English Patient", "The Passion of the Christ", and "Gangs of New York"). Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 31 nominations. , Italian films have also won 12 Palmes d'Or (the second-most of any country), 11 Golden Lions and 7 Golden Bears. The most popular sport in Italy is football. Italy's national football team is one of the world's most successful teams with four FIFA World Cup victories (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006). Italian clubs have won 48 major European trophies, making Italy the second most successful country in European football. Italy's top-flight club football league is named Serie A and is followed by millions of fans around the world. Other popular team sports in Italy include volleyball, basketball and rugby. Italy's male and female national volleyball teams are often featured among the world's best. The Italian national basketball team's best results were gold at Eurobasket 1983 and EuroBasket 1999, as well as silver at the Olympics in 2004. Lega Basket Serie A is widely considered one of the most competitive in Europe. Rugby union enjoys a good level of popularity, especially in the north of the country. Italy's national team competes in the Six Nations Championship, and is a regular at the Rugby World Cup. Italy ranks as a tier-one nation by World Rugby. The men's volleyball team won three consecutive World Championships (in 1990, 1994, and 1998) and earned the Olympic silver medal in 1996, 2004, and 2016. Italy has a long and successful tradition in individual sports as well. Bicycle racing is a very familiar sport in the country. Italians have won the UCI World Championships more than any other country, except Belgium. The Giro d'Italia is a cycling race held every May, and constitutes one of the three Grand Tours, along with the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, each of which last approximately three weeks. Alpine skiing is also a very widespread sport in Italy, and the country is a popular international skiing destination, known for its ski resorts. Italian skiers achieved good results in Winter Olympic Games, Alpine Ski World Cup, and World Championship. Tennis has a significant following in Italy, ranking as the fourth most practised sport in the country. The Rome Masters, founded in 1930, is one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. Italian professional tennis players won the Davis Cup in 1976 and the Fed Cup in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2013. Motorsports are also extremely popular in Italy. Italy has won, by far, the most MotoGP World Championships. Italian Scuderia Ferrari is the oldest surviving team in Grand Prix racing, having competed since 1948, and statistically the most successful Formula One team in history with a record of 232 wins. Historically, Italy has been successful in the Olympic Games, taking part from the first Olympiad and in 47 Games out of 48. Italian sportsmen have won 522 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 106 at the Winter Olympic Games, for a combined total of 628 medals with 235 golds, which makes them the fifth most successful nation in Olympic history for total medals. The country hosted two Winter Olympics and will host a third (in 1956, 2006, and 2026), and one Summer games (in 1960). Italian fashion has a long tradition, and is regarded as one most important in the world. Milan, Florence and Rome are Italy's main fashion capitals. According to "Top Global Fashion Capital Rankings" 2013 by Global Language Monitor, Rome ranked sixth worldwide when Milan was twelfth. Major Italian fashion labels, such as Gucci, Armani, Prada, Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Fendi, Moschino, Max Mara, Trussardi, and Ferragamo, to name a few, are regarded as among the finest fashion houses in the world. Also, the fashion magazine Vogue Italia, is considered one of the most prestigious fashion magazines in the world. Italy is also prominent in the field of design, notably interior design, architectural design, industrial design and urban design. The country has produced some well-known furniture designers, such as Gio Ponti and Ettore Sottsass, and Italian phrases such as ""Bel Disegno"" and ""Linea Italiana"" have entered the vocabulary of furniture design. Examples of classic pieces of Italian white goods and pieces of furniture include Zanussi's washing machines and fridges, the "New Tone" sofas by Atrium, and the post-modern bookcase by Ettore Sottsass, inspired by Bob Dylan's song "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again". Today, Milan and Turin are the nation's leaders in architectural design and industrial design. The city of Milan hosts Fiera Milano, Europe's largest design fair. Milan also hosts major design and architecture-related events and venues, such as the ""Fuori Salone"" and the Salone del Mobile, and has been home to the designers Bruno Munari, Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni. The Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BC. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, and Jewish. Significant changes occurred with the discovery of the New World with the introduction of items such as potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers and maize, now central to the cuisine but not introduced in quantity until the 18th century. Italian cuisine is noted for its regional diversity, abundance of difference in taste, and is known to be one of the most popular in the world, wielding strong influence abroad. The Mediterranean diet forms the basis of Italian cuisine, rich in pasta, fish, fruits and vegetables and characterised by its extreme simplicity and variety, with many dishes having only four to eight ingredients. Italian cooks rely chiefly on the quality of the ingredients rather than on elaborate preparation. Dishes and recipes are often derivatives from local and familial tradition rather than created by chefs, so many recipes are ideally suited for home cooking, this being one of the main reasons behind the ever-increasing worldwide popularity of Italian cuisine, from America to Asia. Ingredients and dishes vary widely by region. A key factor in the success of Italian cuisine is its heavy reliance on traditional products; Italy has the most traditional specialities protected under EU law. Cheese, cold cuts and wine are a major part of Italian cuisine, with many regional declinations and Protected Designation of Origin or Protected Geographical Indication labels, and along with coffee (especially espresso) make up a very important part of the Italian gastronomic culture. Desserts have a long tradition of merging local flavours such as citrus fruits, pistachio and almonds with sweet cheeses like mascarpone and ricotta or exotic tastes as cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon. Gelato, tiramisù and cassata are among the most famous examples of Italian desserts, cakes and patisserie. Public holidays celebrated in Italy include religious, national and regional observances. Italy's National Day, the "Festa della Repubblica" ("Republic Day") is celebrated on 2 June each year, and commemorates the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. The Saint Lucy's Day, which take place on 13 December, is very popular among children in some Italian regions, where she plays a role similar to Santa Claus. In addition, the Epiphany in Italy is associated with the folkloristic figure of the Befana, a broomstick-riding old woman who, in the night between 5 and 6 January, bringing good children gifts and sweets, and bad ones charcoal or bags of ashes. The Assumption of Mary coincides with "Ferragosto" on 15 August, the summer vacation period which may be a long weekend or most of the month. Each city or town also celebrates a public holiday on the occasion of the festival of the local patron saint, for example: Rome on 29 June (Saints Peter and Paul) and Milan on 7 December (Saint Ambrose). There are many festivals and festivities in Italy. Some of them include the Palio di Siena horse race, Holy Week rites, Saracen Joust of Arezzo, Saint Ubaldo Day in Gubbio, Giostra della Quintana in Foligno, and the Calcio Fiorentino. In 2013, UNESCO has included among the intangible cultural heritage some Italian festivals and pasos (in Italian "macchine a spalla"), such as the Varia di Palmi, the Macchina di Santa Rosa in Viterbo, the Festa dei Gigli in Nola, and "faradda di li candareri" in Sassari. Other festivals include the carnivals in Venice, Viareggio, Satriano di Lucania, Mamoiada, and Ivrea, mostly known for its Battle of the Oranges. The prestigious Venice International Film Festival, awarding the "Golden Lion" and held annually since 1932, is the oldest film festival in the world.

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Italy

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14533

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by area, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity. Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest, unfolding as the language of the "Rigveda", and recording the dawning of Hinduism in India. The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern regions. By 400 BCE, stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism, and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity. Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin. Their collective era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity, but also marked by the declining status of women, and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief. In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia. In the early medieval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism put down roots on India's southern and western coasts. Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains, eventually establishing the Delhi Sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam. In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture in south India. In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion. The Mughal Empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace, leaving a legacy of luminous architecture. Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy, but also consolidating its sovereignty. British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly, but technological changes were introduced, and ideas of education, modernity and the public life took root. A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged, which was noted for nonviolent resistance and became the major factor in ending British rule. In 1947 the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two independent dominions, a Hindu-majority Dominion of India and a Muslim-majority Dominion of Pakistan, amid large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration. India has been a secular federal republic since 1950, governed in a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to 1,211 million in 2011. During the same time, its nominal per capita income increased from US$64 annually to US$1,498, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. From being a comparatively destitute country in 1951, India has become a fast-growing major economy, a hub for information technology services, with an expanding middle class. It has a space programme which includes several planned or completed extraterrestrial missions. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty, though at the cost of increasing economic inequality. India is a nuclear weapons state, which ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th century. Among the socio-economic challenges India faces are gender inequality, child malnutrition, and rising levels of air pollution. India's land is megadiverse, with four biodiversity hotspots. Its forest cover comprises 21.4% of its area. India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in India's culture, is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats. According to the "Oxford English Dictionary" (Third Edition 2009), the name "India" is derived from the Classical Latin "India", a reference to South Asia and an uncertain region to its east; and in turn derived successively from: Hellenistic Greek "India" (" Ἰνδία"); ancient Greek "Indos" (" Ἰνδός"); Old Persian "Hindush", an eastern province of the Achaemenid empire; and ultimately its cognate, the Sanskrit "Sindhu", or "river," specifically the Indus river and, by implication, its well-settled southern basin. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as "Indoi" (""), which translates as "The people of the Indus". The term "Bharat" (; ), mentioned in both Indian epic poetry and the Constitution of India, is used in its variations by many Indian languages. A modern rendering of the historical name "Bharatavarsha", which applied originally to a region of the Gangetic Valley, "Bharat" gained increased currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. "Hindustan" () is a Middle Persian name for India, introduced during the Mughal Empire and used widely since. Its meaning has varied, referring to a region encompassing present-day northern India and Pakistan or to India in its near entirety. By 55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or "Homo sapiens", had arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa, where they had earlier evolved. The earliest known modern human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, and storage of agricultural surplus appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan. These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade. During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labelling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions. In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the "mahajanapadas". The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira. Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India. In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal, and both established long-lasting monastic traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire. The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent except the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas. The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist "dhamma". The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia. In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of administration and taxation in the greater Ganges Plain; this system became a model for later Indian kingdoms. Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion, rather than the management of ritual, began to assert itself. This renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite. Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances. The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan. When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal. When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south. No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region. During this time, pastoral peoples, whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes. The caste system consequently began to show regional differences. In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language. They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent. Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well. Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation. By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java. Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages. After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206. The sultanate was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs. By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north. The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire. Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India, and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards. In the early 16th century, northern India, then under mainly Muslim rulers, fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors. The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule. Instead, it balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status. The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency, caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion, resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture. Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs. By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts. The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies. Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annexe or subdue most of India by the 1820s. India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. Many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period. By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and having effectively been made an arm of British administration, the company began more consciously to enter non-economic arenas like education, social reform, and culture. Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe. However, disaffection with the company also grew during this time and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule. Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest. In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885. The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks and many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets. There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines, and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians. There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption. The railway network provided critical famine relief, notably reduced the cost of moving goods, and helped nascent Indian-owned industry. After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served, a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol. During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections. The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan. Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic. It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press. Economic liberalisation, which began in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban; by religious and caste-related violence; by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies; and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India. It has unresolved territorial disputes with China and with Pakistan. The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998. India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newer nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved. India accounts for the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, a part of the Indo-Australian Plate. India's defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian Plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west, and later, south and south-east. Simultaneously, the vast Tethyan oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian Plate. These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth's mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas. Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Cut off from the plain by the ancient Aravalli Range lies the Thar Desert. The original Indian Plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east. To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats; the plateau contains the country's oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east longitude. India's coastline measures in length; of this distance, belong to peninsular India and to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains. According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.

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Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony or Anthony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from an oligarchy into the autocratic Roman Empire. Antony was a supporter of Julius Caesar, and served as one of his generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War. Antony was appointed administrator of Italy while Caesar eliminated political opponents in Greece, North Africa, and Spain. After Caesar's death in 44 BC, Antony joined forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another of Caesar's generals, and Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, forming a three-man dictatorship known to historians as the Second Triumvirate. The Triumvirs defeated Caesar's murderers, the Liberatores, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, and divided the government of the Republic between themselves. Antony was assigned Rome's eastern provinces, including the client kingdom of Egypt, then ruled by Cleopatra VII Philopator, and was given the command in Rome's war against Parthia. Relations among the triumvirs were strained as the various members sought greater political power. Civil war between Antony and Octavian was averted in 40 BC, when Antony married Octavian's sister, Octavia. Despite this marriage, Antony carried on a love affair with Cleopatra, who bore him three children, further straining Antony's relations with Octavian. Lepidus was expelled from the association in 36 BC, and in 33 BC disagreements between Antony and Octavian caused a split between the remaining Triumvirs. Their ongoing hostility erupted into civil war in 31 BC, as the Roman Senate, at Octavian's direction, declared war on Cleopatra and proclaimed Antony a traitor. Later that year, Antony was defeated by Octavian's forces at the Battle of Actium. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where after a minor victory at the Battle of Alexandria they committed suicide. With Antony dead, Octavian became the undisputed master of the Roman world. In 27 BC, Octavian was granted the title of "Augustus," marking the final stage in the transformation of the Roman Republic into an empire, with himself as the first Roman emperor. A member of the plebeian Antonia gens, Antony was born in Rome on 14 January 83 BC. His father and namesake was Marcus Antonius Creticus, son of the noted orator by the same name who had been murdered during the Marian Terror of the winter of 87–86 BC. His mother was Julia, a third cousin of Julius Caesar. Antony was an infant at the time of Lucius Cornelius Sulla's march on Rome in 82 BC. According to the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, Antony's father was incompetent and corrupt, and was only given power because he was incapable of using or abusing it effectively. In 74 BC he was given military command to defeat the pirates of the Mediterranean, but he died in Crete in 71 BC without making any significant progress. The elder Antony's death left Antony and his brothers, Lucius and Gaius, in the care of their mother, Julia, who later married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, an eminent member of the old Patrician nobility. Lentulus, despite exploiting his political success for financial gain, was constantly in debt due to the extravagance of his lifestyle. He was a major figure in the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy and was summarily executed on the orders of the consul Cicero in 63 BC for his involvement. Antony's early life was characterized by a lack of proper parental guidance. According to the historian Plutarch, he spent his teenage years wandering through Rome with his brothers and friends gambling, drinking, and becoming involved in scandalous love affairs. Antony's contemporary and enemy, Cicero, charged that he had a homosexual relationship with Gaius Scribonius Curio. This form of slander was popular during this time in the Roman Republic to demean and discredit political opponents by accusing them of having an inappropriate sexual affair. There is little reliable information on his political activity as a young man, although it is known that he was an associate of Publius Clodius Pulcher and his street gang. He may also have been involved in the Lupercal cult as he was referred to as a priest of this order later in life. By age twenty, Antony had amassed an enormous debt. Hoping to escape his creditors, Antony fled to Greece in 58 BC, where he studied philosophy and rhetoric at Athens. In 57 BC, Antony joined the military staff of Aulus Gabinius, the Proconsul of Syria, as chief of the cavalry. This appointment marks the beginning of his military career. As consul the previous year, Gabinius had consented to the exile of Cicero by Antony's mentor, Publius Clodius Pulcher. Hyrcanus II, the Roman-supported Hasmonean High Priest of Judea, fled Jerusalem to Gabinius to seek protection against his rival and son-in-law Alexander. Years earlier in 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey had captured him and his father, King Aristobulus II, during his war against the remnant of the Seleucid Empire. Pompey had deposed Aristobulus and installed Hyrcanus as Rome's client ruler over Judea. Antony achieved his first military distinctions after securing important victories at Alexandrium and Machaerus. With the rebellion defeated by 56 BC, Gabinius restored Hyrcanus to his position as High Priest in Judea. The following year, in 55 BC, Gabinius intervened in the political affairs of Ptolemaic Egypt. Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes had been deposed in a rebellion led by his daughter Berenice IV in 58 BC, forcing him to seek asylum in Rome. During Pompey's conquests years earlier, Ptolemy had received the support of Pompey, who named him an ally of Rome. Gabinius' invasion sought to restore Ptolemy to his throne. This was done against the orders of the senate but with the approval of Pompey, then Rome's leading politician, and only after the deposed king provided a 10,000 talent bribe. The Greek historian Plutarch records it was Antony who convinced Gabinius to finally act. After defeating the frontier forces of the Egyptian kingdom, Gabinius' army proceeded to attack the palace guards but they surrendered before a battle commenced. With Ptolemy XII restored as Rome's client king, Gabinius garrisoned two thousand Roman soldiers, later known as the "Gabiniani", in Alexandria to ensure Ptolemy's authority. In return for its support, Rome exercised considerable power over the kingdom's affairs, particularly control of the kingdom's revenues and crop yields. During the campaign in Egypt, Antony first met Cleopatra, the 14-year-old daughter of Ptolemy XII. While Antony was serving Gabinius in the East, the domestic political situation had changed in Rome. In 60 BC, a secret agreement (known as the "First Triumvirate") was entered into between three men to control the Republic: Marcus Licinius Crassus, Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, and Gaius Julius Caesar. Crassus, Rome's wealthiest man, had defeated the slave rebellion of Spartacus in 70 BC; Pompey conquered much of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 60's BC; Caesar was Rome's Pontifex Maximus and a former general in Spain. In 59 BC, Caesar, with funding from Crassus, was elected consul to pursue legislation favourable to Crassus and Pompey's interests. In return, Caesar was assigned the governorship of Illyricum, Cisalpine Gaul, and Transalpine Gaul for five years beginning in 58 BC. Caesar used his governorship as a launching point for his conquest of free Gaul. In 55 BC, Crassus and Pompey served as consuls while Caesar's command was extended for another five years. Rome was effectively under the absolute power of these three men. The Triumvirate used Publius Clodius Pulcher, Antony's patron, to exile their political rivals, notably Cicero and Cato the Younger. During his early military service, Antony married his cousin Antonia Hybrida Minor, the daughter of Gaius Antonius Hybrida. Sometime between 54 and 47 BC, the union produced a single daughter, Antonia Prima. It is unclear if this was Antony's first marriage. Antony's association with Publius Clodius Pulcher allowed him to achieve greater prominence. Clodius, through the influence of his benefactor Marcus Licinius Crassus, had developed a positive political relationship with Julius Caesar. Clodius secured Antony a position on Caesar's military staff in 54 BC, joining his conquest of Gaul. Serving under Caesar, Antony demonstrated excellent military leadership. Despite a temporary alienation later in life, Antony and Caesar developed friendly relations which would continue until Caesar's assassination in 44 BC. Caesar's influence secured greater political advancement for Antony. After a year of service in Gaul, Caesar dispatched Antony to Rome to formally begin his political career, receiving election as quaestor for 52 BC as a member of the Populares faction. Assigned to assist Caesar, Antony returned to Gaul and commanded Caesar's cavalry during his victory at the Battle of Alesia against the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix. Following his year in office, Antony was promoted by Caesar to the rank of Legate and assigned command of two legions (approximately 7,500 total soldiers). Meanwhile, the alliance among Caesar, Pompey and Crassus had effectively ended. Caesar's daughter Julia, who had married Pompey to secure the alliance, died in 54 BC while Crassus was killed at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. Without the stability they provided, the divide between Caesar and Pompey grew ever larger. Caesar's glory in conquering Gaul had served to further strain his alliance with Pompey, who, having grown jealous of his former ally, had drifted away from Caesar's democratic Populares party towards the oligarchic Optimates faction led by Cato. The supporters of Caesar, led by Clodius, and the supporters of Pompey, led by Titus Annius Milo, routinely clashed. In 52 BC, Milo succeeded in assassinating Clodius, resulting in widespread riots and the burning of the senate meeting house, the Curia Hostilia, by Clodius' street gang. Anarchy resulted, causing the senate to look to Pompey. Fearing the persecutions of Lucius Cornelius Sulla only thirty years earlier, they avoided granting Pompey the dictatorship by instead naming him sole consul for the year, giving him extraordinary but limited powers. Pompey ordered armed soldiers into the city to restore order and to eliminate the remnants of Clodius' gang. Antony remained on Caesar's military staff until 50 BC, helping mopping-up actions across Gaul to secure Caesar's conquest. With the war over, Antony was sent back to Rome to act as Caesar's protector against Pompey and the other Optimates. With the support of Caesar, who as Pontifex Maximus was head of the Roman religion, Antony was appointed the College of Augurs, an important priestly office responsible for interpreting the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. All public actions required favorable auspices, granting the college considerable influence. Antony was then elected as one of the ten plebeian tribunes for 49 BC. In this position, Antony could protect Caesar from his political enemies, by vetoing any actions unfavorable to his patron. The feud between Caesar and Pompey erupted into open confrontation by early 49 BC. The consuls for the year, Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, were firm Optimates opposed to Caesar. Pompey, though remaining in Rome, was then serving as the governor of Spain and commanded several legions. Upon assuming office in January, Antony immediately summoned a meeting of the senate to resolve the conflict: he proposed both Caesar and Pompey lay down their commands and return to the status of mere private citizens. His proposal was well received by most of the senators but the consuls and Cato vehemently opposed it. Antony then made a new proposal: Caesar would retain only two of his eight legions, and the governorship of Illyrium if he was allowed to stand for the consulship "in absentia". This arrangement ensured his immunity from suit would continue: he had needed the consulship to protect himself from prosecution by Pompey. Though Pompey found the concession satisfactory, Cato and Lentulus refused to back down, with Lentulus even expelling Antony from the senate meeting by force. Antony fled Rome, fearing for his life, and returned to Caesar's camp on the banks of the Rubicon, the southern limit of Caesar's lawful command. Within days of Antony's expulsion, on 7 January 49 BC, the senate reconvened. Under the leadership of Cato and with the tacit support of Pompey, the senate passed a "senatus consultum ultimum", a decree stripping Caesar of his command and ordering him to return to Rome and stand trial for war crimes. The senate further declared Caesar a traitor and a public enemy if he did not immediately disband his army. With all hopes of finding a peaceful solution gone after Antony's expulsion, Caesar used Antony as a pretext for marching on Rome. As tribune, Antony's person was sacrosanct, so it was unlawful to harm him or to refuse to recognize his veto. Three days later, on 10 January, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, initiating the Civil War. During the southern march, Caesar placed Antony as his second in command. Caesar's rapid advance surprised Pompey, who, along with the other chief members of the Optimates, fled Italy for Greece. After entering Rome, instead of pursuing Pompey, Caesar marched to Spain to defeat the Pompeian loyalists there. Meanwhile, Antony, with the rank of propraetor—despite never having served as praetor—was installed as governor of Italy and commander of the army, stationed there while Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, one of Caesar's staff officers, ran the provisional administration of Rome itself. Though Antony was well liked by his soldiers, most other citizens despised him for his lack of interest in the hardships they faced from the civil war. By the end of the year 49 BC, Caesar, already the ruler of Gaul, had captured Italy, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia out of Optimates control. In early 48 BC, he prepared to sail with seven legions to Greece to face Pompey. Caesar had entrusted the defense of Illyricum to Gaius Antonius, Antony's younger brother, and Publius Cornelius Dolabella. Pompey's forces, however, defeated them and assumed control of the Adriatic Sea along with it. Additionally, the two legions they commanded defected to Pompey. Without their fleet, Caesar lacked the necessary transport ships to cross into Greece with his seven legions. Instead, he sailed with only two and placed Antony in command of the remaining five at Brundisium with instructions to join him as soon as he was able. In early 48 BC, Lucius Scribonius Libo was given command of Pompey's fleet, comprising some fifty galleys. Moving off to Brundisium, he blockaded Antony. Antony, however, managed to trick Libo into pursuing some decoy ships, causing Libo's squadron to be trapped and attacked. Most of Libo's fleet managed to escape, but several of his troops were trapped and captured. With Libo gone, Antony joined Caesar in Greece by March 48 BC. During the Greek campaign, Plutarch records that Antony was Caesar's top general, and second only to him in reputation. Antony joined Caesar at the western Balkan Peninsula and besieged Pompey's larger army at Dyrrhachium. With food sources running low, Caesar, in July, ordered a nocturnal assault on Pompey's camp, but Pompey's larger forces pushed back the assault. Though an indecisive result, the victory was a tactical win for Pompey. Pompey, however, did not order a counterassault on Caesar's camp, allowing Caesar to retreat unhindered. Caesar would later remark the civil war would have ended that day if only Pompey had attacked him. Caesar managed to retreat to Thessaly, with Pompey in pursuit. Assuming a defensive position at the plain of Pharsalus, Caesar's army prepared for pitched battle with Pompey's, which outnumbered his own two to one. At the Battle of Pharsalus on 9 August 48 BC, Caesar commanded the right wing opposite Pompey while Antony commanded the left, indicating Antony's status as Caesar's top general. The resulting battle was a decisive victory for Caesar. Though the civil war had not ended at Pharsulus, the battle marked the pinnacle of Caesar's power and effectively ended the Republic. The battle gave Caesar a much needed boost in legitimacy, as prior to the battle much of the Roman world outside Italy supported Pompey and the Optimates as the legitimate government of Rome. After Pompey's defeat, most of the senate defected to Caesar, including many of the soldiers who had fought under Pompey. Pompey himself fled to Ptolemaic Egypt, but Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator feared retribution from Caesar and had Pompey assassinated upon his arrival. Instead of immediately pursuing Pompey and the remaining Optimates, Caesar returned to Rome and was appointed Dictator with Antony as his Master of the Horse and second in command. Caesar presided over his own election to a second consulship for 47 BC and then, after eleven days in office, resigned this dictatorship. Caesar then sailed to Egypt, where he deposed Ptolemy XIII in favor of his sister Cleopatra in 47 BC. The young Cleopatra became Caesar's mistress and bore him a son, Caesarion. Caesar's actions further strengthened Roman control over the already Roman-dominated kingdom. While Caesar was away in Egypt, Antony remained in Rome to govern Italy and restore order. Without Caesar to guide him, however, Antony quickly faced political difficulties and proved himself unpopular. The chief cause of his political challenges concerned debt forgiveness. One of the tribunes for 47 BC, Publius Cornelius Dolabella, a former general under Pompey, proposed a law which would have canceled all outstanding debts. Antony opposed the law for political and personal reasons: he believed Caesar would not support such massive relief and suspected Dolabella had seduced his wife Antonia Hybrida Minor. When Dolabella sought to enact the law by force and seized the Roman Forum, Antony responded by unleashing his soldiers upon the assembled masses. The resulting instability, especially among Caesar's veterans who would have benefited from the law, forced Caesar to return to Italy by October 47 BC. Antony's handling of the affair with Dolabella caused a cooling of his relationship with Caesar. Antony's violent reaction had caused Rome to fall into a state of anarchy. Caesar sought to mend relations with the populist leader; he was elected to a third term as consul for 46 BC, but proposed the senate should transfer the consulship to Dolabella. When Antony protested, Caesar was forced to withdraw the motion out of shame. Later, Caesar sought to exercise his prerogatives as Dictator and directly proclaim Dolabella as consul instead. Antony again protested and, in his capacity as an Augur, declared the omens were unfavorable and Caesar again backed down. Seeing the expediency of removing Dolabella from Rome, Caesar ultimately pardoned him for his role in the riots and took him as one of his generals in his campaigns against the remaining Optimates resistance. Antony, however, was stripped of all official positions and received no appointments for the year 46 BC or 45 BC. Instead of Antony, Caesar appointed Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to be his consular colleague for 46 BC. While Caesar campaigned in North Africa, Antony remained in Rome as a mere private citizen. After returning victorious from North Africa, Caesar was appointed Dictator for ten years and brought Cleopatra and their son to Rome. Antony again remained in Rome while Caesar, in 45 BC, sailed to Spain to defeat the final opposition to his rule. When Caesar returned in late 45 BC, the civil war was over. During this time Antony married his third wife, Fulvia. Following the scandal with Dolabella, Antony had divorced his second wife and quickly married Fulvia. Fulvia had previously been married to both Publius Clodius Pulcher and Gaius Scribonius Curio, having been a widow since Curio's death in the battle of the Bagradas in 49 BC. Though Antony and Fulvia were formally married in 47 BC, Cicero suggests the two had been in a relationship since at least 58 BC. The union produced two children: Marcus Antonius Antyllus (born 47) and Iullus Antonius (born 45) Whatever conflicts existed between himself and Caesar, Antony remained faithful to Caesar, ensuring their estrangement did not last long. Antony reunited with Caesar at Narbo in 45 BC with full reconciliation coming in 44 BC when Antony was elected consul alongside Caesar. Caesar planned a new invasion of Parthia and desired to leave Antony in Italy to govern Rome in his name. The reconciliation came soon after Antony rejected an offer by Gaius Trebonius, one of Caesar's generals, to join a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. Soon after they assumed office together, the Lupercalia festival was held on 15 February 44 BC. The festival was held in honor of Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled the infant orphans Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. The political atmosphere of Rome at the time of the festival was deeply divided. Caesar had enacted a number of constitutional reforms which centralized effectively all political powers within his own hands. He was granted further honors, including a form of semi-official cult, with Antony as his high priest. Additionally, the day before the festival, Caesar had been named Dictator for Life, effectively granting unlimited power. Caesar's political rivals feared these reforms were his attempts at transforming the Republic into an open monarchy. During the festival's activities, Antony publicly offered Caesar a diadem, which Caesar refused. The event presented a powerful message: a diadem was a symbol of a king. By refusing it, Caesar demonstrated he had no intention of making himself King of Rome. Antony's motive for such actions is not clear and it is unknown if he acted with Caesar's prior approval or on his own. A group of senators resolved to kill Caesar to prevent him from seizing the throne. Chief among them were Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Although Cassius was "the moving spirit" in the plot, winning over the chief assassins to the cause of tyrannicide, Brutus, with his family's history of deposing Rome's kings, became their leader. Cicero, though not personally involved in the conspiracy, later claimed Antony's actions sealed Caesar's fate as such an obvious display of Caesar's preeminence motivated them to act. Originally, the conspirators had planned to eliminate not only Caesar but also many of his supporters, including Antony, but Brutus rejected the proposal, limiting the conspiracy to Caesar alone. With Caesar preparing to depart for Parthia in late March, the conspirators prepared to act when Caesar appeared for the senate meeting on the Ides of March (15 March). Antony was supposed to attend with Caesar, but was waylaid at the door by one of the plotters and prevented from intervening. According to the Greek historian Plutarch, as Caesar arrived at the senate, Lucius Tillius Cimber presented him with a petition to recall his exiled brother. The other conspirators crowded round to offer their support. Within moments, the entire group, including Brutus, was striking out at the dictator. Caesar attempted to get away, but, blinded by blood, he tripped and fell; the men continued stabbing him as he lay defenseless on the lower steps of the portico. According to Roman historian Eutropius, around 60 or more men participated in the assassination. Caesar was stabbed 23 times and died from the blood loss attributable to multiple stab wounds. In the turmoil surrounding the assassination, Antony escaped Rome dressed as a slave, fearing Caesar's death would be the start of a bloodbath among his supporters. When this did not occur, he soon returned to Rome. The conspirators, who styled themselves the "Liberatores" ("The Liberators"), had barricaded themselves on the Capitoline Hill for their own safety. Though they believed Caesar's death would restore the Republic, Caesar had been immensely popular with the Roman middle and lower classes, who became enraged upon learning a small group of aristocrats had killed their champion. Antony, as the sole consul, soon took the initiative and seized the state treasury. Calpurnia, Caesar's widow, presented him with Caesar's personal papers and custody of his extensive property, clearly marking him as Caesar's heir and leader of the Caesarian faction. Caesar's Master of the Horse Marcus Aemilius Lepidus marched over 6,000 troops into Rome on 16 March to restore order and to act as the bodyguards of the Caesarian faction. Lepidus wanted to storm the Capitol, but Antony preferred a peaceful solution as a majority of both the Liberators and Caesar's own supporters preferred a settlement over civil war. On 17 March, at Antony's arrangement, the senate met to discuss a compromise, which, due to the presence of Caesar's veterans in the city, was quickly reached. Caesar's assassins would be pardoned of their crimes and, in return, all of Caesar's actions would be ratified. In particular, the offices assigned to both Brutus and Cassius by Caesar were likewise ratified. Antony also agreed to accept the appointment of his rival Dolabella as his consular colleague to replace Caesar. Having neither troops, money, nor popular support, the Liberatores were forced to accept Antony's proposal. This compromise was a great success for Antony, who managed to simultaneously appease Caesar's veterans, reconcile the senate majority, and appear to the Liberatores as their partner and protector. On 19 March, Caesar's will was opened and read. In it, Caesar posthumously adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavius and named him his principal heir. Then only nineteen years old and stationed with Caesar's army in Macedonia, the youth became a member of Caesar's Julian clan, changing his name to "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus" (Octavian) in accordance with the conventions of Roman adoption. Though not the chief beneficiary, Antony did receive some bequests. Shortly after the compromise was reached, as a sign of good faith, Brutus, against the advice of Cassius and Cicero, agreed Caesar would be given a public funeral and his will would be validated. Caesar's funeral was held on 20 March. Antony, as Caesar's faithful lieutenant and incumbent consul, was chosen to preside over the ceremony and to recite the elegy. During the demagogic speech, he enumerated the deeds of Caesar and, publicly reading his will, detailed the donations Caesar had left to the Roman people. Antony then seized the blood-stained toga from Caesar's body and presented it to the crowd. Worked into a fury by the bloody spectacle, the assembly rioted. Several buildings in the Forum and some houses of the conspirators were burned to the ground. Panicked, many of the conspirators fled Italy. Under the pretext of not being able to guarantee their safety, Antony relieved Brutus and Cassius of their judicial duties in Rome and instead assigned them responsibility for procuring wheat for Rome from Sicily and Asia. Such an assignment, in addition to being unworthy of their rank, would have kept them far from Rome and shifted the balance towards Antony. Refusing such secondary duties, the two traveled to Greece instead. Additionally, Cleopatra left Rome to return to Egypt. Despite the provisions of Caesar's will, Antony proceeded to act as leader of the Caesarian faction, including appropriating for himself a portion of Caesar's fortune rightfully belonging to Octavian. Antony enacted the Lex Antonia, which formally abolished the Dictatorship, in an attempt to consolidate his power by gaining the support of the senatorial class. He also enacted a number of laws he claimed to have found in Caesar's papers to ensure his popularity with Caesar's veterans, particularly by providing land grants to them. Lepidus, with Antony's support, was named Pontifex Maximus to succeed Caesar. To solidify the alliance between Antony and Lepidus, Antony's daughter Antonia Prima was engaged to Lepidus' son, also named Lepidus. Surrounding himself with a bodyguard of over six thousand of Caesar's veterans, Antony presented himself as Caesar's true successor, largely ignoring Octavian. Octavian arrived in Rome in May to claim his inheritance. Although Antony had amassed political support, Octavian still had opportunity to rival him as the leading member of the Caesarian faction. The senatorial Republicans increasingly viewed Antony as a new tyrant. Antony had lost the support of many Romans and supporters of Caesar when he opposed the motion to elevate Caesar to divine status. When Antony refused to relinquish Caesar's vast fortune to him, Octavian borrowed heavily to fulfill the bequests in Caesar's will to the Roman people and to his veterans, as well as to establish his own bodyguard of veterans. This earned him the support of Caesarian sympathizers who hoped to use him as a means of eliminating Antony. The senate, and Cicero in particular, viewed Antony as the greater danger of the two. By summer 44 BC, Antony was in a difficult position due to his actions regarding his compromise with the Liberatores following Caesar's assassination. He could either denounce the Liberatores as murderers and alienate the senate or he could maintain his support for the compromise and risk betraying the legacy of Caesar, strengthening Octavian's position. In either case, his situation as ruler of Rome would be weakened. Roman historian Cassius Dio later recorded that while Antony, as consul, maintained the advantage in the relationship, the general affection of the Roman people was shifting to Octavian due to his status as Caesar's son. Supporting the senatorial faction against Antony, Octavian, in September 44 BC, encouraged the leading senator Marcus Tullius Cicero to attack Antony in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the Republican order. Risk of civil war between Antony and Octavian grew. Octavian continued to recruit Caesar's veterans to his side, away from Antony, with two of Antony's legions defecting in November 44 BC. At that time, Octavian, only a private citizen, lacked legal authority to command the Republic's armies, making his command illegal. With popular opinion in Rome turning against him and his consular term nearing its end, Antony attempted to secure a favorable military assignment to secure an army to protect himself. The senate, as was custom, assigned Antony and Dolabella the provinces of Macedonia and Syria, respectively, to govern in 43 BC after their consular terms expired. Antony, however, objected to the assignment, preferring to govern Cisalpine Gaul which had been assigned to Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins. When Decimus refused to surrender his province, Antony marched north in December 44 BC with his remaining soldiers to take the province by force, besieging Decimus at Mutina. The senate, led by a fiery Cicero, denounced Antony's actions and declared him an outlaw. Ratifying Octavian's extraordinary command on 1 January 43 BC, the senate dispatched him along with consuls Hirtius and Pansa to defeat Antony and his five legions. Antony's forces were defeated at the Battle of Mutina in April 43 BC, forcing Antony to retreat to Transalpine Gaul. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies, some eight legions. With Antony defeated, the senate, hoping to eliminate Octavian and the remainder of the Caesarian party, assigned command of the Republic's legions to Decimus. Sextus Pompey, son of Caesar's old rival Pompey Magnus, was given command of the Republic's fleet from his base in Sicily while Brutus and Cassius were granted the governorships of Macedonia and Syria respectively. These appointments attempted to renew the "Republican" cause. However, the eight legions serving under Octavian, composed largely of Caesar's veterans, refused to follow one of Caesar's murderers, allowing Octavian to retain his command. Meanwhile, Antony recovered his position by joining forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had been assigned the governorship of Transalpine Gaul and Nearer Spain. Antony sent Lepidus to Rome to broker a conciliation. Though he was an ardent Caesarian, Lepidus had maintained friendly relations with the senate and with Sextus Pompey. His legions, however, quickly joined Antony, giving him control over seventeen legions, the largest army in the West. By mid-May, Octavian began secret negotiations to form an alliance with Antony to provide a united Caesarian party against the Liberators. Remaining in Cisalpine Gaul, Octavian dispatched emissaries to Rome in July 43 BC demanding he be appointed consul to replace Hirtius and Pansa and that the decree declaring Antony a public enemy be rescinded. When the senate refused, Octavian marched on Rome with his eight legions and assumed control of the city in August 43 BC. Octavian proclaimed himself consul, rewarded his soldiers, and then set about prosecuting Caesar's murderers. By the lex Pedia, all of the conspirators and Sextus Pompey were convicted ″in absentia″ and declared public enemies. Then, at the instigation of Lepidus, Octavian went to Cisalpine Gaul to meet Antony. In November 43 BC, Octavian, Lepidus, and Antony met near Bononia. After two days of discussions, the group agreed to establish a three man dictatorship to govern the Republic for five years, known as the "Three Men for the Restoration of the Republic" (Latin: "Triumviri Rei publicae Constituendae"), known to modern historians as the Second Triumvirate. They shared military command of the Republic's armies and provinces among themselves: Antony received Gaul, Lepidus Spain, and Octavian (as the junior partner) Africa. They jointly governed Italy. The Triumvirate would have to conquer the rest of Rome's holdings; Brutus and Cassius held the Eastern Mediterranean, and Sextus Pompey held the Mediterranean islands. On 27 November 43 BC, the Triumvirate was formally established by a new law, the lex Titia. Octavian and Antony reinforced their alliance through Octavian's marriage to Antony's stepdaughter, Clodia Pulchra. The primary objective of the Triumvirate was to avenge Caesar's death and to make war upon his murderers. Before marching against Brutus and Cassius in the East, the Triumvirs issued proscriptions against their enemies in Rome. The Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla had taken similar action to purge Rome of his opponents in 82 BC. The proscribed were named on public lists, stripped of citizenship, and outlawed. Their wealth and property were confiscated by the state, and rewards were offered to anyone who secured their arrest or death. With such encouragements, the proscription produced deadly results; two thousand Roman knights were executed, and one third of the senate, among them Cicero, who was executed on 7 December. The confiscations helped replenish the State Treasury, which had been depleted by Caesar's civil war the decade before; when this seemed insufficient to fund the imminent war against Brutus and Cassius, the Triumvirs imposed new taxes, especially on the wealthy. By January 42 BC the proscription had ended; it had lasted two months, and though less bloody than Sulla's, it traumatized Roman society. A number of those named and outlawed had fled to either Sextus Pompey in Sicily or to the Liberators in the East. Senators who swore loyalty to the Triumvirate were allowed to keep their positions; on 1 January 42 BC, the senate officially deified Caesar as "The Divine Julius", and confirmed Antony's position as his high priest. Due to the infighting within the Triumvirate during 43 BC, Brutus and Cassius had assumed control of much of Rome's eastern territories, and amassed a large army. Before the Triumvirate could cross the Adriatic Sea into Greece where the Liberators had stationed their army, the Triumvirate had to address the threat posed by Sextus Pompey and his fleet. From his base in Sicily, Sextus raided the Italian coast and blockaded the Triumvirs. Octavian's friend and admiral Quintus Salvidienus Rufus thwarted an attack by Sextus against the southern Italian mainland at Rhegium, but Salvidienus was then defeated in the resulting naval battle because of the inexperience of his crews. Only when Antony arrived with his fleet was the blockade broken. Though the blockade was defeated, control of Sicily remained in Sextus' hand, but the defeat of the Liberators was the Triumvirate's first priority. In the summer of 42 BC, Octavian and Antony sailed for Macedonia to face the Liberators with nineteen legions, the vast majority of their army (approximately 100,000 regular infantry plus supporting cavalry and irregular auxiliary units), leaving Rome under the administration of Lepidus. Likewise, the army of the Liberators also commanded an army of nineteen legions; their legions, however, were not at full strength while the legions of Antony and Octavian were. While the Triumvirs commanded a larger number of infantry, the Liberators commanded a larger cavalry contingent. The Liberators, who controlled Macedonia, did not wish to engage in a decisive battle, but rather to attain a good defensive position and then use their naval superiority to block the Triumvirs' communications with their supply base in Italy. They had spent the previous months plundering Greek cities to swell their war-chest and had gathered in Thrace with the Roman legions from the Eastern provinces and levies from Rome's client kingdoms. Brutus and Cassius held a position on the high ground along both sides of the via Egnatia west of the city of Philippi. The south position was anchored to a supposedly impassable marsh, while the north was bordered by impervious hills. They had plenty of time to fortify their position with a rampart and a ditch. Brutus put his camp on the north while Cassius occupied the south of the via Egnatia. Antony arrived shortly and positioned his army on the south of the via Egnatia, while Octavian put his legions north of the road. Antony offered battle several times, but the Liberators were not lured to leave their defensive stand. Thus, Antony tried to secretly outflank the Liberators' position through the marshes in the south. This provoked a pitched battle on 3 October 42 BC. Antony commanded the Triumvirate's army due to Octavian's sickness on the day, with Antony directly controlling the right flank opposite Cassius. Because of his health, Octavian remained in camp while his lieutenants assumed a position on the left flank opposite Brutus. In the resulting first battle of Philippi, Antony defeated Cassius and captured his camp while Brutus overran Octavian's troops and penetrated into the Triumvirs' camp but was unable to capture the sick Octavian. The battle was a tactical draw but due to poor communications Cassius believed the battle was a complete defeat and committed suicide to prevent being captured. Brutus assumed sole command of the Liberator army and preferred a war of attrition over open conflict. His officers, however, were dissatisfied with these defensive tactics and his Caesarian veterans threatened to defect, forcing Brutus to give battle at the second battle of Philippi on 23 October. While the battle was initially evenly matched, Antony's leadership routed Brutus' forces. Brutus committed suicide the day after the defeat and the remainder of his army swore allegiance to the Triumvirate. Over fifty thousand Romans died in the two battles. While Antony treated the losers mildly, Octavian dealt cruelly with his prisoners and even beheaded Brutus' corpse. The battles of Philippi ended the civil war in favor of the Caesarian faction. With the defeat of the Liberators, only Sextus Pompey and his fleet remained to challenge the Triumvirate's control over the Republic. The victory at Philippi left the members of the Triumvirate as masters of the Republic, save Sextus Pompey in Sicily. Upon returning to Rome, the Triumvirate repartitioned rule of Rome's provinces among themselves, with Antony as the clear senior partner. He received the largest distribution, governing all of the Eastern provinces while retaining Gaul in the West. Octavian's position improved, as he received Spain, which was taken from Lepidus. Lepidus was then reduced to holding only Africa, and he assumed a clearly tertiary role in the Triumvirate. Rule over Italy remained undivided, but Octavian was assigned the difficult and unpopular task of demobilizing their veterans and providing them with land distributions in Italy. Antony assumed direct control of the East while he installed one of his lieutenants as the ruler of Gaul. During his absence, several of his supporters held key positions in Rome to protect his interests there. The East was in need of reorganization after the rule of the Liberators in the previous years. In addition, Rome contended with the Parthian Empire for dominance of the Near East. The Parthian threat to the Triumvirate's rule was urgent due to the fact that the Parthians supported the Liberators in the recent civil war, aid which included the supply troops at Philippi. As ruler of the East, Antony also assumed responsibility for overseeing Caesar's planned invasion of Parthia to avenge the defeat of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. In 42 BC, the Roman East was composed of several directly controlled provinces and client kingdoms. The provinces included Macedonia, Asia, Bithynia, Cilicia, Cyprus, Syria, and Cyrenaica. Approximately half of the eastern territory was controlled by Rome's client kingdoms, nominally independent kingdoms subject to Roman direction. These kingdoms included: Antony spent the winter of 42 BC in Athens, where he ruled generously towards the Greek cities. A proclaimed "philhellene" ("Friend of all things Greek"), Antony supported Greek culture to win the loyalty of the inhabitants of the Greek East. He attended religious festivals and ceremonies, including initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a secret cult dedicated to the worship of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Beginning in 41 BC, he traveled across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia, leaving his friend Lucius Marcius Censorius as governor of Macedonia and Achaea. Upon his arrival in Ephesus in Asia, Antony was worshiped as the god Dionysus born anew. He demanded heavy taxes from the Hellenic cities in return for his pro-Greek culture policies, but exempted those cities which had remained loyal to Caesar during the civil war and compensated those cities which had suffered under Caesar's assassins, including Rhodes, Lycia, and Tarsus. He granted pardons to all Roman nobles living in the East who had supported the Optimate cause, except for Caesar's assassins. Ruling from Ephesus, Antony consolidated Rome's hegemony in the East, receiving envoys from Rome's client kingdoms and intervening in their dynastic affairs, extracting enormous financial "gifts" from them in the process. Though King Deiotarus of Galatia supported Brutus and Cassius following Caesar's assassination, Antony allowed him to retain his position. He also confirmed Ariarathes X as king of Cappadocia after the execution of his brother Ariobarzanes III of Cappadocia by Cassius before the Battle of Philippi. In Hasmonean Judea, several Jewish delegations complained to Antony of the harsh rule of Phasael and Herod, the sons of Rome's assassinated chief Jewish minister Antipater the Idumaean. After Herod offered him a large financial gift, Antony confirmed the brothers in their positions. Subsequently, influenced by the beauty and charms of Glaphyra, the widow of Archelaüs (formerly the high priest of Comana), Antony deposed Ariarathes, and appointed Glaphyra's son, Archelaüs, to rule Cappadocia. In October 41, Antony requested Rome's chief eastern vassal, the queen of Ptolemaic Egypt Cleopatra, meet him at Tarsus in Cilicia. Antony had first met a young Cleopatra while campaigning in Egypt in 55 BC and again in 48 BC when Caesar had backed her as queen of Egypt over the claims of her half-sister Arsinoe. Cleopatra would bear Caesar a son, Caesarion, in 47 BC and the two living in Rome as Caesar's guests until his assassination in 44 BC. After Caesar's assassination, Cleopatra and Caesarion returned to Egypt, where she named the child as her co-ruler. In 42 BC, the Triumvirate, in recognition for Cleopatra's help towards Publius Cornelius Dolabella in opposition to the Liberators, granted official recognition to Caesarion's position as king of Egypt. Arriving in Tarsus aboard her magnificent ship, Cleopatra invited Antony to a grand banquet to solidify their alliance. As the most powerful of Rome's eastern vassals, Egypt was indispensable in Rome's planned military invasion of the Parthian Empire. At Cleopatra's request, Antony ordered the execution of Arsinoe, who, though marched in Caesar's triumphal parade in 46 BC, had been granted sanctuary at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Antony and Cleopatra then spent the winter of 41 BC together in Alexandria. Cleopatra bore Antony twin children, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II, in 40 BC, and a third, Ptolemy Philadelphus, in 36 BC. Antony also granted formal control over Cyprus, which had been under Egyptian control since 47 BC during the turmoil of Caesar's civil war, to Cleopatra in 40 BC as a gift for her loyalty to Rome. Antony, in his first months in the East, raised money, reorganized his troops, and secured the alliance of Rome's client kingdoms. He also promoted himself as Hellenistic ruler, which won him the affection of the Greek peoples of the East but also made him the target of Octavian's propaganda in Rome. According to some ancient authors, Antony led a carefree life of luxury in Alexandria. Upon learning the Parthian Empire had invaded Rome's territory in early 40 BC, Antony left Egypt for Syria to confront the invasion. However, after a short stay in Tyre, he was forced to sail with his army to Italy to confront Octavian due to Octavian's war against Antony's wife and brother. Following the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, while Antony was stationed in the East, Octavian had authority over the West. Octavian's chief responsibility was distributing land to tens of thousands of Caesar's veterans who had fought for the Triumvirate. Additionally, tens of thousands of veterans who had fought for the Republican cause in the war also required land grants. This was necessary to ensure they would not support a political opponent of the Triumvirate. However, the Triumvirs did not possess sufficient state-controlled land to allot to the veterans. This left Octavian with two choices: alienating many Roman citizens by confiscating their land, or alienating many Roman soldiers who might back a military rebellion against the Triumvirate's rule. Octavian chose the former. As many as eighteen Roman towns through Italy were affected by the confiscations of 41 BC, with entire populations driven out. Led by Fulvia, the wife of Antony, the senators grew hostile towards Octavian over the issue of the land confiscations. According to the ancient historian Cassius Dio, Fulvia was the most powerful woman in Rome at the time. According to Dio, while Publius Servilius Vatia and Lucius Antonius were the consuls for the year 41 BC, real power was vested in Fulvia. As the mother-in-law of Octavian and the wife of Antony, no action was taken by the senate without her support. Fearing Octavian's land grants would cause the loyalty of the Caesarian veterans to shift away from Antony, Fulvia traveled constantly with her children to the new veteran settlements in order to remind the veterans of their debt to Antony. Fulvia also attempted to delay the land settlements until Antony returned to Rome, so that he could share credit for the settlements. With the help of Antony's brother, the consul of 41 BC Lucius Antonius, Fulvia encouraged the senate to oppose Octavian's land policies. The conflict between Octavian and Fulvia caused great political and social unrest throughout Italy. Tensions escalated into open war, however, when Octavian divorced Clodia Pulchra, Fulvia's daughter from her first husband Publius Clodius Pulcher. Outraged, Fulvia, supported by Lucius, raised an army to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian. According to the ancient historian Appian, Fulvia's chief reason for the war was her jealousy of Antony's affairs with Cleopatra in Egypt and desire to draw Antony back to Rome. Lucius and Fulvia took a political and martial gamble in opposing Octavian and Lepidus, however, as the Roman army still depended on the Triumvirs for their salaries. Lucius and Fulvia, supported by their army, marched on Rome and promised the people an end to the Triumvirate in favor of Antony's sole rule. However, when Octavian returned to the city with his army, the pair was forced to retreat to Perusia in Etruria. Octavian placed the city under siege while Lucius waited for Antony's legions in Gaul to come to his aid. Away in the East and embarrassed by Fulvia's actions, Antony gave no instructions to his legions. Without reinforcements, Lucius and Fulvia were forced to surrender in February 40 BC. While Octavian pardoned Lucius for his role in the war and even granted him command in Spain as his chief lieutenant there, Fulvia was forced to flee to Greece with her children. With the war over, Octavian was left in sole control over Italy. When Antony's governor of Gaul died, Octavian took over his legions there, further strengthening his control over the West. Despite the Parthian Empire's invasion of Rome's eastern territories, Fulvia's civil war forced Antony to leave the East and return to Rome in order to secure his position. Meeting her in Athens, Antony rebuked Fulvia for her actions before sailing on to Italy with his army to face Octavian, laying siege to Brundisium. This new conflict proved untenable for both Octavian and Antony, however. Their centurions, who had become important figures politically, refused to fight due to their shared service under Caesar. The legions under their command followed suit. Meanwhile, in Sicyon, Fulvia died of a sudden and unknown illness. Fulvia's death and the mutiny of their soldiers allowed the triumvirs to effect a reconciliation through a new power sharing agreement in September 40 BC. The Roman world was redivided, with Antony receiving the Eastern provinces, Octavian the Western provinces, and Lepidus relegated to a clearly junior position as governor of Africa. This agreement, known as the "Treaty of Brundisium", reinforced the Triumvirate and allowed Antony to begin preparing for Caesar's long-awaited campaign against the Parthian Empire. As a symbol of their renewed alliance, Antony married Octavia, Octavian's sister, in October 40 BC. The rise of the Parthian Empire in the 3rd century BC and Rome's expansion into the Eastern Mediterranean during the 2nd century BC brought the two powers into direct contact, causing centuries of tumultuous and strained relations. Though periods of peace developed cultural and commercial exchanges, war was a constant threat. Influence over the buffer state of the Kingdom of Armenia, located to the north-east of Roman Syria, was often a central issue in the Roman-Parthian conflict. In 95 BC, Parthian Shah Mithridates II, installed Tigranes the Great as Parthian's client-king over Armenia. Tigranes would wage a series of three wars against Rome before being ultimately defeated by Pompey in 66 BC. Thereafter, with his son Artavasdes II in Rome as a hostage, Tigranes would rule Armenia as an ally of Rome until his death in 55 BC. Rome then installed Artavasdes II as king and continued its influence over Armenia. In 53 BC, Rome's governor of Syria, Marcus Licinius Crassus, led an expedition across the Euphrates River into Parthian territory to confront the Parthian Shah Orodes II. Artavasdes II offered Crassus the aid of nearly forty thousand troops to assist his Parthian expedition on the condition that Crassus invade through Armenia as the safer route. Crassus refused, choosing instead the more direct route by crossing the Euphrates directly into desert Parthian territory. Crassus' actions proved disastrous as his army was defeated at the Battle of Carrhae by a numerically inferior Parthian force. Crassus' defeat forced Armenia to shift its loyalty to Parthia, with Artavasdes II's sister marrying Orodes' son and heir Pacorus. In early 44 BC, Julius Caesar announced his intentions to invade Parthia and restore Roman power in the East. His reasons were to punish the Parthians for assisting Pompey in the recent civil war, to avenge Crassus' defeat at Carrhae, and especially to match the glory of Alexander the Great for himself. Before Caesar could launch his campaign, however, he was assassinated. As part of the compromise between Antony and the Republicans to restore order following Caesar's murder, Publius Cornelius Dolabella was assigned the governorship of Syria and command over Caesar's planned Parthian campaign. The compromise did not hold, however, and the Republicans were forced to flee to the East. The Republicans directed Quintus Labienus to attract the Parthians to their side in the resulting war against Antony and Octavian. After the Republicans were defeated at the Battle of Philippi, Labienus joined the Parthians. Despite Rome's internal turmoil during the time, the Parthians did not immediately benefit from the power vacuum in the East due to Orodes II's reluctance despite Labienus' urgings to the contrary. In the summer of 41 BC, Antony, to reassert Roman power in the East, conquered Palmyra on the Roman-Parthian border. Antony then spent the winter of 41 BC in Alexandria with Cleopatra, leaving only two legions to defend the Syrian border against Parthian incursions. The legions, however, were composed of former Republican troops and Labienus convinced Orodes II to invade. A Parthian army, led by Orodes II's eldest son Pacorus, invaded Syria in early 40 BC. Labienus, the Republican ally of Brutus and Cassius, accompanied him to advise him and to rally the former Republican soldiers stationed in Syria to the Parthian cause. Labienus recruited many of the former Republican soldiers to the Parthian campaign in opposition to Antony. The joint Parthian–Roman force, after initial success in Syria, separated to lead their offensive in two directions: Pacorus marched south toward Hasmonean Judea while Labienus crossed the Taurus Mountains to the north into Cilicia. Labienus conquered southern Anatolia with little resistance. The Roman governor of Asia, Lucius Munatius Plancus, a partisan of Antony, was forced to flee his province, allowing Labienus to recruit the Roman soldiers stationed there. For his part, Pacorus advanced south to Phoenicia and Palestine. In Hasmonean Judea, the exiled prince Antigonus allied himself with the Parthians. When his brother, Rome's client king Hyrcanus II, refused to accept Parthian domination, he was deposed in favor of Antigonus as Parthia's client king in Judea. Pacorus' conquest had captured much of the Syrian and Palestinian interior, with much of the Phoenician coast occupied as well. The city of Tyre remained the last major Roman outpost in the region. Antony, then in Egypt with Cleopatra, did not respond immediately to the Parthian invasion. Though he left Alexandria for Tyre in early 40 BC, when he learned of the civil war between his wife and Octavian, he was forced to return to Italy with his army to secure his position in Rome rather than defeat the Parthians. Instead, Antony dispatched Publius Ventidius Bassus to check the Parthian advance. Arriving in the East in spring 39 BC, Ventidius surprised Labienus near the Taurus Mountains, claiming victory at the Cilician Gates. Ventidius ordered Labienus executed as a traitor and the formerly rebellious Roman soldiers under his command were reincorporated under Antony's control. He then met a Parthian army at the border between Cilicia and Syria, defeating it and killing a large portion of the Parthian soldiers at the Amanus Pass. Ventidius' actions temporarily halted the Parthian advance and restored Roman authority in the East, forcing Pacorus to abandon his conquests and return to Parthia. In the spring of 38 BC, the Parthians resumed their offensive with Pacorus leading an army across the Euphrates. Ventidius, in order to gain time, leaked disinformation to Pacorus implying that he should cross the Euphrates River at their usual ford. Pacorus did not trust this information and decided to cross the river much farther downstream; this was what Ventidius hoped would occur and gave him time to get his forces ready. The Parthians faced no opposition and proceeded to the town of Gindarus in Cyrrhestica where Ventidius' army was waiting. At the Battle of Cyrrhestica, Ventidius inflicted an overwhelming defeat against the Parthians which resulted in the death of Pacorus. Overall, the Roman army had achieved a complete victory with Ventidius' three successive victories forcing the Parthians back across the Euphrates. Pacorus' death threw the Parthian Empire into chaos. Shah Orodes II, overwhelmed by the grief of his son's death, appointed his younger son Phraates IV as his successor. However, Phraates IV assassinated Orodes II in late 38 BC, succeeding him on the throne. Ventidius feared Antony's wrath if he invaded Parthian territory, thereby stealing his glory; so instead he attacked and subdued the eastern kingdoms, which had revolted against Roman control following the disastrous defeat of Crassus at Carrhae. One such rebel was King Antiochus of Commagene, whom he besieged in Samosata. Antiochus tried to make peace with Ventidius, but Ventidius told him to approach Antony directly. After peace was concluded, Antony sent Ventidius back to Rome where he celebrated a triumph, the first Roman to triumph over the Parthians. While Antony and the other Triumvirs ratified the Treaty of Brundisium to redivide the Roman world among themselves, the rebel general Sextus Pompey, the son of Caesar's rival Pompey the Great, was largely ignored. From his stronghold on Sicily, he continued his piratical activities across Italy and blocked the shipment of grain to Rome. The lack of food in Rome caused the public to blame the Triumvirate and shift its sympathies towards Pompey. This pressure forced the Triumvirs to meet with Sextus in early 39 BC. While Octavian wanted an end to the ongoing blockade of Italy, Antony sought peace in the West in order to make the Triumvirate's legions available for his service in his planned campaign against the Parthians. Though the Triumvirs rejected Sextus' initial request to replace Lepidus as the third man within the Triumvirate, they did grant other concessions. Under the terms of the Treaty of Misenum, Sextus was allowed to retain control over Sicily and Sardinia, with the provinces of Corsica and Greece being added to his territory. He was also promised a future position with the Priestly College of Augurs and the consulship for 35 BC. In exchange, Sextus agreed to end his naval blockade of Italy, supply Rome with grain, and halt his piracy of Roman merchant ships. However, the most important provision of the Treaty was the end of the proscription the Trimumvirate had begun in late 43 BC. Many of the proscribed senators, rather than face death, fled to Sicily seeking Sextus' protection. With the exception of those responsible for Caesar's assassination, all those proscribed were allowed to return to Rome and promised compensation. This caused Sextus to lose many valuable allies as the formerly exiled senators gradually aligned themselves with either Octavian or Antony. To secure the peace, Octavian betrothed his three-year-old nephew and Antony's stepson Marcus Claudius Marcellus to Sextus' daughter Pompeia. With peace in the West secured, Antony planned to retaliate against Parthia by invading their territory. Under an agreement with Octavian, Antony would be supplied with extra troops for his campaign. With this military purpose on his mind, Antony sailed to Greece with Octavia, where he behaved in a most extravagant manner, assuming the attributes of the Greek god Dionysus in 39 BC. The peace with Sextus was short lived, however. When Sextus demanded control over Greece as the agreement provided, Antony demanded the province's tax revenues be to fund the Parthian campaign. Sextus refused. Meanwhile, Sextus' admiral Menas betrayed him, shifting his loyalty to Octavian and thereby granting him control of Corsica, Sardinia, three of Sextus' legions, and a larger naval force. These actions worked to renew Sextus' blockade of Italy, preventing Octavian from sending the promised troops to Antony for the Parthian campaign. This new delay caused Antony to quarrel with Octavian, forcing Octavia to mediate a truce between them. Under the Treaty of Tarentum, Antony provided a large naval force for Octavian's use against Sextus while Octavian promised to raise new legions for Antony to support his invasion of Parthia. As the term of the Triumvirate was set to expire at the end of 38 BC, the two unilaterally extended their term of office another five years until 33 BC without seeking approval of the senate or the popular assemblies. To seal the Treaty, Antony's elder son Marcus Antonius Antyllus, then only 6 years old, was betrothed to Octavian's only daughter Julia, then only an infant. With the Treaty signed, Antony returned to the East, leaving Octavia in Italy. With Publius Ventidius Bassus returned to Rome in triumph for his defensive campaign against the Parthians, Antony appointed Gaius Sosius as the new governor of Syria and Cilicia in early 38 BC. Antony, still in the West negotiating with Octavian, ordered Sosius to depose Antigonus, who had been installed in the recent Parthian invasion as the ruler of Hasmonean Judea, and to make Herod the new Roman client king in the region. Years before in 40 BC, the Roman senate had proclaimed Herod "King of the Jews" because Herod had been a loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Rome's previous client king before the Parthian invasion, and was from a family with long standing connections to Rome. The Romans hoped to use Herod as a bulwark against the Parthians in the coming campaign. Advancing south, Sosius captured the island-city of Aradus on the coast of Phoenicia by the end of 38 BC. The following year, the Romans besieged Jerusalem. After a forty-day siege, the Roman soldiers stormed the city and, despite Herod's pleas for restraint, acted without mercy, pillaging and killing all in their path, prompting Herod to complain to Antony. Herod finally resorted to bribing Sosius and his troops in order that they would not leave him "king of a desert". Antigonus was forced to surrender to Sosius, and was sent to Antony for the triumphal procession in Rome. Herod, however, fearing that Antigonus would win backing in Rome, bribed Antony to execute Antigonus. Antony, who recognized that Antigonus would remain a permanent threat to Herod, ordered him beheaded in Antioch. Now secure on his throne, Herod would rule the Herodian Kingdom until his death in 4 BC, and would be an ever-faithful client king of Rome. With the Triumvirate renewed in 38 BC, Antony returned to Athens in the winter with his new wife Octavia, the sister of Octavian. With the assassination of the Parthian king Orodes II by his son Phraates IV, who then seized the Parthian throne, in late 38 BC, Antony prepared to invade Parthia himself. Antony, however, realized Octavian had no intention of sending him the additional legions he had promised under the Treaty of Tarentum. To supplement his own armies, Antony instead looked to Rome's principal vassal in the East: his lover Cleopatra. In addition to significant financial resources, Cleopatra's backing of his Parthian campaign allowed Antony to amass the largest army Rome had ever assembled in the East. Wintering in Antioch during 37, Antony's combined Roman–Egyptian army numbered some 200,000, including sixteen legions (approximately 160,000 soldiers) plus an additional 40,000 auxiliaries. Such a force was twice the size of Marcus Licinius Crassus's army from his failed Parthian invasion of 53 BC and three times those of Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the Mithridatic Wars. The size of his army indicated Antony's intention to conquer Parthia, or at least receive its submission by capturing the Parthian capital of Ecbatana. Antony's rear was protected by Rome's client kingdoms in Anatolia, Syria, and Judea, while the client kingdoms of Cappadocia, Pontus, and Commagene would provide supplies along the march. Antony's first target for his invasion was the Kingdom of Armenia. Ruled by King Artavasdes II of Armenia, Armenia had been an ally of Rome since the defeat of Tigranes the Great by Pompey the Great in 66 BC during the Third Mithridatic War. However, following Marcus Licinius Crassus's defeat at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, Armenia was forced into an alliance with Parthia due to Rome's weakened position in the East. Antony dispatched Publius Canidius Crassus to Armenia, receiving Artavasdes II's surrender without opposition. Canidius then led an invasion into the Transcaucasia, subduing Iberia. There, Canidius forced the Iberian King Pharnavaz II into an alliance against Zober, king of neighboring Albania, subduing the kingdom and reducing it to a Roman protectorate. With Armenia and the Caucasus secured, Antony marched south, crossing into the Parthian province of Media Atropatene. Though Antony desired a pitched battle, the Parthians would not engage, allowing Antony to march deep into Parthian territory by mid-August of 36 BC. This forced Antony to leave his logistics train in the care of two legions (approximately 10,000 soldiers), which was then attacked and completely destroyed by the Parthian army before Antony could rescue them. Though the Armenian King Artavasdes II and his cavalry were present during the massacre, they did not intervene. Despite the ambush, Antony continued the campaign. However, Antony was soon forced to retreat in mid-October after a failed two-month siege of the provincial capital. The retreat soon proved a disaster as Antony's demoralized army faced increasing supply difficulties in the mountainous terrain during winter while constantly being harassed by the Parthian army. According to the Greek historian Plutarch, eighteen battles were fought between the retreating Romans and the Parthians during the month-long march back to Armenia, with approximately 20,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry dying during the retreat alone. Once in Armenia, Antony quickly marched back to Syria to protect his interests there by late 36 BC, losing an additional 8,000 soldiers along the way. In all, two-fifths of his original army (some 80,000 men) had died during his failed campaign. Meanwhile, in Rome, the triumvirate was no more. Octavian forced Lepidus to resign after the older triumvir attempted to take control of Sicily after the defeat of Sextus. Now in sole power, Octavian was occupied in wooing the traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antony in order to raise himself to power. He argued that Antony was a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt. Antony was accused of everything, but most of all, of "going native", an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans. Several times Antony was summoned to Rome, but remained in Alexandria with Cleopatra. Again with Egyptian money, Antony invaded Armenia, this time successfully. In the return, a mock Roman triumph was celebrated in the streets of Alexandria. The parade through the city was a pastiche of Rome's most important military celebration. For the finale, the whole city was summoned to hear a very important political statement. Surrounded by Cleopatra and her children, Antony ended his alliance with Octavian. He distributed kingdoms among his children: Alexander Helios was named king of Armenia, Media and Parthia (territories which were not for the most part under the control of Rome), his twin Cleopatra Selene got Cyrenaica and Libya, and the young Ptolemy Philadelphus was awarded Syria and Cilicia. As for Cleopatra, she was proclaimed Queen of Kings and Queen of Egypt, to rule with Caesarion (Ptolemy XV Caesar, son of Cleopatra by Julius Caesar), King of Kings and King of Egypt. Most important of all, Caesarion was declared legitimate son and heir of Caesar. These proclamations were known as the "Donations of Alexandria" and caused a fatal breach in Antony's relations with Rome. While the distribution of nations among Cleopatra's children was hardly a conciliatory gesture, it did not pose an immediate threat to Octavian's political position. Far more dangerous was the acknowledgment of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Caesar's name. Octavian's base of power was his link with Caesar through adoption, which granted him much-needed popularity and loyalty of the legions. To see this convenient situation attacked by a child borne by the richest woman in the world was something Octavian could not accept. The triumvirate expired on the last day of 33 BC and was not renewed. Another civil war was beginning. During 33 and 32 BC, a propaganda war was fought in the political arena of Rome, with accusations flying between sides. Antony (in Egypt) divorced Octavia and accused Octavian of being a social upstart, of usurping power, and of forging the adoption papers by Caesar. Octavian responded with treason charges: of illegally keeping provinces that should be given to other men by lots, as was Rome's tradition, and of starting wars against foreign nations (Armenia and Parthia) without the consent of the senate. Antony was also held responsible for Sextus Pompey's execution without a trial. In 32 BC, the senate deprived him of his powers and declared war against Cleopatra – not Antony, because Octavian had no wish to advertise his role in perpetuating Rome's internecine bloodshed. Both consuls, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius, and a third of the senate abandoned Rome to meet Antony and Cleopatra in Greece. In 31 BC, the war started. Octavian's general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa captured the Greek city and naval port of Methone, loyal to Antony. The enormous popularity of Octavian with the legions secured the defection of the provinces of Cyrenaica and Greece to his side. On 2 September, the naval Battle of Actium took place. Antony and Cleopatra's navy was overwhelmed, and they were forced to escape to Egypt with 60 ships. Octavian, now close to absolute power, did not intend to give Antony and Cleopatra any rest. In 30 August BC, assisted by Agrippa, he invaded Egypt. With no other refuge to escape to, Antony committed suicide by stabbing himself with his sword in the mistaken belief that Cleopatra had already done so. When he found out that Cleopatra was still alive, his friends brought him to Cleopatra's monument in which she was hiding, and he died in her arms. Cleopatra was allowed to conduct Antony's burial rites after she had been captured by Octavian. Realising that she was destined for Octavian's triumph in Rome, she made several attempts to take her life and finally succeeded in mid-August. Octavian had Caesarion murdered, but he spared Antony's children by Cleopatra, who were paraded through the streets of Rome. Antony's daughters by Octavia were spared, as was his son, Iullus Antonius. But his elder son, Marcus Antonius Antyllus, was killed by Octavian's men while pleading for his life in the Caesareum. Cicero's son, Cicero Minor, announced Antony's death to the senate. Antony's honours were revoked and his statues removed, but he was not subject to a complete damnatio memoriae. Cicero Minor also made a decree that no member of the Antonii would ever bear the name Marcus again. "In this way Heaven entrusted the family of Cicero the final acts in the punishment of Antony." When Antony died, Octavian became uncontested ruler of Rome. In the following years, Octavian, who was known as Augustus after 27 BC, managed to accumulate in his person all administrative, political, and military offices. When Augustus died in AD 14, his political powers passed to his adopted son Tiberius; the Roman Empire had begun. The rise of Caesar and the subsequent civil war between his two most powerful adherents effectively ended the credibility of the Roman oligarchy as a governing power and ensured that all future power struggles would centre upon which one individual would achieve supreme control of the government, eliminating the senate and the former magisterial structure as important foci of power in these conflicts. Thus, in history, Antony appears as one of Caesar's main adherents, he and Octavian Augustus being the two men around whom power coalesced following the assassination of Caesar, and finally as one of the three men chiefly responsible for the demise of the Roman Republic. Antony was known to have an obsession with women, and sex. He had many mistresses (including Cytheris) and had been married in succession to Fadia, Antonia, Fulvia, Octavia and Cleopatra, and left behind him a number of children. Through his daughters by Octavia, he would be ancestor to the Roman Emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Through his daughters by Octavia, he would become the paternal great grandfather of Roman Emperor Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Emperor Claudius, and both maternal great-great-grandfather and paternal great-great uncle of the Emperor Nero of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the very family, as represented by Octavian Augustus, that he had fought to defeat. Through his eldest daughter, he would become ancestor to the long line of kings and co-rulers of the Bosporan Kingdom, the longest-living Roman client kingdom, as well as the rulers and royalty of several other Roman client states. Through his daughter by Cleopatra, Antony would become ancestor to the royal family of Mauretania, another Roman client kingdom, while through his sole surviving son Iullus, he would be ancestor to several famous Roman statesmen. Works in which the character of Mark Antony plays a central role:

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Mark Antony

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19961

Manchester United F.C. Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Nicknamed "the Red Devils", the club was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to its current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910. Manchester United have won more trophies than any other club in English football, with a record 20 League titles, 12 FA Cups, five League Cups and a record 21 FA Community Shields. United have also won three UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA Europa League, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. In 1998–99, the club became the first in the history of English football to achieve the continental European treble. By winning the UEFA Europa League in 2016–17, they became one of five clubs to have won all three main UEFA club competitions. The 1958 Munich air disaster claimed the lives of eight players. In 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United became the first English football club to win the European Cup. Alex Ferguson won 38 trophies as manager, including 13 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups and 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, between 1986 and 2013, when he announced his retirement. Manchester United was the highest-earning football club in the world for 2016–17, with an annual revenue of €676.3 million, and the world's third most valuable football club in 2019, valued at £3.15 billion ($3.81 billion). As of June 2015, it is the world's most valuable football brand, estimated to be worth $1.2 billion. After being floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, the club was purchased by Malcolm Glazer in May 2005 in a deal valuing the club at almost £800 million, after which the company was taken private again, before going public once more in August 2012, when they made an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Manchester United is one of the most widely supported football clubs in the world, and has rivalries with Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Leeds United. Manchester United was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) depot at Newton Heath. The team initially played games against other departments and railway companies, but on 20 November 1880, they competed in their first recorded match; wearing the colours of the railway company – green and gold – they were defeated 6–0 by Bolton Wanderers' reserve team. By 1888, the club had become a founding member of The Combination, a regional football league. Following the league's dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance, which ran for three seasons before being merged with The Football League. This resulted in the club starting the 1892–93 season in the First Division, by which time it had become independent of the railway company and dropped the "LYR" from its name. After two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division. In January 1902, with debts of £2,670 – equivalent to £ in 2020 – the club was served with a winding-up order. Captain Harry Stafford found four local businessmen, including John Henry Davies (who became club president), each willing to invest £500 in return for a direct interest in running the club and who subsequently changed the name; on 24 April 1902, Manchester United was officially born. Under Ernest Mangnall, who assumed managerial duties in 1903, the team finished as Second Division runners-up in 1906 and secured promotion to the First Division, which they won in 1908 – the club's first league title. The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield and ended with the club's first FA Cup title. Manchester United won the First Division for the second time in 1911, but at the end of the following season, Mangnall left the club to join Manchester City. In 1922, three years after the resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to the Second Division, where it remained until regaining promotion in 1925. Relegated again in 1931, Manchester United became a yo-yo club, achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in 1934. Following the death of principal benefactor John Henry Davies in October 1927, the club's finances deteriorated to the extent that Manchester United would likely have gone bankrupt had it not been for James W. Gibson, who, in December 1931, invested £2,000 and assumed control of the club. In the 1938–39 season, the last year of football before the Second World War, the club finished 14th in the First Division. In October 1945, the impending resumption of football led to the managerial appointment of Matt Busby, who demanded an unprecedented level of control over team selection, player transfers and training sessions. Busby led the team to second-place league finishes in 1947, 1948 and 1949, and to FA Cup victory in 1948. In 1952, the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years. They then won back-to-back league titles in 1956 and 1957; the squad, who had an average age of 22, were nicknamed "the Busby Babes" by the media, a testament to Busby's faith in his youth players. In 1957, Manchester United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup, despite objections from The Football League, who had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous season. En route to the semi-final, which they lost to Real Madrid, the team recorded a 10–0 victory over Belgian champions Anderlecht, which remains the club's biggest victory on record. The following season, on the way home from a European Cup quarter-final victory against Red Star Belgrade, the aircraft carrying the Manchester United players, officials and journalists crashed while attempting to take off after refuelling in Munich, Germany. The Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958 claimed 23 lives, including those of eight players – Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Billy Whelan – and injured several more. Assistant manager Jimmy Murphy took over as manager while Busby recovered from his injuries and the club's makeshift side reached the FA Cup final, which they lost to Bolton Wanderers. In recognition of the team's tragedy, UEFA invited the club to compete in the 1958–59 European Cup alongside eventual League champions Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite approval from The Football Association, The Football League determined that the club should not enter the competition, since it had not qualified. Busby rebuilt the team through the 1960s by signing players such as Denis Law and Pat Crerand, who combined with the next generation of youth players – including George Best – to win the FA Cup in 1963. The following season, they finished second in the league, then won the title in 1965 and 1967. In 1968, Manchester United became the first English (and second British) club to win the European Cup, beating Benfica 4–1 in the final with a team that contained three European Footballers of the Year: Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best. They then represented Europe in the 1968 Intercontinental Cup against Estudiantes of Argentina, but lost the tie after losing the first leg in Buenos Aires, before a 1–1 draw at Old Trafford three weeks later. Busby resigned as manager in 1969 before being replaced by the reserve team coach, former Manchester United player Wilf McGuinness. Following an eighth-place finish in the 1969–70 season and a poor start to the 1970–71 season, Busby was persuaded to temporarily resume managerial duties, and McGuinness returned to his position as reserve team coach. In June 1971, Frank O'Farrell was appointed as manager, but lasted less than 18 months before being replaced by Tommy Docherty in December 1972. Docherty saved Manchester United from relegation that season, only to see them relegated in 1974; by that time the trio of Best, Law, and Charlton had left the club. The team won promotion at the first attempt and reached the FA Cup final in 1976, but were beaten by Southampton. They reached the final again in 1977, beating Liverpool 2–1. Docherty was dismissed shortly afterwards, following the revelation of his affair with the club physiotherapist's wife. Dave Sexton replaced Docherty as manager in the summer of 1977. Despite major signings, including Joe Jordan, Gordon McQueen, Gary Bailey, and Ray Wilkins, the team failed to achieve any significant results; they finished in the top two in 1979–80 and lost to Arsenal in the 1979 FA Cup Final. Sexton was dismissed in 1981, even though the team won the last seven games under his direction. He was replaced by Ron Atkinson, who immediately broke the British record transfer fee to sign Bryan Robson from West Bromwich Albion. Under Atkinson, Manchester United won the FA Cup twice in three years – in 1983 and 1985. In 1985–86, after 13 wins and two draws in its first 15 matches, the club was favourite to win the league, but finished in fourth place. The following season, with the club in danger of relegation by November, Atkinson was dismissed. Alex Ferguson and his assistant Archie Knox arrived from Aberdeen on the day of Atkinson's dismissal, and guided the club to an 11th-place finish in the league. Despite a second-place finish in 1987–88, the club was back in 11th place the following season. Reportedly on the verge of being dismissed, victory over Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup Final replay (after a 3–3 draw) saved Ferguson's career. The following season, Manchester United claimed its first Cup Winners' Cup title and competed in the 1991 UEFA Super Cup, beating European Cup holders Red Star Belgrade 1–0 in the final at Old Trafford. A second consecutive League Cup final appearance followed in 1992, in which the team beat Nottingham Forest 1–0 at Wembley. In 1993, the club won its first league title since 1967, and a year later, for the first time since 1957, it won a second consecutive title – alongside the FA Cup – to complete the first "Double" in the club's history. United then became the first English club to do the Double twice when they won both competitions again in 1995–96, before retaining the league title once more in 1996–97 with a game to spare. In the 1998–99 season, Manchester United became the first team to win the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League – "The Treble" – in the same season. Losing 1–0 going into injury time in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored late goals to claim a dramatic victory over Bayern Munich, in what is considered one of the greatest comebacks of all time. The club also won the Intercontinental Cup after beating Palmeiras 1–0 in Tokyo. Ferguson was subsequently knighted for his services to football. Manchester United won the league again in the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons. The team finished third in 2001–02, before regaining the title in 2002–03. They won the 2003–04 FA Cup, beating Millwall 3–0 in the final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff to lift the trophy for a record 11th time. In the 2005–06 season, Manchester United failed to qualify for the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in over a decade, but recovered to secure a second-place league finish and victory over Wigan Athletic in the 2006 Football League Cup Final. The club regained the Premier League in the 2006–07 season, before completing the European double in 2007–08 with a 6–5 penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea in the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final in Moscow to go with their 17th English league title. Ryan Giggs made a record 759th appearance for the club in that game, overtaking previous record holder Bobby Charlton. In December 2008, the club won the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup and followed this with the 2008–09 Football League Cup, and its third successive Premier League title. That summer, Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Real Madrid for a world record £80 million. In 2010, Manchester United defeated Aston Villa 2–1 at Wembley to retain the League Cup, its first successful defence of a knockout cup competition. After finishing as runner-up to Chelsea in the 2009–10 season, United achieved a record 19th league title in 2010–11, securing the championship with a 1–1 away draw against Blackburn Rovers on 14 May 2011. This was extended to 20 league titles in 2012–13, securing the championship with a 3–0 home win against Aston Villa on 22 April 2013. On 8 May 2013, Ferguson announced that he was to retire as manager at the end of the football season, but would remain at the club as a director and club ambassador. The club announced the next day that Everton manager David Moyes would replace him from 1 July, having signed a six-year contract. Ryan Giggs took over as interim player-manager 10 months later, on 22 April 2014, when Moyes was sacked after a poor season in which the club failed to defend their Premier League title and failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1995–96. They also failed to qualify for the Europa League, meaning that it was the first time Manchester United had not qualified for a European competition since 1990. On 19 May 2014, it was confirmed that Louis van Gaal would replace Moyes as Manchester United manager on a three-year deal, with Giggs as his assistant. Malcolm Glazer, the patriarch of the Glazer family that owns the club, died on 28 May 2014. Although Van Gaal's first season saw United once again qualify for the Champions League through a fourth-place finish in the Premier League, his second season saw United go out of the same tournament in the group stage. United also fell behind in the title race for the third consecutive season, finishing in 5th place, in spite of several expensive signings during Van Gaal's tenure. However, that same season, Manchester United won the FA Cup for a 12th time, this being their first trophy won since 2013. Despite this victory, Van Gaal was sacked as manager just two days later, with José Mourinho appointed in his place on 27 May, signing a three-year contract. That season, United finished in sixth place while winning the EFL Cup for the fifth time and the Europa League for the first time, as well as the FA Community Shield for a record 21st time in Mourinho's first competitive match in charge. Despite not finishing in the top four, United qualified for the Champions League through their Europa League win. Wayne Rooney scored his 250th goal with United, surpassing Sir Bobby Charlton as United's all-time top scorer, before leaving the club at the end of the season to return to Everton. Mourinho was sacked on 18 December 2018 with United in sixth place, 19 points behind league leaders Liverpool and 11 points outside the Champions League places. Former United player and manager of the Norwegian side Molde, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was appointed caretaker manager the next day. On 28 March 2019, following a run of 14 wins in his 19 matches in charge, including knocking Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League in the round of 16 after losing the first leg 2–0, Solskjær was appointed permanently on a three-year deal. The club crest is derived from the Manchester City Council coat of arms, although all that remains of it on the current crest is the ship in full sail. The devil stems from the club's nickname "The Red Devils"; it was included on club programmes and scarves in the 1960s, and incorporated into the club crest in 1970, although the crest was not included on the chest of the shirt until 1971. Newton Heath's uniform in 1879, four years before the club played its first competitive match, has been documented as 'white with blue cord'. A photograph of the Newton Heath team, taken in 1892, is believed to show the players wearing red-and-white quartered jerseys and navy blue knickerbockers. Between 1894 and 1896, the players wore green and gold jerseys which were replaced in 1896 by white shirts, which were worn with navy blue shorts. After the name change in 1902, the club colours were changed to red shirts, white shorts, and black socks, which has become the standard Manchester United home kit. Very few changes were made to the kit until 1922 when the club adopted white shirts bearing a deep red "V" around the neck, similar to the shirt worn in the 1909 FA Cup Final. They remained part of their home kits until 1927. For a period in 1934, the cherry and white hooped change shirt became the home colours, but the following season the red shirt was recalled after the club's lowest ever league placing of 20th in the Second Division and the hooped shirt dropped back to being the change. The black socks were changed to white from 1959 to 1965, where they were replaced with red socks up until 1971 with white used on occasion, when the club reverted to black. Black shorts and white socks are sometimes worn with the home strip, most often in away games, if there is a clash with the opponent's kit. For 2018–19, black shorts and red socks became the primary choice for the home kit. Since 1997–98, white socks have been the preferred choice for European games, which are typically played on weeknights, to aid with player visibility. The current home kit is a red shirt with the trademark Adidas three stripes in red on the shoulders, white shorts, and black socks. The Manchester United away strip has often been a white shirt, black shorts and white socks, but there have been several exceptions. These include an all-black strip with blue and gold trimmings between 1993 and 1995, the navy blue shirt with silver horizontal pinstripes worn during the 1999–2000 season, and the 2011–12 away kit, which had a royal blue body and sleeves with hoops made of small midnight navy blue and black stripes, with black shorts and blue socks. An all-grey away kit worn during the 1995–96 season was dropped after just five games; in its final outing against Southampton, Alex Ferguson instructed the team to change into the third kit during half-time. The reason for dropping it being that the players claimed to have trouble finding their teammates against the crowd, United failed to win a competitive game in the kit. In 2001, to celebrate 100 years as "Manchester United", a reversible white and gold away kit was released, although the actual match day shirts were not reversible. The club's third kit is often all-blue; this was most recently the case during the 2014–15 season. Exceptions include a green-and-gold halved shirt worn between 1992 and 1994, a blue-and-white striped shirt worn during the 1994–95 and 1995–96 seasons and once in 1996–97, an all-black kit worn during the Treble-winning 1998–99 season, and a white shirt with black-and-red horizontal pinstripes worn between 2003–04 and 2005–06. From 2006–07 to 2013–14, the third kit was the previous season's away kit, albeit updated with the new club sponsor in 2006–07 and 2010–11, apart from 2008–09 when an all-blue kit was launched to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967–68 European Cup success. Newton Heath initially played on a field on North Road, close to the railway yard; the original capacity was about 12,000, but club officials deemed the facilities inadequate for a club hoping to join The Football League. Some expansion took place in 1887, and in 1891, Newton Heath used its minimal financial reserves to purchase two grandstands, each able to hold 1,000 spectators. Although attendances were not recorded for many of the earliest matches at North Road, the highest documented attendance was approximately 15,000 for a First Division match against Sunderland on 4 March 1893. A similar attendance was also recorded for a friendly match against Gorton Villa on 5 September 1889. In June 1893, after the club was evicted from North Road by its owners, Manchester Deans and Canons, who felt it was inappropriate for the club to charge an entry fee to the ground, secretary A. H. Albut procured the use of the Bank Street ground in Clayton. It initially had no stands, by the start of the 1893–94 season, two had been built; one spanning the full length of the pitch on one side and the other behind the goal at the "Bradford end". At the opposite end, the "Clayton end", the ground had been "built up, thousands thus being provided for". Newton Heath's first league match at Bank Street was played against Burnley on 1 September 1893, when 10,000 people saw Alf Farman score a hat-trick, Newton Heath's only goals in a 3–2 win. The remaining stands were completed for the following league game against Nottingham Forest three weeks later. In October 1895, before the visit of Manchester City, the club purchased a 2,000-capacity stand from the Broughton Rangers rugby league club, and put up another stand on the "reserved side" (as distinct from the "popular side"). However, weather restricted the attendance for the Manchester City match to just 12,000. When the Bank Street ground was temporarily closed by bailiffs in 1902, club captain Harry Stafford raised enough money to pay for the club's next away game at Bristol City and found a temporary ground at Harpurhey for the next reserves game against Padiham. Following financial investment, new club president John Henry Davies paid £500 for the erection of a new 1,000-seat stand at Bank Street. Within four years, the stadium had cover on all four sides, as well as the ability to hold approximately 50,000 spectators, some of whom could watch from the viewing gallery atop the Main Stand. Following Manchester United's first league title in 1908 and the FA Cup a year later, it was decided that Bank Street was too restrictive for Davies' ambition; in February 1909, six weeks before the club's first FA Cup title, Old Trafford was named as the home of Manchester United, following the purchase of land for around £60,000. Architect Archibald Leitch was given a budget of £30,000 for construction; original plans called for seating capacity of 100,000, though budget constraints forced a revision to 77,000. The building was constructed by Messrs Brameld and Smith of Manchester. The stadium's record attendance was registered on 25 March 1939, when an FA Cup semi-final between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Grimsby Town drew 76,962 spectators. Bombing in the Second World War destroyed much of the stadium; the central tunnel in the South Stand was all that remained of that quarter. After the war, the club received compensation from the War Damage Commission in the amount of £22,278. While reconstruction took place, the team played its "home" games at Manchester City's Maine Road ground; Manchester United was charged £5,000 per year, plus a nominal percentage of gate receipts. Later improvements included the addition of roofs, first to the Stretford End and then to the North and East Stands. The roofs were supported by pillars that obstructed many fans' views, and they were eventually replaced with a cantilevered structure. The Stretford End was the last stand to receive a cantilevered roof, completed in time for the 1993–94 season. First used on 25 March 1957 and costing £40,000, four pylons were erected, each housing 54 individual floodlights. These were dismantled in 1987 and replaced by a lighting system embedded in the roof of each stand, which remains in use today. The Taylor Report's requirement for an all-seater stadium lowered capacity at Old Trafford to around 44,000 by 1993. In 1995, the North Stand was redeveloped into three tiers, restoring capacity to approximately 55,000. At the end of the 1998–99 season, second tiers were added to the East and West Stands, raising capacity to around 67,000, and between July 2005 and May 2006, 8,000 more seats were added via second tiers in the north-west and north-east quadrants. Part of the new seating was used for the first time on 26 March 2006, when an attendance of 69,070 became a new Premier League record. The record was pushed steadily upwards before reaching its peak on 31 March 2007, when 76,098 spectators saw Manchester United beat Blackburn Rovers 4–1, with just 114 seats (0.15 per cent of the total capacity of 76,212) unoccupied. In 2009, reorganisation of the seating resulted in a reduction of capacity by 255 to 75,957. Manchester United has the second highest average attendance of European football clubs only behind Borussia Dortmund. Manchester United is one of the most popular football clubs in the world, with one of the highest average home attendances in Europe. The club states that its worldwide fan base includes more than 200 officially recognised branches of the Manchester United Supporters Club (MUSC), in at least 24 countries. The club takes advantage of this support through its worldwide summer tours. Accountancy firm and sports industry consultants Deloitte estimate that Manchester United has 75 million fans worldwide. The club has the third highest social media following in the world among sports teams (after Barcelona and Real Madrid), with over 73 million Facebook fans as of December 2019. A 2014 study showed that Manchester United had the loudest fans in the Premier League. Supporters are represented by two independent bodies; the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association (IMUSA), which maintains close links to the club through the MUFC Fans Forum, and the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST). After the Glazer family's takeover in 2005, a group of fans formed a splinter club, F.C. United of Manchester. The West Stand of Old Trafford – the "Stretford End" – is the home end and the traditional source of the club's most vocal support. Manchester United has rivalries with Arsenal, Leeds United, Liverpool, and Manchester City, against whom they contest the Manchester derby. The rivalry with Liverpool is rooted in competition between the cities during the Industrial Revolution when Manchester was famous for its textile industry while Liverpool was a major port. The two clubs are the most successful English teams in both domestic and international competitions; and between them they have won 39 league titles, 9 European Cups, 4 UEFA Cups, 5 UEFA Super Cups, 19 FA Cups, 13 League Cups, 2 FIFA Club World Cups, 1 Intercontinental Cup and 36 FA Community Shields. It is considered to be one of the biggest rivalries in the football world and is considered the most famous fixture in English football. The "Roses Rivalry" with Leeds stems from the Wars of the Roses, fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, with Manchester United representing Lancashire and Leeds representing Yorkshire. The rivalry with Arsenal arises from the numerous times the two teams, as well as managers Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, have battled for the Premier League title. With 33 titles between them (20 for Manchester United, 13 for Arsenal) this fixture has become known as one of the finest Premier League match-ups in history. Manchester United has been described as a global brand; a 2011 report by Brand Finance, valued the club's trademarks and associated intellectual property at £412 million – an increase of £39 million on the previous year, valuing it at £11 million more than the second best brand, Real Madrid – and gave the brand a strength rating of AAA (Extremely Strong). In July 2012, Manchester United was ranked first by "Forbes" magazine in its list of the ten most valuable sports team brands, valuing the Manchester United brand at $2.23 billion. The club is ranked third in the Deloitte Football Money League (behind Real Madrid and Barcelona). In January 2013, the club became the first sports team in the world to be valued at $3 billion. "Forbes" magazine valued the club at $3.3 billion – $1.2 billion higher than the next most valuable sports team. They were overtaken by Real Madrid for the next four years, but Manchester United returned to the top of the "Forbes" list in June 2017, with a valuation of $3.689 billion. The core strength of Manchester United's global brand is often attributed to Matt Busby's rebuilding of the team and subsequent success following the Munich air disaster, which drew worldwide acclaim. The "iconic" team included Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles (members of England's World Cup winning team), Denis Law and George Best. The attacking style of play adopted by this team (in contrast to the defensive-minded "catenaccio" approach favoured by the leading Italian teams of the era) "captured the imagination of the English footballing public". Busby's team also became associated with the liberalisation of Western society during the 1960s; George Best, known as the "Fifth Beatle" for his iconic haircut, was the first footballer to significantly develop an off-the-field media profile. As the second English football club to float on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, the club raised significant capital, with which it further developed its commercial strategy. The club's focus on commercial and sporting success brought significant profits in an industry often characterised by chronic losses. The strength of the Manchester United brand was bolstered by intense off-the-field media attention to individual players, most notably David Beckham (who quickly developed his own global brand). This attention often generates greater interest in on-the-field activities, and hence generates sponsorship opportunities – the value of which is driven by television exposure. During his time with the club, Beckham's popularity across Asia was integral to the club's commercial success in that part of the world. Because higher league placement results in a greater share of television rights, success on the field generates greater income for the club. Since the inception of the Premier League, Manchester United has received the largest share of the revenue generated from the BSkyB broadcasting deal. Manchester United has also consistently enjoyed the highest commercial income of any English club; in 2005–06, the club's commercial arm generated £51 million, compared to £42.5 million at Chelsea, £39.3 million at Liverpool, £34 million at Arsenal and £27.9 million at Newcastle United. A key sponsorship relationship was with sportswear company Nike, who managed the club's merchandising operation as part of a £303 million 13-year partnership between 2002 and 2015. Through Manchester United Finance and the club's membership scheme, One United, those with an affinity for the club can purchase a range of branded goods and services. Additionally, Manchester United-branded media services – such as the club's dedicated television channel, MUTV – have allowed the club to expand its fan base to those beyond the reach of its Old Trafford stadium. In an initial five-year deal worth £500,000, Sharp Electronics became the club's first shirt sponsor at the beginning of the 1982–83 season, a relationship that lasted until the end of the 1999–2000 season, when Vodafone agreed a four-year, £30 million deal. Vodafone agreed to pay £36 million to extend the deal by four years, but after two seasons triggered a break clause in order to concentrate on its sponsorship of the Champions League. To commence at the start of the 2006–07 season, American insurance corporation AIG agreed a four-year £56.5 million deal which in September 2006 became the most valuable in the world. At the beginning of the 2010–11 season, American reinsurance company Aon became the club's principal sponsor in a four-year deal reputed to be worth approximately £80 million, making it the most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal in football history. Manchester United announced their first training kit sponsor in August 2011, agreeing a four-year deal with DHL reported to be worth £40 million; it is believed to be the first instance of training kit sponsorship in English football. The DHL contract lasted for over a year before the club bought back the contract in October 2012, although they remained the club's official logistics partner. The contract for the training kit sponsorship was then sold to Aon in April 2013 for a deal worth £180 million over eight years, which also included purchasing the naming rights for the Trafford Training Centre. The club's first kit manufacturer was Umbro, until a five-year deal was agreed with Admiral Sportswear in 1975. Adidas received the contract in 1980, before Umbro started a second spell in 1992. Umbro's sponsorship lasted for ten years, followed by Nike's record-breaking £302.9 million deal that lasted until 2015; 3.8 million replica shirts were sold in the first 22 months with the company. In addition to Nike and Chevrolet, the club also has several lower-level "platinum" sponsors, including Aon and Budweiser. On 30 July 2012, United signed a seven-year deal with American automotive corporation General Motors, which replaced Aon as the shirt sponsor from the 2014–15 season. The new $80m-a-year shirt deal is worth $559m over seven years and features the logo of General Motors brand Chevrolet. Nike announced that they would not renew their kit supply deal with Manchester United after the 2014–15 season, citing rising costs. Since the start of the 2015–16 season, Adidas has manufactured Manchester United's kit as part of a world-record 10-year deal worth a minimum of £750 million. Plumbing products manufacturer Kohler became the club's first sleeve sponsor ahead of the 2018–19 season. Originally funded by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, the club became a limited company in 1892 and sold shares to local supporters for £1 via an application form. In 1902, majority ownership passed to the four local businessmen who invested £500 to save the club from bankruptcy, including future club president John Henry Davies. After his death in 1927, the club faced bankruptcy yet again, but was saved in December 1931 by James W. Gibson, who assumed control of the club after an investment of £2,000. Gibson promoted his son, Alan, to the board in 1948, but died three years later; the Gibson family retained ownership of the club through James' wife, Lillian, but the position of chairman passed to former player Harold Hardman. Promoted to the board a few days after the Munich air disaster, Louis Edwards, a friend of Matt Busby, began acquiring shares in the club; for an investment of approximately £40,000, he accumulated a 54 per cent shareholding and took control in January 1964. When Lillian Gibson died in January 1971, her shares passed to Alan Gibson who sold a percentage of his shares to Louis Edwards' son, Martin, in 1978; Martin Edwards went on to become chairman upon his father's death in 1980. Media tycoon Robert Maxwell attempted to buy the club in 1984, but did not meet Edwards' asking price. In 1989, chairman Martin Edwards attempted to sell the club to Michael Knighton for £20 million, but the sale fell through and Knighton joined the board of directors instead. Manchester United was floated on the stock market in June 1991 (raising £6.7 million), and received yet another takeover bid in 1998, this time from Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting Corporation. This resulted in the formation of "Shareholders United Against Murdoch" – now the "Manchester United Supporters' Trust" – who encouraged supporters to buy shares in the club in an attempt to block any hostile takeover. The Manchester United board accepted a £623 million offer, but the takeover was blocked by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission at the final hurdle in April 1999. A few years later, a power struggle emerged between the club's manager, Alex Ferguson, and his horse-racing partners, John Magnier and J. P. McManus, who had gradually become the majority shareholders. In a dispute that stemmed from contested ownership of the horse Rock of Gibraltar, Magnier and McManus attempted to have Ferguson removed from his position as manager, and the board responded by approaching investors to attempt to reduce the Irishmen's majority. In May 2005, Malcolm Glazer purchased the 28.7 per cent stake held by McManus and Magnier, thus acquiring a controlling interest through his investment vehicle Red Football Ltd in a highly leveraged takeover valuing the club at approximately £800 million (then approx. $1.5 billion). Once the purchase was complete, the club was taken off the stock exchange. In July 2006, the club announced a £660 million debt refinancing package, resulting in a 30 per cent reduction in annual interest payments to £62 million a year. In January 2010, with debts of £716.5 million ($1.17 billion), Manchester United further refinanced through a bond issue worth £504 million, enabling them to pay off most of the £509 million owed to international banks. The annual interest payable on the bonds – which were to mature on 1 February 2017 – is approximately £45 million per annum. Despite restructuring, the club's debt prompted protests from fans on 23 January 2010, at Old Trafford and the club's Trafford Training Centre. Supporter groups encouraged match-going fans to wear green and gold, the colours of Newton Heath. On 30 January, reports emerged that the Manchester United Supporters' Trust had held meetings with a group of wealthy fans, dubbed the "Red Knights", with plans to buying out the Glazers' controlling interest. In August 2011, the Glazers were believed to have approached Credit Suisse in preparation for a $1 billion (approx. £600 million) initial public offering (IPO) on the Singapore stock exchange that would value the club at more than £2 billion. However, in July 2012, the club announced plans to list its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange instead. Shares were originally set to go on sale for between $16 and $20 each, but the price was cut to $14 by the launch of the IPO on 10 August, following negative comments from Wall Street analysts and Facebook's disappointing stock market debut in May. Even after the cut, Manchester United was valued at $2.3 billion, making it the most valuable football club in the world. List of under-23s and academy players with senior squad numbers Manchester United are one of the most successful clubs in Europe in terms of trophies won. The club's first trophy was the Manchester Cup, which they won as Newton Heath LYR in 1886. In 1908, the club won their first league title, and won the FA Cup for the first time the following year. Since then, they have gone on to win a record 20 top-division titles – including a record 13 Premier League titles – and their total of 12 FA Cups is second only to Arsenal (13). Those titles have meant they have also appeared a record 30 times in the FA Community Shield (formerly the FA Charity Shield), which is played at the start of each season between the winners of the league and FA Cup from the previous season; of those 30 appearances, Manchester United have won 21, including four times when the match was drawn and the trophy shared by the two clubs. The club had a successful period under the management of Matt Busby, starting with the FA Cup in 1948 and culminating with becoming the first English club to win the European Cup in 1968, winning five league titles in the intervening years; however, the club's most successful decade came in the 1990s under Alex Ferguson; five league titles, four FA Cups, one League Cup, five Charity Shields (one shared), one UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup. They also won the Double (winning the Premier League and FA Cup in the same season) three times during the 1990s; before their first in 1993–94, it had only been done five times in English football, so when they won a second in 1995–96 – the first club to do it twice – it was referred to as the "Double Double". When they won the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) for a second time in 1999, along with the Premier League and the FA Cup, they became the first English club to win the Treble. That Champions League title gave them entry to the now-defunct Intercontinental Cup, which they also won, making them the only British team to do so. Another Champions League title in 2008 meant they qualified for the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup, which they also won; until 2019, they were the only British team to win that competition. The club's most recent trophy was the UEFA Europa League, which they won in 2016–17. In winning that title, United became the fifth club to have won the "European Treble" of European Cup/UEFA Champions League, Cup Winners' Cup, and UEFA Cup/Europa League after Juventus, Ajax, Bayern Munich and Chelsea. Especially short competitions such as the Charity/Community Shield, Intercontinental Cup (now defunct), FIFA Club World Cup or UEFA Super Cup are not generally considered to contribute towards a Double or Treble. A team called Manchester United Supporters Club Ladies began operations in the late 1970s and was unofficially recognised as the club's senior women's team. They became founding members of the North West Women's Regional Football League in 1989. The team made an official partnership with Manchester United in 2001, becoming the club's official women's team; however, in 2005, following Malcolm Glazer's takeover, the club was disbanded as it was seen to be "unprofitable". In 2018, Manchester United formed a new women's football team, which entered the second division of women's football in England for their debut season.

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Manchester United F.C.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19961

19962

Mesa (programming language) Mesa is a programming language developed in the late 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in Palo Alto, California, United States. The language name was a pun based upon the programming language catchphrases of the time, because Mesa is a "high level" programming language. Mesa is an ALGOL-like language with strong support for modular programming. Every library module has at least two source files: a "definitions" file specifying the library's interface plus one or more "program" files specifying the implementation of the procedures in the interface. To use a library, a program or higher-level library must "import" the definitions. The Mesa compiler type-checks all uses of imported entities; this combination of separate compilation with type-checking was unusual at the time. Mesa introduced several other innovations in language design and implementation, notably in the handling of software exceptions, thread synchronization, and incremental compilation. Mesa was developed on the Xerox Alto, one of the first personal computers with a graphical user interface, however, most of the Alto's system software was written in BCPL. Mesa was the system programming language of the later Xerox Star workstations, and for the GlobalView desktop environment. Xerox PARC later developed Cedar, which was a superset of Mesa. Mesa and Cedar had a major influence on the design of other important languages, such as Modula-2 and Java, and was an important vehicle for the development and dissemination of the fundamentals of GUIs, networked environments, and the other advances Xerox contributed to the field of computer science. Mesa was originally designed in the Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL), a branch of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, for the Alto, an experimental micro-coded workstation. Initially, its spread was confined to PARC and a few universities to which Xerox had donated some Altos. Mesa was later adopted as the systems programming language for Xerox's commercial workstations such as the Xerox 8010 (Xerox Star, Dandelion) and Xerox 6085 (Daybreak), in particular for the Pilot operating system. A secondary development environment, called the Xerox Development Environment (XDE) allowed developers to debug both the operating system Pilot as well as ViewPoint GUI applications using a world swap mechanism. This allowed the entire "state" of the world to be swapped out, and allowed low-level system crashes which paralyzed the whole system to be debugged. This technique did not scale very well to large application images (several megabytes), and so the Pilot/Mesa world in later releases moved away from the world swap view when the micro-coded machines were phased out in favor of SPARC workstations and Intel PCs running a Mesa PrincOps emulator for the basic hardware instruction set. Mesa was compiled into a stack-machine language, purportedly with the highest code density ever achieved (roughly 4 bytes per high-level language statement). This was touted in a 1981 paper where implementors from the Xerox Systems Development Department (then, the development arm of PARC), tuned up the instruction set and published a paper on the resultant code density. Mesa was taught via the Mesa Programming Course that took people through the wide range of technology Xerox had available at the time and ended with the programmer writing a "hack", a workable program designed to be useful. An actual example of such a hack is the BWSMagnifier, which was written in 1988 and allowed people to magnify sections of the workstation screen as defined by a resizable window and a changeable magnification factor. Trained Mesa programmers from Xerox were well versed in the fundamental of GUIs, networking, exceptions, and multi-threaded programming, almost a decade before they became standard tools of the trade. Within Xerox, Mesa was eventually superseded by the Cedar programming language. Many Mesa programmers and developers left Xerox in 1985; some of them went to DEC Systems Research Center where they used their experience with Mesa in the design of Modula-2+, and later of Modula-3. Mesa was a strongly typed programming language with type-checking across module boundaries, but with enough flexibility in its type system that heap allocators could be written in Mesa. Because of its strict separation between interface and implementation, Mesa allows true incremental compilation and encourages architecture- and platform-independent programming. They also simplified source-level debugging, including remote debugging via the Ethernet. Mesa had rich exception handling facilities, with four types of exceptions. It had support for thread synchronization via monitors. Mesa was the first language to implement monitor BROADCAST, a concept introduced by the Pilot operating system. Mesa has an "imperative" and "algebraic" syntax, based on ALGOL and Pascal rather than on BCPL or C; for instance, compound commands are indicated by the and keywords rather than braces. In Mesa, all keywords are written in uppercase. Due to a peculiarity of the ASCII variant used at PARC, the Alto's character set included a left-pointing arrow (←) rather than an underscore. The result of this is that Alto programmers (including those using Mesa, Smalltalk etc.) conventionally used CamelCase for compound identifiers, a practice which was incorporated in PARC's standard programming style. On the other hand, the availability of the left-pointing arrow allowed them to use it for the assignment operator, as it originally had been in ALGOL. When the Mesa designers wanted to implement an exception facility, they hired a recent M.Sc. graduate from Colorado who had written his thesis on exception handling facilities in algorithmic languages. This led to the richest exception facility for its time, with primitives , , , , , and . Because the language did not have type-safe checks to verify full coverage for signal handling, uncaught exceptions were a common cause of bugs in released software. Mesa was the precursor to the programming language Cedar. Cedar's main additions were garbage collection, dynamic types, better string support through ropes, a limited form of type parameterization, and special syntax for identifying the type-safe parts of multi-module software packages, to ensure deterministic execution and prevent memory leaks.

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Mesa (programming language)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19962

19963

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: "Marsilius Ficinus"; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with the major academics of his day and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin. His Florentine Academy, an attempt to revive Plato's Academy, influenced the direction and tenor of the Italian Renaissance and the development of European philosophy. Ficino was born at Figline Valdarno. His father Diotifeci d'Agnolo was a physician under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, who took the young man into his household and became the lifelong patron of Marsilio, who was made tutor to his grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the Italian humanist philosopher and scholar was another of his students. During the sessions at Florence of the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438–1445, during the failed attempts to heal the schism of the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches, Cosimo de' Medici and his intellectual circle had made acquaintance with the Neoplatonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon, whose discourses upon Plato and the Alexandrian mystics so fascinated the learned society of Florence that they named him the second Plato. In 1459 John Argyropoulos was lecturing on Greek language and literature at Florence, and Ficino became his pupil. When Cosimo decided to refound Plato's Academy at Florence he chose Ficino as its head. In 1462, Cosimo supplied Ficino with Greek manuscripts of Plato's work, whereupon Ficino started translating the entire corpus into Latin (draft translation of the dialogues finished 1468–9; published 1484). Ficino also produced a translation of a collection of Hellenistic Greek documents found by Leonardo da Pistoia later called Hermetica, and the writings of many of the Neoplatonists, including Porphyry, Iamblichus and Plotinus. Among his many students was Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, who was considered by Ficino to be his successor as the head of the Florentine Platonic Academy. Diacceto's student, Giovanni di Bardo Corsi, produced a short biography of Ficino in 1506. Though trained as a physician, Ficino became a priest in 1473. In 1474 Ficino completed his treatise on the immortality of the soul, "Theologia Platonica de immortalitate animae" (Platonic Theology). In the rush of enthusiasm for every rediscovery from Antiquity, he exhibited a great interest in the arts of astrology, which landed him in trouble with the Catholic Church. In 1489 he was accused of heresy before Pope Innocent VIII and needed strong defense to preserve him from condemnation. Writing in 1492 Ficino proclaimed: "This century, like a golden age, has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music ... this century appears to have perfected astrology." Ficino's letters, extending over the years 1474–1494, survive and have been published. He wrote "De amore" (1484). "De vita libri tres" (Three books on life), or "De triplici vita", published in 1489, provides a great deal of medical and astrological advice for maintaining health and vigor, as well as espousing the Neoplatonist view of the world's ensoulment and its integration with the human soul: One metaphor for this integrated "aliveness" is Ficino's astrology. In the "Book of Life", he details the interlinks between behavior and consequence. It talks about a list of things that hold sway over a man's destiny. Probably due to early influences from his father Diotifeci, who was a doctor to Cosimo de' Medici, Ficino published Latin and Italian treatises on medical subjects such as "Consiglio contro la pestilenza" (Recommendations for the treatment of the plague) and "De vita libri tres" (Three books on life). His medical works exerted considerable influence on Renaissance physicians such as Paracelsus, with whom he shared the perception on the unity of the micro- and macrocosmos, and their interactions, through somatic and psychological manifestations, with the aim to investigate their signatures to cure diseases. Those works, which were very popular at the time, dealt with astrological and alchemical concepts. Thus Ficino came under the suspicion of heresy; especially after the publication of the third book in 1489, which contained specific instructions on healthful living. Notably, Ficino coined the term Platonic love, which first appeared in his letter to Alamanno Donati in 1476. In 1492, Ficino published "Epistulae" (Epistles), which contained Platonic love letters, written in Latin, to his academic colleague and life-long friend Giovanni Cavalcanti concerning the nature of Platonic love. Importantly, Ficino's letters to Cavalcanti resulted in the popularization of the term Platonic love in Western Europe. Clement Salaman, a modern translator of Ficino’s letters, notes that, “Platonic Love has passed into common parlance as a love independent of physical attraction, a love central to Ficino’s concept of friendship.” Salaman also remarks that the love to which Finico referred in his letters is "purely spiritual; it was not a polite form of words, still less a reference to homosexual love. It was a love that was all-embracing." Despite the claims of modern revisionist historians, there is no evidence that Ficino was erotically attracted to men. Consistent with his life's task of reconciling Platonism with Catholicism, Ficino rejected physical expressions of love between two men as a “wicked crime.” “Love and the desire for physical union,” Ficino wrote, are “not identical impulses, but…opposite ones.” Further, Ficino condemned sodomy in "Convivium" and faithfully adhered to the precepts of Catholic moral teaching regarding sexuality. Ficino died on 1 October 1499 at Careggi. In 1521 his memory was honored with a bust sculpted by Andrea Ferrucci, which is located in the south side of the nave in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

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Marsilio Ficino

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19963

19965

Morphogenesis Morphogenesis (from the Greek "morphê" shape and "genesis" creation, literally, "beginning of the shape") is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with the control of cell growth and cellular differentiation, unified in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). The process controls the organized spatial distribution of cells during the embryonic development of an organism. Morphogenesis can take place also in a mature organism, in cell culture or inside tumor cell masses. Morphogenesis also describes the development of unicellular life forms that do not have an embryonic stage in their life cycle, or describes the evolution of a body structure within a taxonomic group. Morphogenetic responses may be induced in organisms by hormones, by environmental chemicals ranging from substances produced by other organisms to toxic chemicals or radionuclides released as pollutants, and other plants, or by mechanical stresses induced by spatial patterning of the cells. Some of the earliest ideas and mathematical descriptions on how physical processes and constraints affect biological growth, and hence natural patterns such as the spirals of phyllotaxis, were written by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson in his 1917 book "On Growth and Form" and Alan Turing in his "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" (1952). Where Thompson explained animal body shapes as being created by varying rates of growth in different directions, for instance to create the spiral shell of a snail, Turing correctly predicted a mechanism of morphogenesis, the diffusion of two different chemical signals, one activating and one deactivating growth, to set up patterns of development, decades before the formation of such patterns was observed. The fuller understanding of the mechanisms involved in actual organisms required the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, and the development of molecular biology and biochemistry. Several types of molecules are important in morphogenesis. Morphogens are soluble molecules that can diffuse and carry signals that control cell differentiation via concentration gradients. Morphogens typically act through binding to specific protein receptors. An important class of molecules involved in morphogenesis are transcription factor proteins that determine the fate of cells by interacting with DNA. These can be coded for by master regulatory genes, and either activate or deactivate the transcription of other genes; in turn, these secondary gene products can regulate the expression of still other genes in a regulatory cascade of gene regulatory networks. At the end of this cascade are classes of molecules that control cellular behaviors such as cell migration, or, more generally, their properties, such as cell adhesion or cell contractility. For example, during gastrulation, clumps of stem cells switch off their cell-to-cell adhesion, become migratory, and take up new positions within an embryo where they again activate specific cell adhesion proteins and form new tissues and organs. Developmental signaling pathways implicated in morphogenesis include Wnt, Hedgehog, and ephrins. At a tissue level, ignoring the means of control, morphogenesis arises because of cellular proliferation and motility. Morphogenesis also involves changes in the cellular structure or how cells interact in tissues. These changes can result in tissue elongation, thinning, folding, invasion or separation of one tissue into distinct layers. The latter case is often referred as cell sorting. Cell "sorting out" consists of cells moving so as to sort into clusters that maximize contact between cells of the same type. The ability of cells to do this has been proposed to arise from differential cell adhesion by Malcolm Steinberg through his differential adhesion hypothesis. Tissue separation can also occur via more dramatic cellular differentiation events during which epithelial cells become mesenchymal (see Epithelial–mesenchymal transition). Mesenchymal cells typically leave the epithelial tissue as a consequence of changes in cell adhesive and contractile properties. Following epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cells can migrate away from an epithelium and then associate with other similar cells in a new location. In plants, cellular morphogenesis is tightly linked to the chemical composition and the mechanical properties of the cell wall. During embryonic development, cells are restricted to different layers due to differential affinities. One of the ways this can occur is when cells share the same cell-to-cell adhesion molecules. For instance, homotypic cell adhesion can maintain boundaries between groups of cells that have different adhesion molecules. Furthermore, cells can sort based upon differences in adhesion between the cells, so even two populations of cells with different levels of the same adhesion molecule can sort out. In cell culture cells that have the strongest adhesion move to the center of a mixed aggregates of cells. Moreover, cell-cell adhesion is often modulated by cell contractility, which can exert forces on the cell-cell contacts so that two cell populations with equal levels of the same adhesion molecule can sort out. The molecules responsible for adhesion are called cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Several types of cell adhesion molecules are known and one major class of these molecules are cadherins. There are dozens of different cadherins that are expressed on different cell types. Cadherins bind to other cadherins in a like-to-like manner: E-cadherin (found on many epithelial cells) binds preferentially to other E-cadherin molecules. Mesenchymal cells usually express other cadherin types such as N-cadherin. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is involved in keeping tissues separated, providing structural support or providing a structure for cells to migrate on. Collagen, laminin, and fibronectin are major ECM molecules that are secreted and assembled into sheets, fibers, and gels. Multisubunit transmembrane receptors called integrins are used to bind to the ECM. Integrins bind extracellularly to fibronectin, laminin, or other ECM components, and intracellularly to microfilament-binding proteins α-actinin and talin to link the cytoskeleton with the outside. Integrins also serve as receptors to trigger signal transduction cascades when binding to the ECM. A well-studied example of morphogenesis that involves ECM is mammary gland ductal branching. Tissues can change their shape and separate into distinct layers via cell contractility. Just as in muscle cells, myosin can contract different parts of the cytoplasm to change its shape or structure. Myosin-driven contractility in embryonic tissue morphogenesis is seen during the separation of germ layers in the model organisms "Caenorhabditis elegans", "Drosophila" and zebrafish. There are often periodic pulses of contraction in embryonic morphogenesis. A model called the cell state splitter involves alternating cell contraction and expansion, initiated by a bistable organelle at the apical end of each cell. The organelle consists of microtubules and microfilaments in mechanical opposition. It responds to local mechanical perturbations caused by morphogenetic movements. These then trigger traveling embryonic differentiation waves of contraction or expansion over presumptive tissues that determine cell type and is followed by cell differentiation. The cell state splitter was first proposed to explain neural plate morphogenesis during gastrulation of the axolotl and the model was later generalized to all of morphogenesis. Cancer can result from disruption of normal morphogenesis, including both tumor formation and tumor metastasis. Mitochondrial dysfunction can result in increased cancer risk due to disturbed morphogen signaling.

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Morphogenesis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19965

19972

Magical organization A magical organization or magical order is an organization created for the practice of magic or to further the knowledge of magic among its members. "Magic" in this case refers to occult, metaphysical and paranormal activities, not to the performance of stage magic. Magical organizations can include hermetic orders, Wiccan covens or Wiccan circles, esoteric societies, arcane colleges, witches' covens, and other groups which may use different terminology and similar though diverse practices. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has been credited with a vast revival of occult literature and practices and was founded in 1887 or 1888 by William Wynn Westcott, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and William Robert Woodman. The teachings of the Order include Enochian magic, Christian mysticism, Qabalah, Hermeticism, the paganism of ancient Egypt, theurgy, and alchemy. Ordo Templi Orientis was founded by Carl Kellner in 1895. The Order was reworked by Aleister Crowley after he took control of the Order in the early 1920s. Ordo Aurum Solis, founded in 1897, is a Western Mystery Tradition group teaching Hermetic Qabalah. Its rituals and system are different from the more popular Golden Dawn, this is because the group follows the ogdoadic tradition instead of rosicrucianism. The A∴A∴ was created in 1907 by Aleister Crowley and also teaches magick and Thelema. Their main text is "The Book of the Law". Builders of the Adytum (or B.O.T.A.) was created in 1922 by Paul Foster Case and was extended by Dr. Ann Davies. It teaches Hermetic Qabalah, astrology and occult tarot. Some (in many cases, equally notable) organizations.

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Magical organization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19972

19975

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (; ; 1703 – 22 June 1792) was a religious leader, Islamic scholar and theologian from Najd in central Arabia, founder of the Islamic doctrine and movement known as Wahhabism. Born to a family of jurists, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's early education consisted of learning a fairly standard curriculum of orthodox jurisprudence according to the Hanbali school of law, which was the school of law most prevalent in his area of birth. Despite his initial rudimentary training in classical Sunni Muslim tradition, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab gradually became opposed to many of the most popular Sunni practices such as the visitation to and the veneration of the tombs of saints, which he felt amounted to heretical religious innovation or even idolatry. Despite his teachings being rejected and opposed by many of the most notable Sunni Muslim scholars of the period, including his own father and brother, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab charted a religio-political pact with Muhammad bin Saud to help him to establish the Emirate of Diriyah, the first Saudi state, and began a dynastic alliance and power-sharing arrangement between their families which continues to the present day in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Al ash-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia's leading religious family, are the descendants of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, and have historically led the "ulama" in the Saudi state, dominating the state's clerical institutions. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is generally acknowledged to have been born in 1703 into the sedentary and impoverished Arab clan of Banu Tamim in 'Uyayna, a village in the Najd region of central Arabia. Before the emergence of Wahhabism there was a very limited history of Islamic education in the area. For this reason, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab had modest access to Islamic education during his youth. Despite this, the area had nevertheless produced several notable jurists of the Hanbali school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence, which was the school of law most prominently practiced in the area. In fact, Ibn 'Abd-al-Wahhab's own family "had produced several doctors of the school," with his father, Sulaymān b. Muḥammad, having been the Hanbali jurisconsult of the Najd and his grandfather, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, having been a judge of Hanbali law. Ibn 'Abd-al-Wahhab's early education consisted of learning the Quran by heart and studying a rudimentary level of Hanbali jurisprudence and theology as outlined in the works of Ibn Qudamah (d. 1223), one of the most influential medieval representatives of the Hanbali school whose works were regarded "as having great authority" in the Najd. As the veneration of saints and the belief in their ability to perform miracles by the grace of God had become one of the most omnipresent and established aspects of Sunni Muslim practice throughout the Islamic world, being an agreed-upon tenet of the faith by the vast majority of the classical scholars, it was not long before Ibn 'Abd-al-Wahhab began to encounter the omnipresence of saint-veneration in his area as well; and he probably chose to leave Najd and look elsewhere for studies to see if the honoring of saints was as popular in the neighboring places of the Muslim world. After leaving 'Uyayna, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab performed the Greater Pilgrimage in Mecca, where the scholars appear to have held opinions and espoused teachings that were unpalatable to him. After this, he went to Medina, the stay at which seems to have been "decisive in shaping the later direction of his thought." In Medina, he met a Hanbali theologian from Najd named ʿAbd Allāh b. Ibrāhīm al-Najdī, who had been a supporter of the neo-Hanbali works of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328), the controversial medieval scholar whose teachings had been considered heterodox and misguided on several important points by the vast majority of Sunni Muslim scholars up to that point in history. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's teacher Abdallah ibn Ibrahim ibn Sayf introduced the relatively young man to Mohammad Hayya Al-Sindhi in Medina who belonged to the Naqshbandi order (tariqa) of Sufism and recommended him as a student. Mohammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab and al-Sindhi became very close and Mohammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab stayed with him for some time. Muhammad Hayya also taught Mohammad Ibn ʿAbd-al-Wahhab to reject popular religious practices associated with walis and their tombs that resemble later Wahhabi teachings. Following his early education in Medina, Ibn Abdul Wahhab traveled outside of the peninsula, venturing first to Basra. After his return home, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab began to attract followers, including the ruler of 'Uyayna, Uthman ibn Mu'ammar. With Ibn Mu'ammar, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab agreed to support Ibn Mu'ammar's political ambitions to expand his rule "over Najd and possibly beyond", in exchange for the ruler's support for Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's religious teachings. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab began to implement some of his ideas for reform. First, he persuaded Ibn Mu'ammar to help him level the grave of Zayd ibn al-Khattab, a companion of Muhammad, whose grave was revered by locals. Secondly, he ordered the cutting down of trees considered sacred by locals, cutting down "the most glorified of all of the trees" himself. Third, he organized the stoning of a woman who confessed to having committed adultery. These actions gained the attention of Sulaiman ibn Muhammad ibn Ghurayr of the tribe of Bani Khalid, the chief of Al-Hasa and Qatif, who held substantial influence in Najd. Ibn Ghurayr threatened Ibn Mu'ammar by denying him the ability to collect a land tax for some properties that Ibn Mu'ammar owned in al-Hasa if he did not kill or drive away from Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab. Consequently, Ibn Mu'ammar forced Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab to leave. Upon his expulsion from 'Uyayna, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab was invited to settle in neighboring Diriyah by its ruler Muhammad bin Saud. After some time in Diriyah, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab concluded his second and more successful agreement with a ruler. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud agreed that, together, they would bring the Arabs of the peninsula back to the "true" principles of Islam as they saw it. According to one source, when they first met, bin Saud declared: Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab replied: The agreement was confirmed with a mutual oath of loyalty ("bay'ah") in 1744. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab would be responsible for religious matters and Ibn Saud in charge of political and military issues. This agreement became a "mutual support pact" and power-sharing arrangement between the Al Saud family, and the Al ash-Sheikh and followers of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, which has remained in place for nearly 300 years, providing the ideological impetus to Saudi expansion. The 1744 pact between Muhammad bin Saud and Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab marked the emergence of the first Saudi state, the Emirate of Diriyah. By offering the Al Saud a clearly defined religious mission, the alliance provided the ideological impetus to Saudi expansion. First conquering Najd, Saud's forces expanded the Salafi influence to most of the present-day territory of Saudi Arabia, eradicating various popular practices they viewed as akin to polytheism and propagating the doctrines of ʿAbd al-Wahhab. According to academic publications such as the Encyclopædia Britannica while in Baghdad, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab married an affluent woman. When she died, he inherited her property and wealth. Muhammad ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab had six sons; Hussain, Abdullah, Hassan, Ali and Ibrahim and Abdul-Aziz who died in his youth. All his surviving sons established religious schools close to their homes and taught the young students from Diriyah and other places. The descendants of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, the Al ash-Sheikh, have historically led the ulama in the Saudi state, dominating the state's religious institutions. Within Saudi Arabia, the family is held in prestige similar to the Saudi royal family, with whom they share power, and has included several religious scholars and officials. The arrangement between the two families is based on the Al Saud maintaining the Al ash-Sheikh's authority in religious matters and upholding and propagating Salafi doctrine. In return, the Al ash-Sheikh support the Al Saud's political authority thereby using its religious-moral authority to legitimize the royal family's rule. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab considered his movement an effort to purify Islam by returning Muslims to what, he believed, were the original principles of that religion. He taught that the primary doctrine of Islam was the uniqueness and unity of God ("Tawhid"). He also denounced popular beliefs as polytheism (shirk), rejected much of the medieval law of the scholars (ulema) and called for a new interpretation of Islam. The "core" of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's teaching is found in "Kitab al-Tawhid", a short essay which draws from material in the Quran and the recorded doings and sayings ("hadith") of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It preaches that worship in Islam includes conventional acts of worship such as the five daily prayers ("salat"); fasting ("sawm"); supplication ("Dua"); seeking protection or refuge ("Istia'dha"); seeking help ("Ist'ana" and "Istighatha") of Allah. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab was keen on emphasizing that other acts, such as making "dua" or calling upon/supplication to or seeking help, protection or intercession from anyone or anything other than Allah, are acts of "shirk" and contradict the tenets of tawhid and that those who tried would never be forgiven. Traditionally, most Muslims throughout history have held the view that declaring the testimony of faith is sufficient in becoming a Muslim. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab did not agree with this. He held the view that an individual who believed that there could be intercessors with God was actually performing shirk. This was the major difference between him and his opponents and led him to declare Muslims outside of his group to be apostates (takfir) and idolators (mushrikin). Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's movement is today often known as Wahhabism, although many adherents see this as a derogatory term coined by his opponents, and prefer it to be known as the Salafi movement. Scholars point out that Salafism is a term applied to several forms of puritanical Islam in various parts of the world, while Wahhabism refers to the specific Saudi school, which is seen as a more strict form of Salafism. According to Ahmad Moussalli, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, "As a rule, all Wahhabis are Salafists, but not all Salafists are Wahhabis". Yet others say that while Wahhabism and Salafism originally were two different things, they became practically indistinguishable in the 1970s. At the end of his treatise, "Al-Hadiyyah al-Suniyyah", Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's son 'Abd Allah speaks positively on the practice of tazkiah (purification of the inner self). According to author Dore Gold, in "Kitab al-Tawhid", Ibn Abd al-Wahhab described followers of both the Christian and Jewish faiths as sorcerers who believed in devil worship, and cited a hadith of Muhammad stating that punishment for the sorcerer is `that he be struck with the sword.` Wahhab asserted that both religions had improperly made the graves of their prophet into places of worship and warned Muslims not to imitate this practice. Wahhab concluded that `The ways of the people of the book are condemned as those of polytheists.` However, author Natana J. DeLong-Bas defends Abdul Wahhab, stating that despite his at times vehement denunciations of other religious groups for their supposedly heretical beliefs, Ibn Abd al Wahhab never called for their destruction or death … he assumed that these people would be punished in the Afterlife …" Historical accounts of Wahhab also state that "Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab saw it as his mission to restore a more purer and original form of the faith of Islam. … Anyone who didn't adhere to this interpretation were considered polytheists worthy of death, including fellow Muslims (especially Shi'ite who venerate the family of Muhammad), Christians and others. He also advocated for a literalist interpretation of the Quran and its laws" Despite his great aversion to venerating the saints after their earthly passing and seeking their intercession, it should nevertheless be noted that Ibn 'Abd-al-Wahhab did not deny the existence of saints as such; on the contrary, he acknowledged that "the miracles of saints ("karāmāt al-awliyāʾ") are not to be denied, and their right guidance by God is acknowledged" when they acted properly during their life. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's teachings were criticized by a number of Islamic scholars during his life for disregarding Islamic history, monuments, traditions and the sanctity of Muslim life. One scholar named Ibn Muhammad compared Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab with Musaylimah. He also accused Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab of wrongly declaring the Muslims to be infidels based on a misguided reading of Qur'anic passages and Prophetic traditions and of wrongly declaring all scholars as infidels who did not agree with his "deviant innovation". The traditional Hanbali scholar Ibn Fayruz al-Tamimi (d. 1801/1802) publicly repudiated Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's teachings when he sent an envoy to him and referred to the Wahhabis as the "seditious Kharijites" of Najd. In response, the Wahhabis considered Ibn Fayruz an idolater (mushrik) and one of their worst enemies. According to the historian Ibn Humayd, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's father criticized his son for his unwillingness to specialize in jurisprudence and disagreed with his doctrine and declared that he would be the cause of wickedness. Similarly his brother, Suleyman ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab wrote one of the first treatises' refuting Wahhabi doctrine claiming he was ill-educated and intolerant and classing Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's views as fringe and fanatical. The Shafi'i mufti of Mecca, Ahmed ibn Zayni Dehlan, wrote an anti-Wahhabi treatise, the bulk of which consists of arguments and proof from the sunna to uphold the validity of practices the Wahhabis considered idolatrous: Visiting the tombs of Muhammad, seeking the intercession of saints, venerating Muhammad and obtaining the blessings of saints. He also accused Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab of not adhering to the Hanbali school and that he was deficient in learning. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab is accepted by Salafi scholars as an authority and source of reference. 20th century Albanian scholar Nasiruddin Albani refers to Ibn Abdul Wahhab's activism as "Najdi da'wah." A list of scholars with opposing views, along with names of their books and related information, was compiled by the Islamic scholar Muhammad Hisham. In 2010, Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz at the time serving as the governor of Riyadh said that the teaching of Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahab was pure Islam, and said regarding his works, "I dare anyone to bring a single alphabetical letter from the Sheikh's books that goes against the book of Allah ... and the teachings of his prophet, Mohammed." The national mosque of Qatar is named after him. The "Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque" was opened in 2011, with the Emir of Qatar presiding over the occasion. The mosque can hold a congregation of 30,000 people. In 2017 there has been a request published on the Saudi Arabian newspaper "Okaz" and signed by 200 descendants of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab that the name of the mosque be changed, because according to their statement "it does not carry its true Salafi path", even though most Qataris practice Wahhabism. Despite Wahhabi destruction of many Islamic, non-Islamic, cultural and historical sites associated with the early history of Islam and the first generation of Muslims (Muhammad's family and his companions), the Saudi government undertook a large-scale development of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's domain, Diriyah, turning it into a major tourist attraction. Other features in the area include the "Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab Foundation", which is planned to include a light and sound presentation located near the "Mosque of Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulwahab". There are two contemporary histories of Muhammed ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and his religious movement from the point of view of his supporters: Ibn Ghannam's "Rawdhat al-Afkar wal-Afham" or "Tarikh Najd" (History of Najd) and Ibn Bishr's "Unwan al-Majd fi Tarikh Najd". Husain ibn Ghannam (d. 1811), an alim from al-Hasa was the only historian to have observed the beginnings of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's movement first-hand. His chronicle ends at the year 1797. Ibn Bishr's chronicle, which stops at the year 1854, was written a generation later than Ibn Ghannam's but is considered valuable partly because Ibn Bishr was a native of Najd and because he adds many details to Ibn Ghannam's account. A third account, dating from around 1817 is "Lam' al-Shihab", written by an anonymous Sunni author who respectfully disapproved of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's movement, regarding it as a "bid'ah". It is also commonly cited because it is considered to be a relatively objective contemporary treatment of the subject. However, unlike Ibn Ghannam and Ibn Bishr, its author did not live in Najd and his work is believed to contain some apocryphal and legendary material concerning the details of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's life.

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Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19975

19977

Maine Maine () is the northernmost state in the northeastern United States. Maine is the 12th smallest by area, the 9th least populous, and the 13th least densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. Located in New England, it is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Québec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. Maine is the only state to border exactly one other state, is the easternmost among the contiguous United States, and is the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes. Maine is known for its jagged, rocky coastline; low, rolling mountains; heavily forested interior; and picturesque waterways, as well as its seafood cuisine, especially lobster and clams. There is a humid continental climate throughout most of the state, including coastal areas. Maine's most populous city is Portland and its capital is Augusta. For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the only inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European arrival in what is now Maine, several Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the area. The first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate, deprivations, and conflict with the local peoples caused many to fail over the years. As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution. During the War of 1812, the largely-undefended eastern region of Maine was occupied by British forces, but returned to the United States following failed British offensives on the northern border, mid-Atlantic and south which produced a peace treaty that was to include dedicated land on the Michigan peninsula for Native American peoples. Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become a separate state. On March 15, 1820, under the Missouri Compromise, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state. There is no definitive explanation for the origin of the name "Maine", but the most likely origin is that the name was given by early explorers after the former province of Maine in France. Whatever the origin, the name was fixed for English settlers in 1665 when the English King's Commissioners ordered that the "Province of Maine" be entered from then on in official records. The state legislature in 2001 adopted a resolution establishing Franco-American Day, which stated that the state was named after the former French province of Maine. Other theories mention earlier places with similar names, or claim it is a nautical reference to the mainland. Captain John Smith, in his "Description of New England" (1614) bemoans the lack of exploration: "Thus you may see, of this 2000. miles more then halfe is yet vnknowne to any purpose: no not so much as the borders of the Sea are yet certainly discouered. As for the goodnes and true substances of the Land, wee are for most part yet altogether ignorant of them, vnlesse it bee those parts about the Bay of Chisapeack and Sagadahock: but onely here and there wee touched or haue seene a little the edges of those large dominions, which doe stretch themselues into the Maine, God doth know how many thousand miles;" Note that his description of the mainland of North America is "the Maine". The word "main" was a frequent shorthand for the word "mainland" (as in "The Spanish Main") Attempts to uncover the history of the name of Maine began with James Sullivan's 1795 "History of the District of Maine." He made the unsubstantiated claim that the Province of Maine was a compliment to the queen of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, who once "owned" the Province of Maine in France. This was quoted by Maine historians until the 1845 biography of that queen by Agnes Strickland established that she had no connection to the province; further, King Charles I married Henrietta Maria in 1625, three years after the name Maine first appeared on the charter. A new theory, put forward by Carol B. Smith Fisher in 2002, is that Sir Ferdinando Gorges chose the name in 1622 to honor the village where his ancestors first lived in England, rather than the province in France. "MAINE" appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 in reference to the county of Dorset, which is today Broadmayne, just southeast of Dorchester. The view generally held among British place name scholars is that Mayne in Dorset is Brythonic, corresponding to modern Welsh "maen", plural "main" or "meini". Some early spellings are: MAINE 1086, MEINE 1200, MEINES 1204, MAYNE 1236. Today the village is known as Broadmayne, which is primitive Welsh or Brythonic, "main" meaning rock or stone, considered a reference to the many large sarsen stones still present around Little Mayne farm, half a mile northeast of Broadmayne village. The first known record of the name appears in an August 10, 1622 land charter to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, English Royal Navy veterans, who were granted a large tract in present-day Maine that Mason and Gorges "intend to name the Province of Maine". Mason had served with the Royal Navy in the Orkney Islands, where the chief island is called Mainland, a possible name derivation for these English sailors. In 1623, the English naval captain Christopher Levett, exploring the New England coast, wrote: "The first place I set my foote upon in New England was the Isle of Shoals, being Ilands in the sea, above two Leagues from the Mayne." Initially, several tracts along the coast of New England were referred to as "Main" or "Maine" (cf. the Spanish Main). A reconfirmed and enhanced April 3, 1639, charter, from England's King CharlesI, gave Sir Ferdinando Gorges increased powers over his new province and stated that it "shall forever hereafter, be called and named the PROVINCE OR COUNTIE OF MAINE, and not by any other name or names whatsoever..." Maine is the only U.S. state whose name has exactly one syllable. The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Penobscot, Androscoggin and Kennebec. During the later King Philip's War, many of these peoples would merge in one form or another to become the Wabanaki Confederacy, aiding the Wampanoag of Massachusetts & the Mahican of New York. Afterwards, many of these people were driven from their natural territories, but most of the tribes of Maine continued, unchanged, until the American Revolution. Before this point, however, most of these people were considered separate nations. Many had adapted to living in permanent, Iroquois-inspired settlements, while those along the coast tended to be semi-nomadic—traveling from settlement to settlement on a yearly cycle. They would usually winter inland & head to the coasts by summer. European contact with what is now called Maine started around 1200 CE when Norwegians interacted with the native Penobscot in present-day Hancock County, most likely through trade. About 200 years earlier, from the settlements in Iceland and Greenland, Norwegians had first identified America and attempted to settle areas such as Newfoundland, but failed to establish a permanent settlement there. Archeological evidence suggests that Norwegians in Greenland returned to North America for several centuries after the initial discovery to collect timber and to trade, with the most relevant evidence being the Maine Penny, an 11th-century Norwegian coin found at a Native American dig site in 1954. The first European settlement in Maine was in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, led by French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. His party included Samuel de Champlain, noted as an explorer. The French named the entire area Acadia, including the portion that later became the state of Maine. The first English settlement in Maine was established by the Plymouth Company at the Popham Colony in 1607, the same year as the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. The Popham colonists returned to Britain after 14 months. The French established two Jesuit missions: one on Penobscot Bay in 1609, and the other on Mount Desert Island in 1613. The same year, Castine was established by Claude de La Tour. In 1625, Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour erected Fort Pentagouet to protect Castine. The coastal areas of eastern Maine first became the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent. The part of western Maine north of the Kennebec River was more sparsely settled, and was known in the 17th century as the Territory of Sagadahock. A second settlement was attempted in 1623 by English explorer and naval Captain Christopher Levett at a place called York, where he had been granted by King Charles I of England. It also failed. Central Maine was formerly inhabited by people of the Androscoggin tribe of the Abenaki nation, also known as Arosaguntacook. They were driven out of the area in 1690 during King William's War. They were relocated at St. Francis, Canada, which was destroyed by Rogers' Rangers in 1759, and is now Odanak. The other Abenaki tribes suffered several severe defeats, particularly during Dummer's War, with the capture of Norridgewock in 1724 and the defeat of the Pequawket in 1725, which greatly reduced their numbers. They finally withdrew to Canada, where they were settled at Bécancour and Sillery, and later at St. Francis, along with other refugee tribes from the south. The province within its current boundaries became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652. Maine was much fought over by the French, English, and allied natives during the 17th and early 18th centuries, who conducted raids against each other, taking captives for ransom or, in some cases, adoption by Native American tribes. A notable example was the early 1692 Abenaki raid on York, where about 100 English settlers were killed and another estimated 80 taken hostage. The Abenaki took captives taken during raids of Massachusetts in Queen Anne's War of the early 1700s to Kahnewake, a Catholic Mohawk village near Montreal, where some were adopted and others ransomed. After the British defeated the French in Acadia in the 1740s, the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present-day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia county of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, with the British occupying eastern Maine in both conflicts. The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed following the Treaty of Paris ending the revolution, although the final border with British North America was not established until the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Maine was physically separate from the rest of Massachusetts. Long-standing disagreements over land speculation and settlements led to Maine residents and their allies in Massachusetts proper forcing an 1807 vote in the Massachusetts Assembly on permitting Maine to secede; the vote failed. Secessionist sentiment in Maine was stoked during the War of 1812 when Massachusetts pro-British merchants opposed the war and refused to defend Maine from British invaders. In 1819, Massachusetts agreed to permit secession, sanctioned by voters of the rapidly growing region the following year. Formal secession and formation of the state of Maine as the 23rd state occurred on March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, which geographically limited the spread of slavery and enabled the admission to statehood of Missouri the following year, keeping a balance between slave and free states. Maine's original state capital was Portland, Maine's largest city, until it was moved to the more central Augusta in 1832. The principal office of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court remains in Portland. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, prevented the Union Army from being flanked at Little Round Top by the Confederate Army during the Battle of Gettysburg. Four U.S. Navy ships have been named USS "Maine", most famously the armored cruiser , whose sinking by an explosion on February 15, 1898 precipitated the Spanish–American War. To the south and east is the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and northeast is New Brunswick, a province of Canada. The Canadian province of Québec is to the northwest. Maine is both the northernmost state in New England and also the largest, accounting for almost half of the region's entire land area. Maine is the only state to border exactly one other American state (New Hampshire). Maine is the easternmost state in the United States both in its extreme points and in its geographic center. The town of Lubec is the easternmost organized settlement in the United States. Its Quoddy Head Lighthouse is also the closest place in the United States to Africa and Europe. Estcourt Station is Maine's northernmost point, as well as the northernmost point in New England. (For more information see extreme points of the United States.) Maine's Moosehead Lake is the largest lake wholly in New England, since Lake Champlain is located between Vermont, New York and Québec. A number of other Maine lakes, such as South Twin Lake, are described by Thoreau in "The Maine Woods" (1864). Mount Katahdin is both the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, which extends southerly to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and the southern terminus of the new International Appalachian Trail which, when complete, will run to Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador. Machias Seal Island and North Rock, off the state's Downeast coast, are claimed by both Canada and the American town of Cutler, and are within one of four areas between the two countries whose sovereignty is still in dispute, but it is the only one of the disputed areas containing land. Also in this easternmost area in the Bay of Fundy is the Old Sow, the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere. Maine is the least densely populated U.S. state east of the Mississippi River. It is called the Pine Tree State; over 80% of its total land is forested and/or unclaimed, the most forest cover of any U.S. state. In the forested areas of the interior lies much uninhabited land, some of which does not have formal political organization into local units (a rarity in New England). The Northwest Aroostook, Maine unorganized territory in the northern part of the state, for example, has an area of and a population of 10, or one person for every . Maine is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome. The land near the southern and central Atlantic coast is covered by the mixed oaks of the Northeastern coastal forests. The remainder of the state, including the North Woods, is covered by the New England-Acadian forests. Maine has almost of coastline (and of tidal coastline). West Quoddy Head, in Lubec, Maine, is the easternmost point of land in the 48 contiguous states. Along the famous rock-bound coast of Maine are lighthouses, beaches, fishing villages, and thousands of offshore islands, including the Isles of Shoals which straddle the New Hampshire border. There are jagged rocks and cliffs and many bays and inlets. Inland are lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains. This visual contrast of forested slopes sweeping down to the sea has been summed up by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay of Rockland and Camden, Maine, in "Renascence": Geologists describe this type of landscape as a "drowned coast", where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops. A rise in the elevation of the land due to the melting of heavy glacier ice caused a slight rebounding effect of underlying rock; this land rise, however, was not enough to eliminate all the effect of the rising sea level and its invasion of former land features. Much of Maine's geomorphology was created by extended glacial activity at the end of the last ice age. Prominent glacial features include Somes Sound and Bubble Rock, both part of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. Carved by glaciers, Somes Sound is considered to be the only fjord on the eastern seaboard and reaches depths of . The extreme depth and steep drop-off allow large ships to navigate almost the entire length of the sound. These features also have made it attractive for boat builders, such as the prestigious Hinckley Yachts. Bubble Rock, a glacial erratic, is a large boulder perched on the edge of Bubble Mountain in Acadia National Park. By analyzing the type of granite, geologists were able to discover that glaciers carried Bubble Rock to its present location from near Lucerne, away. The Iapetus Suture runs through the north and west of the state, being underlain by the ancient Laurentian terrane, and the south and east underlain by the Avalonian terrane. Acadia National Park is the only national park in New England. Areas under the protection and management of the National Park Service include: Maine has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfb"), with warm and sometimes humid summers, and long, cold and very snowy winters. Winters are especially severe in the Northern and Western parts of Maine, while coastal areas are moderated slightly by the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in slightly milder winters and cooler summers than inland areas. Daytime highs are generally in the range throughout the state in July, with overnight lows in the high 50s °F (around 15 °C). January temperatures range from highs near on the southern coast to overnight lows averaging below in the far north. The state's record high temperature is , set in July 1911, at North Bridgton. Precipitation in Maine is evenly distributed year-round, but with a slight summer maximum in northern/northwestern Maine and a slight late-fall or early-winter maximum along the coast due to "nor'easters" or intense cold-season rain/snow storms. In coastal Maine, the late spring and summer months are usually driest—a rarity across the Eastern United States. Maine has fewer days of thunderstorms than any other state east of the Rockies, with most of the state averaging less than 20 days of thunderstorms a year. Tornadoes are rare in Maine, with the state averaging fewer than four per year, although this number is increasing. Most severe thunderstorms and tornadoes occur in the Sebago Lakes & Foothills region of the state. Maine rarely sees the effect of tropical cyclones, as they tend to pass well east and south or are greatly weakened by the time they reach Maine. In January 2009, a new record low temperature for the state was set at Big Black River of , tying the New England record. Annual precipitation varies from in Presque Isle, to in Acadia National Park. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Maine was 1,344,212 on July 1, 2019, a 1.19% increase since the 2010 United States Census. The population density of the state is 41.3 people per square mile, making it the least densely populated state east of the Mississippi River. As of 2010 Maine was also the most rural state in the Union, with only 38.7% of the state's population living within urban areas. As explained in detail under "Geography", there are large tracts of uninhabited land in some remote parts of the interior of the state, particularly in the North Maine Woods. The mean population center of Maine is located in Kennebec County, just east of Augusta. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is the most densely populated with nearly 40% of Maine's population. This area spans three counties and includes many farms and wooded areas; the 2016 population of Portland proper was 66,937. Maine has experienced a very slow rate of population growth since the 1990 census; its rate of growth (0.57%) since the 2010 census ranks 45th of the 50 states. The modest population growth in the state has been concentrated in the southern coastal counties; with more diverse populations slowly moving into these areas of the state. However, the northern, more rural areas of the state have experienced a slight decline in population in recent years. According to the 2010 Census, Maine has the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites of any state, at 94.4% of the total population. In 2011, 89.0% of all births in the state were to non-Hispanic white parents. Maine also has the second-highest residential senior population. The table below shows the racial composition of Maine's population as of 2016. According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 1.5% of Maine's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (0.4%), Puerto Rican (0.4%), Cuban (0.1%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (0.6%). The five largest ancestry groups were: English (20.7%), Irish (17.3%), French (15.7%), German (8.1%), and American (7.8%). People citing that they are American are of overwhelmingly English descent, but have ancestry that has been in the region for so long (often since the 1600s) that they choose to identify simply as Americans. Maine has the highest percentage of French Americans of any state. Most of them are of Canadian origin, but in some cases have been living there since prior to the American Revolutionary War. There are particularly high concentrations in the northern part of Maine in Aroostook County, which is part of a cultural region known as Acadia that goes over the border into New Brunswick. Along with the Acadian population in the north, many French came from Quebec as immigrants between 1840 and 1930. The upper Saint John River valley area was once part of the so-called Republic of Madawaska, before the frontier was decided in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Over a quarter of the population of Lewiston, Waterville, and Biddeford are Franco-American. Most of the residents of the Mid Coast and Down East sections are chiefly of British heritage. Smaller numbers of various other groups, including Irish, Italian and Polish, have settled throughout the state since the late 19th and early 20th century immigration waves. "Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number." Maine does not have an official language, but the most widely spoken language in the state is English. The 2000 Census reported 92.25% of Maine residents aged five and older spoke only English at home. French-speakers are the state's chief linguistic minority; census figures show that Maine has the highest percentage of people speaking French at home of any state: 5.28% of Maine households are French-speaking, compared with 4.68% in Louisiana, which is the second highest state. Although rarely spoken, Spanish is the third-most-common language in Maine, after English and French. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), the religious affiliations of Maine in 2010 were: The Catholic Church was the largest religious institution with 202,106 members, the United Methodist Church had 28,329 members, the United Church of Christ had 22,747 members In 2010, a study named Maine as the least religious state in the United States. Total employment 2016 Total employer establishments 2016 The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Maine's total gross state product for 2010 was $52 billion. Its per capita personal income for 2007 was $33,991, 34th in the nation. , Maine's unemployment rate is 3.0% Maine's agricultural outputs include poultry, eggs, dairy products, cattle, wild blueberries, apples, maple syrup, and maple sugar. Aroostook County is known for its potato crops. Commercial fishing, once a mainstay of the state's economy, maintains a presence, particularly lobstering and groundfishing. While lobster is the main seafood focus for Maine, the harvest of both oysters and seaweed are on the rise. In 2015, 14% of the Northeast's total oyster supply came from Maine. In 2017, the production of Maine's seaweed industry was estimated at $20 million per year. The shrimp industry of Maine is on a government-mandated hold. With an ever-decreasing Northern shrimp population, Maine fishermen are no longer allowed to catch and sell shrimp. The hold began in 2014 and is expected to continue until 2021. Western Maine aquifers and springs are a major source of bottled water. Maine's industrial outputs consist chiefly of paper, lumber and wood products, electronic equipment, leather products, food products, textiles, and bio-technology. Naval shipbuilding and construction remain key as well, with Bath Iron Works in Bath and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. Brunswick Landing, formerly Naval Air Station Brunswick, is also in Maine. Formerly a large support base for the U.S. Navy, the BRAC campaign initiated the Naval Air Station's closing, despite a government-funded effort to upgrade its facilities. The former base has since been changed into a civilian business park, as well as a new satellite campus for Southern Maine Community College. Maine is the number one U.S. producer of low-bush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium). Preliminary data from the USDA for 2012 also indicate Maine was the largest blueberry producer of the major blueberry producing states, with 91,100,000 lbs. This data includes both low (wild), and high-bush (cultivated) blueberries: Vaccinium corymbosum. The largest toothpick manufacturing plant in the United States used to be located in Strong, Maine. The Strong Wood Products plant produced 20 million toothpicks a day. It closed in May 2003. Tourism and outdoor recreation play a major and increasingly important role in Maine's economy. The state is a popular destination for sport hunting (particularly deer, moose and bear), sport fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, boating, camping and hiking, among other activities. Historically, Maine ports played a key role in national transportation. Beginning around 1880, Portland's rail link and ice-free port made it Canada's principal winter port, until the aggressive development of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the mid-1900s. In 2013, 12,039,600 short tons passed into and out of Portland by sea, which places it 45th of U.S. water ports. Portland Maine's Portland International Jetport was recently expanded, providing the state with increased air traffic from carriers such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines. Maine has very few large companies that maintain headquarters in the state, and that number has fallen due to consolidations and mergers, particularly in the pulp and paper industry. Some of the larger companies that do maintain headquarters in Maine include Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland; IDEXX Laboratories, in Westbrook; Hannaford Bros. Co. in Scarborough; TD Bank in Portland; L.L.Bean in Freeport; and Cole Haan in Yarmouth. Maine is also the home of the Jackson Laboratory, the world's largest non-profit mammalian genetic research facility and the world's largest supplier of genetically purebred mice. Maine has an income tax structure containing two brackets, 6.5 and 7.95 percent of personal income. Before July 2013 Maine had four brackets: 2, 4.5, 7, and 8.5 percent. Maine's general sales tax rate is 5.5 percent. The state also levies charges of 9percent on lodging and prepared food and 10percent on short-term auto rentals. Commercial sellers of blueberries, a Maine staple, must keep records of their transactions and pay the state 1.5 cents per pound ($1.50 per 100 pounds) of the fruit sold each season. All real and tangible personal property located in the state of Maine is taxable unless specifically exempted by statute. The administration of property taxes is handled by the local assessor in incorporated cities and towns, while property taxes in the unorganized territories are handled by the State Tax Assessor. Maine has a long-standing tradition of being home to many shipbuilding companies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Maine was home to many shipyards that produced wooden sailing ships. The main function of these ships was to transport either cargos or passengers overseas. One of these yards was located in Pennellville Historic District in what is now Brunswick, Maine. This yard, owned by the Pennell family, was typical of the many family-owned shipbuilding companies of the time period. Other such examples of shipbuilding families were the Skolfields and the Morses. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wooden shipbuilding of this sort made up a sizable portion of the economy. Maine receives passenger jet service at its two largest airports, the Portland International Jetport in Portland, and the Bangor International Airport in Bangor. Both are served daily by many major airlines to destinations such as New York, Atlanta, and Orlando. Essential Air Service also subsidizes service to a number of smaller airports in Maine, bringing small turboprop aircraft to regional airports such as the Augusta State Airport, Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport, Knox County Regional Airport, and the Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle. These airports are served by regional providers such as Cape Air with Cessna 402s, PenAir with Saab 340s, and CommutAir with Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft. Many smaller airports are scattered throughout Maine, serving only general aviation traffic. The Eastport Municipal Airport, for example, is a city-owned public-use airport with 1,200 general aviation aircraft operations each year from single-engine and ultralight aircraft. Interstate 95 (I-95) travels through Maine, as well as its easterly branch I-295 and spurs I-195, I-395 and the unsigned I-495 (the Falmouth Spur). In addition, U.S. Route 1 (US 1) starts in Fort Kent and travels to Florida. The eastern terminus of the eastern section of US 2 starts in Houlton, near the New Brunswick, Canada border to Rouses Point, New York, at US 11. US 2A connects Old Town and Orono, primarily serving the University of Maine campus. US 201 and US 202 flow through the state. US 2, Maine State Route 6 (SR 6), and SR 9 are often used by truckers and other motorists of the Maritime Provinces "en route" to other destinations in the United States or as a short cut to Central Canada. The "Downeaster" passenger train, operated by Amtrak, provides passenger service between Brunswick and Boston's North Station, with stops in Freeport, Portland, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, and Wells. The "Downeaster" makes five daily trips. Freight service throughout the state is provided by a handful of regional and shortline carriers: Pan Am Railways (formerly known as Guilford Rail System), which operates the former Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads; St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad; Maine Eastern Railroad; Central Maine and Quebec Railway; and New Brunswick Southern Railway. The Maine Constitution structures Maine's state government, composed of three co-equal branches—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The state of Maine also has three Constitutional Officers (the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, and the State Attorney General) and one Statutory Officer (the State Auditor). The legislative branch is the Maine Legislature, a bicameral body composed of the Maine House of Representatives, with 151 members, and the Maine Senate, with 35 members. The Legislature is charged with introducing and passing laws. The executive branch is responsible for the execution of the laws created by the Legislature and is headed by the Governor of Maine (currently Janet Mills). The Governor is elected every four years; no individual may serve more than two consecutive terms in this office. The current attorney general of Maine is Aaron Frey. As with other state legislatures, the Maine Legislature can by a two-thirds majority vote from both the House and Senate override a gubernatorial veto. Maine is one of seven states that do not have a lieutenant governor. The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting state laws. The highest court of the state is the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The lower courts are the District Court, Superior Court and Probate Court. All judges except for probate judges serve full-time, are nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature for terms of seven years. Probate judges serve part-time and are elected by the voters of each county for four-year terms. Maine is divided into political jurisdictions designated as counties. Since 1860 there have been 16 counties in the state, ranging in size from . In state general elections, Maine voters tend to accept independent and third-party candidates more frequently than most states. Maine has had two independent governors recently (James B. Longley, 1975–1979 and current U.S. Senator Angus King, 1995–2003). Maine state politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, are noted for having more moderate views than many in the national wings of their respective parties. Maine is an alcoholic beverage control state. On May 6, 2009, Maine became the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage; however, the law was repealed by voters on November 3, 2009. On November 6, 2012, Maine, along with Maryland and Washington, became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage at the ballot box. In the 1930s, Maine was one of very few states which retained Republican sentiments. In the 1936 presidential election, Franklin D. Roosevelt received the electoral votes of every state other than Maine and Vermont; these were the only two states in the nation that never voted for Roosevelt in any of his presidential campaigns, though Maine was closely fought in 1940 and 1944. In the 1960s, Maine began to lean toward the Democrats, especially in presidential elections. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey became just the second Democrat in half a century to carry Maine, perhaps because of the presence of his running mate, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, although the state voted Republican in every presidential election in the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1969, two of Maine's four electoral votes have been awarded based on the winner of the statewide election; the other two go to the highest vote-getter in each of the state's two congressional districts. Every other state except Nebraska gives all its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state at large, without regard to performance within districts. Maine split its electoral vote for the first time in 2016, with Donald Trump's strong showing in the more rural central and northern Maine allowing him to capture one of the state's four votes in the Electoral College. Ross Perot achieved a great deal of success in Maine in the presidential elections of 1992 and 1996. In 1992, as an independent candidate, Perot came in second to Democrat Bill Clinton, despite the long-time presence of the Bush family summer home in Kennebunkport. In 1996, as the nominee of the Reform Party, Perot did better in Maine than in any other state. Maine has voted for Democratic Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won one of Maine's electoral votes with Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton winning the other three. Although Democrats have mostly carried the state in presidential elections in recent years, Republicans have largely maintained their control of the state's U.S. Senate seats, with Edmund Muskie, William Hathaway and George J. Mitchell being the only Maine Democrats serving in the U.S. Senate in the past fifty years. In the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans made major gains in Maine. They captured the governor's office as well as majorities in both chambers of the state legislature for the first time since the early 1970s. However, in the 2012 elections Democrats managed to recapture both houses of Maine Legislature. Maine's U.S. senators are Republican Susan Collins and Independent Angus King. The governor is Democrat Janet Mills. The state's two members of the United States House of Representatives are Democrats Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden. Maine is the first state to have introduced ranked-choice voting in federal elections. An organized municipality has a form of elected local government which administers and provides local services, keeps records, collects licensing fees, and can pass locally binding ordinances, among other responsibilities of self-government. The governmental format of most organized towns and plantations is the town meeting, while the format of most cities is the council-manager form. the organized municipalities of Maine consist of 23 cities, 431 towns, and 34 plantations. Collectively these 488 organized municipalities cover less than half of the state's territory. Maine also has three Reservations: Indian Island, Indian Township Reservation, and Pleasant Point Indian Reservation. Unorganized territory (UT) has no local government. Administration, services, licensing, and ordinances are handled by the state government as well as by respective county governments who have townships within each county's bounds. The unorganized territory of Maine consists of more than 400 townships (towns are incorporated, townships are unincorporated), plus many coastal islands that do not lie within any municipal bounds. The UT land area is slightly over half the entire area of the State of Maine. Year-round residents in the UT number approximately 9,000 (about 1.3% of the state's total population), with many more people staying there only seasonally. Only four of Maine's sixteen counties (Androscoggin, Cumberland, Waldo and York) are entirely incorporated, although a few others are nearly so, and most of the unincorporated area is in the vast and sparsely populated Great North Woods of Maine. QuickFacts U.S. Census Maine Portland: Throughout Maine, many municipalities, although each separate governmental entities, nevertheless form portions of a much larger population base. There are many such population clusters throughout Maine, but some examples from the municipalities appearing in the above listing are: There are thirty institutions of higher learning in Maine. These institutions include the University of Maine, which is the oldest, largest and only research university in the state. UMaine was founded in 1865 and is the state's only land grant and sea grant college. The University of Maine is located in the town of Orono and is the flagship of Maine. There are also branch campuses in Augusta, Farmington, Fort Kent, Machias, and Presque Isle. Bowdoin College is a liberal arts college founded in 1794 in Brunswick, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the state. Colby College in Waterville was founded in 1813 making it the second oldest college in Maine. Bates College in Lewiston was founded in 1855 making it the third oldest institution in the state and the oldest coeducational college in New England. The three colleges collectively form the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium and are ranked among the best colleges in the United States; often placing in the top 10% of all liberal arts colleges. Maine's per-student public expenditure for elementary and secondary schools was 21st in the nation in 2012, at $12,344. The collegiate system of Maine also includes numerous baccalaureate colleges such as: the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA), Unity College, and Thomas College. There is only one medical school in the state, (University of New England's College of Osteopathic Medicine) and only one law school (The University of Maine School of Law). Private schools in Maine are funded independently of the state and its furthered domains. Private schools are less common than public schools. A large number of private elementary schools with under 20 students exist, but most private high schools in Maine can be described as "semi-private". Maine was a center of agriculture before it achieved statehood. Prior to colonization, Wabanaki nations farmed large crops of corn and other produce in southern Maine. The state is a major producer of potatoes, wild blueberries, apples, maple syrup and sweet corn. Dairy products and chicken's eggs are other major industries. Maine has many vegetable farms and other small, diversified farms. In the 1960s and 1970s, the book "Living the Good Life" by Helen Nearing and Scott Nearing caused many young people to move to Maine and engage in small-scale farming and homesteading. These back-to-the-land migrants increased the population of some counties. Maine has a smaller number of commodity farms and confined animal feeding operations. Maine is home to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and had 535 certified organic farms in 2019. Since the 1980s, the state has gotten a reputation for its local food and restaurant meals. Portland was named "Bon Appetite" magazine's Restaurant City of the Year in 2018. In 2018, HealthIQ.com named Maine the 3rd most vegan state. Adapted from the Maine facts site. A citizen of Maine is known as a "Mainer", though the term is often reserved for those whose roots in Maine go back at least three generations. The term "Downeaster" may be applied to residents of the northeast coast of the state. The term "Mainiac" is considered by some to be derogatory, but embraced with pride by others, and is used for a variety of organizations and for events such as the YMCA Mainiac Sprint Triathlon & Duathlon. State government U.S. government Information

en.wikipedia.org

Maine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19977

19978

Montana Montana () is a state in the Northwestern United States. Montana has several nicknames, although none are official, including "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently "The Last Best Place". Montana is the fourth-largest in area, the 8th least populous, and the third-least densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. The western half of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller mountain ranges are found throughout the state. In all, 77 named ranges are part of the Rocky Mountains. The eastern half of Montana is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands. Montana is bordered by Idaho to the west, Wyoming to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to the north. The economy is primarily based on agriculture, including ranching and cereal grain farming. Other significant economic resources include oil, gas, coal, hard rock mining, and lumber. The health care, service, and government sectors also are significant to the state's economy. The state's fastest-growing sector is tourism. Nearly 13 million tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Beartooth Highway, Flathead Lake, Big Sky Resort, and other attractions. The name Montana comes from the Spanish word "montaña," which in turn comes from the Latin word "montanea", meaning "mountain", or more broadly, "mountainous country". "Montaña del Norte" was the name given by early Spanish explorers to the entire mountainous region of the west. The name Montana was added to a bill by the United States House Committee on Territories (chaired at the time by James Ashley of Ohio) for the territory that would become Idaho Territory. The name was changed by representatives Henry Wilson (Massachusetts) and Benjamin F. Harding (Oregon), who complained Montana had "no meaning". When Ashley presented a bill to establish a temporary government in 1864 for a new territory to be carved out of Idaho, he again chose Montana Territory. This time, Rep. Samuel Cox, also of Ohio, objected to the name. Cox complained the name was a misnomer given most of the territory was not mountainous and a Native American name would be more appropriate than a Spanish one. Other names such as Shoshone were suggested, but the Committee on Territories decided they could name it whatever they wanted, so the original name of Montana was adopted. Montana is one of the eight Mountain States, located in the north of the region known as the Western United States. It borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east. Wyoming is to the south, Idaho is to the west and southwest, and three Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, are to the north. With an area of , Montana is slightly larger than Japan. It is the fourth-largest state in the United States after Alaska, Texas, and California; it is the largest landlocked U.S. state. The state's topography is roughly defined by the Continental Divide, which splits much of the state into distinct eastern and western regions. Most of Montana's hundred or more named mountain ranges are in the state's western half, most of which is geologically and geographically part of the northern Rocky Mountains. The Absaroka and Beartooth ranges in the state's south-central part are technically part of the Central Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountain Front is a significant feature in the state's north-central portion, and isolated island ranges that interrupt the prairie landscape common in the central and eastern parts of the state. About 60 percent of the state is prairie, part of the northern Great Plains. The Bitterroot Mountains—one of the longest continuous ranges in the Rocky Mountain chain from Alaska to Mexico—along with smaller ranges, including the Coeur d'Alene Mountains and the Cabinet Mountains, divide the state from Idaho. The southern third of the Bitterroot range blends into the Continental Divide. Other major mountain ranges west of the divide include the Cabinet Mountains, the Anaconda Range, the Missions, the Garnet Range, the Sapphire Mountains, and the Flint Creek Range. The divide's northern section, where the mountains rapidly give way to prairie, is part of the Rocky Mountain Front. The front is most pronounced in the Lewis Range, located primarily in Glacier National Park. Due to the configuration of mountain ranges in Glacier National Park, the Northern Divide (which begins in Alaska's Seward Peninsula) crosses this region and turns east in Montana at Triple Divide Peak. It causes the Waterton River, Belly, and Saint Mary rivers to flow north into Alberta, Canada. There they join the Saskatchewan River, which ultimately empties into Hudson Bay. East of the divide, several roughly parallel ranges cover the state's southern part, including the Gravelly Range, Madison Range, Gallatin Range, Absaroka Mountains, and Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooth Plateau is the largest continuous land mass over high in the continental United States. It contains the state's highest point, Granite Peak, high. North of these ranges are the Big Belt Mountains, Bridger Mountains, Tobacco Roots, and several island ranges, including the Crazy Mountains and Little Belt Mountains. Between many mountain ranges are rich river valleys. The Big Hole Valley, Bitterroot Valley, Gallatin Valley, Flathead Valley, and Paradise Valley have extensive agricultural resources and multiple opportunities for tourism and recreation. East and north of this transition zone are the expansive and sparsely populated Northern Plains, with tableland prairies, smaller island mountain ranges, and badlands. The isolated island ranges east of the Divide include the Bear Paw Mountains, Bull Mountains, Castle Mountains, Crazy Mountains, Highwood Mountains, Judith Mountains, Little Belt Mountains, Little Rocky Mountains, the Pryor Mountains, Little Snowy Mountains, Big Snowy Mountains, Sweet Grass Hills, and—in the state's southeastern corner near Ekalaka—the Long Pines. Many of these isolated eastern ranges were created about 120 to 66 million years ago when magma welling up from the interior cracked and bowed the earth's surface here. The area east of the divide in the state' north-central portion is known for the Missouri Breaks and other significant rock formations. Three buttes south of Great Falls are major landmarks: Cascade, Crown, Square, Shaw, and Buttes. Known as laccoliths, they formed when igneous rock protruded through cracks in the sedimentary rock. The underlying surface consists of sandstone and shale. Surface soils in the area are highly diverse, and greatly affected by the local geology, whether glaciated plain, intermountain basin, mountain foothills, or tableland. Foothill regions are often covered in weathered stone or broken slate, or consist of uncovered bare rock (usually igneous, quartzite, sandstone, or shale). The soil of intermountain basins usually consists of clay, gravel, sand, silt, and volcanic ash, much of it laid down by lakes which covered the region during the Oligocene 33 to 23 million years ago. Tablelands are often topped with argillite gravel and weathered quartzite, occasionally underlain by shale. The glaciated plains are generally covered in clay, gravel, sand, and silt left by the proglacial Lake Great Falls or by moraines or gravel-covered former lake basins left by the Wisconsin glaciation 85,000 to 11,000 years ago. Farther east, areas such as Makoshika State Park near Glendive and Medicine Rocks State Park near Ekalaka contain some of the most scenic badlands regions in the state. The Hell Creek Formation in Northeast Montana is a major source of dinosaur fossils. Paleontologist Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman brought this formation to the world's attention with several major finds. Montana has thousands of named rivers and creeks, of which are known for "blue-ribbon" trout fishing. Montana's water resources provide for recreation, hydropower, crop and forage irrigation, mining, and water for human consumption. Montana is one of few geographic areas in the world whose rivers form parts of three major watersheds (i.e. where two continental divides intersect). Its rivers feed the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay. The watersheds divide at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park. West of the divide, the Clark Fork of the Columbia (not to be confused with the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River) rises near Butte and flows northwest to Missoula, where it is joined by the Blackfoot River and Bitterroot River. Farther downstream, it is joined by the Flathead River before entering Idaho near Lake Pend Oreille. The Pend Oreille River forms the outflow of Lake Pend Oreille. The Pend Oreille River joined the Columbia River, which flows to the Pacific Ocean—making the long Clark Fork/Pend Oreille (considered a single river system) the longest river in the Rocky Mountains. The Clark Fork discharges the greatest volume of water of any river exiting the state. The Kootenai River in northwest Montana is another major tributary of the Columbia. East of the divide the Missouri River, which is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers near Three Forks, flows due north through the west-central part of the state to Great Falls. From this point, it then flows generally east through fairly flat agricultural land and the Missouri Breaks to Fort Peck reservoir. The stretch of river between Fort Benton and the Fred Robinson Bridge at the western boundary of Fort Peck Reservoir was designated a National Wild and Scenic River in 1976. The Missouri enters North Dakota near Fort Union, having drained more than half the land area of Montana (). Nearly one-third of the Missouri River in Montana lies behind 10 dams: Toston, Canyon Ferry, Hauser, Holter, Black Eagle, Rainbow, Cochrane, Ryan, Morony, and Fort Peck. The Yellowstone River rises on the Continental Divide near Younts Peak in Wyoming's Teton Wilderness. It flows north through Yellowstone National Park, enters Montana near Gardiner, and passes through the Paradise Valley to Livingston. It then flows northeasterly across the state through Billings, Miles City, Glendive, and Sidney. The Yellowstone joins the Missouri in North Dakota just east of Fort Union. It is the longest undammed, free-flowing river in the contiguous United States, and drains about a quarter of Montana (). Other major Montana tributaries of the Missouri include the Smith, Milk, Marias, Judith, and Musselshell Rivers. Montana also claims the disputed title of possessing the world's shortest river, the Roe River, just outside Great Falls. Through the Missouri, these rivers ultimately join the Mississippi River and flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Major tributaries of the Yellowstone include the Boulder, Stillwater, Clarks Fork, Bighorn, Tongue, and Powder Rivers. The Northern Divide turns east in Montana at Triple Divide Peak, causing the Waterton, Belly, and Saint Mary Rivers to flow north into Alberta. There they join the Saskatchewan River, which ultimately empties into Hudson Bay. Montana has some 3,000 named lakes and reservoirs, including Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States. Other major lakes include Whitefish Lake in the Flathead Valley and Lake McDonald and St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park. The largest reservoir in the state is Fort Peck Reservoir on the Missouri river, which is contained by the second largest earthen dam and largest hydraulically filled dam in the world. Other major reservoirs include Hungry Horse on the Flathead River; Lake Koocanusa on the Kootenai River; Lake Elwell on the Marias River; Clark Canyon on the Beaverhead River; Yellowtail on the Bighorn River, Canyon Ferry, Hauser, Holter, Rainbow; and Black Eagle on the Missouri River. Vegetation of the state includes lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, larch, spruce, aspen, birch, red cedar, hemlock, ash, alder, rocky mountain maple and cottonwood trees. Forests cover about 25% of the state. Flowers native to Montana include asters, bitterroots, daisies, lupins, poppies, primroses, columbine, lilies, orchids, and dryads. Several species of sagebrush and cactus and many species of grasses are common. Many species of mushrooms and lichens are also found in the state. Montana is home to diverse fauna including 14 amphibian, 90 fish, 117 mammal, 20 reptile, and 427 bird species. Additionally, more than 10,000 invertebrate species are present, including 180 mollusks and 30 crustaceans. Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states. Montana hosts five federally endangered species–black-footed ferret, whooping crane, least tern, pallid sturgeon, and white sturgeon and seven threatened species including the grizzly bear, Canadian lynx, and bull trout. Since re-introduction the gray wolf population has stabilized at about 900 animals, and they have been delisted as endangered. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks manages fishing and hunting seasons for at least 17 species of game fish, including seven species of trout, walleye, and smallmouth bass and at least 29 species of game birds and animals including ring-neck pheasant, grey partridge, elk, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, whitetail deer, gray wolf, and bighorn sheep. Montana contains Glacier National Park, "The Crown of the Continent"; and parts of Yellowstone National Park, including three of the park's five entrances. Other federally recognized sites include the Little Bighorn National Monument, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Big Hole National Battlefield, and the National Bison Range. Federal and state agencies administer approximately , or 35 percent of Montana's land. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service administers of forest land in ten National Forests. There are approximately of wilderness in 12 separate wilderness areas that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System established by the Wilderness Act of 1964. The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management controls of federal land. The U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service administers of 1.1 million acres of National Wildlife Refuges and waterfowl production areas in Montana. The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation administers approximately of land and water surface in the state. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks operates approximately of state parks and access points on the state's rivers and lakes. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation manages of School Trust Land ceded by the federal government under the Land Ordinance of 1785 to the state in 1889 when Montana was granted statehood. These lands are managed by the state for the benefit of public schools and institutions in the state. Areas managed by the National Park Service include: Montana is a large state with considerable variation in geography, topography and altitude, and the climate is, therefore, equally varied. The state spans from below the 45th parallel (the line equidistant between the equator and North Pole) to the 49th parallel, and elevations range from under to nearly above sea level. The western half is mountainous, interrupted by numerous large valleys. Eastern Montana comprises plains and badlands, broken by hills and isolated mountain ranges, and has a semiarid, continental climate (Köppen climate classification "BSk"). The Continental Divide has a considerable effect on the climate, as it restricts the flow of warmer air from the Pacific from moving east, and drier continental air from moving west. The area west of the divide has a modified northern Pacific Coast climate, with milder winters, cooler summers, less wind, and a longer growing season. Low clouds and fog often form in the valleys west of the divide in winter, but this is rarely seen in the east. Average daytime temperatures vary from in January to in July. The variation in geography leads to great variation in temperature. The highest observed summer temperature was at Glendive on July 20, 1893, and Medicine Lake on July 5, 1937. Throughout the state, summer nights are generally cool and pleasant. Extreme hot weather is less common above . Snowfall has been recorded in all months of the year in the more mountainous areas of central and western Montana, though it is rare in July and August. The coldest temperature on record for Montana is also the coldest temperature for the contiguous United States. On January 20, 1954, was recorded at a gold mining camp near Rogers Pass. Temperatures vary greatly on cold nights, and Helena, to the southeast had a low of only on the same date, and an all-time record low of . Winter cold spells are usually the result of cold continental air coming south from Canada. The front is often well defined, causing a large temperature drop in a 24-hour period. Conversely, air flow from the southwest results in "chinooks". These steady (or more) winds can suddenly warm parts of Montana, especially areas just to the east of the mountains, where temperatures sometimes rise up to for 10 days or longer. Loma is the site of the most extreme recorded temperature change in a 24-hour period in the United States. On January 15, 1972, a chinook wind blew in and the temperature rose from . Average annual precipitation is , but great variations are seen. The mountain ranges block the moist Pacific air, holding moisture in the western valleys, and creating rain shadows to the east. Heron, in the west, receives the most precipitation, . On the eastern (leeward) side of a mountain range, the valleys are much drier; Lonepine averages , and Deer Lodge of precipitation. The mountains can receive over , for example the Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park gets . An area southwest of Belfry averaged only over a 16-year period. Most of the larger cities get of snow each year. Mountain ranges can accumulate of snow during a winter. Heavy snowstorms may occur from September through May, though most snow falls from November to March. The climate has become warmer in Montana and continues to do so. The glaciers in Glacier National Park have receded and are predicted to melt away completely in a few decades. Many Montana cities set heat records during July 2007, the hottest month ever recorded in Montana. Winters are warmer, too, and have fewer cold spells. Previously, these cold spells had killed off bark beetles, but these are now attacking the forests of western Montana. The warmer winters in the region have allowed various species to expand their ranges and proliferate. The combination of warmer weather, attack by beetles, and mismanagement has led to a substantial increase in the severity of forest fires in Montana. According to a study done for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, parts of Montana will experience a 200% increase in area burned by wildfires, and an 80% increase in related air pollution. The table below lists average temperatures for the warmest and coldest month for Montana's seven largest cities. The coldest month varies between December and January depending on location, although figures are similar throughout. Montana is one of only two contiguous states (along with Colorado) that are antipodal to land. The Kerguelen Islands are antipodal to the Montana–Saskatchewan–Alberta border. No towns are precisely antipodal to Kerguelen, though Chester and Rudyard are close. Various indigenous peoples lived in the territory of the present-day state of Montana for thousands of years. Historic tribes encountered by Europeans and settlers from the United States included the Crow in the south-central area, the Cheyenne in the very southeast, the Blackfeet, Assiniboine, and Gros Ventres in the central and north-central area, and the Kootenai and Salish in the west. The smaller Pend d'Oreille and Kalispel tribes lived near Flathead Lake and the western mountains, respectively. A part of southeastern Montana was used as a corridor between the Crows and the related Hidatsas in North Dakota. The land in Montana east of the continental divide was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Subsequent to and particularly in the decades following the Lewis and Clark Expedition, American, British, and French traders operated a fur trade, typically working with indigenous peoples, in both eastern and western portions of what would become Montana. These dealings were not always peaceful, and though the fur trade brought some material gain for indigenous tribal groups, it also brought exposure to European diseases and altered their economic and cultural traditions. The trading post Fort Raymond (1807-1811) was constructed in Crow Indian country in 1807. Until the Oregon Treaty (1846), land west of the continental divide was disputed between the British and U.S. and was known as the Oregon Country. The first permanent settlement by Euro-Americans in what today is Montana was St. Mary's (1841) near present-day Stevensville. In 1847, Fort Benton was established as the uppermost fur-trading post on the Missouri River. In the 1850s, settlers began moving into the Beaverhead and Big Hole valleys from the Oregon Trail and into the Clark's Fork valley. The first gold discovered in Montana was at Gold Creek near present-day Garrison in 1852. A series of major mining discoveries in the western third of the state starting in 1862 found gold, silver, copper, lead, and coal (and later oil) which attracted tens of thousands of miners to the area. The richest of all gold placer diggings was discovered at Alder Gulch, where the town of Virginia City was established. Other rich placer deposits were found at Last Chance Gulch, where the city of Helena now stands, Confederate Gulch, Silver Bow, Emigrant Gulch, and Cooke City. Gold output from 1862 through 1876 reached $144 million; silver then became even more important. The largest mining operations were in the city of Butte, which had important silver deposits and gigantic copper deposits. Before the creation of Montana Territory (1864–1889), areas within present-day Montana were part of the Oregon Territory (1848–1859), Washington Territory (1853–1863), Idaho Territory (1863–1864), and Dakota Territory (1861–1864). Montana became a United States territory (Montana Territory) on May 26, 1864. The first territorial capital was at Bannack. The first territorial governor was Sidney Edgerton. The capital moved to Virginia City in 1865 and to Helena in 1875. In 1870, the non-Indian population of Montana Territory was 20,595. The Montana Historical Society, founded on February 2, 1865, in Virginia City, is the oldest such institution west of the Mississippi (excluding Louisiana). In 1869 and 1870 respectively, the Cook–Folsom–Peterson and the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expeditions were launched from Helena into the Upper Yellowstone region and directly led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. As settlers began populating Montana from the 1850s through the 1870s, disputes with Native Americans ensued, primarily over land ownership and control. In 1855, Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated the Hellgate treaty between the United States government and the Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai people of western Montana, which established boundaries for the tribal nations. The treaty was ratified in 1859. While the treaty established what later became the Flathead Indian Reservation, trouble with interpreters and confusion over the terms of the treaty led Whites to believe the Bitterroot Valley was opened to settlement, but the tribal nations disputed those provisions. The Salish remained in the Bitterroot Valley until 1891. The first U.S. Army post established in Montana was Camp Cooke in 1866, on the Missouri River, to protect steamboat traffic going to Fort Benton. More than a dozen additional military outposts were established in the state. Pressure over land ownership and control increased due to discoveries of gold in various parts of Montana and surrounding states. Major battles occurred in Montana during Red Cloud's War, the Great Sioux War of 1876, and the Nez Perce War and in conflicts with Piegan Blackfeet. The most notable were the Marias Massacre (1870), Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), Battle of the Big Hole (1877), and Battle of Bear Paw (1877). The last recorded conflict in Montana between the U.S. Army and Native Americans occurred in 1887 during the Battle of Crow Agency in the Big Horn country. Indian survivors who had signed treaties were generally required to move onto reservations. Simultaneously with these conflicts, bison, a keystone species and the primary protein source that Native people had survived on for centuries, were being destroyed. Some estimates say more than 13 million bison were in Montana in 1870. In 1875, General Philip Sheridan pleaded to a joint session of Congress to authorize the slaughtering of herds to deprive the Indians of their source of food. By 1884, commercial hunting had brought bison to the verge of extinction; only about 325 bison remained in the entire United States. Cattle ranching has been central to Montana's history and economy since Johnny Grant began wintering cattle in the Deer Lodge Valley in the 1850s and traded cattle fattened in fertile Montana valleys with emigrants on the Oregon Trail. Nelson Story brought the first Texas Longhorn cattle into the territory in 1866. Granville Stuart, Samuel Hauser, and Andrew J. Davis started a major open-range cattle operation in Fergus County in 1879. The Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge is maintained today as a link to the ranching style of the late 19th century. Operated by the National Park Service, it is a working ranch. Tracks of the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPR) reached Montana from the west in 1881 and from the east in 1882. However, the railroad played a major role in sparking tensions with Native American tribes in the 1870s. Jay Cooke, the NPR president, launched major surveys into the Yellowstone valley in 1871, 1872, and 1873, which were challenged forcefully by the Sioux under chief Sitting Bull. These clashes, in part, contributed to the Panic of 1873, a financial crisis that delayed construction of the railroad into Montana. Surveys in 1874, 1875, and 1876 helped spark the Great Sioux War of 1876. The transcontinental NPR was completed on September 8, 1883, at Gold Creek. Tracks of the Great Northern Railroad (GNR) reached eastern Montana in 1887 and when they reached the northern Rocky Mountains in 1890, the GNR became a significant promoter of tourism to Glacier National Park region. The transcontinental GNR was completed on January 6, 1893, at Scenic, Washington. In 1881, the Utah and Northern Railway, a branch line of the Union Pacific, completed a narrow-gauge line from northern Utah to Butte. A number of smaller spur lines operated in Montana from 1881 into the 20th century, including the Oregon Short Line, Montana Railroad, and Milwaukee Road. Under Territorial Governor Thomas Meagher, Montanans held a constitutional convention in 1866 in a failed bid for statehood. A second constitutional convention held in Helena in 1884 produced a constitution ratified 3:1 by Montana citizens in November 1884. For political reasons, Congress did not approve Montana statehood until February 1889 and President Grover Cleveland signed an omnibus bill granting statehood to Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington once the appropriate state constitutions were crafted. In July 1889, Montanans convened their third constitutional convention and produced a constitution accepted by the people and the federal government. On November 8, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed Montana the union's 41st state. The first state governor was Joseph K. Toole. In the 1880s, Helena (the state capital) had more millionaires per capita than any other United States city. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided free land to settlers who could claim and "prove-up" of federal land in the Midwest and western United States. Montana did not see a large influx of immigrants from this act because 160 acres were usually insufficient to support a family in the arid territory. The first homestead claim under the act in Montana was made by David Carpenter near Helena in 1868. The first claim by a woman was made near Warm Springs Creek by Gwenllian Evans, the daughter of Deer Lodge Montana pioneer, Morgan Evans. By 1880, farms were in the more verdant valleys of central and western Montana, but few were on the eastern plains. The Desert Land Act of 1877 was passed to allow settlement of arid lands in the west and allotted to settlers for a fee of $.25 per acre and a promise to irrigate the land. After three years, a fee of one dollar per acre would be paid and the land would be owned by the settler. This act brought mostly cattle and sheep ranchers into Montana, many of whom grazed their herds on the Montana prairie for three years, did little to irrigate the land and then abandoned it without paying the final fees. Some farmers came with the arrival of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads throughout the 1880s and 1890s, though in relatively small numbers. In the early 1900s, James J. Hill of the Great Northern began to promote settlement in the Montana prairie to fill his trains with settlers and goods. Other railroads followed suit. In 1902, the Reclamation Act was passed, allowing irrigation projects to be built in Montana's eastern river valleys. In 1909, Congress passed the Enlarged Homestead Act that expanded the amount of free land from per family and in 1912 reduced the time to "prove up" on a claim to three years. In 1916, the Stock-Raising Homestead Act allowed homesteads of 640 acres in areas unsuitable for irrigation. This combination of advertising and changes in the Homestead Act drew tens of thousands of homesteaders, lured by free land, with World War I bringing particularly high wheat prices. In addition, Montana was going through a temporary period of higher-than-average precipitation. Homesteaders arriving in this period were known as "Honyockers", or "scissorbills". Though the word "honyocker", possibly derived from the ethnic slur "hunyak", was applied in a derisive manner at homesteaders as being "greenhorns", "new at his business", or "unprepared", most of these new settlers had farming experience, though many did not. However, farmers faced a number of problems. Massive debt was one. Also, most settlers were from wetter regions, unprepared for the dry climate, lack of trees, and scarce water resources. In addition, small homesteads of fewer than were unsuited to the environment. Weather and agricultural conditions are much harsher and drier west of the 100th meridian. Then, the droughts of 1917–1921 proved devastating. Many people left, and half the banks in the state went bankrupt as a result of providing mortgages that could not be repaid. As a result, farm sizes increased while the number of farms decreased. By 1910, homesteaders filed claims on over five million acres, and by 1923, over 93 million acres were farmed. In 1910, the Great Falls land office alone had more than a thousand homestead filings per month, and at the peak of 1917–1918 it had 14,000 new homesteads each year. Significant drops occurred following the drought in 1919. As World War I broke out, Jeannette Rankin, the first woman in the United States to be a member of Congress, voted against the United States' declaration of war. Her actions were widely criticized in Montana, where support for the war and patriotism were strong. In 1917–18, due to a miscalculation of Montana's population, about 40,000 Montanans, 10% of the state's population, volunteered or were drafted into the armed forces. This represented a manpower contribution to the war that was 25% higher than any other state on a per capita basis. Around 1500 Montanans died as a result of the war and 2437 were wounded, also higher than any other state on a per capita basis. Montana's Remount station in Miles City provided 10,000 cavalry horses for the war, more than any other Army post in the country. The war created a boom for Montana mining, lumber, and farming interests, as demand for war materials and food increased. In June 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917, which was extended by the Sedition Act of 1918. In February 1918, the Montana legislature had passed the Montana Sedition Act, which was a model for the federal version. In combination, these laws criminalized criticism of the U.S. government, military, or symbols through speech or other means. The Montana Act led to the arrest of more than 200 individuals and the conviction of 78, mostly of German or Austrian descent. More than 40 spent time in prison. In May 2006, then-Governor Brian Schweitzer posthumously issued full pardons for all those convicted of violating the Montana Sedition Act. The Montanans who opposed U.S. entry into the war included immigrant groups of German and Irish heritage, as well as pacifist Anabaptist people such as the Hutterites and Mennonites, many of whom were also of Germanic heritage. In turn, pro-War groups formed, such as the Montana Council of Defense, created by Governor Samuel V. Stewart and local "loyalty committees". War sentiment was complicated by labor issues. The Anaconda Copper Company, which was at its historic peak of copper production, was an extremely powerful force in Montana, but it also faced criticism and opposition from socialist newspapers and unions struggling to make gains for their members. In Butte, a multiethnic community with significant European immigrant population, labor unions, particularly the newly formed Metal Mine Workers' Union, opposed the war on grounds it mostly profited large lumber and mining interests. In the wake of ramped-up mine production and the Speculator Mine disaster in June 1917, Industrial Workers of the World organizer Frank Little arrived in Butte to organize miners. He gave some speeches with inflammatory antiwar rhetoric. On August 1, 1917, he was dragged from his boarding house by masked vigilantes, and hanged from a railroad trestle, considered a lynching. Little's murder and the strikes that followed resulted in the National Guard being sent to Butte to restore order. Overall, anti-German and antilabor sentiment increased and created a movement that led to the passage of the Montana Sedition Act the following February. In addition, the Council of Defense was made a state agency with the power to prosecute and punish individuals deemed in violation of the Act. The Council also passed rules limiting public gatherings and prohibiting the speaking of German in public. In the wake of the legislative action in 1918, emotions rose. U.S. Attorney Burton K. Wheeler and several district court judges who hesitated to prosecute or convict people brought up on charges were strongly criticized. Wheeler was brought before the Council of Defense, though he avoided formal proceedings, and a district court judge from Forsyth was impeached. Burnings of German-language books and several near-hangings occurred. The prohibition on speaking German remained in effect into the early 1920s. Complicating the wartime struggles, the 1918 influenza epidemic claimed the lives of more than 5,000 Montanans. The suppression of civil liberties that occurred led some historians to dub this period "Montana's Agony". An economic depression began in Montana after World War I and lasted through the Great Depression until the beginning of World War II. This caused great hardship for farmers, ranchers, and miners. The wheat farms in eastern Montana make the state a major producer; the wheat has a relatively high protein content, thus commands premium prices. By the time the U.S. entered World War II on December 8, 1941, many Montanans had enlisted in the military to escape the poor national economy of the previous decade. Another 40,000-plus Montanans entered the armed forces in the first year following the declaration of war, and more than 57,000 joined up before the war ended. These numbers constituted about ten percent of the state's population, and Montana again contributed one of the highest numbers of soldiers per capita of any state. Many Native Americans were among those who served, including soldiers from the Crow Nation who became Code Talkers. At least 1500 Montanans died in the war. Montana also was the training ground for the First Special Service Force or "Devil's Brigade", a joint U.S-Canadian commando-style force that trained at Fort William Henry Harrison for experience in mountainous and winter conditions before deployment. Air bases were built in Great Falls, Lewistown, Cut Bank, and Glasgow, some of which were used as staging areas to prepare planes to be sent to allied forces in the Soviet Union. During the war, about 30 Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs were documented to have landed in Montana, though no casualties nor major forest fires were attributed to them. In 1940, Jeannette Rankin was again elected to Congress. In 1941, as she had in 1917, she voted against the United States' declaration of war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Hers was the only vote against the war, and in the wake of public outcry over her vote, Rankin required police protection for a time. Other pacifists tended to be those from "peace churches" who generally opposed war. Many individuals claiming conscientious objector status from throughout the U.S. were sent to Montana during the war as smokejumpers and for other forest fire-fighting duties. During World War II, the planned battleship USS "Montana" was named in honor of the state but it was never completed. Montana is the only one of the first 48 states lacking a completed battleship being named for it. Alaska and Hawaii have both had nuclear submarines named after them. Montana is the only state in the union without a modern naval ship named in its honor. However, in August 2007, Senator Jon Tester asked that a submarine be christened USS "Montana". Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced on September 3, 2015, that "Virginia" Class attack submarine SSN-794 will become the second commissioned warship to bear the name. In the post-World War II Cold War era, Montana became host to U.S. Air Force Military Air Transport Service (1947) for airlift training in C-54 Skymasters and eventually, in 1953 Strategic Air Command air and missile forces were based at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. The base also hosted the 29th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Air Defense Command from 1953 to 1968. In December 1959, Malmstrom AFB was selected as the home of the new Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile. The first operational missiles were in place and ready in early 1962. In late 1962, missiles assigned to the 341st Strategic Missile Wing played a major role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, President John F. Kennedy said the Soviets backed down because they knew he had an "ace in the hole", referring directly to the Minuteman missiles in Montana. Montana eventually became home to the largest ICBM field in the U.S. covering . The United States Census Bureau estimated the population of Montana was 1,068,778 on July 1, 2019, a 8.02% increase since the 2010 United States Census. The 2010 Census put Montana's population at 989,415. During the first decade of the new century, growth was mainly concentrated in Montana's seven largest counties, with the highest percentage growth in Gallatin County, which had a 32% increase in its population from 2000–2010. The city having the largest percentage growth was Kalispell, with 40.1%, and the city with the largest increase in actual residents was Billings, with an increase in population of 14,323 from 2000–2010. On January 3, 2012, the Census and Economic Information Center (CEIC) at the Montana Department of Commerce estimated Montana had hit the one million population mark sometime between November and December 2011. According to the 2010 Census, 89.4% of the population was White (87.8% non-Hispanic White), 6.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.9% Hispanics and Latinos of any race, 0.6% Asian, 0.4% Black or African American, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 0.6% from some other race, and 2.5% from two or more races. The largest European ancestry groups in Montana as of 2010 are: German (27.0%), Irish (14.8%), English (12.6%), Norwegian (10.9%), French (4.7%), and Italian (3.4%). Montana has a larger Native American population, both numerically and as a percentage, than most U.S. states. Ranked 45th in population (by the 2010 Census) it is 19th in native people, who are 6.5% of the state's population—the sixth-highest percentage of all fifty. Montana has three counties in which Native Americans are a majority: Big Horn, Glacier, and Roosevelt. Other counties with large Native American populations include Blaine, Cascade, Hill, Missoula, and Yellowstone Counties. The state's Native American population grew by 27.9% between 1980 and 1990 (at a time when Montana's entire population rose 1.6%), and by 18.5 percent between 2000 and 2010. As of 2009, almost two-thirds of Native Americans in the state live in urban areas. Of Montana's 20 largest cities, Polson (15.7%), Havre (13.0%), Great Falls (5.0%), Billings (4.4%), and Anaconda (3.1%) had the greatest percentages of Native American residents in 2010. Billings (4,619), Great Falls (2,942), Missoula (1,838), Havre (1,210), and Polson (706) have the most Native Americans living there. The state's seven reservations include more than 12 distinct Native American ethnolinguistic groups. While the largest European-American population in Montana overall is German, pockets of significant Scandinavian ancestry are prevalent in some of the farming-dominated northern and eastern prairie regions, parallel to nearby regions of North Dakota and Minnesota. Farmers of Irish, Scots, and English roots also settled in Montana. The historically mining-oriented communities of western Montana such as Butte have a wider range of European-American ethnicity; Finns, Eastern Europeans and especially Irish settlers left an indelible mark on the area, as well as people originally from British mining regions such as Cornwall, Devon, and Wales. The nearby city of Helena, also founded as a mining camp, had a similar mix in addition to a small Chinatown. Many of Montana's historic logging communities originally attracted people of Scottish, Scandinavian, Slavic, English, and Scots-Irish descent. The Hutterites, an Anabaptist sect originally from Switzerland, settled here, and today Montana is second only to South Dakota in U.S. Hutterite population, with several colonies spread across the state. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the state also had an influx of Amish, who moved to Montana from the increasingly urbanized areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Montana's Hispanic population is concentrated in the Billings area in south-central Montana, where many of Montana's Mexican-Americans have been in the state for generations. Great Falls has the highest percentage of African-Americans in its population, although Billings has more African-American residents than Great Falls. The Chinese in Montana, while a low percentage today, have been an important presence. About 2000–3000 Chinese miners were in the mining areas of Montana by 1870, and 2500 in 1890. However, public opinion grew increasingly negative toward them in the 1890s, and nearly half of the state's Asian population left the state by 1900. Today, the Missoula area has a large Hmong population and the nearly 3,000 Montanans who claim Filipino ancestry are the largest Asian-American group in the state. English is the official language in the state of Montana, as it is in many U.S. states. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 94.8% of the population aged five and older speak English at home. Spanish is the language most commonly spoken at home other than English. About 13,040 Spanish-language speakers were in the state (1.4% of the population) in 2011. Also, 15,438 (1.7% of the state population) were speakers of Indo-European languages other than English or Spanish, 10,154 (1.1%) were speakers of a Native American language, and 4,052 (0.4%) were speakers of an Asian or Pacific Islander language. Other languages spoken in Montana (as of 2013) include Assiniboine (about 150 speakers in the Montana and Canada), Blackfoot (about 100 speakers), Cheyenne (about 1,700 speakers), Plains Cree (about 100 speakers), Crow (about 3,000 speakers), Dakota (about 18,800 speakers in Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota), German Hutterite (about 5,600 speakers), Gros Ventre (about 10 speakers), Kalispel-Pend d'Oreille (about 64 speakers), Kutenai (about six speakers), and Lakota (about 6,000 speakers in Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota). The United States Department of Education estimated in 2009 that 5,274 students in Montana spoke a language at home other than English. These included a Native American language (64%), German (4%), Spanish (3%), Russian (1%), and Chinese (less than 0.5%). According to the Pew Forum, the religious affiliations of the people of Montana are: Protestant 47%, Catholic 23%, LDS (Mormon) 5%, Jehovah's Witness 2%, Buddhist 1%, Jewish 0.5%, Muslim 0.5%, Hindu 0.5% and nonreligious at 20%. The largest denominations in Montana as of 2010 were the Catholic Church with 127,612 adherents, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 46,484 adherents, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 38,665 adherents, and nondenominational Evangelical Protestant with 27,370 adherents. About 66,000 people of Native American heritage live in Montana. Stemming from multiple treaties and federal legislation, including the Indian Appropriations Act (1851), the Dawes Act (1887), and the Indian Reorganization Act (1934), seven Indian reservations, encompassing 11 federally recognized tribal nations, were created in Montana. A 12th nation, the Little Shell Chippewa is a "landless" people headquartered in Great Falls; it is recognized by the state of Montana, but not by the U.S. government. The Blackfeet nation is headquartered on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation (1851) in Browning, Crow on the Crow Indian Reservation (1868) in Crow Agency, Confederated Salish and Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille on the Flathead Indian Reservation (1855) in Pablo, Northern Cheyenne on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (1884) at Lame Deer, Assiniboine and Gros Ventre on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation (1888) in Fort Belknap Agency, Assiniboine and Sioux on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation (1888) at Poplar, and Chippewa-Cree on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation (1916) near Box Elder. Approximately 63% of all Native people live off the reservations, concentrated in the larger Montana cities, with the largest concentration of urban Indians in Great Falls. The state also has a small Métis population, and 1990 census data indicated that people from as many as 275 different tribes lived in Montana. Montana's Constitution specifically reads, "the state recognizes the distinct and unique cultural heritage of the American Indians and is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity." It is the only state in the U.S. with such a constitutional mandate. The Indian Education for All Act was passed in 1999 to provide funding for this mandate and ensure implementation. It mandates that all schools teach American Indian history, culture, and heritage from preschool through college. For kindergarten through 12th-grade students, an "Indian Education for All" curriculum from the Montana Office of Public Instruction is available free to all schools. The state was sued in 2004 because of lack of funding, and the state has increased its support of the program. South Dakota passed similar legislation in 2007, and Wisconsin was working to strengthen its own program based on this model—and the current practices of Montana's schools. Each Indian reservation in the state has a fully accredited tribal college. The University of Montana "was the first to establish dual admission agreements with all of the tribal colleges and as such it was the first institution in the nation to actively facilitate student transfer from the tribal colleges." "Note: Births in table do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number." The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates Montana's state product in 2014 was $44.3 billion. Per capita personal income in 2014 was $40,601, 35th in the nation. Montana is a relative hub of beer microbrewing, ranking third in the nation in number of craft breweries per capita in 2011. Significant industries exist for lumber and mineral extraction; the state's resources include gold, coal, silver, talc, and vermiculite. Ecotaxes on resource extraction are numerous. A 1974 state severance tax on coal (which varied from 20 to 30%) was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in "Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana", 453 U.S. 609 (1981). Tourism is also important to the economy, with more than ten million visitors a year to Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake, the Missouri River headwaters, the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park. Montana's personal income tax contains seven brackets, with rates ranging from 1.0 to 6.9 percent. Montana has no sales tax*, and household goods are exempt from property taxes. However, property taxes are assessed on livestock, farm machinery, heavy equipment, automobiles, trucks, and business equipment. The amount of property tax owed is not determined solely by the property's value. The property's value is multiplied by a tax rate, set by the Montana Legislature, to determine its taxable value. The taxable value is then multiplied by the mill levy established by various taxing jurisdictions—city and county government, school districts, and others. *In the 1980s the absence of a sales tax became economically deleterious to communities bound to the state's tourism industry, as the revenue from income and property taxes provided by residents was grossly insignificant in regards to paying for the impact of non-residential travel—especially road repair. In 1985, the Montana Legislature passed a law allowing towns with fewer than 5,500 residents and unincorporated communities with fewer than 2,500 to levy a resort tax if more than half the community's income came from tourism. The resort tax is a sales tax that applies to hotels, motels and other lodging and camping facilities; restaurants, fast-food stores, and other food service establishments; taverns, bars, night clubs, lounges, or other public establishments that serve alcohol; as well as destination ski resorts or other destination recreational facilities. It also applies to "luxuries"- defined by law as any item item normally sold to the public or to transient visitors or tourists that does not include food purchased unprepared or unserved, medicine, medical supplies and services, appliances, hardware supplies and tools, or any necessities of life. Approximately 12.2 million non-residents visited Montana in 2018, and the population was estimated to be 1.06 million. This extremely disproportionate ratio of residents paying taxes vs. non-residents using state funded services and infrastructure makes Montana's resort tax crucial in order to safely maintain heavily used roads and highways, as well as protect and preserve state parks. As of January 2019, the state's unemployment rate is 3.8%. The Montana Territory was formed on April 26, 1864, when the U.S. passed the Organic Act. Schools started forming in the area before it was officially a territory as families started settling into the area. The first schools were subscription schools that typically met in the teacher's home. The first formal school on record was at Fort Owen in Bitterroot valley in 1862. The students were Indian children and the children of Fort Owen employees. The first school term started in early winter and lasted only until February 28. Classes were taught by Mr. Robinson. Another early subscription school was started by Thomas Dimsdale in Virginia City in 1863. In this school students were charged $1.75 per week. The Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly had its inaugural meeting in 1864. The first legislature authorized counties to levy taxes for schools, which set the foundations for public schooling. Madison County was the first to take advantage of the newly authorized taxes and it formed fhe first public school in Virginia City in 1886. The first school year was scheduled to begin in January 1866, but severe weather postponed its opening until March. The first school year ran through the summer and did not end until August 17. One of the first teachers at the school was Sarah Raymond. She was a 25-year-old woman who had traveled to Virginia City via wagon train in 1865. To become a certified teacher, Raymond took a test in her home and paid a $6 fee in gold dust to obtain a teaching certificate. With the help of an assistant teacher, Mrs. Farley, Raymond was responsible for teaching 50 to 60 students each day out of the 81 students enrolled at the school. Sarah Raymond was paid $125 per month, and Mrs. Farley was paid $75 per month. No textbooks were used in the school. In their place was an assortment of books brought by various emigrants. Sarah quit teaching the following year, but she later become the Madison County superintendent of schools. Many well-known artists, photographers and authors have documented the land, culture and people of Montana in the last 130 years. Painter and sculptor Charles Marion Russell, known as "the cowboy artist", created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the Western United States and in Alberta, Canada. The C. M. Russell Museum Complex in Great Falls, Montana, houses more than 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects, and artifacts. Pioneering feminist author, film-maker, and media personality Mary MacLane attained international fame in 1902 with her memoir of three months in her life in Butte, "The Story of Mary MacLane". She referred to Butte throughout the rest of her career and remains a controversial figure there for her mixture of criticism and love for Butte and its people. Evelyn Cameron, a naturalist and photographer from Terry documented early 20th century life on the Montana prairie, taking startlingly clear pictures of everything around her: cowboys, sheepherders, weddings, river crossings, freight wagons, people working, badlands, eagles, coyotes and wolves. Many notable Montana authors have documented or been inspired by life in Montana in both fiction and non-fiction works. Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Earle Stegner from Great Falls was often called "The Dean of Western Writers". James Willard Schultz ("Apikuni") from Browning is most noted for his prolific stories about Blackfeet life and his contributions to the naming of prominent features in Glacier National Park. Montana hosts numerous arts and cultural festivals and events every year. Major events include: There are no major league sports franchises in Montana due to the state's relatively small and dispersed population, but a number of minor league teams play in the state. Baseball is the minor-league sport with the longest heritage in the state, and Montana is home to three Minor League Baseball teams, all members of the Pioneer League: the Billings Mustangs, Great Falls Voyagers, and Missoula Osprey. All of Montana's four-year colleges and universities field intercollegiate sports teams. The two largest schools, the University of Montana and Montana State University, are members of the Big Sky Conference and have enjoyed a strong athletic rivalry since the early twentieth century. Six of Montana's smaller four-year schools are members of the Frontier Conference. One is a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. A variety of sports are offered at Montana high schools. Montana allows the smallest—"Class C"—high schools to utilize six-man football teams, dramatized in the independent 2002 film "The Slaughter Rule". There are junior ice hockey teams in Montana, four of which are affiliated with the North American 3 Hockey League: the Bozeman Icedogs, Great Falls Americans, Helena Bighorns, and Missoula Jr. Bruins. Montanans have been a part of several major sporting achievements: Montana provides year-round outdoor recreation opportunities for residents and visitors. Hiking, fishing, hunting, watercraft recreation, camping, golf, cycling, horseback riding, and skiing are popular activities. Montana has been a destination for its world-class trout fisheries since the 1930s. Fly fishing for several species of native and introduced trout in rivers and lakes is popular for both residents and tourists throughout the state. Montana is the home of the Federation of Fly Fishers and hosts many of the organizations annual conclaves. The state has robust recreational lake trout and kokanee salmon fisheries in the west, walleye can be found in many parts of the state, while northern pike, smallmouth and largemouth bass fisheries as well as catfish and paddlefish can be found in the waters of eastern Montana. Robert Redford's 1992 film of Norman Mclean's novel, "A River Runs Through It", was filmed in Montana and brought national attention to fly fishing and the state. Montana is home to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and has a historic big game hunting tradition. There are fall bow and general hunting seasons for elk, pronghorn antelope, whitetail deer and mule deer. A random draw grants a limited number of permits for moose, mountain goats and bighorn sheep. There is a spring hunting season for black bear and in most years, limited hunting of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park is allowed. Current law allows both hunters and trappers specified numbers ("limits") of wolves and mountain lions. Trapping of assorted fur-bearing animals is allowed in certain seasons and many opportunities exist for migratory waterfowl and upland bird hunting. Both downhill skiing and cross-country skiing are popular in Montana, which has 15 developed downhill ski areas open to the public, including: Big Sky Resort and Whitefish Mountain Resort are destination resorts, while the remaining areas do not have overnight lodging at the ski area, though several host restaurants and other amenities. Montana also has millions of acres open to cross-country skiing on nine of its national forests and in Glacier National Park. In addition to cross-country trails at most of the downhill ski areas, there are also 13 private cross-country skiing resorts. Yellowstone National Park also allows cross-country skiing. Snowmobiling is popular in Montana, which boasts over 4,000 miles of trails and frozen lakes available in winter. There are 24 areas where snowmobile trails are maintained, most also offering ungroomed trails. West Yellowstone offers a large selection of trails and is the primary starting point for snowmobile trips into Yellowstone National Park, where "oversnow" vehicle use is strictly limited, usually to guided tours, and regulations are in considerable flux. Snow coach tours are offered at Big Sky, Whitefish, West Yellowstone and into Yellowstone National Park. Equestrian skijoring has a niche in Montana, which hosts the World Skijoring Championships in Whitefish as part of the annual Whitefish Winter Carnival. Montana does not have a Trauma I hospital, but does have Trauma II hospitals in Missoula, Billings, and Great Falls. In 2013, "AARP The Magazine" named the Billings Clinic one of the safest hospitals in the United States. Montana is ranked as the least obese state in the U.S., at 19.6%, according to the 2014 Gallup Poll. Montana has the highest suicide rate of any state in the US as of 2017. As of 2010, Missoula is the 166th largest media market in the United States as ranked by Nielsen Media Research, while Billings is 170th, Great Falls is 190th, the Butte-Bozeman area 191st, and Helena is 206th. There are 25 television stations in Montana, representing each major U.S. network. As of August 2013, there are 527 FCC-licensed FM radio stations broadcast in Montana, with 114 such AM stations. During the age of the Copper Kings, each Montana copper company had its own newspaper. This changed in 1959 when Lee Enterprises bought several Montana newspapers. Montana's largest circulating daily city newspapers are the "Billings Gazette" (circulation 39,405), "Great Falls Tribune" (26,733), and "Missoulian" (25,439). Railroads have been an important method of transportation in Montana since the 1880s. Historically, the state was traversed by the main lines of three east–west transcontinental routes: the Milwaukee Road, the Great Northern, and the Northern Pacific. Today, the BNSF Railway is the state's largest railroad, its main transcontinental route incorporating the former Great Northern main line across the state. Montana RailLink, a privately held Class II railroad, operates former Northern Pacific trackage in western Montana. In addition, Amtrak's "Empire Builder" train runs through the north of the state, stopping in Libby, Whitefish, West Glacier, Essex, East Glacier Park, Browning, Cut Bank, Shelby, Havre, Malta, Glasgow, and Wolf Point. Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport is the busiest airport in the state of Montana, surpassing Billings Logan International Airport in the spring of 2013. Montana's other major airports include Missoula International Airport, Great Falls International Airport, Glacier Park International Airport, Helena Regional Airport, Bert Mooney Airport and Yellowstone Airport. Eight smaller communities have airports designated for commercial service under the Essential Air Service program. Historically, U.S. Route 10 was the primary east–west highway route across Montana, connecting the major cities in the southern half of the state. Still the state's most important east–west travel corridor, the route is today served by Interstate 90 and Interstate 94 which roughly follow the same route as the Northern Pacific. U.S. Routes 2 and 12 and Montana Highway 200 also traverse the entire state from east to west. Montana's only north–south Interstate Highway is Interstate 15. Other major north–south highways include U.S. Routes 87, 89, 93 and 191. Montana and South Dakota are the only states to share a land border which is not traversed by a paved road. Highway 212, the primary paved route between the two, passes through the northeast corner of Wyoming between Montana and South Dakota. Montana is governed by a constitution. The first constitution was drafted by a constitutional convention in 1889, in preparation for statehood. Ninety percent of its language came from an 1884 constitution which was never acted upon by Congress for national political reasons. The 1889 constitution mimicked the structure of the United States Constitution, as well as outlining almost the same civil and political rights for citizens. However, the 1889 Montana constitution significantly restricted the power of state government, the legislature was much more powerful than the executive branch, and the jurisdiction of the District Courts very specifically described. Montana voters amended the 1889 constitution 37 times between 1889 and 1972. In 1914, Montana granted women the vote. In 1916, Montana became the first state to elect a woman, Progressive Republican Jeannette Rankin, to Congress. In 1971, Montana voters approved the call for a state constitutional convention. A new constitution was drafted, which made the legislative and executive branches much more equal in power and which was much less prescriptive in outlining powers, duties, and jurisdictions. The draft included an expanded, more progressive list of civil and political rights, extended these rights to children for the first time, transferred administration of property taxes to the counties from the state, implemented new water rights, eliminated sovereign immunity, and gave the legislature greater power to spend tax revenues. The constitution was narrowly approved, 116,415 to 113,883, and declared ratified on June 20, 1972. Three issues which the constitutional convention were unable to resolve were submitted to voters simultaneously with the proposed constitution. Voters approved the legalization of gambling, a bicameral legislature, and retention of the death penalty. The 1972 constitution has been amended 31 times as of 2015. Major amendments include establishment of a reclamation trust (funded by taxes on natural resource extraction) to restore mined land (1974); restoration of sovereign immunity, when such immunity has been approved by a two-thirds vote in each house (1974); establishment of a 90-day biennial (rather than annual) legislative session (1974); establishment of a coal tax trust fund, funded by a tax on coal extraction (1976); conversion of the mandatory decennial review of county government into a voluntary one, to be approved or disallowed by residents in each county (1978); conversion of the provision of public assistance from a mandatory civil right to a non-fundamental legislative prerogative (1988); a new constitutional right to hunt and fish (2004); a prohibition on gay marriage (2004); and a prohibition on new taxes on the sale or transfer of real property (2010). In 1992, voters approved a constitutional amendment implementing term limits for certain statewide elected executive branch offices (governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction) and for members of the Montana Legislature. Extensive new constitutional rights for victims of crime were approved in 2016. The 1972 constitution requires that voters determine every 20 years whether to hold a new constitutional convention. Voters turned down a new convention in 1990 (84 percent no) and again in 2010 (58.6 percent no). Montana has three branches of state government: Legislative, executive, and judicial. The executive branch is headed by an elected governor. The Governor is Steve Bullock, a Democrat elected in 2012. There are also nine other statewide elected offices in the executive branch: Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor (who also serves as Commissioner of Securities and Insurance), and Superintendent of Public Instruction. There are five Public Service Commissioners, who are elected on a regional basis. (The Public Service Commission's jurisdiction is statewide.) There are 18 departments and offices which make up the executive branch: Administration; Agriculture; Auditor (securities and insurance); Commerce; Corrections; Environmental Quality; Fish, Wildlife & Parks; Justice; Labor and Industry; Livestock; Military Affairs; Natural Resources and Conservation; Public Health and Human Services; Revenue; State; and Transportation. Elementary and secondary education are overseen by the Office of Public Instruction (led by the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction), in cooperation with the governor-appointed Board of Public Education. Higher education is overseen by a governor-appointed Board of Regents, which in turn appoints a Commissioner of Higher Education. The Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education acts in an executive capacity on behalf of the regents, and oversees the state-run Montana University System. Independent state agencies not within a department or office include the Montana Arts Council, Montana Board of Crime Control, Montana Historical Society, Montana Public Employees Retirement Administration, Commissioner of Political Practices, the Montana Lottery, Office of the State Public Defender, Public Service Commission, the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, the Montana State Fund (which operates the state's unemployment insurance, worker compensation, and self-insurance operations), the Montana State Library, and the Montana Teachers Retirement System. Montana is an Alcoholic beverage control state. It is an equitable distribution and no-fault divorce state. It is one of five states to have no sales tax. The Montana Legislature is bicameral, and consists of the 50-member Montana Senate and the 100-member Montana House of Representatives. The legislature meets in the Montana State Capitol in Helena in odd-numbered years for 90 days, beginning the first weekday of the year. The deadline for a legislator to introduce a general bill is the 40th legislative day. The deadline for a legislator to introduce an appropriations, revenue, or referenda bill is the 62nd legislative day. Senators serve four-year terms, while Representatives serve two-year terms. All members are limited to serving no more than eight years in a single 16-year period. The Courts of Montana are established by the Constitution of Montana. The constitution requires the establishment of a Montana Supreme Court and Montana District Courts, and permits the legislature to establish Justice Courts, City Courts, Municipal Courts, and other inferior courts such as the legislature sees fit to establish. The Montana Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the Montana court system. The constitution of 1889 provided for the election of no fewer than three Supreme Court justices, and one Chief Justice. Each court member served a six-year term. The legislature increased the number of justices to five in 1919. The 1972 constitution lengthened the term of office to eight years, and established the minimum number of justices at five. It allowed the legislature to increase the number of justices by two, which the legislature did in 1979. The Montana Supreme Court has the authority to declare acts of the legislature and executive unconstitutional under either the Montana or U.S. constitutions. Its decisions may be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Clerk of the Supreme Court is also an elected position, and serves a six-year term. Neither justices nor the clerk are term limited. Montana District Courts are the courts of general jurisdiction in Montana. There are no intermediate appellate courts. District Courts have jurisdiction primarily over most civil cases, cases involving a monetary claim against the state, felony criminal cases, probate, and cases at law and in equity. When so authorized by the legislature, actions of executive branch agencies may be appealed directly to a District Court. The District Courts also have "de novo" appellate jurisdiction from inferior courts (city courts, justice courts, and municipal courts), and oversee naturalization proceedings. District Court judges are elected, and serve six-year terms. They are not term limited. There are 22 judicial districts in Montana, served by 56 District Courts and 46 District Court judges. The District Courts suffer from excessive workload, and the legislature has struggled to find a solution to the problem. Montana Youth Courts were established by the Montana Youth Court Act of 1974. They are overseen by District Court judges. They consist of a chief probation officer, one or more juvenile probation officers, and support staff. Youth Courts have jurisdiction over misdemeanor and felony acts committed by those charged as a juvenile under the law. There is a Youth Court in every judicial district, and decisions of the Youth Court are appealable directly to the Montana Supreme Court. The Montana Worker's Compensation Court was established by the Montana Workers' Compensation Act in 1975. There is a single Workers' Compensation Court. It has a single judge, appointed by the governor. The Worker's Compensation Court has statewide jurisdiction and holds trials in Billings, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell, and Missoula. The court hears cases arising under the Montana Workers' Compensation Act, and is the court of original jurisdiction for reviews of orders and regulations issued by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. Decisions of the court are appealable directly to the Montana Supreme Court. The Montana Water Court was established by the Montana Water Court Act of 1979. The Water Court consists of a Chief Water Judge and four District Water Judges (Lower Missouri River Basin, Upper Missouri River Basin, Yellowstone River Basin, and Clark Fork River Basin). The court employs 12 permanent special masters. The Montana Judicial Nomination Commission develops short lists of nominees for all five Water Judges, who are then appointed by the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court (subject to confirmation by the Montana Senate). The Water Court adjudicates water rights claims under the Montana Water Use Act of 1973, and has statewide jurisdiction. District Courts have the authority to enforce decisions of the Water Court, but only the Montana Supreme Court has the authority to review decisions of the Water Court. From 1889 to 1909, elections for judicial office in Montana were partisan. Beginning in 1909, these elections became nonpartisan. The Montana Supreme Court struck down the nonpartisan law in 1911 on technical grounds, but a new law was enacted in 1935 which barred political parties from endorsing, making contributions to, or making expenditures on behalf of or against judicial candidates. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Montana's judicial nonpartisan election law in Although candidates must remain nonpartisan, spending by partisan entities is now permitted. Spending on state supreme court races exponentially increased to $1.6 million in 2014, and to more than $1.6 million in 2016 (both new records). The U.S. Constitution provides each state with two Senators. Montana's two U.S. senators are Jon Tester (Democrat), who was reelected in 2018, and Steve Daines (Republican), first elected in 2014. The U.S. Constitution provides each state with a single Representative, with additional representatives apportioned based on population. From statehood in 1889 until 1913, Montana was represented in the United States House of Representatives by a single representative, elected at-large. Montana received a second representative in 1913, following the 1910 census and reapportionment. Both members, however, were still elected at-large. Beginning in 1919, Montana moved to district, rather than at-large, elections for its two House members. This created Montana's 1st congressional district in the west and Montana's 2nd congressional district in the east. In the reapportionment following the 1990 census, Montana lost one of its House seats. The remaining seat was again elected at-large. Greg Gianforte is the current officeholder. Montana's Senate district is the fourth largest by area, behind Alaska, Texas, and California. The most notorious of Montana's early Senators was William A. Clark, a "Copper King" and one of the 50 richest Americans ever. He is well known for having bribed his way into the U.S. Senate. Among Montana's most historically prominent Senators are Thomas J. Walsh (serving from 1913 to 1933), who was President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt's choice for Attorney General when he died; Burton K. Wheeler (serving from 1923 to 1947), an oft-mentioned presidential candidate and strong supporter of isolationism; Mike Mansfield, the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader in U.S. history; Max Baucus (served 1978 to 2014), longest-serving U.S. Senator in Montana history, and the senator who shepherded the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act through the Senate in 2010; and Lee Metcalf (served 1961 to 1978), a pioneer of the environmental movement. Montana's House district is the largest congressional district in the United States by population, with just over 1,023,000 constituents. It is the second largest House district by area, after Alaska's at-large congressional district. Of Montana's House delegates, Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to hold national office in the United States when she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916. Also notable is Representative (later Senator) Thomas H. Carter, the first Catholic to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee (from 1892 to 1896). Federal courts in Montana include the United States District Court for the District of Montana and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana. Three former Montana politicians have been named judges on the U.S. District Court: Charles Nelson Pray (who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1907 to 1913), James Franklin Battin (who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969), and Paul G. Hatfield (who served as an appointed U.S. Senator in 1978). Brian Morris, who served as an Associate Justice of the Montana Supreme Court from 2005 to 2013, currently serves as a judge on the court. Elections in the state have been competitive, with the Democrats usually holding an edge, thanks to the support among unionized miners and railroad workers. Large-scale battles revolved around the giant Anaconda Copper company, based in Butte and controlled by Rockefeller interests, until it closed in the 1970s. Until 1959, the company owned five of the state's six largest newspapers. Historically, Montana is a swing state of cross-ticket voters who tend to fill elected offices with individuals from both parties. Through the mid-20th century, the state had a tradition of "sending the liberals to Washington and the conservatives to Helena". Between 1988 and 2006, the pattern flipped, with voters more likely to elect conservatives to federal offices. There have also been long-term shifts of party control. From 1968 through 1988, the state was dominated by the Democratic Party, with Democratic governors for a 20-year period, and a Democratic majority of both the national congressional delegation and during many sessions of the state legislature. This pattern shifted, beginning with the 1988 election, when Montana elected a Republican governor for the first time since 1964 and sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1948. This shift continued with the reapportionment of the state's legislative districts that took effect in 1994, when the Republican Party took control of both chambers of the state legislature, consolidating a Republican party dominance that lasted until the 2004 reapportionment produced more swing districts and a brief period of Democratic legislative majorities in the mid-2000s. In more recent presidential elections, Montana has voted for the Republican candidate in all but two elections from 1952 to the present. The state last supported a Democrat for president in 1992, when Bill Clinton won a plurality victory. Overall, since 1889 the state has voted for Democratic governors 60 percent of the time and Republican governors 40 percent of the time. In the 2008 presidential election, Montana was considered a swing state and was ultimately won by Republican John McCain, albeit by a narrow margin of two percent. At the state level, the pattern of split-ticket voting and divided government holds. Democrats hold one of the state's two U.S. Senate seats with Jon Tester, as well as the governorship with Steve Bullock. The lone congressional district has been Republican since 1996 and in 2014 Steve Daines won one of the state's U.S. Senate seats for the GOP. The Legislative branch had split party control between the house and senate most years between 2004 and 2010, when the mid-term elections returned both branches to Republican control. The state Senate is, as of 2019, controlled by the Republicans 32 to 18, and the State House of Representatives at 59 to 41. Historically, Republicans are strongest in the east, while Democrats are strongest in the west. Montana has only one representative in the U.S. House, having lost its second district in the 1990 census reapportionment. Montana's single congressional district holds the largest population of any district in the country, which means its one member in the House of Representatives represents more people than any other member of the U.S. House (see List of U.S. states by population). Montana's population grew at about the national average during the 2000s, but it failed to regain its second seat in 2010. Montana has 56 counties with the United States Census Bureau stating Montana's contains 364 "places", broken down into 129 incorporated places and 235 census-designated places. Incorporated places consist of 52 cities, 75 towns, and two consolidated city-counties. Montana has one city, Billings, with a population over 100,000; and two cities with populations over 50,000, Missoula and Great Falls. These three communities are considered the centers of Montana's three Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The state also has five Micropolitan Statistical Areas centered on Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Kalispell and Havre. These communities, excluding Havre, are colloquially known as the "big 7" Montana cities, as they are consistently the seven largest communities in Montana, with a significant population difference when these communities are compared to those 8th or lower on the list. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Montana's seven most populous cities, in rank order, are Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Kalispell. Based on 2013 census numbers, they collectively contain 35 percent of Montana's population. and the counties containing these communities hold 62 percent of the state's population. The geographic center of population of Montana is in sparsely populated Meagher County, in the town of White Sulphur Springs. Montana's motto, "Oro y Plata", Spanish for "Gold and Silver", recognizing the significant role of mining, was first adopted in 1865, when Montana was still a territory. A state seal with a miner's pick and shovel above the motto, surrounded by the mountains and the Great Falls of the Missouri River, was adopted during the first meeting of the territorial legislature in 1864–65. The design was only slightly modified after Montana became a state and adopted it as their Great Seal in 1893. The state flower, the Bitterroot, was adopted in 1895 with the support of a group called the Floral Emblem Association, which formed after Montana's Women's Christian Temperance Union adopted the bitterroot as the organization's state flower. All other symbols were adopted throughout the 20th century, save for Montana's newest symbol, the state butterfly, the mourning cloak, adopted in 2001, and the state lullaby, "Montana Lullaby", adopted in 2007. The state song was not composed until 21 years after statehood, when a musical troupe led by Joseph E. Howard stopped in Butte in September 1910. A former member of the troupe who lived in Butte buttonholed Howard at an after-show party, asking him to compose a song about Montana and got another partygoer, the city editor for the "Butte Miner" newspaper, Charles C. Cohan, to help. The two men worked up a basic melody and lyrics in about a half-hour for the entertainment of party guests, then finished the song later that evening, with an arrangement worked up the following day. Upon arriving in Helena, Howard's troupe performed 12 encores of the new song to an enthusiastic audience and the governor proclaimed it the state song on the spot, though formal legislative recognition did not occur until 1945. Montana is one of only three states to have a "state ballad", "Montana Melody", chosen by the legislature in 1983. Montana was the first state to also adopt a State Lullaby. Montana schoolchildren played a significant role in selecting several state symbols. The state tree, the ponderosa pine, was selected by Montana schoolchildren as the preferred state tree by an overwhelming majority in a referendum held in 1908. However, the legislature did not designate a state tree until 1949, when the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs, with the support of the state forester, lobbied for formal recognition. Schoolchildren also chose the western meadowlark as the state bird, in a 1930 vote, and the legislature acted to endorse this decision in 1931. Similarly, the secretary of state sponsored a children's vote in 1981 to choose a state animal, and after 74 animals were nominated, the grizzly bear won over the elk by a 2–1 margin. The students of Livingston started a statewide school petition drive plus lobbied the governor and the state legislature to name the "Maiasaura" as the state fossil in 1985. Various community civic groups also played a role in selecting the state grass and the state gemstones. When broadcaster Norma Ashby discovered there was no state fish, she initiated a drive via her television show, "Today in Montana", and an informal citizen's election to select a state fish resulted in a win for the blackspotted cutthroat trout after hot competition from the Arctic grayling. The legislature in turn adopted this recommendation by a wide margin.

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Montana

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19980

Machine translation Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation (MAHT) or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another. On a basic level, MT performs mechanical substitution of words in one language for words in another, but that alone rarely produces a good translation because recognition of whole phrases and their closest counterparts in the target language is needed. Not all words in one language have equivalent words in another language, and many words have more than one meaning. In addition, two given languages may have completely different structures. Solving this problem with corpus statistical and neural techniques is a rapidly-growing field that is leading to better translations, handling differences in linguistic typology, translation of idioms, and the isolation of anomalies. Current machine translation software often allows for customization by domain or profession (such as weather reports), improving output by limiting the scope of allowable substitutions. This technique is particularly effective in domains where formal or formulaic language is used. It follows that machine translation of government and legal documents more readily produces usable output than conversation or less standardised text. Improved output quality can also be achieved by human intervention: for example, some systems are able to translate more accurately if the user has unambiguously identified which words in the text are proper names. With the assistance of these techniques, MT has proven useful as a tool to assist human translators and, in a very limited number of cases, can even produce output that can be used as is (e.g., weather reports). The progress and potential of machine translation have been much debated through its history. Since the 1950s, a number of scholars, first and most notably Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, have questioned the possibility of achieving fully automatic machine translation of high quality. Some critics claim that there are in-principle obstacles to automating the translation process. The origins of machine translation can be traced back to the work of Al-Kindi, a 9th-century Arabic cryptographer who developed techniques for systemic language translation, including cryptanalysis, frequency analysis, and probability and statistics, which are used in modern machine translation. The idea of machine translation later appeared in the 17th century. In 1629, René Descartes proposed a universal language, with equivalent ideas in different tongues sharing one symbol. The field of machine translation was founded with Warren Weaver's Memorandum on Translation (1949). The first researcher in the field, Yehosha Bar-Hillel, began his research at MIT (1951). A Georgetown University MT research team followed (1951) with a public demonstration of its Georgetown-IBM experiment system in 1954. MT research programs popped up in Japan and Russia (1955), and the first MT conference was held in London (1956). Researchers continued to join the field as the Association for Machine Translation and Computational Linguistics was formed in the U.S. (1962) and the National Academy of Sciences formed the Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee (ALPAC) to study MT (1964). Real progress was much slower, however, and after the ALPAC report (1966), which found that the ten-year-long research had failed to fulfill expectations, funding was greatly reduced. According to a 1972 report by the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E), the feasibility of large-scale MT was reestablished by the success of the Logos MT system in translating military manuals into Vietnamese during that conflict. The French Textile Institute also used MT to translate abstracts from and into French, English, German and Spanish (1970); Brigham Young University started a project to translate Mormon texts by automated translation (1971); and Xerox used SYSTRAN to translate technical manuals (1978). Beginning in the late 1980s, as computational power increased and became less expensive, more interest was shown in statistical models for machine translation. MT became more popular after the advent of computers. SYSTRAN's first implementation system was implemented in 1988 by the online service of the French Postal Service called Minitel. Various MT companies were also launched, including Trados (1984), which was the first to develop and market translation memory technology (1989). The first commercial MT system for Russian / English / German-Ukrainian was developed at Kharkov State University (1991). MT on the web started with SYSTRAN offering free translation of small texts (1996), followed by AltaVista Babelfish, which racked up 500,000 requests a day (1997). Franz Josef Och (the future head of Translation Development AT Google) won DARPA's speed MT competition (2003). More innovations during this time included MOSES, the open-source statistical MT engine (2007), a text/SMS translation service for mobiles in Japan (2008), and a mobile phone with built-in speech-to-speech translation functionality for English, Japanese and Chinese (2009). Recently, Google announced that Google Translate translates roughly enough text to fill 1 million books in one day (2012). The idea of using digital computers for translation of natural languages was proposed as early as 1946 by A. D. Booth and possibly others. Warren Weaver wrote an important memorandum "Translation" in 1949. The Georgetown experiment was by no means the first such application, and a demonstration was made in 1954 on the APEXC machine at Birkbeck College (University of London) of a rudimentary translation of English into French. Several papers on the topic were published at the time, and even articles in popular journals (for example an article by Cleave and Zacharov in the September 1955 issue of "Wireless World"). A similar application, also pioneered at Birkbeck College at the time, was reading and composing Braille texts by computer. The human translation process may be described as: Behind this ostensibly simple procedure lies a complex cognitive operation. To decode the meaning of the source text in its entirety, the translator must interpret and analyse all the features of the text, a process that requires in-depth knowledge of the grammar, semantics, syntax, idioms, etc., of the source language, as well as the culture of its speakers. The translator needs the same in-depth knowledge to re-encode the meaning in the target language. Therein lies the challenge in machine translation: how to program a computer that will "understand" a text as a person does, and that will "create" a new text in the target language that sounds as if it has been written by a person. In its most general application, this is beyond current technology. Though it works much faster, no automated translation program or procedure, with no human participation, can produce output even close to the quality a human translator can produce. What it can do, however, is provide a general, though imperfect, approximation of the original text, getting the "gist" of it (a process called "gisting"). This is sufficient for many purposes, including making best use of the finite and expensive time of a human translator, reserved for those cases in which total accuracy is indispensable. This problem may be approached in a number of ways, through the evolution of which accuracy has improved. Machine translation can use a method based on linguistic rules, which means that words will be translated in a linguistic way – the most suitable (orally speaking) words of the target language will replace the ones in the source language. It is often argued that the success of machine translation requires the problem of natural language understanding to be solved first. Generally, rule-based methods parse a text, usually creating an intermediary, symbolic representation, from which the text in the target language is generated. According to the nature of the intermediary representation, an approach is described as interlingual machine translation or transfer-based machine translation. These methods require extensive lexicons with morphological, syntactic, and semantic information, and large sets of rules. Given enough data, machine translation programs often work well enough for a native speaker of one language to get the approximate meaning of what is written by the other native speaker. The difficulty is getting enough data of the right kind to support the particular method. For example, the large multilingual corpus of data needed for statistical methods to work is not necessary for the grammar-based methods. But then, the grammar methods need a skilled linguist to carefully design the grammar that they use. To translate between closely related languages, the technique referred to as rule-based machine translation may be used. The rule-based machine translation paradigm includes transfer-based machine translation, interlingual machine translation and dictionary-based machine translation paradigms. This type of translation is used mostly in the creation of dictionaries and grammar programs. Unlike other methods, RBMT involves more information about the linguistics of the source and target languages, using the morphological and syntactic rules and semantic analysis of both languages. The basic approach involves linking the structure of the input sentence with the structure of the output sentence using a parser and an analyzer for the source language, a generator for the target language, and a transfer lexicon for the actual translation. RBMT's biggest downfall is that everything must be made explicit: orthographical variation and erroneous input must be made part of the source language analyser in order to cope with it, and lexical selection rules must be written for all instances of ambiguity. Adapting to new domains in itself is not that hard, as the core grammar is the same across domains, and the domain-specific adjustment is limited to lexical selection adjustment. Transfer-based machine translation is similar to interlingual machine translation in that it creates a translation from an intermediate representation that simulates the meaning of the original sentence. Unlike interlingual MT, it depends partially on the language pair involved in the translation. Interlingual machine translation is one instance of rule-based machine-translation approaches. In this approach, the source language, i.e. the text to be translated, is transformed into an interlingual language, i.e. a "language neutral" representation that is independent of any language. The target language is then generated out of the interlingua. One of the major advantages of this system is that the interlingua becomes more valuable as the number of target languages it can be turned into increases. However, the only interlingual machine translation system that has been made operational at the commercial level is the KANT system (Nyberg and Mitamura, 1992), which is designed to translate Caterpillar Technical English (CTE) into other languages. Machine translation can use a method based on dictionary entries, which means that the words will be translated as they are by a dictionary. Statistical machine translation tries to generate translations using statistical methods based on bilingual text corpora, such as the Canadian Hansard corpus, the English-French record of the Canadian parliament and EUROPARL, the record of the European Parliament. Where such corpora are available, good results can be achieved translating similar texts, but such corpora are still rare for many language pairs. The first statistical machine translation software was CANDIDE from IBM. Google used SYSTRAN for several years, but switched to a statistical translation method in October 2007. In 2005, Google improved its internal translation capabilities by using approximately 200 billion words from United Nations materials to train their system; translation accuracy improved. Google Translate and similar statistical translation programs work by detecting patterns in hundreds of millions of documents that have previously been translated by humans and making intelligent guesses based on the findings. Generally, the more human-translated documents available in a given language, the more likely it is that the translation will be of good quality. Newer approaches into Statistical Machine translation such as METIS II and PRESEMT use minimal corpus size and instead focus on derivation of syntactic structure through pattern recognition. With further development, this may allow statistical machine translation to operate off of a monolingual text corpus. SMT's biggest downfall includes it being dependent upon huge amounts of parallel texts, its problems with morphology-rich languages (especially with translating "into" such languages), and its inability to correct singleton errors. Example-based machine translation (EBMT) approach was proposed by Makoto Nagao in 1984. Example-based machine translation is based on the idea of analogy. In this approach, the corpus that is used is one that contains texts that have already been translated. Given a sentence that is to be translated, sentences from this corpus are selected that contain similar sub-sentential components. The similar sentences are then used to translate the sub-sentential components of the original sentence into the target language, and these phrases are put together to form a complete translation. Hybrid machine translation (HMT) leverages the strengths of statistical and rule-based translation methodologies. Several MT organizations claim a hybrid approach that uses both rules and statistics. The approaches differ in a number of ways: More recently, with the advent of Neural MT, a new version of hybrid machine translation is emerging that combines the benefits of rules, statistical and neural machine translation. The approach allows benefitting from pre- and post-processing in a rule guided workflow as well as benefitting from NMT and SMT. The downside is the inherent complexity which makes the approach suitable only for specific use cases. One of the proponents of this approach for complex use cases is Omniscien Technologies. A deep learning based approach to MT, neural machine translation has made rapid progress in recent years, and Google has announced its translation services are now using this technology in preference to its previous statistical methods. Microsoft team reached human parity on WMT-2017 in 2018 and this was a historical milestone. Word-sense disambiguation concerns finding a suitable translation when a word can have more than one meaning. The problem was first raised in the 1950s by Yehoshua Bar-Hillel. He pointed out that without a "universal encyclopedia", a machine would never be able to distinguish between the two meanings of a word. Today there are numerous approaches designed to overcome this problem. They can be approximately divided into "shallow" approaches and "deep" approaches. Shallow approaches assume no knowledge of the text. They simply apply statistical methods to the words surrounding the ambiguous word. Deep approaches presume a comprehensive knowledge of the word. So far, shallow approaches have been more successful. Claude Piron, a long-time translator for the United Nations and the World Health Organization, wrote that machine translation, at its best, automates the easier part of a translator's job; the harder and more time-consuming part usually involves doing extensive research to resolve ambiguities in the source text, which the grammatical and lexical exigencies of the target language require to be resolved: The ideal deep approach would require the translation software to do all the research necessary for this kind of disambiguation on its own; but this would require a higher degree of AI than has yet been attained. A shallow approach which simply guessed at the sense of the ambiguous English phrase that Piron mentions (based, perhaps, on which kind of prisoner-of-war camp is more often mentioned in a given corpus) would have a reasonable chance of guessing wrong fairly often. A shallow approach that involves "ask the user about each ambiguity" would, by Piron's estimate, only automate about 25% of a professional translator's job, leaving the harder 75% still to be done by a human. One of the major pitfalls of MT is its inability to translate non-standard language with the same accuracy as standard language. Heuristic or statistical based MT takes input from various sources in standard form of a language. Rule-based translation, by nature, does not include common non-standard usages. This causes errors in translation from a vernacular source or into colloquial language. Limitations on translation from casual speech present issues in the use of machine translation in mobile devices. Name entities, in narrow sense, refer to concrete or abstract entities in the real world including people, organizations, companies, places etc. It also refers to expressing of time, space, quantity such as 1 July 2011, $79.99 and so on. Named entities occur in the text being analyzed in statistical machine translation. The initial difficulty that arises in dealing with named entities is simply identifying them in the text. Consider the list of names common in a particular language to illustrate this – the most common names are different for each language and also are constantly changing. If named entities cannot be recognized by the machine translator, they may be erroneously translated as common nouns, which would most likely not affect the BLEU rating of the translation but would change the text's human readability. It is also possible that, when not identified, named entities will be omitted from the output translation, which would also have implications for the text's readability and message. Another way to deal with named entities is to use transliteration instead of translation, meaning that you find the letters in the target language that most closely correspond to the name in the source language. There have been attempts to incorporate this into machine translation by adding a transliteration step into the translation procedure. However, these attempts still have their problems and have even been cited as worsening the quality of translation. Named entities were still identified incorrectly, with words not being transliterated when they should or being transliterated when they shouldn't. For example, for "Southern California" the first word should be translated directly, while the second word should be transliterated. However, machines would often transliterate both because they treated them as one entity. Words like these are hard for machine translators, even those with a transliteration component, to process. The lack of attention to the issue of named entity translation has been recognized as potentially stemming from a lack of resources to devote to the task in addition to the complexity of creating a good system for named entity translation. One approach to named entity translation has been to transliterate, and not translate, those words. A second is to create a "do-not-translate" list, which has the same end goal – transliteration as opposed to translation. Both of these approaches still rely on the correct identification of named entities, however. A third approach to successful named entity translation is a class-based model. In this method, named entities are replaced with a token to represent the class they belong to. For example, "Ted" and "Erica" would both be replaced with "person" class token. In this way the statistical distribution and use of person names in general can be analyzed instead of looking at the distributions of "Ted" and "Erica" individually. A problem that the class based model solves is that the probability of a given name in a specific language will not affect the assigned probability of a translation. A study by Stanford on improving this area of translation gives the examples that different probabilities will be assigned to "David is going for a walk" and "Ankit is going for a walk" for English as a target language due to the different number of occurrences for each name in the training data. A frustrating outcome of the same study by Stanford (and other attempts to improve named recognition translation) is that many times, a decrease in the BLEU scores for translation will result from the inclusion of methods for named entity translation. Some work has been done in the utilization of multiparallel corpora, that is a body of text that has been translated into 3 or more languages. Using these methods, a text that has been translated into 2 or more languages may be utilized in combination to provide a more accurate translation into a third language compared with if just one of those source languages were used alone. An ontology is a formal representation of knowledge which includes the concepts (such as objects, processes etc.) in a domain and some relations between them. If the stored information is of linguistic nature, one can speak of a lexicon. In NLP, ontologies can be used as a source of knowledge for machine translation systems. With access to a large knowledge base, systems can be enabled to resolve many (especially lexical) ambiguities on their own. In the following classic examples, as humans, we are able to interpret the prepositional phrase according to the context because we use our world knowledge, stored in our lexicons: A machine translation system initially would not be able to differentiate between the meanings because syntax does not change. With a large enough ontology as a source of knowledge however, the possible interpretations of ambiguous words in a specific context can be reduced. Other areas of usage for ontologies within NLP include information retrieval, information extraction and text summarization. The ontology generated for the PANGLOSS knowledge-based machine translation system in 1993 may serve as an example of how an ontology for NLP purposes can be compiled: While no system provides the holy grail of fully automatic high-quality machine translation of unrestricted text, many fully automated systems produce reasonable output. The quality of machine translation is substantially improved if the domain is restricted and controlled. Despite their inherent limitations, MT programs are used around the world. Probably the largest institutional user is the European Commission. The project, for example, coordinated by the University of Gothenburg, received more than 2.375 million euros project support from the EU to create a reliable translation tool that covers a majority of the EU languages. The further development of MT systems comes at a time when budget cuts in human translation may increase the EU's dependency on reliable MT programs. The European Commission contributed 3.072 million euros (via its ISA programme) for the creation of MT@EC, a statistical machine translation program tailored to the administrative needs of the EU, to replace a previous rule-based machine translation system. In 2005, Google claimed that promising results were obtained using a proprietary statistical machine translation engine. The statistical translation engine used in the Google language tools for Arabic English and Chinese English had an overall score of 0.4281 over the runner-up IBM's BLEU-4 score of 0.3954 (Summer 2006) in tests conducted by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. With the recent focus on terrorism, the military sources in the United States have been investing significant amounts of money in natural language engineering. "In-Q-Tel" (a venture capital fund, largely funded by the US Intelligence Community, to stimulate new technologies through private sector entrepreneurs) brought up companies like Language Weaver. Currently the military community is interested in translation and processing of languages like Arabic, Pashto, and Dari. Within these languages, the focus is on key phrases and quick communication between military members and civilians through the use of mobile phone apps. The Information Processing Technology Office in DARPA hosts programs like TIDES and Babylon translator. US Air Force has awarded a $1 million contract to develop a language translation technology. The notable rise of social networking on the web in recent years has created yet another niche for the application of machine translation software – in utilities such as Facebook, or instant messaging clients such as Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger, etc. – allowing users speaking different languages to communicate with each other. Machine translation applications have also been released for most mobile devices, including mobile telephones, pocket PCs, PDAs, etc. Due to their portability, such instruments have come to be designated as mobile translation tools enabling mobile business networking between partners speaking different languages, or facilitating both foreign language learning and unaccompanied traveling to foreign countries without the need of the intermediation of a human translator. Despite being labelled as an unworthy competitor to human translation in 1966 by the Automated Language Processing Advisory Committee put together by the United States government, the quality of machine translation has now been improved to such levels that its application in online collaboration and in the medical field are being investigated. The application of this technology in medical settings where human translators are absent is another topic of research, but difficulties arise due to the importance of accurate translations in medical diagnoses. There are many factors that affect how machine translation systems are evaluated. These factors include the intended use of the translation, the nature of the machine translation software, and the nature of the translation process. Different programs may work well for different purposes. For example, statistical machine translation (SMT) typically outperforms example-based machine translation (EBMT), but researchers found that when evaluating English to French translation, EBMT performs better. The same concept applies for technical documents, which can be more easily translated by SMT because of their formal language. In certain applications, however, e.g., product descriptions written in a controlled language, a dictionary-based machine-translation system has produced satisfactory translations that require no human intervention save for quality inspection. There are various means for evaluating the output quality of machine translation systems. The oldest is the use of human judges to assess a translation's quality. Even though human evaluation is time-consuming, it is still the most reliable method to compare different systems such as rule-based and statistical systems. Automated means of evaluation include BLEU, NIST, METEOR, and LEPOR. Relying exclusively on unedited machine translation ignores the fact that communication in human language is context-embedded and that it takes a person to comprehend the context of the original text with a reasonable degree of probability. It is certainly true that even purely human-generated translations are prone to error. Therefore, to ensure that a machine-generated translation will be useful to a human being and that publishable-quality translation is achieved, such translations must be reviewed and edited by a human. The late Claude Piron wrote that machine translation, at its best, automates the easier part of a translator's job; the harder and more time-consuming part usually involves doing extensive research to resolve ambiguities in the source text, which the grammatical and lexical exigencies of the target language require to be resolved. Such research is a necessary prelude to the pre-editing necessary in order to provide input for machine-translation software such that the output will not be meaningless. In addition to disambiguation problems, decreased accuracy can occur due to varying levels of training data for machine translating programs. Both example-based and statistical machine translation rely on a vast array of real example sentences as a base for translation, and when too many or too few sentences are analyzed accuracy is jeopardized. Researchers found that when a program is trained on 203,529 sentence pairings, accuracy actually decreases. The optimal level of training data seems to be just over 100,000 sentences, possibly because as training data increases, the number of possible sentences increases, making it harder to find an exact translation match. Although there have been concerns about machine translation's accuracy, Dr. Ana Nino of the University of Manchester has researched some of the advantages in utilizing machine translation in the classroom. One such pedagogical method is called using "MT as a Bad Model." MT as a Bad Model forces the language learner to identify inconsistencies or incorrect aspects of a translation; in turn, the individual will (hopefully) possess a better grasp of the language. Dr. Nino cites that this teaching tool was implemented in the late 1980s. At the end of various semesters, Dr. Nino was able to obtain survey results from students who had used MT as a Bad Model (as well as other models.) Overwhelmingly, students felt that they had observed improved comprehension, lexical retrieval, and increased confidence in their target language. In the early 2000s, options for machine translation between spoken and signed languages were severely limited. It was a common belief that deaf individuals could use traditional translators. However, stress, intonation, pitch, and timing are conveyed much differently in spoken languages compared to signed languages. Therefore, a deaf individual may misinterpret or become confused about the meaning of written text that is based on a spoken language. Researchers Zhao, et al. (2000), developed a prototype called TEAM (translation from English to ASL by machine) that completed English to American Sign Language (ASL) translations. The program would first analyze the syntactic, grammatical, and morphological aspects of the English text. Following this step, the program accessed a sign synthesizer, which acted as a dictionary for ASL. This synthesizer housed the process one must follow to complete ASL signs, as well as the meanings of these signs. Once the entire text is analyzed and the signs necessary to complete the translation are located in the synthesizer, a computer generated human appeared and would use ASL to sign the English text to the user. Only works that are original are subject to copyright protection, so some scholars claim that machine translation results are not entitled to copyright protection because MT does not involve creativity. The copyright at issue is for a derivative work; the author of the original work in the original language does not lose his rights when a work is translated: a translator must have permission to publish a translation.

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Machine translation

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19983

Central moment In probability theory and statistics, a central moment is a moment of a probability distribution of a random variable about the random variable's mean; that is, it is the expected value of a specified integer power of the deviation of the random variable from the mean. The various moments form one set of values by which the properties of a probability distribution can be usefully characterized. Central moments are used in preference to ordinary moments, computed in terms of deviations from the mean instead of from zero, because the higher-order central moments relate only to the spread and shape of the distribution, rather than also to its location. Sets of central moments can be defined for both univariate and multivariate distributions. The "n"th moment about the mean (or "n"th central moment) of a real-valued random variable "X" is the quantity "μ""n" := E[("X" − E["X"])"n"], where E is the expectation operator. For a continuous univariate probability distribution with probability density function "f"("x"), the "n"th moment about the mean "μ" is For random variables that have no mean, such as the Cauchy distribution, central moments are not defined. The first few central moments have intuitive interpretations: The "n"th central moment is translation-invariant, i.e. for any random variable "X" and any constant "c", we have For all "n", the "n"th central moment is homogeneous of degree "n": "Only" for "n" such that n equals 1, 2, or 3 do we have an additivity property for random variables "X" and "Y" that are independent: A related functional that shares the translation-invariance and homogeneity properties with the "n"th central moment, but continues to have this additivity property even when "n" ≥ 4 is the "n"th cumulant κ"n"("X"). For "n" = 1, the "n"th cumulant is just the expected value; for "n" = either 2 or 3, the "n"th cumulant is just the "n"th central moment; for "n" ≥ 4, the "n"th cumulant is an "n"th-degree monic polynomial in the first "n" moments (about zero), and is also a (simpler) "n"th-degree polynomial in the first "n" central moments. Sometimes it is convenient to convert moments about the origin to moments about the mean. The general equation for converting the "n"th-order moment about the origin to the moment about the mean is where "μ" is the mean of the distribution, and the moment about the origin is given by For the cases "n" = 2, 3, 4 — which are of most interest because of the relations to variance, skewness, and kurtosis, respectively — this formula becomes (noting that formula_7 and formula_8): ... and so on, following Pascal's triangle, i.e. because formula_14 The following sum is a stochastic variable having a compound distribution where the formula_16 are mutually independent random variables sharing the same common distribution and formula_17 a random integer variable independent of the formula_18 with its own distribution. The moments of formula_19 are obtained as where formula_21 is defined as zero for formula_22. In a symmetric distribution (one that is unaffected by being reflected about its mean), all odd central moments equal zero, because in the formula for the "n"th moment, each term involving a value of "X" less than the mean by a certain amount exactly cancels out the term involving a value of "X" greater than the mean by the same amount. For a continuous bivariate probability distribution with probability density function "f"("x","y") the ("j","k") moment about the mean "μ" = ("μ""X", "μ""Y") is

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Central moment

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19986

Murad I Murad I (; (nicknamed Hüdavendigâr, from Persian: خداوندگار, "Khodāvandgār", "the devotee of God" – but meaning "sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 June 1389) was the Ottoman Sultan from 1362 to 1389. He was a son of Orhan Gazi and Nilüfer Hatun. Murad I conquered Adrianople, renamed it to Edirne, and in 1363 made it the new capital of the Ottoman Sultanate. Then he further expanded the Ottoman realm in Southeast Europe by bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, and forced the princes of northern Serbia and Bulgaria as well as the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos to pay him tribute. Murad I administratively divided his sultanate into the two provinces of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Rumelia (the Balkans). Murad fought against the powerful beylik of Karaman in Anatolia and against the Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians in Europe. In particular, a Serb expedition to expel the Turks from Adrianople led by the Serbian brothers King Vukašin and Despot Uglješa, was defeated on September 26, 1371, by Murad's capable second lieutenant Lala Şâhin Paşa, the first governor ("beylerbey") of Rumeli. In 1385, Sofia fell to the Ottomans. In 1386 Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović defeated an Ottoman force at the Battle of Pločnik. The Ottoman army suffered heavy casualties, and was unable to capture Niš on the way back. While Murad I was at this time, his son, Savci Bey, who was "deputy throne", launched a prince riot. Among the comparator candidates for the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople [ The Byzantine Civil War (1373-1379) were a combination. Murad I the Byzantine Emperor . His eldest son Andronikos in Constantinople (and then Andronikos IV And his younger brother Manuil (then Manuel II) Continued. Taking advantage of his father's departure from the capital, Andronikos conspired and declared his empire. The Ottoman prince Savcı Bey, who was 14 years old for some reason, declared this rebellion to be a ruler instead of his father Murad I in folding Rumelia and had the sermon read in his name. When Murad I moved to Rumelia, he passed with the Ottoman forces under his command. There was a clash in the location of an "Apicridium" in Istanbul with the troops under the command of Prince Savci Bey and Byzantine Gaspci Andronikos, and the army under Murad I dismissed the army of Savci Bey and Andronikos. The prosecutor fled to Dimetoka and was arrested there. His father, prosecutor Bey was very affected by the rebellion, first of his eyes had to apply for miles. Feridun Bey " Münşeat"i term Prosecutor Bey "nur-ı basır mechur (lack of light of vision)" The same punishment was applied to Byzantine Emperor Ioannis V, as well as his rebellious son. However, historians report that the Byzantine Emperor was half-blinded by pouring angry vinegar into his son's eyes by applying this punishment more lightly. After Murad I had blinded his son, he could not defeat his anger and had the Prosecutor in Bursa strangled and executed. When the story of the Savci Bey ended, there was a tragic situation that began in Bursa and ended there. In 1389, Murad's army defeated the Serbian Army and its allies under the leadership of Lazar at the Battle of Kosovo. There are different accounts from different sources about when and how Murad I was assassinated. The contemporary sources mainly noted that the battle took place and that both Prince Lazar and the Sultan lost their lives in the battle. The existing evidence of the additional stories and speculations as to how Murad I died were disseminated and recorded in the 15th century and later, decades after the actual event. One Western source states that during first hours of the battle, Murad I was assassinated by Serbian nobleman and knight Miloš Obilić by knife. Most Ottoman chroniclers (including Dimitrie Cantemir) state that he was assassinated after the finish of the battle while going around the battlefield. His older son Bayezid, who was in charge of the left wing of the Ottoman forces, took charge after that. His other son, Yakub Bey, who was in charge of the other wing, was called to the Sultan's command center tent by Bayezid, but when Yakub Bey arrived he was strangled, leaving Bayezid as the sole claimant to the throne. In a letter from the Florentine senate (written by Coluccio Salutati) to the King Tvrtko I of Bosnia, dated 20 October 1389, Murad I's (and Jakub Bey's) killing was described. A party of twelve Serbian lords slashed their way through the Ottoman lines defending Murad I. One of them, allegedly Miloš Obilić, had managed to get through to the Sultan's tent and kill him with sword stabs to the throat and belly. Sultan Murad's internal organs were buried in Kosovo field and remains to this day on a corner of the battlefield in a location called "Meshed-i Hudavendigar" which has gained a religious significance by the local Muslims. It has been vandalized between 1999–2006 and renovated recently. His other remains were carried to Bursa, his Anatolian capital city, and were buried in a tomb at the complex built in his name. He established the sultanate by building up a society and government in the newly conquered city of Adrianople (Edirne in Turkish) and by expanding the realm in Europe, bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule and forcing the Byzantine emperor to pay him tribute. It was Murad who established the former Osmanli tribe into an sultanate. He established the title of sultan in 1383 and the corps of the "janissaries" and the "devşirme" recruiting system. He also organised the government of the "Divan", the system of timars and timar-holders (timariots) and the military judge, the "kazasker". He also established the two provinces of Anadolu (Anatolia) and Rumeli (Europe). He was the son of Orhan and the Valide Hatun Nilüfer Hatun, daughter of the Prince of Yarhisar, who was of ethnic Greek descent Notes: References:

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Murad I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19986

19987

Mehmed I Mehmed I (1389 – 26 May 1421), also known as Mehmed Çelebi (, "the noble-born") or Kirişçi (from Greek "Kyritzes", "lord's son"), was the Ottoman Sultan from 1413 to 1421. The fourth son of Sultan Bayezid I and Devlet Hatun, he fought with his brothers over control of the Ottoman realm in the Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413). Starting from the province of Rûm he managed to bring first Anatolia and then the European territories (Rumelia) under his control, reuniting the Ottoman state by 1413, and ruling it until his death in 1421. Mehmed was born in 1389 as the fourth son of Sultan Bayezid I () and one of his consorts, the slave girl Devlet Hatun. Following Ottoman custom, when he reached adolescence in 1399, he was sent to gain experience as provincial governor over the Rûm Eyalet (central northern Anatolia), recently conquered from its Eretnid rulers. On 20 July 1402, his father Bayezid was defeated in the Battle of Ankara by the Turko-Mongol conqueror and ruler Timur. The brothers (with the exception of Mustafa, who was captured and taken along with Bayezid to Samarkand) were rescued from the battlefield, Mehmed being saved by Bayezid Pasha, who took him to his hometown of Amasya. Mehmed later made Bayezid Pasha his grand vizier (1413–1421). The early Ottoman Empire had no regulated succession, and according to Turkish tradition, every son could succeed his father. Of Mehmed's brothers, the eldest, Ertuğrul, had died in 1400, while the next in line, Mustafa, was a prisoner of Timur. Leaving aside the underage siblings, this left four princes—Mehmed, Süleyman, İsa, and Musa, to contend over control of the remaining Ottoman territories in the civil war known as the "Ottoman Interregnum". In modern historiography, these princes are usually called by the title "Çelebi", but in contemporary sources, the title is reserved for Mehmed and Musa. The Byzantine sources translated the title as "Kyritzes" (Κυριτζής), which was in turn adopted into Turkish as "kirişçi", sometimes misinterpreted as "güreşçi", "the wrestler". After winning the Interregnum, Mehmed crowned himself sultan in the Thracian city of Edirne that lay in the European part of the empire (the area dividing the Anatolian and European sides of the empire, Constantinople and the surrounding region, was still held by the Byzantine Empire), becoming Mehmed I. He consolidated his power, made Edirne the most important of the dual capitals, and conquered parts of Albania, the Jandarid emirate, and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from the Mamelukes. Taking his many achievements into consideration, Mehmed is widely known as the "second founder" of the Ottoman Sultanate. Soon after Mehmed began his reign, his brother Mustafa Çelebi, who had originally been captured along with their father Bayezid I during the Battle of Ankara and held captive in Samarkand, hiding in Anatolia during the Interregnum, reemerged and asked Mehmed to partition the empire with him. Mehmed refused and met Mustafa's forces in battle, easily defeating them. Mustafa escaped to the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki, but after an agreement with Mehmed, the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos exiled Mustafa to the island of Lemnos. However, Mehmed still faced some problems, first being the problem of his nephew Orhan, who Mehmed perceived as a threat to his rule, much like his late brothers had been. There was allegedly a plot involving him by Manuel II Palaiologos, who tried to use Orhan against Sultan Mehmed; however, the sultan found out about the plot and had Orhan blinded for betrayal, according to a common Byzantine practice. Furthermore, as a result of the Battle of Ankara and other civil wars, the population of the empire had become unstable and traumatized. A very powerful social and religious movement arose in the empire and became disruptive. The movement was led by Sheikh Bedreddin (1359–1420), a famous Muslim Sufi and charismatic theologian. He was an eminent Ulema, born of a Greek mother and a Muslim father in Simavna (Kyprinos) southwest of Edirne (formerly Adrianople). Mehmed's brother Musa had made Bedreddin his "qadi of the army," or the supreme judge. Bedreddin created a populist religious movement in the Ottoman Sultanate, "subversive conclusions promoting the suppression of social differences between rich and poor as well as the barriers between different forms of monotheism." Successfully developing a popular social revolution and syncretism of the various religions and sects of the empire, Bedreddin's movement began in the European side of the empire and underwent further expansion in western Anatolia. In 1416, Sheikh Bedreddin started his rebellion against the throne. After a four-year struggle, he was finally captured by Mehmed's grand vizier Bayezid Pasha and hanged in the city of Serres, a city in modern-day Greece, in 1420. The reign of Mehmed I as sultan of the re-united empire lasted only eight years before his death, but he had also been the most powerful brother contending for the throne and "de facto" ruler of most of the empire for nearly the whole preceding period of 11 years of the Ottoman Interregnum that passed between his father's captivity at Ankara and his own final victory over his brother Musa Çelebi at the Battle of Çamurlu. He was buried in Bursa, in a mausoleum erected by himself near the celebrated mosque which he built there, and which, because of its decorations of green glazed tiles, is called the Green Mosque. Mehmed I also completed another mosque in Bursa, which his grandfather Murad I had commenced but which had been neglected during the reign of Bayezid. Mehmed founded in the vicinity of his own Green Mosque and mausoleum two other characteristic institutions, one a school and one a refectory for the poor, both of which he endowed with royal munificence.

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Mehmed I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19987

19988

Murad II Murad II's reign was marked by the long war he fought against the Christian feudal lords of the Balkans and the Turkish beyliks in Anatolia, a conflict that lasted 25 years. He was brought up in Amasya, and ascended the throne on the death of his father Mehmed I. Murad was born in June 1404 (or 1403) to Sultan Mehmed I. The identity of his mother is disputed. According to 15th century historian Şükrullah, Murad's mother was a concubine. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, an early 20th century historian, wrote in his work "Amasya Tarihi", that his mother was Şehzade Hatun, daughter of Divitdar Ahmed Pasha. According to historians İsmail Hami Danişmend, and Heath W. Lowry, his mother was Emine Hatun, daughter of Şaban Suli Bey, ruler of the Dulkadirids. He spent his early childhood in Amasya. In 1410, Murad came along with his father to the Ottoman capital, Edirne. After his father ascended to the Ottoman throne, he made Murad governor of the Amasya Sanjak. Murad remained at Amasya until the death of Mehmed I in 1421. He was solemnly recognized as sultan of the Ottoman Sultanate at sixteen years of age, girded with the sabre of Osman at Bursa, and the troops and officers of the state willingly paid homage to him as their sovereign. Murad's reign was troubled by insurrection early on. The Byzantine Emperor, Manuel II, released the 'pretender' Mustafa Çelebi (known as Düzmece Mustafa) from confinement and acknowledged him as the legitimate heir to the throne of Bayezid I (1389–1402). The Byzantine Emperor had first secured a stipulation that Mustafa should, if successful, repay him for his liberation by giving up a large number of important cities. The pretender was landed by the Byzantine galleys in the European dominion of the sultan and for a time made rapid progress. Many Turkish soldiers joined him, and he defeated and killed the veteran general Beyazid Pasha, whom Murad had sent to fight him. Mustafa defeated Murad's army and declared himself Sultan of Adrianople (modern Edirne). He then crossed the Dardanelles to Asia with a large army but Murad out-manoeuvered Mustafa. Mustafa's force passed over in large numbers to Murad II. Mustafa took refuge in the city of Gallipoli, but the sultan, who was greatly aided by a Genoese commander named Adorno, besieged him there and stormed the place. Mustafa was taken and put to death by the sultan, who then turned his arms against the Roman emperor and declared his resolution to punish the Palaiologos for their unprovoked enmity by the capture of Constantinople. Murad II then formed a new army called Azap in 1421 and marched through the Byzantine Empire and laid siege to Constantinople. While Murad was besieging the city, the Byzantines, in league with some independent Turkish Anatolian states, sent the sultan's younger brother Küçük Mustafa (who was only 13 years old) to rebel against the sultan and besiege Bursa. Murad had to abandon the siege of Constantinople in order to deal with his rebellious brother. He caught Prince Mustafa and executed him. The Anatolian states that had been constantly plotting against him — Aydinids, Germiyanids, Menteshe and Teke — were annexed and henceforth became part of the Ottoman Sultanate. Murad II then declared war against Venice, the Karamanid Emirate, Serbia and Hungary. The Karamanids were defeated in 1428 and Venice withdrew in 1432 following the defeat at the second Siege of Thessalonica in 1430. In the 1430s Murad captured vast territories in the Balkans and succeeded in annexing Serbia in 1439. In 1441 the Holy Roman Empire and Poland joined the Serbian-Hungarian coalition. Murad II won the Battle of Varna in 1444 against John Hunyadi. Murad II relinquished his throne in 1444 to his son Mehmed II, but a Janissary revolt in the Empire forced him to return. In 1448 he defeated the Christian coalition at the Second Battle of Kosovo (the first one took place in 1389). When the Balkan front was secured, Murad II turned east to defeat Timur's son, Shah Rokh, and the emirates of Karamanid and Çorum-Amasya. In 1450 Murad II led his army into Albania and unsuccessfully besieged the Castle of Kruje in an effort to defeat the resistance led by Skanderbeg. In the winter of 1450–1451, Murad II fell ill, and died in Edirne. He was succeeded by his son Mehmed II (1451–81). When Murad ascended to the throne, he sought to regain the lost Ottoman territories that had reverted to autonomy following his grandfather Bayezid I’s defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 at the hands of Timur Lang. He needed the support of both the public and the nobles “who would enable him to exercise his rule”, and utilized the old and potent Islamic trope of Ghazi King. In order to gain popular, international support for his conquests, Murad II modeled himself after the legendary Ghazi kings of old. The Ottomans already presented themselves as ghazis, painting their origins as rising from the ghazas of Osman, the founder of the dynasty. For them, ghaza was the noble championing of Islam and justice against non-Muslims and Muslims alike, if they were cruel; for example, Bayezid I labeled Timur Lang, also a Muslim, an apostate prior to the Battle of Ankara because of the violence his troops had committed upon innocent civilians and because “all you do is to break promises and vows, shed blood, and violate the honor of women.” Murad II only had to capitalize on this dynastic inheritance of doing ghaza, which he did by actively crafting the public image of Ghazi Sultan. After his accession, there was a flurry of translating and compiling activity where old Persian, Arab, and Anatolian epics were translated into Turkish so Murad II could uncover the ghazi king legends. He drew from the noble behavior of the nameless Caliphs in the "Battalname", an epic about a fictional Arab warrior who fought against the Byzantines, and modelled his actions on theirs. He was careful to embody the simplicity, piety, and noble sense of justice that was part of the Ghazi King persona. For example, the Caliph in "Battalname" saw the battle turning in his enemy’s favor, and got down from his horse and prayed, after which the battle ended in a victory for him. In the Battle of Varna in 1444, Murad II saw the Hungarians gaining the upper hand, and he got down from his horse and prayed just like the Caliph, and soon after, the tide turned in the Ottoman’s favor and the Hungarian king Wladyslaw was killed. Similarly, the Caliph in the epic roused his warriors by saying “Those of you who die will be martyrs. Those of you who kill will be ghazis”; before the Battle of Varna, Murad II repeated these words to his army, saying “Those of us who kill will be ghazis; those of us who die will be martyrs.” In another instance, since the Ghazi King is meant to be a just and fair, when Murad took Thessalonica in the Balkans, he took care to keep the troops in check and prevented widespread looting. Finally, just as the fictional Caliph’s ghazas were immortalized in "Battalname", Murad II’s battles and victories were also compiled and given the title "The Ghazas of Sultan Murad" ("Gazavat- i Sultan Murad)". Murad II successfully painted himself as a simple soldier who did not partake in royal excesses, and as a noble ghazi sultan who sought to consolidate Muslim power against non-Muslims such as the Venetians and Hungarians. Through this self-presentation, he got the support of the Muslim population of not only the Ottoman territories, for both himself and his extensive, expensive campaigns, but also the greater Muslim populations in the Dar-al-Islam – such as the Mamluks and the Muslim Delhi Sultanates of India. Murad II was basically presenting himself not only as “a ghazi king who fights caffres [nonmuslims], but also serves as protector and master of lesser ghazis.” Murad II had four known wives: Murad II is portrayed by İlker Kurt in 2012 film "Fetih 1453". He was also portrayed by Vahram Papazian in the Albanian movie "The Great Warrior Skanderbeg" in 1953.

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Murad II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19988

19989

Murad III Murad III (Ottoman Turkish: مراد ثالث "Murād-i sālis", Turkish: "III.Murat") (4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. Born in Manisa on 4 July 1546, Şehzade Murad was the oldest son of Şehzade Selim and his powerful wife Nurbanu Sultan. After his ceremonial circumcision in 1557, Murad's grandfather, the Sultan Suleiman I, appointed him "sancakbeyi" (governor) of Akşehir in 1558. At the age of 18 he was appointed "sancakbeyi" of Saruhan. Suleiman died (1566) when Murad was 20, and his father became the new sultan, Selim II. Selim II broke with tradition by sending only his oldest son out of the palace to govern a province, assigning Murad to Manisa. Selim died in 1574 and was succeeded by Murad, who began his reign by having his five younger brothers strangled. His authority was undermined by harem influences – more specifically, those of his mother and later of his favorite wife Safiye Sultan, often to the detriment of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha's influence on the court. Under Selim II power had only been maintained by the genius of the powerful Grand Vizier, Mehmed Sokollu, who remained in office until his assassination in October 1579. During Murad's reign the northern borders with the Habsburg Monarchy were defended by the Bosnian governor Hasan Predojević. The reign of Murad III was marked by exhausting wars on the empire's western and eastern fronts. The Ottomans also suffered defeats in battles such as the Battle of Sisak. The Ottomans had been at peace with the neighbouring rivaling Safavid Empire since 1555, per the Treaty of Amasya, that for some time had settled border disputes. But in 1577 Murad declared war, starting the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–90), seeking to take advantage of the chaos in the Safavid court after the death of Shah Tahmasp I. Murad also tried to explore North America and make the ideas of colonizing America be more possible. However, he later abandoned all of these ideas after the Spanish navy responded by a naval attack on the Ottoman ships trying to explore North America. Murad was influenced by viziers Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha and Sinan Pasha and disregarded the opposing counsel of Grand Vizier Sokollu. Murad also fought the Safavids which would drag on for 12 years, ending with the Treaty of Constantinople (1590), which resulted in temporary significant territorial gains for the Ottomans. Murad's reign was a time of financial stress for the Ottoman state. To keep up with changing military techniques, the Ottomans trained infantrymen in the use of firearms, paying them directly from the treasury. By 1580 an influx of silver from the New World had caused high inflation and social unrest, especially among Janissaries and government officials who were paid in debased currency. Deprivation from the resulting rebellions, coupled with the pressure of over-population, was especially felt in Anatolia. Competition for positions within the government grew fierce, leading to bribery and corruption. Ottoman and Habsburg sources accuse Murad himself of accepting enormous bribes, including 20,000 ducats from a statesman in exchange for the governorship of Tripoli and Tunisia, thus outbidding a rival who had tried bribing the Grand Vizier. During his period, excessive inflation was experienced, the value of silver money was constantly played, food prices increased. 400 dirhams should be cut from 600 dirhams of silver, while 800 was cut, which meant 100 percent inflation. For the same reason, the purchasing power of wage earners has halved, and the inevitable consequence has been the uprising. Numerous envoys and letters were exchanged between Elizabeth I and Sultan Murad III. In one correspondence, Murad entertained the notion that Islam and Protestantism had "much more in common than either did with Roman Catholicism, as both rejected the worship of idols", and argued for an alliance between England and the Ottoman Empire. To the dismay of Catholic Europe, England exported tin and lead (for cannon-casting) and ammunition from the Ottoman Empire, and Elizabeth seriously discussed joint military operations with Murad III during the outbreak of war with Spain in 1585, as Francis Walsingham was lobbying for a direct Ottoman military involvement against the common Spanish enemy. This diplomacy would be continued under Murad's successor Mehmed III, by both the sultan and Safiye Sultan alike. Following the example of his father Selim II, Murad was the second Ottoman sultan who never went on campaign during his reign, instead spending it entirely in Constantinople. During the final years of his reign, he did not even leave Topkapı Palace. For two consecutive years he did not attend the Friday procession to the imperial mosque—an unprecedented breaking of custom. The Ottoman historian Mustafa Selaniki wrote that whenever Murad planned to go out to Friday prayer, he changed his mind after hearing of alleged plots by the Janissaries to dethrone him once he left the palace. Murad withdrew from his subjects and spent the majority of his reign keeping to the company of few people and abiding by a daily routine structured by the five daily Islamic prayers. Murad's personal physician Domenico Hierosolimitano described a typical day in the life of the sultan: Murad's sedentary lifestyle and lack of participation in military campaigns earned him the disapproval of Mustafa Âlî and Mustafa Selaniki, the major Ottoman historians who lived during his reign. Their negative portrayals of Murad influenced later historians. Both historians also accused Murad of sexual excess. Before becoming sultan, Murad had been loyal to Safiye Sultan, his Venetian-born concubine who had given him a son, Mehmed, and two daughters. His monogamy was disapproved of by his mother Nurbanu Sultan, who worried that Murad needed more sons to succeed him in case Mehmed died young. She also worried about Safiye's influence over her son and the Ottoman dynasty. Five or six years after his accession to the throne, Murad was given a pair of concubines by his sister Ismihan. Upon attempting sexual intercourse with them, he proved impotent. "The arrow [of Murad], [despite] keeping with his created nature, for many times [and] for many days has been unable to reach at the target of union and pleasure," wrote Mustafa Ali. Nurbanu accused Safiyye and her retainers of causing Murad's impotence with witchcraft. Several of Safiye's servants were tortured by eunuchs in order to discover a culprit. Court physicians, working under Nurbanu's orders, eventually prepared a successful cure, but a side effect was a drastic increase in sexual appetite—by the time Murad died, he was said to have fathered over a hundred children. Nineteen of these were executed by Mehmed III when he became sultan. Influential ladies of his court included his mother Nurbanu Sultan, his sister Ismihan Sultan, wife of grand vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, and musahibes (favourites) mistress of the housekeeper Canfeda Hatun, mistress of financial affairs Raziye Hatun, and the poet Hubbi Hatun. Before Murad, the palace eunuchs had been mostly white. This began to change in 1582 when Murad gave an important position to a black eunuch. By 1592, the eunuchs' roles in the palace were racially determined: black eunuchs guarded the Sultan and the women, and white eunuchs guarded the male pages in another part of the palace. The chief black eunuch was known as the Kizlar Agha, and the chief white eunuch was known as the Kapi Agha. Murad took great interest in the arts, particularly miniatures and books. He actively supported the court Society of Miniaturists, commissioning several volumes including the "Siyer-i Nebi", the most heavily illustrated biographical work on the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the "Book of Skills", the "Book of Festivities" and the "Book of Victories". He had two large alabaster urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and a large wax candle dressed in tin which was donated by him to the Rila monastery in Bulgaria is on display in the monastery museum. Murad also furnished the content of "Kitabü’l-Menamat" ("The Book of Dreams"), addressed to Murad's spiritual advisor, Şüca Dede. A collection of first person accounts, it tells of Murad's spiritual experiences as a Sufi disciple. Compiled from thousands of letters Murad wrote describing his dream visions, it presents a hagiographic self-portrait. Murad dreams of various activities, including being stripped naked by his father and having to sit on his lap, single-handedly killing 12,000 infidels in battle, walking on water, ascending to heaven, and producing milk from his fingers. He frequently encounters the Prophet Muhammed, and in one dream sits in the Prophet's lap and kisses his mouth. In another letter addressed to Şüca Dede, Murad wrote "I wish that God, may He be glorified and exalted, had not created this poor servant as the descendant of the Ottomans so that I would not hear this and that, and would not worry. I wish I were of unknown pedigree. Then, I would have one single task, and could ignore the whole world." The diplomatic edition of these dream letters have been recently published by Ozgen Felek in Turkish. Murad died from what is assumed to be natural causes in the Topkapı Palace and was buried in tomb next to the Hagia Sophia. In the mausoleum are 54 sarcophagus of the sultan, his wives and children that are also buried there. He is also responsible for changing the burial customs of the sultans' mothers. Murad had his mother Nurbanu buried next to her husband Selim II, making her the first consort to share a sultan's tomb. Murad's named consorts were: Murad had twenty-two sons: Murad had twenty-eight daughters, of whom sixteen died of plague in 1597. The rest, who were married, included the following: Orhan Pamuk's historical novel "Benim Adım Kırmızı" ("My Name is Red", 1998) takes place at the court of Murad III, during nine snowy winter days of 1591, which the writer uses in order to convey the tension between East and West. The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich - a historical fiction set in Constantinople (1578) which follows Hannah, a midwife, who tends to many of the women in Sultan Murad III's harem. [aged 48]

en.wikipedia.org

Murad III

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19989

19990

Mehmed III Mehmed III (, "Meḥmed-i sālis"; ; 26 May 1566– 22 December 1603) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death in 1603. Mehmed was born at the Manisa Palace in 1566, during the reign of his great-grandfather, Suleiman the Magnificent. He was the son of Murad III, himself the son of Selim II, who was the son of Sultan Suleiman and Hurrem Sultan. His mother was Safiye Sultan, an Albanian from the Dukagjin highlands. His great-grandfather died the year he was born and his grandfather became the new sultan, Selim II. His grandfather Selim II died when Mehmed was eight, and Mehmed's father, Murad III, became sultan in 1574. Murad died in 1595, when Mehmed was 28 years old. Mehmed spent most of his time in Manisa with his father Murad and mother Safiye, his first teacher Ibrahim Efendi. His circumcision took place on 29 May 1582 when he was 16 years old. Upon ascending to the throne, Mehmed III ordered that all of his nineteen brothers be executed. They were strangled by his royal executioners, many of whom were deaf, mute or 'half-witted' to ensure absolute loyalty. Fratricidal successions were not unprecedented, as sultans would often have dozens of children with their concubines. Mehmed III remains notorious even in Ottoman history for his cruelty. Mehmed III was an idle ruler, leaving government to his mother Safiye Sultan, the valide sultan. His first major problem was the rivalry between two of his viziers, Serdar Ferhad Pasha and Koca Sinan Pasha, and their supporters. His mother and her son-in-law Damat Ibrahim Pasha supported Koca Sinan Pasha and prevented Mehmed III from taking control of the issue himself. The issue grew to cause major disturbances by janissaries. On 7 July 1595, Mehmed III finally sacked Serdar Ferhad Pasha from the position of Grand Vizier due to his failure in Wallachia and replaced him with Sinan. The major event of his reign was the Austro-Ottoman War in Hungary (1593–1606). Ottoman defeats in the war caused Mehmed III to take personal command of the army, the first sultan to do so since Suleiman I in 1566. Accompanied by the Sultan, the Ottomans conquered Eger in 1596. Upon hearing of the Habsburg army's approach, Mehmed wanted to dismiss the army and return to Istanbul. However, the Ottomans eventually decided to face the enemy and defeated the Habsburg and Transylvanian forces at the Battle of Keresztes (known in Turkish as the Battle of Haçova), during which the Sultan had to be dissuaded from fleeing the field halfway through the battle. Upon returning to Istanbul in victory, Mehmed told his viziers that he would campaign again. The next year the Venetian Bailo in Istanbul noted, "the doctors declared that the Sultan cannot leave for a war on account of his bad health, produced by excesses of eating and drinking". In reward for his services at the war, Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha was made Grand Vizier in 1596. However, with pressure from the court and his mother, Mehmed reinstated Damat Ibrahim Pasha to this position shortly afterward. However, the victory at the Battle of Keresztes was soon set back by some important losses, including the loss of Győr () to the Austrians and the defeat of the Ottoman forces led by Hafız Ahmet Pasha by the Wallachian forces under Michael the Brave in Nikopol in 1599. In 1600, Ottoman forces under Tiryaki Hasan Pasha captured Nagykanizsa after a 40-day siege and later successfully held it against a much greater attacking force in the Siege of Nagykanizsa. Another major event of his reign was the Jelali revolts in Anatolia. Karayazıcı Abdülhalim, a former Ottoman official, captured the city of Urfa and declared himself a sultan in 1600. The rumors of his claim to the throne spread to Constantinople and Mehmed ordered the rebels to be treated harshly to dispel the rumors, among these, was the execution of Hüseyin Pasha, whom Karayazıcı Abdülhalim styled as Grand Vizier. In 1601, Abdülhalim fled to the vicinity of Samsun after being defeated by the forces under Sokulluzade Hasan Pasha, the governor of Baghdad. However, his brother, Deli Hasan, killed Sokulluzade Hasan Pasha and defeated troops under the command of Hadım Hüsrev Pasha. He then marched on to Kütahya, captured and burned the city. In 1599, the fourth year of Mehmed III's reign, Queen Elizabeth I sent a convoy of gifts to the Ottoman court. These gifts were originally intended for the sultan's predecessor, Murad III, who had died before they had arrived. Included in these gifts was a large jewel-studded clockwork organ that was assembled on the slope of the Royal Private Garden by a team of engineers including Thomas Dallam. The organ took many weeks to complete and featured dancing sculptures such as a flock of blackbirds that sung and shook their wings at the end of the music. The musical clock organ was destroyed by the succeeding Sultan Ahmed I. Also among the English gifts was a ceremonial coach, accompanied by a letter from the Queen to Mehmed's mother, Safiye Sultan. These gifts were intended to cement relations between the two countries, building on the trade agreement signed in 1581 that gave English merchants priority in the Ottoman region. Under the looming threat of Spanish military presence, England was eager to secure an alliance with the Ottomans, the two nations together having the capability to divide the power. Elizabeth's gifts arrived in a large 27-gun merchantman ship that Mehmed personally inspected, a clear display of English maritime strength that would prompt him to build up his fleet over the following years of his reign. The Anglo-Ottoman alliance would never be consummated, however, as relations between the nations grew stagnant due to anti-European sentiments reaped from the worsening Austro-Ottoman War and the deaths of Safiye Sultan's interpreter and the pro-English chief Hasan Pasha. Mehmed died on 22 December 1603 at the age of 37. According to one source, the cause of his death was the distress caused by the death of his son, Şehzade Mahmud. According to another source, he died either of plague or of stroke. Another source states that he was poisoned to death by his guard chief, Dervish Mehmed Pasha, and his wife Handan Sultan was also involved in her husband's death. He was buried in Hagia Sophia Mosque. He was succeeded by his son Ahmed I as the new sultan. None of Mehmed's consorts are listed as "haseki sultan" in Ottoman palace archives. Known consorts were: [aged 37]

en.wikipedia.org

Mehmed III

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19990

19991

Mustafa I Mustafa I (; ‎; 1591 – 20 January 1639), called Mustafa the Saint (Veli Mustafa) during his second reign and often called Mustafa the Mad (Deli Mustafa) by modern historians, was the son of Mehmed III and was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1617 to 1618 and from 1622 to 1623. Mustafa was born in the Manisa Palace, as the younger brother of Ahmed I (1603–1617). His mother was Halime Sultan, an Abkhazian lady. Before 1603 it was customary for an Ottoman Sultan to have his brothers executed shortly after he gained the throne (Mustafa's father Mehmed III had executed 19 of his own brothers). But when the thirteen-year-old Ahmed I was enthroned in 1603, he spared the life of the twelve-year-old Mustafa. A factor in Mustafa's survival is the influence of Kösem Sultan (Ahmed's favorite consort), who may have wished to preempt the succession of Osman, Ahmed’s first-born son from another concubine. If Osman became Sultan, he would likely try to execute his half-brothers, the sons of Ahmed and Kösem. (This scenario later became a reality when Osman II executed his brother Mehmed in 1621.) However, the reports of foreign ambassadors suggest that Ahmed actually liked his brother. Until Ahmed's death in 1617, Mustafa lived in the Old Palace, along with his mother, and grandmother Safiye Sultan. Ahmed's death created a dilemma never before experienced by the Ottoman Empire. Multiple princes were now eligible for the Sultanate, and all of them lived in Topkapı Palace. A court faction headed by the Şeyhülislam Esad Efendi and Sofu Mehmed Pasha (who represented the Grand Vizier when he was away from Constantinople) decided to enthrone Mustafa instead of Ahmed's son Osman. Sofu Mehmed argued that Osman was too young to be enthroned without causing adverse comment among the populace. The Chief Black Eunuch Mustafa Agha objected, citing Mustafa's mental problems, but he was overruled. Mustafa's rise created a new succession principle of seniority that would last until the end of the Empire. It was the first time an Ottoman Sultan was succeeded by his brother instead of his son. His mother Halime Sultan became the Valide Sultan as well as a regent and wielded great power. Due to Mustafa's mental conditions, she acted as a regent and exercised power more directly. It was hoped that regular social contact would improve Mustafa's mental health, but his behavior remained eccentric. He pulled off the turbans of his viziers and yanked their beards. Others observed him throwing coins to birds and fish. The Ottoman historian İbrahim Peçevi wrote "this situation was seen by all men of state and the people, and they understood that he was psychologically disturbed." Mustafa was never more than a tool of court cliques at the Topkapı Palace. In 1618, after a short rule, another palace faction deposed him in favour of his young nephew Osman II (1618–1622), and Mustafa was sent back to the Old Palace. The conflict between the Janissaries and Osman II presented him with a second chance. After a Janissary rebellion led to the deposition and assassination of Osman II in 1622, Mustafa was restored to the throne and held it for another year. Nevertheless, according to Baki Tezcan, there is not enough evidence to properly establish that Mustafa was mentally imbalanced when he came to the throne. Mustafa "made a number of excursions to the arsenal and the navy docks, examining various sorts of arms and taking an active interest in the munitions supply of the army and the navy." One of the dispatches of Baron de Sancy, the French ambassador, "suggested that Mustafa was interested in leading the Safavid campaign himself and was entertaining the idea of wintering in Konya for that purpose." Moreover, one contemporary observer provides an explanation of the coup which does not mention the incapacity of Mustafa. Baron de Sancy ascribes the deposition to a political conspiracy between the grand admiral Ali Pasha and Chief Black Eunuch Mustafa Agha, who were angered by the former's removal from office upon Sultan Mustafa's accession. They may have circulated rumors of the sultan's mental instability subsequent to the coup in order to legitimize it. He commenced his reign by executing all those who had taken any share in the murder of Sultan Osman. Hoca Ömer Efendi, the chief of the rebels, the kızlar Agha Suleiman Agha, the vizier Dilaver Pasha, the Kaim-makam Ahmed Pasha, the defterdar Baki Pasha, the segban-bashi Nasuh Agha, and the general of the janissaries Ali Agha, were cut into pieces. The epithet "Veli" (meaning "saint") was used in reference to him during his reign. His mental condition unimproved, Mustafa was a puppet controlled by his mother and brother-in-law, the grand vizier Kara Davud Pasha. He believed that Osman II was still alive and was seen searching for him throughout the palace, knocking on doors and crying out to his nephew to relieve him from the burden of sovereignty. "The present emperor being a fool" (according to English Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe), he was compared unfavorably with his predecessor. In fact, it was his mother Halime Sultan the de facto-co-ruler as Valide Sultan of the Ottoman empire. Political instability was generated by conflict between the Janissaries and the sipahis (Ottoman cavalry), followed by the Abaza rebellion, which occurred when the governor-general of Erzurum, Abaza Mehmed Pasha, decided to march to Istanbul to avenge the murder of Osman II. The regime tried to end the conflict by executing Kara Davud Pasha, but Abaza Mehmed continued his advance. Clerics and the new Grand Vizier (Kemankeş Kara Ali Pasha) prevailed upon Mustafa's mother to allow the deposition of her son. She agreed, on condition that Mustafa's life would be spared. The 11-year-old Murad IV, son of Ahmed I and Kösem, was enthroned on 10 September 1623. In return for her consent to his deposition, the request of Mustafa's mother that he be spared execution was granted. Mustafa was sent along with his mother to the Eski (old) Palace. One source states that Mustafa was executed by the orders of his nephew, Sultan Murad IV on 20 January 1640 in order to end the Ottoman dynasty and prevented to give power to his mother Kösem Sultan. Another source states that he died of epilepsy which was caused by being imprisoned for 34 years out of his 48 years of life. He is buried in the courtyard of the Haghia Sophia.

en.wikipedia.org

Mustafa I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19991

19992

Murad IV Murad IV or Amurath IV (, "Murād-ı Rābiʿ"; 27 July 1612 – 8 February 1640) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad IV was born in Constantinople, the son of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–17) and Kösem Sultan. He was brought to power by a palace conspiracy in 1623, and he succeeded his uncle Mustafa I (r. 1617–18, 1622–23). He was only 11 when he ascended the throne. His reign is most notable for the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39), of which the outcome would permanently part the Caucasus between the two Imperial powers for around two centuries, while it also roughly laid the foundation for the current Turkey–Iran–Iraq borders. Murad IV was born on 27 July 1612 to Ahmed I (reign 16031617) and his consort and later wife Kösem Sultan. After his father’s death when he was six years he was confined in the Kafes with his brothers, Suleiman, Kasim, Bayezid and Ibrahim. Grand Vizier Kemankeş Ali Pasha and Şeyhülislam Yahya Efendi were deposed from their position. They did not stop their words the next day the sultan, the child of the age of 6, was taken to the Eyüp Sultan Mausoleum. The swords of Muhammad and Yavuz Sultan Selim were besieged to him. Five days later he was circumcised. Murad IV was for a long time under the control of his relatives and during his early years as Sultan, his mother, Kösem Sultan, essentially ruled through him. The Empire fell into anarchy; the Safavid Empire invaded Iraq almost immediately, Northern Anatolia erupted in revolts, and in 1631 the Janissaries stormed the palace and killed the Grand Vizier, among others. Murad IV feared suffering the fate of his elder brother, Osman II (1618–22), and decided to assert his power. At the age of 16 in 1628, he had his brother-in-law (his sister Fatma Sultan's husband, who was also the former governor of Egypt), Kara Mustafa Pasha, executed for a claimed action "against the law of God". After the death of the Grand Vizier Çerkes Mehmed Pasha in the winter of Tokat, Diyarbekir Beylerbeyi Hafez Ahmed Pasha became a vizier and an emperor on 8 February 1625. The epidemic, which started in the summer of 1625 and called the plague of Bayrampaşa, spread to a threat to the population of Istanbul. On average, a thousand people died every day. The people went to the Okmeydanı, to regent themselves from this plague. The situation was worse in the countryside, but there is no one who sees what looks out of Istanbul. Murad IV tried to quell the corruption that had grown during the reigns of previous Sultans, and that had not been checked while his mother was ruling through proxy. Executions were issued to the states, and those who came to Istanbul were executed as Jelali, Jelali being followers of Celali, the leader of the revolt in 1519 in Tokat who lead peasants acting against feudal exploitation. Murad IV shivering and brutal sultan started with this shaking. Ilyas Pasha, who took advantage of the confusion in Istanbul and dominated the Manisa and Balikesir sides, who was taught Şehname, Timurname at night and was caught in the sultan's dreams, was finally caught and brought to Istanbul and executed in front of the Sultan. Murad IV banned alcohol, tobacco, and coffee in Constantinople. He ordered execution for breaking this ban. He would reportedly patrol the streets and the lowest taverns of Constantinople in civilian clothes at night, policing the enforcement of his command by casting off his disguise on the spot and beheading the offender with his own hands. Rivaling the exploits of Selim the Grim, he would sit in a kiosk by the water near his Seraglio Palace and shoot arrows at any passerby or boatman who rowed too close to his imperial compound, seemingly for sport. He restored the judicial regulations by very strict punishments, including execution, he once strangled a grand vizier for the reason that the official had beaten his mother-in-law. On 2 September 1633 , the big Cibali fire broke out, burning a fifth of the city. The fire that started during that day when a caulker burned the shrub and the ship caulked into the walls. The fire, which spread from three branches to the city. One arm lowered towards the sea. He returned from Zeyrek and walked to Atpazan. Other kollan Büyükkaraman, Küçükkaraman, Sultanmehmet (Fatih), Saraçhane, Sangürz (Sangüzel) districts have been ruined. The sultan could not do anything other than watching sentence viziers, Bostancı and Yeniçeri. The most beautiful districts of Istanbul have been ruined, from the Yeniodas, Mollagürani districts, Fener gate to Sultanselim, Mesihpaşa, Bali Pasha and Lutfi Pasha mosques, Şahı buhan Palace, Unkapam to Atpazarı, Bostanzade houses, Sofular Bazaar. The fire that lasted for 30 hours could be extinguished after the wind sectioned. Murad IV's reign is most notable for the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) against Persia (today Iran) in which Ottoman forces managed to conquer Azerbaijan, occupying Tabriz, Hamadan, and capturing Baghdad in 1638. The Treaty of Zuhab that followed the war generally reconfirmed the borders as agreed by the Peace of Amasya, with Eastern Armenia, Eastern Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan staying Persian, while Western Armenia, and Western Georgia stayed Ottoman. Mesopotamia was irrevocably lost for the Persians. The borders fixed as a result of the war, are more or less the same as the present border line between Turkey, Iraq and Iran. During the siege of Baghdad in 1638, the city held out for forty days but was compelled to surrender. Murad IV himself commanded the Ottoman army in the last years of the war. While he was encamped in Baghdad, Murad IV is known to have met ambassadors of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Mir Zarif and Mir Baraka, who presented 1000 pieces of finely embroidered cloth and even armor. Murad IV gave them the finest weapons, saddles and Kaftans and ordered his forces to accompany the Mughals to the port of Basra, where they set sail to Thatta and finally Surat. Murad IV put emphasis on architecture and in his period many monuments were erected. The Baghdad Kiosk, built in 1635, and the Revan Kiosk, built in 1638 in Yerevan, were both built in the local styles. Some of the others include the Kavak Sarayı pavilion; the Meydanı Mosque; the Bayram Pasha Dervish Lodge, Tomb, Fountain, and Primary School; and the Şerafettin Mosque in Konya. Murad IV wrote many poems. He used "Muradi" penname for his poems. He also liked testing people with riddles. Once he wrote a poemic riddle and announced that whoever came with the correct answer would get a generous reward. Cihadi Bey who was also a poet from Enderun School gave the correct answer and he was promoted. Murad IV was also a composer. He has a composition called "Uzzal Peshrev". Very little is known about the concubines of Murad IV, principally because he did not leave sons who survived his death to reach the throne, but many historians consider Ayşe Sultan as his only consort until the very end of Murad's seventeen-year reign, when a second Haseki appeared in the records. It is possible that Murad had only a single concubine until the advent of the second, or that he had a number of concubines but singled out only two as Haseki. Murad had several daughters, among whom were: Murad IV died from cirrhosis in Constantinople at the age of 27 in 1640. Rumours had circulated that on his deathbed, Murad IV ordered the execution of his mentally disabled brother, Ibrahim (reigned 1640–48), which would have meant the end of the Ottoman line. However, the order was not carried out. In the TV series "", Murad IV is portrayed by Cağan Efe Ak as a child, and Metin Akdülger as Sultan.

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Murad IV

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19992

19994

Masamune Shirow , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga "Ghost in the Shell", which has since been turned into three theatrical anime movies, two anime television series, an anime television movie, an anime OVA series, a theatrical live action movie, and several video games. Born in the Hyōgo Prefecture capital city of Kobe, he studied oil painting at Osaka University of Arts. While in college, he developed an interest in manga, which led him to create his own complete work, "Black Magic", which was published in the manga dōjinshi "Atlas". His work caught the eye of Seishinsha President Harumichi Aoki, who offered to publish him. The result was best-selling manga "Appleseed", a full volume of densely plotted drama taking place in an ambiguous future. The story was a sensation, and won the 1986 Seiun Award for Best Manga. After a professional reprint of "Black Magic" and a second volume of "Appleseed", he released "Dominion" in 1986. Two more volumes of "Appleseed" followed before he began work on "Ghost in the Shell". In 2007, he collaborated again with Production I.G to co-create the original concept for the anime television series "Shinreigari/Ghost Hound", Production I.G's 20th anniversary project. A further original collaboration with Production I.G began airing in April 2008, titled "Real Drive". A substantial amount of Shirow's work has been released in art book or poster book format. The following is an incomplete list. "Galgrease" (published in "Uppers Magazine", 2002) is the collected name of several erotic manga and poster books by Shirow. The name comes from the fact that the women depicted often look "greased". The first series of "Galgrease" booklets included four issues each in the following settings: The second series included another run of 12 booklets in the following worlds: After each regular series, there were one or more bonus poster books that revisited the existing characters and settings. Main source:

en.wikipedia.org

Masamune Shirow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19994

19995

Musical saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque friction idiophone with direct friction (132.22) under the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification. The saw is generally played seated with the handle squeezed between the legs, and the far end held with one hand. Some sawists play standing, either with the handle between the knees and the blade sticking out in front of them. The saw is usually played with the serrated edge, or "teeth", facing the body, though some players face them away. Some saw players file down the teeth which makes no discernable difference to the sound. Many—especially professional—saw players use a handle, called a Cheat, at the tip of the saw for easier bending and higher virtuosity. To sound a note, a sawist first bends the blade into an S-curve. The parts of the blade that are curved are damped from vibration, and do not sound. At the center of the S-curve a section of the blade remains relatively flat. This section, the "sweet spot", can vibrate across the width of the blade, producing a distinct pitch: the wider the section of blade, the lower the sound. Sound is usually created by drawing a bow across the back edge of the saw at the sweet spot, or sometimes by striking the sweet spot with a mallet. The sawist controls the pitch by adjusting the S-curve, making the sweet spot travel up the blade (toward a thinner width) for a higher pitch, or toward the handle for a lower pitch. Harmonics can be created by playing at varying distances on either side of the sweet spot. Sawists can add vibrato by shaking one of their legs or by wobbling the hand that holds the tip of the blade. Once a sound is produced, it will sustain for quite a while, and can be carried through several notes of a phrase. On occasion the musical saw is called for in orchestral music, but orchestral percussionists are seldom also sawists. If a note outside of the saw's range is called for, an electric guitar with a slide can be substituted. Sawists often use standard wood-cutting saws, although special musical saws are also made. As compared with wood-cutting saws, the blades of musical saws are generally wider, for range, and longer, for finer control. They do not have set or sharpened teeth, and may have grain running parallel to the back edge of the saw, rather than parallel to the teeth. Some musical saws are made with thinner metal, to increase flexibility, while others are made thicker, for a richer tone, longer sustain, and stronger harmonics. A typical musical saw is wide at the handle end and wide at the tip. Such a saw will generally produce about two octaves, regardless of length. A bass saw may be over at the handle and produce about two-and-a-half octaves. There are also musical saws with 3–4 octaves range, and new improvements have resulted in as much as 5 octaves note range. Two-person saws, also called "misery whips", can also be played, though with less virtuosity, and they produce an octave or less of range. Most sawists use cello or violin bows, using violin rosin, but some may use improvised home-made bows, such as a wooden dowel. Musical saws have been produced for over a century, primarily in the United States, but also in Scandinavia, Germany, France (Lame sonore) and Asia. In the early 1900s, there were at least ten companies in the United States manufacturing musical saws. These saws ranged from the familiar steel variety to gold-plated masterpieces worth hundreds of dollars. However, with the start of World War II the demand for metals made the manufacture of saws too expensive and many of these companies went out of business. By the year 2000, only three companies in the United States—Mussehl & Westphal, Charlie Blacklock, and Wentworth—were making saws. In 2012, a company called Index Drums started producing a saw that had a built-in transducer in the handle, called the "JackSaw". Outside the United States, makers of musical saws include Bahco, makers of the limited edition Stradivarius, Alexis in France, Feldmann and Stövesandt in Germany, Music Blade in Greece and Thomas Flinn & Company in the United Kingdom, based in Sheffield, who produce three different sized musical saws, as well as accessories. The International Musical Saw Association (IMSA) produces an annual International Musical Saw Festival (including a "Saw-Off" competition) every August in Santa Cruz and Felton, California. An International Musical Saw Festival is held every other summer in New York City, produced by Natalia Paruz. Paruz also produced a musical saw festival in Israel. There are also annual saw festivals in Japan and China. A Guinness World Record for the largest musical-saw ensemble was established July 18, 2009, at the annual NYC Musical Saw Festival. Organized by Paruz, 53 musical saw players performed together. In 2011 a World Championship took place in Jelenia Góra/Poland. Winners: 1. Gladys Hulot (France), 2. Katharina Micada (Germany), 3. Tom Fink (Germany). This is a list of people notable for playing the musical saw. German actress and singer Marlene Dietrich, who lived and worked in the United States for a long time, is probably the best-known musical saw player. When she studied the violin for one year in Weimar in her early twenties, her musical skills were already evident. Some years later she learned to play the musical saw while she was shooting the film "Café Elektric" in Vienna in 1927. Her colleague, the Bavarian actor and musician Igo Sym, taught her how to play. In the shooting breaks and at weekends both performed romantic duets, he at the piano and she at the musical saw. Sym gave his saw to her as a farewell gift. The following words are engraved on the saw: "Now Suidy is gone / the sun d’ont [sic!] / shine… / Igo / Vienna 1927" She took the saw with her, when she left for Hollywood in 1929 and played there in the following years at film sets and Hollywood parties. When she participated in the United Service Organizations (USO) shows for the US troops in 1944, she also played on the saw. Some of these shows were broadcast on radio, so there exist two rare recordings of her saw playing, embedded in entertaining interviews. 1. Aloha Oe 2. other song Beginning from the early 1920s composers of both contemporary and popular music wrote for the musical saw. Probably the first was Dmitri Shostakovich. He included the musical saw, e.g., in the film music for "The New Babylon" (1929), in "The Nose" (1928), and in "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1934). Shostakovich and other composers of his time used the term "Flexaton" to mark the musical saw. "Flexaton" just means "to flex a tone"—the saw is flexed to change the pitch. Unfortunately, there exists another instrument called Flexatone, so there has been confusion for a long time. Aram Khachaturian, who knew Shostakovich's music, included the musical saw in his Piano Concerto (1936) in the second movement. Another composer was the Swiss Arthur Honegger, who included the saw in his opera "Antigone" in 1924 . The Romanian composer George Enescu used the musical saw at the end of the second act of his opera "Œdipe" (1931) to show in an extensive glissando—which begins with the mezzo-soprano and is continued by the saw—the death and ascension of the sphinx killed by Oedipus. The Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi wrote a part for the saw in his quarter-tone piece "Quattro pezzi per orchestra" (1959). German composer Hans Werner Henze took the saw to characterize the mean hero of his tragical opera "Elegy for young lovers" (1961). Other composers were Krysztof Penderecki with "Fluorescences" (1961), "De natura sonoris Nr. 2" (1971) and the opera "Ubu Rex" (1990), Bernd Alois Zimmermann with "Stille und Umkehr" (1970), George Crumb with "Ancient voices of children" (1970), John Corigliano with "The Mannheim Rocket" (2001). Composer Scott Munson wrote "Clover Hill" (2007) for saw and orchestra, Quintet for saw and strings (2009), "The World Is Too Much with Us" for soprano singer, saw and strings (2009), "Ars longa vitas brevis" for saw and string quartet (2010), 'Bend' for saw and string quartet (2011) many pieces for jazz band and saw (2010–2013), "Lullaby for the Forgotten" for saw and piano (2015), and many movie and theater scores containing the saw. Chaya Czernowin used the saw in her opera "PNIMA...Ins Innere" (2000) to represent the character of the grandfather, who is traumatized by the Holocaust. There are further Leif Segerstam, Hans Zender (orchestration of "5 préludes" by Claude Debussy), Franz Schreker (opera "Christophorus"), and Oscar Strasnoy (opera "Le bal"). Russian composer Lera Auerbach wrote for the saw in her ballet "The Little Mermaid" (2005), in her symphonic poem "Dreams and Whispers of Poseidon" (2005), in her oratorio "Requiem Dresden – Ode to Peace" (2012), in her Piano Concerto No.1 (2015), in her comic oratorio "The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie" (2016) and in her violin concerto Nr.4 "NyX – Fractured dreams" (2017). Canadian composer Robert Minden has written extensively for the musical saw. Michael A. Levine composed "Divination By Mirrors" for musical saw soloist and two string ensembles tuned a quarter tone apart, taking advantage of the saws ability to play in both tunings. Other composers for chamber music with musical saw are Jonathan Rutherford ("An Intake of Breath"), Dana Wilson ("Whispers from Another Time"), Heinrich Gattermeyer ("Elegie für Singende Säge, Cembalo (oder Klavier)", Vito Zuraj ("Musica di camera" (2001)) and Britta-Maria Bernhard ("Tranquillo")

en.wikipedia.org

Musical saw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19995

19996

MIDI MIDI (; an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music. The specification originates in a paper published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood then of Sequential Circuits at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City then titled "Universal Synthesizer Interface." A single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument. This could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example. MIDI carries event messages; data that specify the instructions for music, including a note's notation, pitch, velocity (which is heard typically as loudness or softness of volume); vibrato; panning to the right or left of stereo; and clock signals (which set tempo). When a musician plays a MIDI instrument, all of the key presses, button presses, knob turns and slider changes are converted into MIDI data. One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module (which contains synthesized musical sounds) to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier. MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back. A file format that stores and exchanges the data is also defined. Advantages of MIDI include small file size, ease of modification and manipulation and a wide choice of electronic instruments and synthesizer or digitally-sampled sounds. A MIDI recording of a performance on a keyboard could sound like a piano or other keyboard instrument; however, since MIDI records the messages and information about their notes and not the specific sounds, this recording could be changed to many other sounds, ranging from synthesized or sampled guitar or flute to full orchestra. A MIDI recording is not an audio signal, as with a sound recording made with a microphone. Prior to the development of MIDI, electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers could generally not communicate with each other. This meant that a musician could not, for example, plug a Roland keyboard into a Yamaha synthesizer module. With MIDI, any MIDI-compatible keyboard (or other controller device) can be connected to any other MIDI-compatible sequencer, sound module, drum machine, synthesizer, or computer, even if they are made by different manufacturers. MIDI technology was standardized in 1983 by a panel of music industry representatives, and is maintained by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA). All official MIDI standards are jointly developed and published by the MMA in Los Angeles, and the MIDI Committee of the Association of Musical Electronics Industry (AMEI) in Tokyo. In 2016, the MMA established the MIDI Association (TMA) to support a global community of people who work, play, or create with MIDI. In the early 1980s, there was no standardized means of synchronizing electronic musical instruments manufactured by different companies. Manufacturers had their own proprietary standards to synchronize instruments, such as CV/gate and Digital Control Bus (DCB). Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi felt the lack of standardization was limiting the growth of the electronic music industry. In June 1981, he proposed developing a standard to Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim, who had developed his own proprietary interface, the Oberheim System. Kakehashi felt the Oberheim System was too cumbersome, and spoke to Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith about creating a simpler, cheaper alternative. While Smith discussed the concept with American companies, Kakehashi discussed it with Japanese companies Yamaha, Korg and Kawai. Representatives from all companies met to discuss the idea in October. Initially, only Sequential Circuits and the Japanese companies were interested.Using Roland's DCB as a basis, Smith and Sequential Circuits engineer Chet Wood devised a universal synthesizer interface to allow communication between equipment from different manufacturers. Smith and Wood proposed this standard in a paper, "Universal Synthesizer Interface," at the Audio Engineering Society show in October 1981. The standard was discussed and modified by representatives of Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Kawai, and Sequential Circuits. Kakehashi favored the name Universal Musical Interface (UMI), pronounced "you-me", but Smith felt this was "a little corny". However, he liked the use of "instrument" instead of "synthesizer", and proposed the name Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). Moog Music founder Robert Moog announced MIDI in the October 1982 issue of "Keyboard". At the 1983 Winter NAMM Show, Smith demonstrated a MIDI connection between Prophet 600 and Roland JP-6 synthesizers. The MIDI specification was published in August 1983. The MIDI standard was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith, who received Technical Grammy Awards in 2013 for their work. In 1982, the first instruments were released with MIDI, the Roland Jupiter-6 and the Prophet 600. In 1983, the first MIDI drum machine, the Roland TR-909, and the first MIDI sequencer, the Roland MSQ-700 were released. The first computer to support MIDI, the NEC PC-88 and PC-98, was released in 1982. The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) was formed following a meeting of "all interested companies" at the 1984 Summer NAMM Show in Chicago. The MIDI 1.0 Detailed Specification was published at the MMA's second meeting at the 1985 Summer NAMM show. The standard continued to evolve, adding standardized song files in 1991 (General MIDI) and adapted to new connection standards such as USB and FireWire. In 2016, the MIDI Association was formed to continue overseeing the standard. An initiative to create a 2.0 standard was announced in January 2019. The MIDI 2.0 standard was introduced at the 2020 Winter NAMM show. MIDI's appeal was originally limited to professional musicians and record producers who wanted to use electronic instruments in the production of popular music. The standard allowed different instruments to communicate with each other and with computers, and this spurred a rapid expansion of the sales and production of electronic instruments and music software. This interoperability allowed one device to be controlled from another, which reduced the amount of hardware musicians needed. MIDI's introduction coincided with the dawn of the personal computer era and the introduction of samplers and digital synthesizers. The creative possibilities brought about by MIDI technology are credited for helping revive the music industry in the 1980s. MIDI introduced capabilities that transformed the way many musicians work. MIDI sequencing makes it possible for a user with no notation skills to build complex arrangements. A musical act with as few as one or two members, each operating multiple MIDI-enabled devices, can deliver a performance similar to that of a larger group of musicians. The expense of hiring outside musicians for a project can be reduced or eliminated, and complex productions can be realized on a system as small as a synthesizer with integrated keyboard and sequencer. MIDI also helped establish home recording. By performing preproduction in a home environment, an artist can reduce recording costs by arriving at a recording studio with a partially completed song. MIDI was invented so that electronic or digital musical instruments could communicate with each other and so that one instrument can control another. For example, a MIDI-compatible sequencer can trigger beats produced by a drum sound module. Analog synthesizers that have no digital component and were built prior to MIDI's development can be retrofit with kits that convert MIDI messages into analog control voltages. When a note is played on a MIDI instrument, it generates a digital MIDI message that can be used to trigger a note on another instrument. The capability for remote control allows full-sized instruments to be replaced with smaller sound modules, and allows musicians to combine instruments to achieve a fuller sound, or to create combinations of synthesized instrument sounds, such as acoustic piano and strings. MIDI also enables other instrument parameters (volume, effects, etc.) to be controlled remotely. Synthesizers and samplers contain various tools for shaping an electronic or digital sound. Filters adjust timbre, and envelopes automate the way a sound evolves over time after a note is triggered. The frequency of a filter and the envelope attack (the time it takes for a sound to reach its maximum level), are examples of synthesizer parameters, and can be controlled remotely through MIDI. Effects devices have different parameters, such as delay feedback or reverb time. When a MIDI continuous controller number (CCN) is assigned to one of these parameters, the device responds to any messages it receives that are identified by that number. Controls such as knobs, switches, and pedals can be used to send these messages. A set of adjusted parameters can be saved to a device's internal memory as a "patch", and these patches can be remotely selected by MIDI program changes. MIDI events can be sequenced with computer software, or in specialized hardware music workstations. Many digital audio workstations (DAWs) are specifically designed to work with MIDI as an integral component. MIDI piano rolls have been developed in many DAWs so that the recorded MIDI messages can be easily modified. These tools allow composers to audition and edit their work much more quickly and efficiently than did older solutions, such as multitrack recording. Because MIDI is a set of commands that create sound, MIDI sequences can be manipulated in ways that prerecorded audio cannot. It is possible to change the key, instrumentation or tempo of a MIDI arrangement, and to reorder its individual sections. The ability to compose ideas and quickly hear them played back enables composers to experiment. Algorithmic composition programs provide computer-generated performances that can be used as song ideas or accompaniment. Some composers may take advantage of standard, portable set of commands and parameters in MIDI 1.0 and General MIDI (GM) to share musical data files among various electronic instruments. The data composed via the sequenced MIDI recordings can be saved as a "standard MIDI file" (SMF), digitally distributed, and reproduced by any computer or electronic instrument that also adheres to the same MIDI, GM, and SMF standards. MIDI data files are much smaller than corresponding recorded audio files. The personal computer market stabilized at the same time that MIDI appeared, and computers became a viable option for music production. In 1983 computers started to play a role in mainstream music production. In the years immediately after the 1983 ratification of the MIDI specification, MIDI features were adapted to several early computer platforms. NEC's PC-88 and PC-98 began supporting MIDI as early as 1982. The Yamaha CX5M introduced MIDI support and sequencing in an MSX system in 1984. The spread of MIDI on personal computers was largely facilitated by Roland Corporation's MPU-401, released in 1984, as the first MIDI-equipped PC sound card, capable of MIDI sound processing and sequencing. After Roland sold MPU sound chips to other sound card manufacturers, it established a universal standard MIDI-to-PC interface. The widespread adoption of MIDI led to computer-based MIDI software being developed. Soon after, a number of platforms began supporting MIDI, including the Apple II Plus, IIe and Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amiga, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, and PC DOS. The Macintosh was a favorite among US musicians, as it was marketed at a competitive price, and it took several years for PC systems to catch up with its efficiency and graphical interface. The Atari ST was preferred in Europe, where Macintoshes were more expensive. The Atari ST had the advantage of MIDI ports that were built directly into the computer. Most music software in MIDI's first decade was published for either the Apple or the Atari. By the time of Windows 3.0's 1990 release, PCs had caught up in processing power and had acquired a graphical interface and software titles began to see release on multiple platforms. The Standard MIDI File (SMF) is a file format that provides a standardized way for music sequences to be saved, transported, and opened in other systems. The standard was developed and is maintained by the MMA, and usually uses a codice_1 extension. The compact size of these files led to their widespread use in computers, mobile phone ringtones, webpage authoring and musical greeting cards. These files are intended for universal use and include such information as note values, timing and track names. Lyrics may be included as metadata, and can be displayed by karaoke machines. SMFs are created as an export format of software sequencers or hardware workstations. They organize MIDI messages into one or more parallel tracks, and timestamp the events so that they can be played back in sequence. A header contains the arrangement's track count, tempo and which of three SMF formats the file is in. A type 0 file contains the entire performance, merged onto a single track, while type 1 files may contain any number of tracks that are performed in synchrony. Type 2 files are rarely used and store multiple arrangements, with each arrangement having its own track and intended to be played in sequence. Microsoft Windows bundles SMFs together with Downloadable Sounds (DLS) in a Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) wrapper, as RMID files with a codice_2 extension. RIFF-RMID has been deprecated in favor of Extensible Music Files (XMF). A MIDI file is not an audio recording. Rather, it is a set of instructions "–" for example, for pitch or tempo "–" and can use a thousand times less disk space than the equivalent recorded audio. This made MIDI file arrangements an attractive way to share music, before the advent of broadband internet access and multi-gigabyte hard drives. Licensed MIDI files on floppy disks were commonly available in stores in Europe and Japan during the 1990s. The major drawback to this is the wide variation in quality of users' audio cards, and in the actual audio contained as samples or synthesized sound in the card that the MIDI data only refers to symbolically. There is no standardization of how symbols are expressed. Even a sound card that contains high-quality sampled sounds can have inconsistent quality from one sampled instrument to another, while different model cards have no guarantee of consistent sound of the same instrument. Early budget-priced cards, such as the AdLib and the Sound Blaster and its compatibles, used a stripped-down version of Yamaha's frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis) technology played back through low-quality digital-to-analog converters. The low-fidelity reproduction of these ubiquitous cards was often assumed to somehow be a property of MIDI itself. This created a perception of MIDI as low-quality audio, while in reality MIDI itself contains no sound, and the quality of its playback depends entirely on the quality of the sound-producing device (and of samples in the device). The main advantage of the personal computer in a MIDI system is that it can serve a number of different purposes, depending on the software that is loaded. Multitasking allows simultaneous operation of programs that may be able to share data with each other. Sequencing software provides a number of benefits to a composer or arranger. It allows recorded MIDI to be manipulated using standard computer editing features such as cut, copy and paste and drag and drop. Keyboard shortcuts can be used to streamline workflow, and editing functions are often selectable via MIDI commands. The sequencer allows each channel to be set to play a different sound, and gives a graphical overview of the arrangement. A variety of editing tools are made available, including a notation display that can be used to create printed parts for musicians. Tools such as looping, quantization, randomization, and transposition simplify the arranging process. Beat creation is simplified, and groove templates can be used to duplicate another track's rhythmic feel. Realistic expression can be added through the manipulation of real-time controllers. Mixing can be performed, and MIDI can be synchronized with recorded audio and video tracks. Work can be saved, and transported between different computers or studios. Sequencers may take alternate forms, such as drum pattern editors that allow users to create beats by clicking on pattern grids, and loop sequencers such as ACID Pro, which allow MIDI to be combined with prerecorded audio loops whose tempos and keys are matched to each other. Cue list sequencing is used to trigger dialogue, sound effect, and music cues in stage and broadcast production. With MIDI, notes played on a keyboard can automatically be transcribed to sheet music. Scorewriting software typically lacks advanced sequencing tools, and is optimized for the creation of a neat, professional printout designed for live instrumentalists. These programs provide support for dynamics and expression markings, chord and lyric display, and complex score styles. Software is available that can print scores in braille. SmartScore software can produce MIDI files from scanned sheet music. Other notation programs include Finale, Encore, Sibelius, MuseScore and Dorico. Patch editors allow users to program their equipment through the computer interface. These became essential with the appearance of complex synthesizers such as the Yamaha FS1R, which contained several thousand programmable parameters, but had an interface that consisted of fifteen tiny buttons, four knobs and a small LCD. Digital instruments typically discourage users from experimentation, due to their lack of the feedback and direct control that switches and knobs would provide, but patch editors give owners of hardware instruments and effects devices the same editing functionality that is available to users of software synthesizers. Some editors are designed for a specific instrument or effects device, while other, "universal" editors support a variety of equipment, and ideally can control the parameters of every device in a setup through the use of System Exclusive commands. Patch librarians have the specialized function of organizing the sounds in a collection of equipment, and allow transmission of entire banks of sounds between an instrument and a computer. This allows the user to augment the device's limited patch storage with a computer's much greater disk capacity, and to share custom patches with other owners of the same instrument. Universal editor/librarians that combine the two functions were once common, and included Opcode Systems' Galaxy and eMagic's SoundDiver. These programs have been largely abandoned with the trend toward computer-based synthesis, although Mark of the Unicorn's (MOTU)'s Unisyn and Sound Quest's Midi Quest remain available. Native Instruments' Kore was an effort to bring the editor/librarian concept into the age of software instruments. Programs that can dynamically generate accompaniment tracks are called "auto-accompaniment" programs. These create a full band arrangement in a style that the user selects, and send the result to a MIDI sound generating device for playback. The generated tracks can be used as educational or practice tools, as accompaniment for live performances, or as a songwriting aid. Computers can use software to generate sounds, which are then passed through a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to a power amplifier and loudspeaker system. The number of sounds that can be played simultaneously (the polyphony) is dependent on the power of the computer's CPU, as are the sample rate and bit depth of playback, which directly affect the quality of the sound. Synthesizers implemented in software are subject to timing issues that are not present with hardware instruments, whose dedicated operating systems are not subject to interruption from background tasks as desktop operating systems are. These timing issues can cause synchronization problems, and clicks and pops when sample playback is interrupted. Software synthesizers also exhibit a noticeable delay known as latency in their sound generation, because computers use an audio buffer that delays playback and disrupts MIDI timing. Software synthesis' roots go back as far as the 1950s, when Max Mathews of Bell Labs wrote the MUSIC-N programming language, which was capable of non-real-time sound generation. The first synthesizer to run directly on a host computer's CPU was Reality, by Dave Smith's Seer Systems, which achieved a low latency through tight driver integration, and therefore could run only on Creative Labs soundcards. Some systems use dedicated hardware to reduce the load on the host CPU, as with Symbolic Sound Corporation's Kyma System, and the Creamware/Sonic Core Pulsar/SCOPE systems, which power an entire recording studio's worth of instruments, effect units, and mixers. The ability to construct full MIDI arrangements entirely in computer software allows a composer to render a finalized result directly as an audio file. Early PC games were distributed on floppy disks, and the small size of MIDI files made them a viable means of providing soundtracks. Games of the DOS and early Windows eras typically required compatibility with either Ad Lib or Sound Blaster audio cards. These cards used FM synthesis, which generates sound through modulation of sine waves. John Chowning, the technique's pioneer, theorized that the technology would be capable of accurate recreation of any sound if enough sine waves were used, but budget computer audio cards performed FM synthesis with only two sine waves. Combined with the cards' 8-bit audio, this resulted in a sound described as "artificial" and "primitive". Wavetable daughterboards that were later available provided audio samples that could be used in place of the FM sound. These were expensive, but often used the sounds from respected MIDI instruments such as the E-mu Proteus. The computer industry moved in the mid-1990s toward wavetable-based soundcards with 16-bit playback, but standardized on a 2MB ROM, a space too small in which to fit good-quality samples of 128 instruments plus drum kits. Some manufacturers used 12-bit samples, and padded those to 16 bits. MIDI has been adopted as a control protocol in a number of non-musical applications. MIDI Show Control uses MIDI commands to direct stage lighting systems and to trigger cued events in theatrical productions. VJs and turntablists use it to cue clips, and to synchronize equipment, and recording systems use it for synchronization and automation. Apple Motion allows control of animation parameters through MIDI. The 1987 first-person shooter game "MIDI Maze" and the 1990 Atari ST computer puzzle game "Oxyd" used MIDI to network computers together, and kits are available that allow MIDI control over home lighting and appliances. Despite its association with music devices, MIDI can control any electronic or digital device that can read and process a MIDI command. The receiving device or object would require a General MIDI processor, however in this instance, the program changes would trigger a function on that device rather than notes from a MIDI instrument's controller. Each function can be set to a timer (also controlled by MIDI) or other condition or trigger determined by the device's creator. The cables terminate in a 180° five-pin DIN connector. Standard applications use only three of the five conductors: a ground wire, and a balanced pair of conductors that carry a +5 volt signal. This connector configuration can only carry messages in one direction, so a second cable is necessary for two-way communication. Some proprietary applications, such as phantom-powered footswitch controllers, use the spare pins for direct current (DC) power transmission. Opto-isolators keep MIDI devices electrically separated from their connectors, which prevents the occurrence of ground loops and protects equipment from voltage spikes. There is no error detection capability in MIDI, so the maximum cable length is set at 15 meters (50 feet) to limit interference. Most devices do not copy messages from their input to their output port. A third type of port, the "thru" port, emits a copy of everything received at the input port, allowing data to be forwarded to another instrument in a "daisy chain" arrangement. Not all devices contain thru ports, and devices that lack the ability to generate MIDI data, such as effects units and sound modules, may not include out ports. Each device in a daisy chain adds delay to the system. This is avoided with a MIDI thru box, which contains several outputs that provide an exact copy of the box's input signal. A MIDI merger is able to combine the input from multiple devices into a single stream, and allows multiple controllers to be connected to a single device. A MIDI switcher allows switching between multiple devices, and eliminates the need to physically repatch cables. MIDI patch bays combine all of these functions. They contain multiple inputs and outputs, and allow any combination of input channels to be routed to any combination of output channels. Routing setups can be created using computer software, stored in memory, and selected by MIDI program change commands. This enables the devices to function as standalone MIDI routers in situations where no computer is present. MIDI patch bays also clean up any skewing of MIDI data bits that occurs at the input stage. MIDI data processors are used for utility tasks and special effects. These include MIDI filters, which remove unwanted MIDI data from the stream, and MIDI delays, effects that send a repeated copy of the input data at a set time. A computer MIDI interface's main function is to match clock speeds between the MIDI device and the computer. Some computer sound cards include a standard MIDI connector, whereas others connect by any of various means that include the D-subminiature DA-15 game port, USB, FireWire, Ethernet or a proprietary connection. The increasing use of USB connectors in the 2000s has led to the availability of MIDI-to-USB data interfaces that can transfer MIDI channels to USB-equipped computers. Some MIDI keyboard controllers are equipped with USB jacks, and can be plugged into computers that run music software. MIDI's serial transmission leads to timing problems. A three-byte MIDI message requires nearly 1 millisecond for transmission. Because MIDI is serial, it can only send one event at a time. If an event is sent on two channels at once, the event on the second channel cannot transmit until the first one is finished, and so is delayed by 1 ms. If an event is sent on all channels at the same time, the last channel's transmission is delayed by as much as 16 ms. This contributed to the rise of MIDI interfaces with multiple in- and out-ports, because timing improves when events are spread between multiple ports as opposed to multiple channels on the same port. The term "MIDI slop" refers to audible timing errors that result when MIDI transmission is delayed. There are two types of MIDI controllers: performance controllers that generate notes and are used to perform music, and controllers that may not send notes, but transmit other types of real-time events. Many devices are some combination of the two types. Keyboards are by far the most common type of MIDI controller. MIDI was designed with keyboards in mind, and any controller that is not a keyboard is considered an "alternative" controller. This was seen as a limitation by composers who were not interested in keyboard-based music, but the standard proved flexible, and MIDI compatibility was introduced to other types of controllers, including guitars, stringed and wind instruments, drums and specialized and experimental controllers. Other controllers include drum controllers and wind controllers, which can emulate the playing of drum kit and wind instruments, respectively. Nevertheless, some features of the keyboard playing for which MIDI was designed do not fully capture other instruments' capabilities; Jaron Lanier cites the standard as an example of technological "lock-in" that unexpectedly limited what was possible to express. Some of these features, such as per-note pitch bend, are to be addressed in MIDI 2.0, described below. Software synthesizers offer great power and versatility, but some players feel that division of attention between a MIDI keyboard and a computer keyboard and mouse robs some of the immediacy from the playing experience. Devices dedicated to real-time MIDI control provide an ergonomic benefit, and can provide a greater sense of connection with the instrument than an interface that is accessed through a mouse or a push-button digital menu. Controllers may be general-purpose devices that are designed to work with a variety of equipment, or they may be designed to work with a specific piece of software. Examples of the latter include Akai's APC40 controller for Ableton Live, and Korg's MS-20ic controller that is a reproduction of their MS-20 analog synthesizer. The MS-20ic controller includes patch cables that can be used to control signal routing in their virtual reproduction of the MS-20 synthesizer, and can also control third-party devices. A MIDI instrument contains ports to send and receive MIDI signals, a CPU to process those signals, an interface that allows user programming, audio circuitry to generate sound, and controllers. The operating system and factory sounds are often stored in a Read-only memory (ROM) unit. A MIDI instrument can also be a stand-alone module (without a piano style keyboard) consisting of a General MIDI soundboard (GM, GS and XG), onboard editing, including transposing/pitch changes, MIDI instrument changes and adjusting volume, pan, reverb levels and other MIDI controllers. Typically, the MIDI Module includes a large screen, so the user can view information for the currently selected function. Features can include scrolling lyrics, usually embedded in a MIDI file or karaoke MIDI, playlists, song library and editing screens. Some MIDI Modules include a Harmonizer and the ability to playback and transpose MP3 audio files. Synthesizers may employ any of a variety of sound generation techniques. They may include an integrated keyboard, or may exist as "sound modules" or "expanders" that generate sounds when triggered by an external controller, such as a MIDI keyboard. Sound modules are typically designed to be mounted in a 19-inch rack. Manufacturers commonly produce a synthesizer in both standalone and rack-mounted versions, and often offer the keyboard version in a variety of sizes. A sampler can record and digitize audio, store it in random-access memory (RAM), and play it back. Samplers typically allow a user to edit a sample and save it to a hard disk, apply effects to it, and shape it with the same tools that synthesizers use. They also may be available in either keyboard or rack-mounted form. Instruments that generate sounds through sample playback, but have no recording capabilities, are known as "ROMplers". Samplers did not become established as viable MIDI instruments as quickly as synthesizers did, due to the expense of memory and processing power at the time. The first low-cost MIDI sampler was the Ensoniq Mirage, introduced in 1984. MIDI samplers are typically limited by displays that are too small to use to edit sampled waveforms, although some can be connected to a computer monitor. Drum machines typically are sample playback devices that specialize in drum and percussion sounds. They commonly contain a sequencer that allows the creation of drum patterns, and allows them to be arranged into a song. There often are multiple audio outputs, so that each sound or group of sounds can be routed to a separate output. The individual drum voices may be playable from another MIDI instrument, or from a sequencer. Sequencer technology predates MIDI. Analog sequencers use CV/Gate signals to control pre-MIDI analog synthesizers. MIDI sequencers typically are operated by transport features modeled after those of tape decks. They are capable of recording MIDI performances, and arranging them into individual tracks along a multitrack recording concept. Music workstations combine controller keyboards with an internal sound generator and a sequencer. These can be used to build complete arrangements and play them back using their own internal sounds, and function as self-contained music production studios. They commonly include file storage and transfer capabilities. Some effects units can be remotely controlled via MIDI. For example, the Eventide H3000 Ultra-harmonizer allows such extensive MIDI control that it is playable as a synthesizer. MIDI messages are made up of 8-bit "words" (commonly called "bytes") that are transmitted serially at a rate of 31.25 kbit/s. This rate was chosen because it is an exact division of 1 MHz, the operational speed of many early microprocessors. The first bit of each word identifies whether the word is a status byte or a data byte, and is followed by seven bits of information. A start bit and a stop bit are added to each byte for framing purposes, so a MIDI byte requires ten bits for transmission. A MIDI link can carry sixteen independent channels of information. The channels are numbered 1–16, but their actual corresponding binary encoding is 0–15. A device can be configured to only listen to specific channels and to ignore the messages sent on other channels ("Omni Off" mode), or it can listen to all channels, effectively ignoring the channel address ("Omni On"). An individual device may be monophonic (the start of a new "note-on" MIDI command implies the termination of the previous note), or polyphonic (multiple notes may be sounding at once, until the polyphony limit of the instrument is reached, or the notes reach the end of their decay envelope, or explicit "note-off" MIDI commands are received). Receiving devices can typically be set to all four combinations of "omni off/on" versus "mono/poly" modes. A MIDI message is an instruction that controls some aspect of the receiving device. A MIDI message consists of a status byte, which indicates the type of the message, followed by up to two data bytes that contain the parameters. MIDI messages can be "channel messages" sent on only one of the 16 channels and monitored only by devices on that channel, or "system messages" that all devices receive. Each receiving device ignores data not relevant to its function. There are five types of message: Channel Voice, Channel Mode, System Common, System Real-Time, and System Exclusive. Channel Voice messages transmit real-time performance data over a single channel. Examples include "note-on" messages which contain a MIDI note number that specifies the note's pitch, a velocity value that indicates how forcefully the note was played, and the channel number; "note-off" messages that end a note; program change messages that change a device's patch; and control changes that allow adjustment of an instrument's parameters. MIDI notes are numbered from 0 to 127 assigned to C-1 to G9. This corresponds to a range of 8.175798916 12543.85395 Hz (assuming equal temperament and 440 Hz A4) and extends beyond the 88 note piano range from A0 to C8. System Exclusive (SysEx) messages are a major reason for the flexibility and longevity of the MIDI standard. Manufacturers use them to create proprietary messages that control their equipment more thoroughly than standard MIDI messages could. SysEx messages are addressed to a specific device in a system. Each manufacturer has a unique identifier that is included in its SysEx messages, which helps ensure that only the targeted device responds to the message, and that all others ignore it. Many instruments also include a SysEx ID setting, so a controller can address two devices of the same model independently. SysEx messages can include functionality beyond what the MIDI standard provides. They target a specific instrument, and are ignored by all other devices on the system. Devices typically do not respond to every type of message defined by the MIDI specification. The MIDI implementation chart was standardized by the MMA as a way for users to see what specific capabilities an instrument has, and how it responds to messages. A specific MIDI Implementation Chart is usually published for each MIDI device within the device documentation. The MIDI 1.0 specification for the electrical interface is based on a fully isolated current loop. The MIDI out port nominally sources a +5 volt source through a 220 ohm resistor out through pin 4 on the MIDI out DIN connector, in on pin 4 of the receiving device's MIDI in DIN connector, through a 220 ohm protection resistor and the LED of an opto-isolator. The current then returns via pin 5 on the MIDI in port to the originating device's MIDI out port pin 5, again with a 220 ohm resistor in the path, giving a nominal current of about 5 milliamperes. Despite the cable's appearance, there is no conductive path between the two MIDI devices, only an optically isolated one. Properly designed MIDI devices are relatively immune to ground loops and similar interference. The data rate on this system is 31,250 bits per second, logic 0 being current on. The MIDI specification provides for a ground "wire" and a braid or foil shield, connected on pin 2, protecting the two signal-carrying conductors on pins 4 and 5. Although the MIDI cable is supposed to connect pin 2 and the braid or foil shield to chassis ground, it should do so only at the MIDI out port; the MIDI in port should leave pin 2 unconnected and isolated. Some large manufacturers of MIDI devices use modified MIDI in-only DIN 5-pin sockets with the metallic conductors intentionally omitted at pin positions 1, 2, and 3 so that the maximum voltage isolation is obtained. MIDI's flexibility and widespread adoption have led to many refinements of the standard, and have enabled its application to purposes beyond those for which it was originally intended. MIDI allows selection of an instrument's sounds through program change messages, but there is no guarantee that any two instruments have the same sound at a given program location. Program #0 may be a piano on one instrument, or a flute on another. The General MIDI (GM) standard was established in 1991, and provides a standardized sound bank that allows a Standard MIDI File created on one device to sound similar when played back on another. GM specifies a bank of 128 sounds arranged into 16 families of eight related instruments, and assigns a specific program number to each instrument. Percussion instruments are placed on channel 10, and a specific MIDI note value is mapped to each percussion sound. GM-compliant devices must offer 24-note polyphony. Any given program change selects the same instrument sound on any GM-compatible instrument. General MIDI is defined by a standard layout of defined instrument sounds called 'patches', defined by a 'patch' number (program number – PC#) and triggered by pressing a key on a MIDI keyboard. This layout ensures MIDI sound modules and other MIDI devices faithfully reproduce the designated sounds expected by the user and maintains reliable and consistent sound palettes across different manufacturers MIDI devices. The GM standard eliminates variation in note mapping. Some manufacturers had disagreed over what note number should represent middle C, but GM specifies that note number 69 plays A440, which in turn fixes middle C as note number 60. GM-compatible devices are required to respond to velocity, aftertouch, and pitch bend, to be set to specified default values at startup, and to support certain controller numbers such as for sustain pedal, and Registered Parameter Numbers. A simplified version of GM, called "GM Lite", is used in mobile phones and other devices with limited processing power. A general opinion quickly formed that the GM's 128-instrument sound set was not large enough. Roland's General Standard, or GS, system included additional sounds, drumkits and effects, provided a "bank select" command that could be used to access them, and used MIDI Non-Registered Parameter Numbers (NRPNs) to access its new features. Yamaha's Extended General MIDI, or XG, followed in 1994. XG similarly offered extra sounds, drumkits and effects, but used standard controllers instead of NRPNs for editing, and increased polyphony to 32 voices. Both standards feature backward compatibility with the GM specification, but are not compatible with each other. Neither standard has been adopted beyond its creator, but both are commonly supported by music software titles. Member companies of Japan's AMEI developed the General MIDI Level 2 specification in 1999. GM2 maintains backward compatibility with GM, but increases polyphony to 32 voices, standardizes several controller numbers such as for sostenuto and soft pedal ("una corda"), RPNs and Universal System Exclusive Messages, and incorporates the MIDI Tuning Standard. GM2 is the basis of the instrument selection mechanism in Scalable Polyphony MIDI (SP-MIDI), a MIDI variant for low power devices that allows the device's polyphony to scale according to its processing power. Most MIDI synthesizers use equal temperament tuning. The MIDI tuning standard (MTS), ratified in 1992, allows alternate tunings. MTS allows microtunings that can be loaded from a bank of up to 128 patches, and allows real-time adjustment of note pitches. Manufacturers are not required to support the standard. Those who do are not required to implement all of its features. A sequencer can drive a MIDI system with its internal clock, but when a system contains multiple sequencers, they must synchronize to a common clock. MIDI Time Code (MTC), developed by Digidesign, implements SysEx messages that have been developed specifically for timing purposes, and is able to translate to and from the SMPTE time code standard. MIDI Clock is based on tempo, but SMPTE time code is based on frames per second, and is independent of tempo. MTC, like SMPTE code, includes position information, and can adjust itself if a timing pulse is lost. MIDI interfaces such as Mark of the Unicorn's MIDI Timepiece can convert SMPTE code to MTC. MIDI Machine Control (MMC) consists of a set of SysEx commands that operate the transport controls of hardware recording devices. MMC lets a sequencer send "Start", "Stop", and "Record" commands to a connected tape deck or hard disk recording system, and to fast-forward or rewind the device so that it starts playback at the same point as the sequencer. No synchronization data is involved, although the devices may synchronize through MTC. MIDI Show Control (MSC) is a set of SysEx commands for sequencing and remotely cueing show control devices such as lighting, music and sound playback, and motion control systems. Applications include stage productions, museum exhibits, recording studio control systems, and amusement park attractions. One solution to MIDI timing problems is to mark MIDI events with the times they are to be played, and store them in a buffer in the MIDI interface ahead of time. Sending data beforehand reduces the likelihood that a busy passage can send a large amount of information that overwhelms the transmission link. Once stored in the interface, the information is no longer subject to timing issues associated with USB jitter and computer operating system interrupts, and can be transmitted with a high degree of accuracy. MIDI timestamping only works when both hardware and software support it. MOTU's MTS, eMagic's AMT, and Steinberg's Midex 8 had implementations that were incompatible with each other, and required users to own software and hardware manufactured by the same company to work. Timestamping is built into FireWire MIDI interfaces, Mac OS X Core Audio, and Linux ALSA Sequencer. An unforeseen capability of SysEx messages was their use for transporting audio samples between instruments. This led to the development of the sample dump standard (SDS), which established a new SysEx format for sample transmission. The SDS was later augmented with a pair of commands that allow the transmission of information about sample loop points, without requiring that the entire sample be transmitted. The Downloadable Sounds (DLS) specification, ratified in 1997, allows mobile devices and computer sound cards to expand their wave tables with downloadable sound sets. The DLS Level 2 Specification followed in 2006, and defined a standardized synthesizer architecture. The Mobile DLS standard calls for DLS banks to be combined with SP-MIDI, as self-contained Mobile XMF files. MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) is a method of using MIDI that enables pitch bend, and other dimensions of expressive control, to be adjusted continuously for individual notes. MPE works by assigning each note to its own MIDI channel so that particular messages can be applied to each note individually. The specifications were released in November 2017 by AMEI and in January 2018 by the MMA. Instruments like the Continuum Fingerboard, Linnstrument, ROLI Seaboard, and Eigenharp let users control pitch, timbre, and other nuances for individual notes within chords. A growing number of soft synths and effects are also compatible with MPE (such as Equator, UVI Falcon, and Sandman Pro), as well as a few hardware synths (such as Modal Electronics 002 and ARGON8, Futuresonus Parva, and Modor NF-1). In addition to the original 31.25 kbit/s current-loop transported on 5-pin DIN, other connectors have been used for the same electrical data, and transmission of MIDI streams in different forms over USB, IEEE 1394 a.k.a. FireWire, and Ethernet is now common. Some samplers and hard drive recorders can also pass MIDI data between each other over SCSI. Members of the USB-IF in 1999 developed a standard for MIDI over USB, the "Universal Serial Bus Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices" MIDI over USB has become increasingly common as other interfaces that had been used for MIDI connections (serial, joystick, etc.) disappeared from personal computers. Linux, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Apple iOS operating systems include standard class drivers to support devices that use the "Universal Serial Bus Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices". Some manufacturers choose to implement a MIDI interface over USB that is designed to operate differently from the class specification, using custom drivers. Apple Computer developed the FireWire interface during the 1990s. It began to appear on digital video cameras toward the end of the decade, and on G3 Macintosh models in 1999. It was created for use with multimedia applications. Unlike USB, FireWire uses intelligent controllers that can manage their own transmission without attention from the main CPU. As with standard MIDI devices, FireWire devices can communicate with each other with no computer present. The Octave-Plateau Voyetra-8 synthesizer was an early MIDI implementation using XLR3 connectors in place of the 5-pin DIN. It was released in the pre-MIDI years and later retrofitted with a MIDI interface but keeping its XLR connector. As computer-based studio setups became common, MIDI devices that could connect directly to a computer became available. These typically used the 8-pin mini-DIN connector that was used by Apple for serial and printer ports prior to the introduction of the Blue & White G3 models. MIDI interfaces intended for use as the centerpiece of a studio, such as the Mark of the Unicorn MIDI Time Piece, were made possible by a "fast" transmission mode that could take advantage of these serial ports' ability to operate at 20 times the standard MIDI speed. Mini-DIN ports were built into some late-1990s MIDI instruments, and enabled such devices to be connected directly to a computer. Some devices connected via PCs' DB-25 parallel port, or through the joystick port found in many PC sound cards. Yamaha introduced the mLAN protocol in 1999. It was conceived as a Local Area Network for musical instruments using FireWire as the transport, and was designed to carry multiple MIDI channels together with multichannel digital audio, data file transfers, and time code. mLan was used in a number of Yamaha products, notably digital mixing consoles and the Motif synthesizer, and in third-party products such as the PreSonus FIREstation and the Korg Triton Studio. No new mLan products have been released since 2007. Computer network implementations of MIDI provide network routing capabilities, and the high-bandwidth channel that earlier alternatives to MIDI, such as ZIPI, were intended to bring. Proprietary implementations have existed since the 1980s, some of which use fiber optic cables for transmission. The Internet Engineering Task Force's RTP-MIDI open specification has gained industry support. Apple has supported this protocol from Mac OS X 10.4 onwards, and a Windows driver based on Apple's implementation exists for Windows XP and newer versions. Systems for wireless MIDI transmission have been available since the 1980s. Several commercially available transmitters allow wireless transmission of MIDI and OSC signals over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. iOS devices are able to function as MIDI control surfaces, using Wi-Fi and OSC. An XBee radio can be used to build a wireless MIDI transceiver as a do-it-yourself project. Android devices are able to function as full MIDI control surfaces using several different protocols over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Some devices use standard 3.5 mm TRS audio minijack connectors for MIDI data, including the Korg Electribe 2 and the Arturia Beatstep Pro. Both come with adaptors that break out to standard 5-pin DIN connectors.. This became widespread enough that the Midi Manufacturers' Association standardized the wiring. The MIDI-over-minijack standards document also recommends the use of 2.5 mm connectors over 3.5 mm ones to avoid confusion with audio connectors. The MIDI 2.0 standard was presented on 17 January 2020 at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California at a session titled "Strategic Overview and Introduction to MIDI 2.0" by representatives Yamaha, Roli, Microsoft, Google, and the MIDI Association. This significant update adds bidirectional communication while maintaining backwards compatibility. The new protocol has been researched since 2005. Prototype devices have been shown privately at NAMM using wired and wireless connections and licensing and product certification policies have been developed, however no projected release date was announced. Proposed physical layer and transport layer included Ethernet-based protocols such as RTP MIDI and Audio Video Bridging/Time-Sensitive Networking, as well as User Datagram Protocol (UDP)-based transport . AMEI and MMA announced that complete specifications will be published following interoperability testing of prototype implementations from major manufacturers such as Google, Yamaha, Steinberg, Roland, Ableton, Native Instruments, and ROLI, among others. In January 2020, Roland announced the A-88mkII controller keyboard that supports MIDI 2.0. MIDI 2.0 includes MIDI Capability Inquiry specification for property exchange and profiles, and the new Universal MIDI Packet format for high-speed transports which supports both MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 voice messages. MIDI Capability Inquiry (MIDI-CI) specifies Universal SysEx messages to implement device profiles, parameter exchange, and MIDI protocol negotiation. The specifications were released in November 2017 by AMEI and in January 2018 by the MMA. Parameter exchange defines methods to inquiry device capabilities, such as supported controllers, patch names, instrument profiles, device configuration and other metadata, and to get or set device configuration settings. Property exchange uses System Exclusive messages that carry JSON format data. Profiles define common sets of MIDI controllers for various instrument types, such as drawbar organs and analog synths, or for particular tasks, improving interoperability between instruments from different manufacturers. Protocol negotiation allows devices to employ the Next Generation protocol or manufacturer-specific protocols. MIDI 2.0 defines a new Universal MIDI Packet format, which contains messages of varying length (32, 64, 96 or 128 bits) depending on the payload type. This new packet format supports a total of 256 MIDI channels, organized in 16 groups of 16 channels; each group can carry either a MIDI 1.0 Protocol stream or new MIDI 2.0 Protocol stream, and can also include system messages, system exclusive data, and timestamps for precise rendering of several simultaneous notes. To simplify initial adoption, existing products are explicitly allowed to only implement MIDI 1.0 messages. The Universal MIDI Packet is intended for high-speed transport such as USB and Ethernet and is not supported on the existing 5-pin DIN connections. System Real-Time and System Common messages are the same as defined in MIDI 1.0. As of January 2019, the draft specification of the new protocol supports all core messages that also exist in MIDI 1.0, but extends their precision and resolution; it also defines many new high-precision controller messages. The specification defines default translation rules to convert between MIDI 2.0 Channel Voice and MIDI 1.0 Channel Voice messages that use different data resolution, as well as map 256 MIDI 2.0 streams to 16 MIDI 1.0 streams. System Exclusive 8 messages use a new 8-bit data format, based on Universal System Exclusive messages. Mixed Data Set messages are intended to transfer large sets of data. System Exclusive 7 messages use the previous 7-bit data format.

en.wikipedia.org

MIDI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19996

19999

Microcode Microcode is a computer hardware technique that interposes a layer of organisation between the CPU hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of the computer. As such, the microcode is a layer of hardware-level instructions that implement higher-level machine code instructions or internal state machine sequencing in many digital processing elements. Microcode is used in general-purpose central processing units, although in current desktop CPUs, it is only a fallback path for cases that the faster hardwired control unit cannot handle. Microcode typically resides in special high-speed memory and translates machine instructions, state machine data or other input into sequences of detailed circuit-level operations. It separates the machine instructions from the underlying electronics so that instructions can be designed and altered more freely. It also facilitates the building of complex multi-step instructions, while reducing the complexity of computer circuits. Writing microcode is often called microprogramming and the microcode in a particular processor implementation is sometimes called a microprogram. More extensive microcoding allows small and simple microarchitectures to emulate more powerful architectures with wider word length, more execution units and so on, which is a relatively simple way to achieve software compatibility between different products in a processor family. Some hardware vendors, especially IBM, use the term "microcode" as a synonym for "firmware". In that way, all code within a device is termed "microcode" regardless of it being microcode or machine code; for example, hard disk drives are said to have their microcode updated, though they typically contain both microcode and firmware. The lowest layer in a computer's software stack is traditionally raw binary machine code instructions for the processor. Microcode sits one level below this. To avoid confusion, each microprogram-related element is differentiated by the "micro" prefix: microinstruction, microassembler, microprogrammer, microarchitecture, etc. Engineers normally write the microcode during the design phase of a processor, storing it in a read-only memory (ROM) or programmable logic array (PLA) structure, or in a combination of both. However, machines also exist that have some or all microcode stored in SRAM or flash memory. This is traditionally denoted as "writeable control store" in the context of computers, which can be either read-only or read-write memory. In the latter case, the CPU initialization process loads microcode into the control store from another storage medium, with the possibility of altering the microcode to correct bugs in the instruction set, or to implement new machine instructions. Complex digital processors may also employ more than one (possibly microcode-based) control unit in order to delegate sub-tasks that must be performed essentially asynchronously in parallel. A high-level programmer, or even an assembly programmer, does not normally see or change microcode. Unlike machine code, which often retains some backward compatibility among different processors in a family, microcode only runs on the exact electronic circuitry for which it is designed, as it constitutes an inherent part of the particular processor design itself. Microprograms consist of series of microinstructions, which control the CPU at a very fundamental level of hardware circuitry. For example, a single typical "horizontal" microinstruction might specify the following operations: To simultaneously control all processor's features in one cycle, the microinstruction is often wider than 50 bits; e.g., 128 bits on a 360/85 with an emulator feature. Microprograms are carefully designed and optimized for the fastest possible execution, as a slow microprogram would result in a slow machine instruction and degraded performance for related application programs that use such instructions. Microcode was originally developed as a simpler method of developing the control logic for a computer. Initially, CPU instruction sets were hardwired. Each step needed to fetch, decode, and execute the machine instructions (including any operand address calculations, reads, and writes) was controlled directly by combinational logic and rather minimal sequential state machine circuitry. While such hard-wired processors were very efficient, the need for powerful instruction sets with multi-step addressing and complex operations ("see below") made them difficult to design and debug; highly encoded and varied-length instructions can contribute to this as well, especially when very irregular encodings are used. Microcode simplified the job by allowing much of the processor's behaviour and programming model to be defined via microprogram routines rather than by dedicated circuitry. Even late in the design process, microcode could easily be changed, whereas hard-wired CPU designs were very cumbersome to change. Thus, this greatly facilitated CPU design. From the 1940s to the late 1970s, a large portion of programming was done in assembly language; higher-level instructions mean greater programmer productivity, so an important advantage of microcode was the relative ease by which powerful machine instructions can be defined. The ultimate extension of this are "Directly Executable High Level Language" designs, in which each statement of a high-level language such as PL/I is entirely and directly executed by microcode, without compilation. The IBM Future Systems project and Data General Fountainhead Processor are examples of this. During the 1970s, CPU speeds grew more quickly than memory speeds and numerous techniques such as memory block transfer, memory pre-fetch and multi-level caches were used to alleviate this. High-level machine instructions, made possible by microcode, helped further, as fewer more complex machine instructions require less memory bandwidth. For example, an operation on a character string can be done as a single machine instruction, thus avoiding multiple instruction fetches. Architectures with instruction sets implemented by complex microprograms included the IBM System/360 and Digital Equipment Corporation VAX. The approach of increasingly complex microcode-implemented instruction sets was later called CISC. An alternate approach, used in many microprocessors, is to use PLAs or ROMs (instead of combinational logic) mainly for instruction decoding, and let a simple state machine (without much, or any, microcode) do most of the sequencing. The MOS Technology 6502 is an example of a microprocessor using a PLA for instruction decode and sequencing. The PLA is visible in photomicrographs of the chip, and its operation can be seen in the transistor-level simulation. Microprogramming is still used in modern CPU designs. In some cases, after the microcode is debugged in simulation, logic functions are substituted for the control store. Logic functions are often faster and less expensive than the equivalent microprogram memory. A processor's microprograms operate on a more primitive, totally different, and much more hardware-oriented architecture than the assembly instructions visible to normal programmers. In coordination with the hardware, the microcode implements the programmer-visible architecture. The underlying hardware need not have a fixed relationship to the visible architecture. This makes it easier to implement a given instruction set architecture on a wide variety of underlying hardware micro-architectures. The IBM System/360 has a 32-bit architecture with 16 general-purpose registers, but most of the System/360 implementations actually use hardware that implemented a much simpler underlying microarchitecture; for example, the System/360 Model 30 has 8-bit data paths to the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and main memory and implemented the general-purpose registers in a special unit of higher-speed core memory, and the System/360 Model 40 has 8-bit data paths to the ALU and 16-bit data paths to main memory and also implemented the general-purpose registers in a special unit of higher-speed core memory. The Model 50 has full 32-bit data paths and implements the general-purpose registers in a special unit of higher-speed core memory. The Model 65 through the Model 195 have larger data paths and implement the general-purpose registers in faster transistor circuits. In this way, microprogramming enabled IBM to design many System/360 models with substantially different hardware and spanning a wide range of cost and performance, while making them all architecturally compatible. This dramatically reduces the number of unique system software programs that must be written for each model. A similar approach was used by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in their VAX family of computers. As a result, different VAX processors use different microarchitectures, yet the programmer-visible architecture does not change. Microprogramming also reduces the cost of field changes to correct defects (bugs) in the processor; a bug can often be fixed by replacing a portion of the microprogram rather than by changes being made to hardware logic and wiring. In 1947, the design of the MIT Whirlwind introduced the concept of a control store as a way to simplify computer design and move beyond "ad hoc" methods. The control store is a diode matrix: a two-dimensional lattice, where one dimension accepts "control time pulses" from the CPU's internal clock, and the other connects to control signals on gates and other circuits. A "pulse distributor" takes the pulses generated by the CPU clock and breaks them up into eight separate time pulses, each of which activates a different row of the lattice. When the row is activated, it activates the control signals connected to it. Described another way, the signals transmitted by the control store are being played much like a player piano roll. That is, they are controlled by a sequence of very wide words constructed of bits, and they are "played" sequentially. In a control store, however, the "song" is short and repeated continuously. In 1951, Maurice Wilkes enhanced this concept by adding "conditional execution", a concept akin to a conditional in computer software. His initial implementation consisted of a pair of matrices: the first one generated signals in the manner of the Whirlwind control store, while the second matrix selected which row of signals (the microprogram instruction word, so to speak) to invoke on the next cycle. Conditionals were implemented by providing a way that a single line in the control store could choose from alternatives in the second matrix. This made the control signals conditional on the detected internal signal. Wilkes coined the term microprogramming to describe this feature and distinguish it from a simple control store. Each microinstruction in a microprogram provides the bits that control the functional elements that internally compose a CPU. The advantage over a hard-wired CPU is that internal CPU control becomes a specialized form of a computer program. Microcode thus transforms a complex electronic design challenge (the control of a CPU) into a less complex programming challenge. To take advantage of this, a CPU is divided into several parts: There may also be a memory address register and a memory data register, used to access the main computer storage. Together, these elements form an "execution unit". Most modern CPUs have several execution units. Even simple computers usually have one unit to read and write memory, and another to execute user code. These elements could often be brought together as a single chip. This chip comes in a fixed width that would form a "slice" through the execution unit. These are known as "bit slice" chips. The AMD Am2900 family is one of the best known examples of bit slice elements. The parts of the execution units and the execution units themselves are interconnected by a bundle of wires called a bus. Programmers develop microprograms, using basic software tools. A microassembler allows a programmer to define the table of bits symbolically. Because of its close relationship to the underlying architecture, "microcode has several properties that make it difficult to generate using a compiler." A simulator program is intended to execute the bits in the same way as the electronics, and allows much more freedom to debug the microprogram. After the microprogram is finalized, and extensively tested, it is sometimes used as the input to a computer program that constructs logic to produce the same data. This program is similar to those used to optimize a programmable logic array. Even without fully optimal logic, heuristically optimized logic can vastly reduce the number of transistors from the number required for a ROM control store. This reduces the cost of producing, and the electricity consumed by, a CPU. Microcode can be characterized as "horizontal" or "vertical", referring primarily to whether each microinstruction controls CPU elements with little or no decoding (horizontal microcode) or requires extensive decoding by combinatorial logic before doing so (vertical microcode). Consequently, each horizontal microinstruction is wider (contains more bits) and occupies more storage space than a vertical microinstruction. "Horizontal microcode has several discrete micro-operations that are combined in a single microinstruction for simultaneous operation." Horizontal microcode is typically contained in a fairly wide control store; it is not uncommon for each word to be 108 bits or more. On each tick of a sequencer clock a microcode word is read, decoded, and used to control the functional elements that make up the CPU. In a typical implementation a horizontal microprogram word comprises fairly tightly defined groups of bits. For example, one simple arrangement might be: For this type of micromachine to implement a JUMP instruction with the address following the opcode, the microcode might require two clock ticks. The engineer designing it would write microassembler source code looking something like this: For each tick it is common to find that only some portions of the CPU are used, with the remaining groups of bits in the microinstruction being no-ops. With careful design of hardware and microcode, this property can be exploited to parallelise operations that use different areas of the CPU; for example, in the case above, the ALU is not required during the first tick, so it could potentially be used to complete an earlier arithmetic instruction. In vertical microcode, each microinstruction is significantly encoded that is, the bit fields generally pass through intermediate combinatory logic that, in turn, generates the actual control and sequencing signals for internal CPU elements (ALU, registers, etc.). This is in contrast with horizontal microcode, in which the bit fields themselves either directly produce the control and sequencing signals or are only minimally encoded. Consequently, vertical microcode requires smaller instruction lengths and less storage, but requires more time to decode, resulting in a slower CPU clock. Some vertical microcode is just the assembly language of a simple conventional computer that is emulating a more complex computer. Some processors, such as DEC Alpha processors and the CMOS microprocessors on later IBM System/390 mainframes and z/Architecture mainframes, use machine code, running in a special mode that gives it access to special instructions, special registers, and other hardware resources not available to regular machine code, to implement some instructions and other functions, such as page table walks on Alpha processors. This is called PALcode on Alpha processors and millicode on IBM mainframe processors. Another form of vertical microcode has two fields: The "field select" selects which part of the CPU will be controlled by this word of the control store. The "field value" actually controls that part of the CPU. With this type of microcode, a designer explicitly chooses to make a slower CPU to save money by reducing the unused bits in the control store; however, the reduced complexity may increase the CPU's clock frequency, which lessens the effect of an increased number of cycles per instruction. As transistors became cheaper, horizontal microcode came to dominate the design of CPUs using microcode, with vertical microcode being used less often. When both vertical and horizontal microcode are used, the horizontal microcode may be referred to as "nanocode" or "picocode". A few computers were built using "writable microcode". In this design, rather than storing the microcode in ROM or hard-wired logic, the microcode is stored in a RAM called a "writable control store" or "WCS". Such a computer is sometimes called a "writable instruction set computer" or "WISC". Many experimental prototype computers use writable control stores; there are also commercial machines that use writable microcode, such as the Burroughs Small Systems, early Xerox workstations, the DEC VAX 8800 ("Nautilus") family, the Symbolics L- and G-machines, a number of IBM System/360 and System/370 implementations, some DEC PDP-10 machines, and the Data General Eclipse MV/8000. Many more machines offer user-programmable writable control stores as an option, including the HP 2100, DEC PDP-11/60 and Varian Data Machines V-70 series minicomputers. The IBM System/370 includes a facility called "Initial-Microprogram Load" ("IML" or "IMPL") that can be invoked from the console, as part of "power-on reset" ("POR") or from another processor in a tightly coupled multiprocessor complex. Some commercial machines, for example IBM 360/85, have both a read-only storage and a writable control store for microcode. WCS offers several advantages including the ease of patching the microprogram and, for certain hardware generations, faster access than ROMs can provide. User-programmable WCS allows the user to optimize the machine for specific purposes. Starting with the Pentium Pro in 1995, several x86 CPUs have writable Intel Microcode. This, for example, has allowed bugs in the Intel Core 2 and Intel Xeon microcodes to be fixed by patching their microprograms, rather than requiring the entire chips to be replaced. A second prominent example is the set of microcode patches that Intel offered for some of their processor architectures of up to 10 years in age, in a bid to counter the security vulnerabilities discovered in their designs - Spectre and Meltdown - which went public at the start of 2018. A microcode update can be installed by Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, or the motherboard BIOS. The design trend toward heavily microcoded processors with complex instructions began in the early 1960s and continued until roughly the mid-1980s. At that point the RISC design philosophy started becoming more prominent. A CPU that uses microcode generally takes several clock cycles to execute a single instruction, one clock cycle for each step in the microprogram for that instruction. Some CISC processors include instructions that can take a very long time to execute. Such variations interfere with both interrupt latency and, what is far more important in modern systems, pipelining. When designing a new processor, a hardwired control RISC has the following advantages over microcoded CISC: There are counterpoints as well: Many RISC and VLIW processors are designed to execute every instruction (as long as it is in the cache) in a single cycle. This is very similar to the way CPUs with microcode execute one microinstruction per cycle. VLIW processors have instructions that behave similarly to very wide horizontal microcode, although typically without such fine-grained control over the hardware as provided by microcode. RISC instructions are sometimes similar to the narrow vertical microcode. Microcoding has been popular in application-specific processors such as network processors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, channel controllers, disk controllers, network interface controllers, graphics processing units, and in other hardware. Modern CISC implementations, such as the x86 family, decode instructions into dynamically buffered micro-operations ("μops") with an instruction encoding similar to RISC or traditional microcode. A hardwired instruction decode unit directly emits μops for common x86 instructions, but falls back to a more traditional microcode ROM for more complex or rarely used instructions. For example, an x86 might look up μops from microcode to handle complex multistep operations such as loop or string instructions, floating point unit transcendental functions or unusual values such as denormal numbers, and special purpose instructions such as CPUID.

en.wikipedia.org

Microcode

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19999

20003

Multitier architecture In software engineering, multitier architecture (often referred to as "n"-tier architecture) or multilayered architecture is a client–server architecture in which presentation, application processing and data management functions are physically separated. The most widespread use of multitier architecture is the three-tier architecture. "N"-tier application architecture provides a model by which developers can create flexible and reusable applications. By segregating an application into tiers, developers acquire the option of modifying or adding a specific layer, instead of reworking the entire application. A three-tier architecture is typically composed of a "presentation" tier, a "domain logic" tier, and a "data storage" tier. While the concepts of layer and tier are often used interchangeably, one fairly common point of view is that there is indeed a difference. This view holds that a "layer" is a logical structuring mechanism for the elements that make up the software solution, while a "tier" is a physical structuring mechanism for the system infrastructure. For example, a three-layer solution could easily be deployed on a single tier, such as a personal workstation. The "Layers" architectural pattern has been described in various publications. In a logical multilayered architecture for an information system with an object-oriented design, the following four are the most common: The book "Domain Driven Design" describes some common uses for the above four layers, although its primary focus is the domain layer. If the application architecture has no explicit distinction between the business layer and the presentation layer (i.e., the presentation layer is considered part of the business layer), then a traditional client-server (two-tier) model has been implemented. The more usual convention is that the application layer (or service layer) is considered a sublayer of the business layer, typically encapsulating the API definition surfacing the supported business functionality. The application/business layers can, in fact, be further subdivided to emphasize additional sublayers of distinct responsibility. For example, if the model–view–presenter pattern is used, the presenter sublayer might be used as an additional layer between the user interface layer and the business/application layer (as represented by the model sublayer). Some also identify a separate layer called the business infrastructure layer (BI), located between the business layer(s) and the infrastructure layer(s). It's also sometimes called the "low-level business layer" or the "business services layer". This layer is very general and can be used in several application tiers (e.g. a CurrencyConverter). The infrastructure layer can be partitioned into different levels (high-level or low-level technical services). Developers often focus on the persistence (data access) capabilities of the infrastructure layer and therefore only talk about the persistence layer or the data access layer (instead of an infrastructure layer or technical services layer). In other words, the other kind of technical services are not always explicitly thought of as part of any particular layer. A layer is on top of another, because it depends on it. Every layer can exist without the layers above it, and requires the layers below it to function. Another common view is that layers do not always strictly depend on only the adjacent layer below. For example, in a relaxed layered system (as opposed to a strict layered system) a layer can also depend on all the layers below it. Three-tier architecture is a client-server software architecture pattern in which the user interface (presentation), functional process logic ("business rules"), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules, most often on separate platforms. It was developed by John J. Donovan in Open Environment Corporation (OEC), a tools company he founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Apart from the usual advantages of modular software with well-defined interfaces, the three-tier architecture is intended to allow any of the three tiers to be upgraded or replaced independently in response to changes in requirements or technology. For example, a change of operating system in the "presentation tier" would only affect the user interface code. Typically, the user interface runs on a desktop PC or workstation and uses a standard graphical user interface, functional process logic that may consist of one or more separate modules running on a workstation or application server, and an RDBMS on a database server or mainframe that contains the computer data storage logic. The middle tier may be multitiered itself (in which case the overall architecture is called an ""n"-tier architecture"). In the web development field, three-tier is often used to refer to websites, commonly electronic commerce websites, which are built using three tiers: Data transfer between tiers is part of the architecture. Protocols involved may include one or more of SNMP, CORBA, Java RMI, .NET Remoting, Windows Communication Foundation, sockets, UDP, web services or other standard or proprietary protocols. Often middleware is used to connect the separate tiers. Separate tiers often (but not necessarily) run on separate physical servers, and each tier may itself run on a cluster. The end-to-end traceability of data flows through "n"-tier systems is a challenging task which becomes more important when systems increase in complexity. The Application Response Measurement defines concepts and APIs for measuring performance and correlating transactions between tiers. Generally, the term "tiers" is used to describe physical distribution of components of a system on separate servers, computers, or networks (processing nodes). A three-tier architecture then will have three processing nodes. The term "layers" refers to a logical grouping of components which may or may not be physically located on one processing node.

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Multitier architecture

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